Sad Day For Physics

[campbell71]

Cost of US incursion to Afghanistan & Iraq & bailing out the Banks: no idea, but this was running at $35mil per year and they shut it down. As you Yanks say, "Go figure....."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-15079119

 

[stonehart]

sad day indeed

 

[boomerang]

Another symptom of an anti-intellectual sentiment afflicting America. It's all about cheap entertainment and the financial bottom line these days.

 

[Randall]

I think there is no question that the country's spending priorities are way out of whack and reflect a greedhead influence from a financially powerful few. But how do we change this? I agree we don't make poor people richer by making rich people poor, but if the rich make themselves poor by screwing up in their businesses, why should the common taxpayer be put on the hook for bailing them out? I say they should have all been held accountable rather than bailed out. Then there is all the stupid foreign conflict expense.

I empathize with the cause, but it's not our place to go in and run other people's countries. We fought hard for our own independence democracy and earned it ourselves. They need to go through the same process. The "anti-terrorist" excuse is really poor. How many people have we lost by taking the fight overseas? How much ability to they really have to attack us over here? They're so ill equipped that they have to hijack airliners because they don't even have any planes of their own! I say get our people home, and put them to work here on domestic rebuilding projects. Take the money that's saved and spend it on intelligence and domestic security. Take the rest and put it on the debt, education and healthcare ... and last but not least research.

 

[Xylo]

I'm disenchanted a bit since this isn't even in any of the major news feeds. The state of education in this country is poor and becoming more poverty stricken every day. Education consists of rote memorization and studying to take standardized national tests. What ever happened to actual learning?

/rant

 

[Hotkafka]

Don't forget, it's not just bailing out banks, but big business in general. Funding for a good deal of America's truly pioneering work has been slashed. Can't help but ponder the implications and pending fate of NASA. Reminds me of Russia's slowly doddering decline of such programs after the fall of communism.

 

[trainedobserver]

Don't forget, it's not just bailing out banks, but big business in general. Funding for a good deal of America's truly pioneering work has been slashed. Can't help but ponder the implications and pending fate of NASA. Reminds me of Russia's slowly doddering decline of such programs after the fall of communism.

It seems pretty clear that short sighted and unimaginative people are at the helm. A robust space program creates a multitude of jobs, stimulates interest in the sciences and education, and provides potential solutions to real problems here on Earth.

And where did all that money go? Trillions of dollars and nothing to show for it?