[ExI] And Meta You Know (was: You know what?)

[spike]

hkhenson
... 
> know how Bisync 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_Synchronous_Communications works.
> 
> "Fillers" such as these act like sync bytes, i.e., they 
> inhibit turn around and keep the communication line open in 
> one direction until more speech is generated... Keith

The astronauts have a speech-activated radio in order to keep both hands
free.  I have one like that on my motorcycle helmet.  In the 60s,
electronics were much slower than they are today, so the first fraction of a
second activated the radio but was not transmitted.  The astronauts got in
the habit of starting every sentence with ahhhh, and inserting ahhhhs in
order to hold the transmit line open in the natural pause in speech.  This
is why we have the saying "...Ahhh Houston, ahhh we have a problem..."  

Space folklore has it that when Armstrong stepped on the moon, so
overwhelmed was he that he forgot to ahhh and stopped briefly right after
the "for" in "One small step for..." which stopped the transmission.  Then
when he continued with "...a man..." the "a" was chopped off.  I was there
(on earth I mean).  It sounded to me like he said "That was one small step
for man."  

Likes and you knows and nowumsayins are all the earthling's version of
ahhhh.

spike