Nasa Moon bombing: analysis

Stop wasting our taxpayer money-please.
 
 
I'm off to judge bbq-yum!!!!!!!!!!
 

It's impolitic to criticize space exploration when one lives in Houston, Texas, but.... I find space exploration efforts very sad.  Huh?   It seems as though humans have given up on Earth (irretrievably ruined?) and think that 'going where no man has gone before' is the cure.  I have met many gung-ho folks (mostly techs and engineers, a few astronauts) in the course of my daily work who honestly believe there's some kind of moral dimension to their work.  (Salvation?)  I think of debris-clogged Galveston Bay, less than two miles from NASA, or the refineries and chemical plants about 14 miles to the north....  and I think, gee, we're making the Earth into a junkyard, and now we have to dump our junk onto adjacent planets, too?  Sad.  Very sad. 

I know backpackers who carry plastic bags, simply to pick up the debris left by humans who have no concept of 'leave it as you found it'.  If it weren't for folks like this (and volunteer groups)  --- I hate to imagine....  And now mankind is bent it seems on clogging every available earth orbit with more 'space junk' (which in many cases will silently circle overhead for centuries) and send more of it to distant places.  Maybe it's time for the Vogons to begin THEIR work....

If  the  moon  is  indeed  made  of  Blue  Cheese,   this  explosion  is  going  to  make  one  enormous  cleanup  project.....perhaps  the  new  jobs  created  thereby  will  help  "fix"  the  recession.

"Unfortunatelty we will just have to take their word for it."  Therein lies the crux of my problem.
 
by the way, how's everyone feel about President Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize.....anyone know why exactly?

 

Andy,

He's not Bush.
 

   

 
 
 
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/

Who selects the Nobel Laureates? In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established: The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for the Nobel Prize in Physics and Chemistry, Karolinska Institute for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize in Literature, """"and a Committee of five persons to be elected by the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) for the Nobel Peace Prize""""". In 1968, the Sveriges Riksbank established the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economics in Memory of Alfred Nobel. The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences was given the task to select the Economics Prize Laureates starting in 1969.
 
 
that little part in there about elected by the parliament......might be a clue to the political implications of this particular nobel prize.

We should be authentically proud of our president for winning the Nobel Peace prize. We should not second-guess the process by which he was chosen for it, and neither should we dispute that he deserved it.

Space exploration and projects like the lunar double-crash are relatively low-dollar items that are more than justified by the trove of science data---data that is applicable for our own world---that they afford. Each of these missions contains with it several scientific projects that provide useful information because the missions provide an alternative environment in which the study can be performed.
I have a molecular biologist friend who was able to learn much about lymphocyte biology by quantifying the ways in which lymphocyte behavior is different in a zero-gravity environment. This is but one example.

Senators routinely bring home pork of greater value than the cost of this recentest mission. IF you're worried about how our government is spending its money, campaign to confer on the president the option of line-item veto. But please don't cut the space program.

And back to the moon,  do we really need to go there so often in light of all the disasterous missions in the past 25 years?  Maybe we should move on and use  taxpayer money to improve our shool system, health care and  disaster relief serrvices.  Unless, of course the econmy is better on the moon.

KSS. I completely agree with your Nobel Prize comments. Well said.
 

My  understanding  is  that  the  president's  award  was  for  redefining  America's  mission  to  the  rest  of  the  world,   more  respect  for  the  fact  that  our  perspective  on  world  events  is  not  necessarily  a  majority  opinion.....no  more  gunboat  diplomacy,  the  arrogant  approach  of  the  prior  administration's  high-profile  players  creates  tomorrow's  terrorists.  

 
KSS,

Admit it, the awarding, not so much winning, of that prize has an Onion quality to it.

It is a base on balls for a guy busily engaged in preserving and extending much of what he campaigned against i.e.; The snoopy elements of the Patriot Act; rendition, the process by which detainees are sent overseas for enhanced interrogation and borrowing to a degree that threatens the supremacy of the dollar.

It is more realistic than cynical to suspect that the selection committee is seeking to turn the head and hand of a powerful leader from what is in our national interest to what they perceive to be best internationally.

If, and it is a big if, those goals should coincide, that would be a nice thing. If not, the rest of the world will traipse over our fallen corpse in pursuit of their own interests without looking back.


