Tuesday, October 23, 2012
Shameless Promotion
Everybody should come and take a look at my Etsy shop: Ye Olde Nostalgia Shoppe. I'm selling cool vintage things that you aren't going to find anywhere else. Yes, I realize I sound like some tacky late-night infomercial but I don't really care.
Oh plus, the more you buy the faster I can add/update my stock. So if you hate what I have for sale, just convince some of your easily manipulated friends into buying something. Then everybody will be happy!
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
"Kill the Commies, Go to the Moon."
Been a while. Nothing exciting to talk about lately. Finally got some inspiration. And no it's not about the election. You can all take a deep breath and relax.
Just hanging out watching C-SPAN (yes, I am a gigantic nerd) and guess who pops up? My favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson.
He was on doing publicity for his book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, and discussing strategies that will get the US government to start investing in space travel.
Here follows a summary of his lecture that was originally aired on March 15th of this year.
So, what's it going to take to boost investment? Let's think about the greatest/ most expensive projects that have occurred over the course of human history. The Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, the journey's of 15th and 16th century sea explorers. All of these projects can be traced back to four main motivators.
1) War and defense. The "I don't want to die" motivation.
2) Economics. The "I don't want to die poor" motivation.
3) Praise of royalty or deity. The "Please don't let that guy kill me" motivation.
4) Discovery is part of the human condition. The "I would rather die than live here anymore" motivation.
So, if we are going to get our butts to Mars or, let's face it, back into space at all we are going to have to satisfy one of these motivators in order to get the guys with the checkbooks to give NASA some money. Mr. Tyson (Can I call you Neil? I'm going to call you Neil!) argues that any ambitions to go to space based on 'inspirational rhetoric' alone are "deluded". And I think we can rule out #3. Nobody's buying that one anymore. So, we need a military or economic motivation.
50 years ago NASA was founded in order to fulfill a challenge to go to the Moon. We spent billions of dollars to do that. What was our motivation then? That would be the military motivator. Hence Neil's lovely summary of that point that I turned into the title of this post. But in 1989 the Berlin Wall came down and no more military threat = no more investment in space. We are "coasting on the investments of a previous a previous generation" and pretty soon we are going to grind to a halt.
This is where the economic motivator can start to play a part in the future of space exploration. First of all, the aerospace industry, in general, is kinda of key to the economy of the 21st century in terms of transportation, commerce, and defense. Investment in the space program is going to create billions of dollars in "spin-offs". The tech that is needed to go to Mars is going to be important to the further of humanity. Just like Apollo gave microwaves, Velcro, MRIs, and Tang. R and D = more money for you and me. Eventually. The second, and arguably, most important part of investment comes in the form of inspiration. As Neil has claimed "innovator culture is a product of investment in the space program". So going into space is going to inspire a whole new generation of people to create new technologies and new devices that are going to make our lives easier.
Today we spend 1/2 of 1% of every tax dollar on NASA programs. 24% gets spent on building bombs to drop on poor people. Something needs to change. Thank you Neil for doing your part to help us refocus on what's actually important.
I don't know about you but when ever I watch Neil deGrasse Tyson give a lecture I have an overwhelming desire to go back to school to be an astrophysicist. Can somebody make this happen?
Just hanging out watching C-SPAN (yes, I am a gigantic nerd) and guess who pops up? My favorite astrophysicist, Neil deGrasse Tyson.
He was on doing publicity for his book, Space Chronicles: Facing the Ultimate Frontier, and discussing strategies that will get the US government to start investing in space travel.
Here follows a summary of his lecture that was originally aired on March 15th of this year.
So, what's it going to take to boost investment? Let's think about the greatest/ most expensive projects that have occurred over the course of human history. The Great Wall of China, the Pyramids, the journey's of 15th and 16th century sea explorers. All of these projects can be traced back to four main motivators.
1) War and defense. The "I don't want to die" motivation.
2) Economics. The "I don't want to die poor" motivation.
3) Praise of royalty or deity. The "Please don't let that guy kill me" motivation.
4) Discovery is part of the human condition. The "I would rather die than live here anymore" motivation.
So, if we are going to get our butts to Mars or, let's face it, back into space at all we are going to have to satisfy one of these motivators in order to get the guys with the checkbooks to give NASA some money. Mr. Tyson (Can I call you Neil? I'm going to call you Neil!) argues that any ambitions to go to space based on 'inspirational rhetoric' alone are "deluded". And I think we can rule out #3. Nobody's buying that one anymore. So, we need a military or economic motivation.
50 years ago NASA was founded in order to fulfill a challenge to go to the Moon. We spent billions of dollars to do that. What was our motivation then? That would be the military motivator. Hence Neil's lovely summary of that point that I turned into the title of this post. But in 1989 the Berlin Wall came down and no more military threat = no more investment in space. We are "coasting on the investments of a previous a previous generation" and pretty soon we are going to grind to a halt.
This is where the economic motivator can start to play a part in the future of space exploration. First of all, the aerospace industry, in general, is kinda of key to the economy of the 21st century in terms of transportation, commerce, and defense. Investment in the space program is going to create billions of dollars in "spin-offs". The tech that is needed to go to Mars is going to be important to the further of humanity. Just like Apollo gave microwaves, Velcro, MRIs, and Tang. R and D = more money for you and me. Eventually. The second, and arguably, most important part of investment comes in the form of inspiration. As Neil has claimed "innovator culture is a product of investment in the space program". So going into space is going to inspire a whole new generation of people to create new technologies and new devices that are going to make our lives easier.
Today we spend 1/2 of 1% of every tax dollar on NASA programs. 24% gets spent on building bombs to drop on poor people. Something needs to change. Thank you Neil for doing your part to help us refocus on what's actually important.
I don't know about you but when ever I watch Neil deGrasse Tyson give a lecture I have an overwhelming desire to go back to school to be an astrophysicist. Can somebody make this happen?
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