I was born shortly after Sputnik flew into outer space and shortly before Van Allen discovered the radiation belts (named after him in his honor) in Earth's outer atmosphere that Sputnik passed through just months earlier.
I should have used dates much closer to my birthdate.
I am 49.
I chose the Sputnik launch as the boundary windows in time just 'cause I like the sound of SPUTNIK!
And you know what????? There is no direct translation for SPUTNIK. The Soviets just came up with the name because they liked the sound of it too.
Kind of like Toyota with the delightfully cute sounding "CAMRY". The name sure worked though - didn't it - millions sold. At least the Civic is a real word that means something and it's cool - relating to or belonging to a city. CAMRY - sheeesh!
I started the thread because someone in another post said that he could remember the good old days when you could buy tools that lasted without breaking. He is an ancient 28. lol !
I was going to post a reply to that thread but my wonderful Windows XP PC crashed just before I hit the submit reply button. I had run a Java update earlier in the evening that did not install properly. lol again!
So I thought it would be fun to put in a post based on science history - which btw is the only important history. Presidents and kings are ephemeral, science is eternal, baby!
Adj.
ephemeral - lasting a very short time; "the ephemeral joys of childhood"; "a passing fancy"; "youth's transient beauty"; "love is transitory but it is eternal"; "fugacious blossoms"
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Just in case anyone else besides me didn't know the word... ;-)