Bert,

What created yesterday's terrorists?
 

Stoney:   I  think  that  the  recipe  for  production  of  yesterday's  terrorists  is  complicated,   since  the  world  is  complex,  many  of  the  planet's  inhabitants  are  not  even  literate,  let  alone  fluent  in  English  or  focused  on  alternate  sources  of  information.   The  government  actually  employs  experts  to  conduct  psychlogical  profiles  of  foreign  leaders,  so  that  we  can  better  understand  their  real  motivations,  backgrounds,  and  agendas.   I  like  the  fact   that  the  new  Commander  in  Chief  is  comfortable  with  the  concept  that  knowledge  is  power,   and  the  premise  that  the  best  way  to  defuse  terrorism  may  well  be  to  better  define  ourselves  as  a  nation  by  reexamining  and  refocusing  our  priorities.   For  as  long  as  I  can  remember,  I  have  felt  awkward  with  how  we  sometimes  allow  ourselves  to  be  defined  by  interests  that  are  seen  internationally  as  going  against  the  very  principles  that  we  maintain  define  us.   I  am  certainly  no  big  fan  of  Castro  and  his  inept  Communist  regime,  but  I  would  respectfully  submit  that  his  rise  to  power  was  facilitated  by  America's  linking  itself  to  Batista,  and  to  a  system  of  government  that  encouraged  foreign  corporations  to  exploit  the  citizenry,  with  the  profits  being  split  between  the  privileged  few  and  offshore  investors.    I  am  going   to  need  to  spend  some  time  to  reflect  on  your  thoughtful  question,  but  it  is  refreshing  that  you  asked  it.   I'm  watching  the  leaves  as  they  seem  to  change  to  brillant  Fall  colors  a  little  more  every  day.  Nature  incorporates  change  so  well  into  a  natural  rotation.....  

just think.....we'd have no holiday on monday, columbus day, if we had all just accepted that the world was flat.

Good day to all. Re: the Peace prize; Does anyone remember the President in his former position? He was a Senator from Illinois, and I believe he was an author to a bill that secured nukes and their fuels and byproducts around the world. Ya' know, kinda like keeping the world safer from screwballs.

Cuukoo1~ for all this time we have been suffering from a typo; the world is FAT , that was what it really said.  And as an unwilling participant to that, what choice have we but to eat pasta on Monday?

 
RY,

Good point as far as it goes. He followed his leadership and at least three previous administrations in that direction thereby vaulting over five-tme loser Mohandas K. Ghandi !?

Keep trying.

I hope it's a little nicer down your way. We have flurries.





 

My Swedish relatives up there aren't doing me proud by giving the award out as they did.  He's got star power, yes, but he needs some achievement notches on his bedpost before being awarded for fostering peace.
 
But it's less a matter of who he is than who he isn't.

If we all pull on the rope in the same direction (peace and understanding), do you think the oppressors may falter?    As was a popular song lyric, give peace a chance.....

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znjEVqSmUSE&feature=related

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIiUqfxFttM&feature=related

 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LIZIBm2QGaM&feature=related
 
can't keep dreamers from dreaming...

Back to the moon.  I had a gut reaction when i heard the newws of sending a piece os space junk to dig a crater in the moon.. I think we just violated the moon.
 
As to the Nobel Peace Prize, I feel sorry for Obama.  And I think it was an international message to the US to "shape up!"

I had a pretty rough week I basically slept Wed & Thurs. away & yesterday I woke up to hear the who the Nobel Peace Prize Winner was.. I wanted to repull the covers over my head & sleep more. But I had to go work at the Pub. One of the regulars M.G. asked what I did this week & I said it was a lost week for me & he's was like did you at least hear about the Nobel Peace prize winer & that we're at war with the Moon now?  I laughed & said I heard about the winner & I can't wait to see who else is on the list whne its released 50 years from now. (which I learned about through the PE)  But I hadn't heard about the War with the Moon.. as a result ~ M.G. swears it we may even win this one in less than 8 years time... I'm not sure if I agree yet or not The Man In The Moon hasn't called to tell me how he feels about it or what his battle plan maybe.....Yet...    

Bless the beasts, the children, and the dreamers.  Without them, it would be a bleak place to live in, this world.  With them, there's always something amazing to see -- if one is willing.

