"Charles Angelich" wrote to "Mike Ross" (12 Feb 03  18:58:18)
 --- on the topic of "Columbia's 'computers'"

 CA> Money is not a factor in the equation of life and death for me.
 CA> I understand that it is for other people and they should pray
 CA> we never cross swords over it or that I am old and they are
 CA> young.

So then you're a rank sentimental and an idealist...

In a group of travelers there were lumberjacks and tourists on their way
Alaska. One tourist struck up a conversation with a young lumberjack
fellow and were discussing their outlook on conservation and such. The
lumberjack explained quite frankly that he didn't worry about such
things so long as he made a lot of money really quickly felling trees.
That he wasn't concerned that the day after there may be no trees left
as long as he made his buck today. Well, that's also the general
attitude in business today and if you have some romantic notion it is
otherwise then you're a fool. Everyone is out for their own greedy self
interest otherwise car makers wouldn't be building monster SUV's that
don't comply with car safety rules due to a loophole, and are prone to
roll over and likely to kill their occupants as well as pollute the
planet causing even more death and disease!


 CA> If the shuttle has square windows it's another indication they
 CA> are behind the times and not really paying enough attention to
 CA> their 'craft' (aerospace design?). No I don't think the windows
 CA> did in the shuttle. When the day comes one of the others snaps
 CA> in half you can email me an apology though.

Well, not exactly square, they do have rounded corners of course, but
the windows are rather sort of triangle-like, or trapazoidish.
Sure, I'll apologize but I think you are over concerned about that...


 MR>  I agree it's a white elephant to a point but
 MR> it's needed for a lot of reasons least of which are the
 MR> spinoffs.

 CA> What spinoffs can you cite recently? Within the last decade
 CA> even?

Well, at very least in the maintenance of the Hubble Space Telescope.
Newer rocket engines were developed for the Shuttle than can be used
elsewhere. The heatshield tile ceramic materials are now used to line
metals in engines. The fly by wire autopilot avionics now becoming
commonplace in the airline industry. These are just a scant few of the
technical spinoffs of the program. There are in reality many more.


 MR> Realize that 1 billion dollars doesn't just go up in smoke,
 MR> it paid people's jobs, but much more importantly kept an
 MR> infrastructure capability alive.

 CA> So you're saying that while innocent children and the elderly
 CA> starve to death, freeze to death, and live like animals we need
 CA> a welfare for the middle class that we disguise as our 'space
 CA> program'?

 CA> I disagree.

One can't rationalize knowledge in terms of innocents and victims. One
has to look at it in terms of acquiring basic knowledge so that one has
the ability to save those victims at some point by applying that
knowledge. Today we now have artificial liver machines which will keep
children alive long enough that a transplant can be found or even allow
their livers to heal themselves. If the money wasn't invested in the
colleges who trained those brilliant minds you call middle class people
there would be no such miracles. It's easy to criticize something as
blatantly expensive and seemingly useless as a super atom smasher but
the fallout of the basic research needed to build it has ramifications
we can't even dream of. If we didn't do the basic research then we would
never know if the square of the hypotenuse was ever useful for anything.
It's the hard fought acquired ability to do something about it that
frees us all from the tyranny of fate. It's in the hope that people in
future won't starve, freeze to death, and die of diseases.

 Mike
 ****

... Wouldn't it be nice if there was an Escape key for all of our problems
--- Blue Wave/DOS v2.30