Random Thought Thread

[Nathan the Machinist]

Reason two, most of them will drown

^ that's not civil

 

[ferider]

And yet you appear to be convinced that MKUltra is real.

Gi'me a break with those saussage pictures.

 

[Richard338]

I also like raisins. What if there's not an edge though? What if it's not a plate flying through space? What if it's like a giant lake? I dunno.



So Neil Degrasse Tyson is incorrect. We agree on that. COULD IT BE that the curve you saw was from the curvature of the windows?

What I find interesting is that I haven't heard of an experiment that has been able to reproduce gravity.

You'd think with 57$million a day that you'd be able to work something like that into your budget. I dunno.

Thanks for being civil fellas. I appriciate it.

It's interesting that you question NASA's budget. For FY22 it was about 24 billion, so more than 65 million per day. This is about triple the National Science Foundation budget. Surveys have found that NASA spending is very popularly supported. I guess people love those telescope images.

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

It's interesting that you question NASA's budget. For FY22 it was about 24 billion, so more than 65 million per day. This is about triple the National Science Foundation budget. Surveys have found that NASA spending is very popularly supported. I guess people love those telescope images.

I didn't really question it. I brought it up because it seems like that's a lot to lose should people suddenly not support the spending.

It feels like those telescope images are pretty spendy for what we get.

 

[bluemax_1]

so Neil Degrasse Tyson is wrong?

Yep.

Alternatively, maybe the edge of the Earth, that stuff can fall off, might be around San Francisco.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I'm pretty sure that NASA does not exist to make pretty pictures for people to admire. It's to do with advancing the knowledge and capabilities of the human species.

The pictures are just fluff for the masses.

I don't think it's particularly expensive considering the benefit to humanity.

Scientific advancement not always cheap and the benefits are not always immediate and obvious, but other than technological advances made during wartime, this is how a society advances.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I'm not saying this is the only way that a society advances. But if it's not war, defense etc, and it's not for a profit motive and a consequence of capitalism, sometimes advancement is done just for the sake of advancement. Space exploration and NASA is one of the coolest things that humanity is doing and in the big picture doesn't really cost anybody much of anything.

 

[ferider]

My Math teacher used to say that without the Apollo program we wouldn't have had pocket calculators ....

 

[ipal]

View attachment 1894255

The one on the left looks like our beloved knifemaker.
Who is the one on the right?

 

[bluemax_1]

Anyone else hear this song when looking at this pic?

 

[Richard338]

I didn't really question it. I brought it up because it seems like that's a lot to lose should people suddenly not support the spending.

It feels like those telescope images are pretty spendy for what we get.

As Nathan mentioned, the photos are a nice byproduct of the telescope projects, but the agency mission is a multifaceted science program.
The science agencies are pretty stable (NSF has been around for 70 years) and spend their money very carefully. We often see government spending packages that are large multiples of those amounts, to be spent in new directions by people who are less thoughtful and well established.

 

[ferider]

Better NASA than IRS. Just saying.

 

[Fonedork]

Better NASA than IRS. Just saying.

I think they might work together

 

[WValtakis]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_spinoff_technologies

 

[tinfoil hat timmy]

I think 60 million dollars a day could do a bunch more good than it's doing in the hands of NASA.

FFS universal healthcare? How many veterans are homeless? How many people go without food every day?

$60 million a day could fix a ton of that.

 

[Nathan the Machinist]

I think 60 million dollars a day could do a bunch more good than it's doing in the hands of NASA.

FFS universal healthcare? How many veterans are homeless? How many people go without food every day?

$60 million a day could fix a ton of that.

I don't think a 60 million a day is going to be a drop in the bucket for any kind of universal health care. Nor are you going to solve homelessness and hunger. There is already a ton of money spent on the social safety nets, and at a certain point you got to spend money on other stuff too.

The moral argument against spending money on something that does not directly help people in need doesn't work for me

 

[Madranchtx]

The benefits provided by NASA far outweigh the cost. However there is a famous story about NASA spending a million $ (back when that was a large amount of money) to develop a pen that would work in a vacuum. The much more pragmatic Russians used pencils until they could steal the design.

 

[Fonedork]

Surely you're not saying we have the resources
To save the poor from their lot?
There will be poor always, pathetically struggling
Look at the good things you've got

-Jesus Christ, Superstar
First man to pierce Earth's atmosphere

 

[Blues]

Gravity, gravitas...let's call the whole thing off.

 

[Jo the Machinist]

The one on the left looks like our beloved knifemaker.
Who is the one on the right?

His twin, Jonathan.