Flurries out there, yes indeed there are stoney. 
 
Or is it bleu cheese from that poor old moon, an offering of peace, tiny white flags:  "Don't shoot!  It's only me, the moon!"

I think I'll stay on the main highway of today's topic ‘cos the off-road terrain seems a bit too bumpy for my old shock absorbers today. 

I can remember the sense of joy and just plain awe that overcame me when I bore witness along with the rest of the world when those first steps were taken on the moon. Even in the midst of the Cold War and the great threat it posed, I was filled with wonder, joy, and most importantly; a great surge of hope.

I just feel that as long as we as a species are still reaching for the stars, or at least clawing for something beyond the immediate future, that the rewards to mankind will be too great to measure. As long as there is still a hunger, a desire, to reach beyond our limits to explore and perhaps find new solutions to old problems; then hope is still alive despite the efforts of those who would seek to extinguish it.

I know I'm probably just being a silly dreamer when I go on like this but that's the road I choose. For me there is no alternative.

I couldn't even begin to tell you how much I would be willing to give up just to recapture the wealth of positive emotions that surged through me that moment we first step foot on the moon. We owe it to ourselves and future generations to keep repeating moments such as that.

Even if we are cynical and we accept the premise that the Nobel Prize to our new President was a shameless attempt to try to manipulate foreign policy in a new direction, that is still a good thing. Who cares if he was no the only person deserving of recognition? NOBODY saw this award on the horizon, they woke Obama up with the news (time differential), and he thought it was a miscommunication and asked for a confirmation. The point is that everybody has mixed motives, and life is never "fair," otherwise kids would never die of leukemia.... Our challenge is to survive the test to see how we handle adversity....that strategy keeps me plugging along, otherwise life is pretty grim and without much value...jmo. This next year is going to be rough regardless of your personal politics, almost like a wartime mentality may be necessary for us to stop yelling at each other and start communicating. If we can land men on the moon 40 years ago, it seems that we can improve delivery of healthcare. The energy that is wasted kicking each other around instead of seeing ourselves as partners in the same lifeboat with common goals is astounding....just my thoughts. Watching Canadian geese flying overhead in formation, just like warbirds, the "vee formation" actually improves aerodynamics.....honk honk honk. They are messy in one's yard, but their beauty in the air is a sight to invigorate me on a lazy afternoon in the boondocks....

Moving on from 'who should have won a prize from some Scandinavian guys'.....  I'm amazed (and more) when I run into engineers who should know better claim that space exploration will allow mankind to colonize the solar system (and maybe other systems).  Why not set up permanent colonies in the Marianas Trench, or the core of planet Earth, or the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, or artificial colonies up in the air (oh, yeah, I forgot the space station....).  Yeah, the space station.... The thing circles round and round up there looking for a purpose, while the Space Shuttle is 'shut down' (without a replacement!) relying on friendly Alexander Putin and his cabal of ex-KGB spooks to fly up supplies and replacement crews.  (Wow!  A monopoly AND the American government is 'stuck' so they have to pay whatever I want to charge!  Gee!).  Maybe human beings should realize our evolution is firmly tied to one planet.  We aint' gonna grow gills; we ain't gonna learn to breathe methane; we ain't gonna develop 'spore bodies' that protect us from gamma rays.... We're stuck.  We aren't going to leave home.  Earth is where we were born, and Earth is where we're going to die.  It's about time humans started work on the planet we inherited, and leave the dreaming for Hollywood movie directors.  

I couldn't agree more, Doc.  Really well put.

not knowing it all still has its upside.... have a good weekend folks.

Dammit, somebody beat me to my evil plot to blow up the moon!!!  Now I'll never get into the cliche villain club.

A great, little indie flick that flew under the radar-"A Walk on the Moon"- w/ Viggo Mortensen, the beautiful Diane Lane,Liev Schrieber- it is about the first moon walk & love & lust & bee stings & Jewish summer retreats. You could say it has it all.

Bebe: I also like that film very much.

CUUKOO1:   Do You Mean To Say That,  It Isn't ???????

i'm pretty sure it's not....just look at the moon pictured above....it's not quadangular.

Of all the Moons I like to look at, the one above has never really been one of my Favorites .......

lacus somniorum