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By: rorschach
Date: 7/23/98 10:25:58 PM
# Replies: 5
One of my heros died yesterday....
One of my earliest memories was of watching Apollo 14 and Alan Shepperd hitting a one handed nine iron off the surface of the moon. It affected me so strongly that when I was a kid, I dreamed of going there myself one day. It even affected my eventual choice of careers. Today, with budgets that are on life support, and a populace that is lucky to be able to add two plus two without reaching for a calculator, that dream is fizzling before my eyes.... My daughter has asked me several times if she could go to the moon. I tell her maybe by the time she grows up she can. But I feel a strong pang of guilt when I say that, because I suspect it really won't be true. We as a race had the opprotunity to spread our seeds to the cosmos, but instead we decided to stay home and watch summer re-runs of Seinfeld. I HATE Jerry Seinfeld.....
Response #1
By: Gowan McGland
Date: 7/24/98 12:23:36 PM
Yeah, the loss of the space program is Jerry Seinfeld's fault.
I *know* you know better than to pawn off the loss of a very promising space program on the media or the people. You know as well as I do that the government dropped the ball.
Response #2
By: Da Sissop
Date: 7/24/98 1:28:31 PM
And think of all the sociological advances we owe directly to the U.S. Seinfeld program. We take for granted the catch phrases we use every day, phrases like "yadda yadda yadda" and "not that there's anything wrong with that," phrases that didn't even exist a mere 10 years ago. That computer you're using, your microwave oven, the internet, electric shavers, indoor plumbing, pants, the wheel.... think about all those things and countless others, and then ask yourself, would you *really* want to live in a Seinfeldless world?
Response #3
By: Emil Lang Esq.
Date: 7/25/98 9:08:41 PM
I survived without watching it.
Response #4
By: rorschach
Date: 7/29/98 9:56:08 PM
The old phrase "We get the government we deserve" is all too true. The government is really no different than the network "news" shows... it all is geared towards what John Q. Public THINKS it wants and or needs. Before the second Appollo moon landing mission was even launched (that would have been Appollo 12 for those not up on history), there were loud voices coming from the liberal left that wanted to "Stop wasting all that money in space and start spending it here on Earth". What these masterminds didn't think about was that very little of that money was actually "lost in space"... it was all spent here, on Earth, and was used to enrich the economy not just directly by the heafty salaries paid to the millions of people involved in the program to one degree or another, but the fact that the money did not go to pay for the actual hardware, it went into RESEARCH on how to BUILD the hardware, and by lucky chance spun off hordes of new and useful things that are very literally inherent in virtually every major thing we touch and use every day to one degree or another.
Well, the liberals have had thier chance, they've spent a huge fraction of the gross national product of the richest nation on Earth in an attempt to stamp out hunger, disease, drug abuse, and violence, not just here but around the globe. Have they succeeded? Have they even made a decent dent? has anything they have spent OUR money on improved the level of suffering that exists in this world? Not one bit near as I can tell.
Have the technology spinoffs from the space program helped reduce the suffering in this world? You bet your bippy they have! Everything from ways to keep people with failing immune systems alive, to portable battery powered ECG machines like the one I wore last week! Everything from new ways to grow crops to new insights on WHERE to grow those crops from satellite surveys that are accurate to within half a centimeter! Everything from cheap easy ways to sterilize river water for drinking in Africa, to fuel cells that can run your car over 300 miles on less than 4 gallons of gasoline and leave little more than water vapor in thier wake.....(coming to a chrysler/benz dealer near you in about 7-10 years....)
now, which seems like the better deal to you?
Response #5
By: Tess Trueheart
Date: 7/30/98 5:18:20 AM
Emil Lang! Where the hell have you been?! Smoooch! Nice to read you again!