Hacker News Reader

Comment by giarc | Hacker News Reader

"Since first launch, though, Canadians haven’t been unanimously proud of the Canadarm. In 1995, Royal Canadian Air Farce poked fun at it with a sketch about one breaking."

The author, although Canadian, is missing Canadian culture here. Air Farce (a satarical Canadian news show) poking fun at something Canadian does mean we are proud of it. That's Canadian, self deprecating humour, poking fun at ourselves.

Growing up in Canada, anytime space was mentioned, the Canadarm was front and centre. We are very proud of our contributions.

View on HN

Yeah, I think we're actually proud of stuff that was lampooned on Air Farce. That's the whole point of it. Remember the Chicken Cannon?

It's on the back of the $5 note (the arm that is, not Air Farce). I've only ever heard it discussed in positive terms. I have no idea how a single sketch was extrapolated to "not all Canadians are proud of it". Not a very well thought out take.

From the episode synopsis, it's a Mike from Canmore sketch...

Next up from the walrus: An expose of strange comments from the Honourable Member of Parliament for Kicking Horse Pass.

You beat me to it: "Liar! There's no Chicken Cannon on the $5 note!" (there should be, though)

Dozens of former Avro Air employees got jobs at NASA and were key to the Apollo program too. Owen Maynard probably being the highest profile but there may be others. He was involved in the engineering of the Lunar Module aka LEM.

https://historycollection.jsc.nasa.gov/JSCHistoryPortal/hist...

"Apollo" by Murray and Cox is a wonderful book on the engineering history of Apollo that covers this in some detail. One of the best popular engineering (and engineering management) books I've ever read, along with other HN favorites like Ignition!, Soul of a New Machine, Masters of Doom, etc. Highly recommended.

I remember the first time I visited the Kennedy Space Center, some twenty years ago. There was a mockup of a Shuttle, which we could walk through. When the Canadarm mockup came into view, I teared up.

People sometimes mistake our self-deprecation for a lack of pride. They are incorrect.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com