God Rigs Election: It's Bush In A "blowout"

[shereads]

But Quasi,

If we don't build a moon base think of all those poor Japanese animators who will be out of work. I mean, the moon base gets blowed up in everyone of them!

-Colly

Animators are a thing of the past, Col. Disney just shut down its animation division because it's all done with software now.

 

[minsue]

Re: I would have loved that.

I know Americans are overweight and that we're supposed to encourage kids to avoid fast foods, but honest to God, Min, I'd have killed to have a Pizza Hut and a Burger King as an alternative to the government meat we used to be served. Yeesh. I've never smelled any other food-service environment that smelled like the cafeteria at my high school. I have no idea what food I was smelling.

I remember having lunchtime contests at school to see who could squeeze the highest number of oil drops out of a french fry. 7 was a record.

LOL. Yes, at the time I was truly jealous to hear Burger King had come to the school after I left. Not that it would have mattered, since I never ate lunch. I managed to convince my poor, dear mother that school lunches cost $5 a day and that was my cigarette/alcohol money. Of course, I wasn't actually that far off. If I remember correctly, the little personal pizzas they sold from Pizza Hut were $3.50 each and that was 10 years ago.

The thing that bothers me with the advertising is that is how they plan to come up with the funding in order to raise the teachers' salaries next year. They still haven't figured out how to come up with the money to repair my old high school which has walls that are literally caving in. This is from one of the RICHEST school districts in the state. I hate to think of the others.

- Mindy

 

[KenJames]

. . . if there is one glaringly obvious need that affects the entire world's near future, it's the need to find sustainable replacements for fossil fuels.

. . .

If we spent all of NASA's billions on researching sustainable, safe energy solutions, we would cure a lot of the world's ills. And have the luxury to explore space a generation down the road.

The likelihood of that happening, given the wealth the current short-sighted system produces, is practically zero. But since we're talking about our leaders' obligation to science and research, I propose that solving the world's energy crisis before it becomes a crisis is something we could do and the benefits of which are clearer than the benefits of space exploration.

You're right. Energy is our biggest problem.

If we were to put a few billion per year into fusion research, our energy problems would be solved permanently within the next quarter century. The money wouldn't have to come out of the space budget, simply reducing corporate welfare would suffice.

Fusion won't be adequately funded until revenues from oil start drying up.

 

[KenJames]

What?

You expect to find iron ore to produce steel on the moon? Are you going to smelt it there? Remember. You will have to import the oxygen from earth.

In the short run, all the moon base could become, is a photo op, before climbing back up the moon’s gravity-well to regain space, and continue space development.

If we ever do learn how to smelt metals in space, we would be better off mining the asteroid belt, than trying to drag heavy metal up from the moon’s surface.

Yes, I do expect to find iron ore on the moon, as well as other construction materials and oxygen. That's been determined by analyzing the moon rocks. With virtually no atmosphere, the moon has enough solar energy to extract the minerals. You could use an electromagnetic catapult to deliver the materials into space.

Of course, this is a long-term project. It's still more practical than launching everything from Earth.

Asteroid mining would be a better source for materials, but that's a deep space operation. How do we learn to conduct deep space operations? Space stations, a moon base, Mars missions . . .

The most likely proposed use of the moon, of which I have heard, is the laying out of huge coloured plastic sheets, in a pattern, to turn the moon into a giant billboard.

Since this sounds like something Bush would endorse, I hope Bush’s Mooning of America is merely a boondoggle.

Advertising on the moon was one of the subjects in Robert Heinlein's 1950's story "The Man Who Sold the Moon." However, his protagonist was using it as a scare tactic. "If we get there first, we won't do that."

 

[shereads]

You're right. Energy is our biggest problem.

If we were to put a few billion per year into fusion research, our energy problems would be solved permanently within the next quarter century. The money wouldn't have to come out of the space budget, simply reducing corporate welfare would suffice.

Fusion won't be adequately funded until revenues from oil start drying up.

Pinko.

How will we know it's drying up? We haven't perfected our Martian drilling techniques yet.

 

[Quasimodem]

. . . the Citibank Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard (those things have to be a bitch of an expense to put on. . .

You need a closer tie-in to keep a sponsor truly committed.

The Pampers Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard.

If you can word the copy correctly, you may even get a little London Travel Bureau cross promotion.

Just imagine all those Anglophile English Teachers travelling to London for their turn to change one of those six-foot tall Home Guards.

 

[Quasimodem]

. . . Advertising on the moon was one of the subjects in Robert Heinlein's 1950's story "The Man Who Sold the Moon." . .

Good God, man! Don't mention Heinlein!

Next thing Dubya will be sending the whole Marine Corp. to the moon because he believes it's the ideal place from which they can drop rocks on the Taliban.

 

[KenJames]

Space only became a national priority when the military potential of the ultimate high ground was realized, back with sputnik. The government's interest in space has always been military. You really think those guys care about pure science? Once we saw that the Russians were not going to be racing us to the moon, the government kind of lost interest.

I've always assumed that the space shuttle was built to serve as a satellite-weapons deployment system, a task it was ideally suited for. I doubt there was a mission flown that didn't have a military objective. The Hubble telecope and all those school-kid experiments were just window dressing intended to mask the real purpose. I just find it very hard to believe that we spent all that money, life, and energy just so we could find out how beans grow in zero-gravity.

I don't think Bush is serious about this Mars thing in the first place. He's certainly not serious about basic science funding. We could use a few of those billions right here right now for medical and energy research. He'll fund a few billion for R&D for as long as he's in office, and the things will wither on the vine. I think it's a total dog-&-pony show.

On the other hand, now that the $500 billion missile defense system doesn;t seem like such a great idea, maybe it's just his way of throwing money at the defense contracters to keep them afloat, which as I understand it, was the only reason for Star Wars in the first place.

I'm really afraid that, barring some totally unforeseen new breakthrough in propulsion, space travel is yesterday's future. Like everyone having their own personal dirigible.

---dr.M.

Maybe the shuttle was really built as a satellite-weapons deployment system, although in most cases the Titan heavy-lift rocket would have been more suitable for that mission. I still don't understand why we scrapped the Titan, unless our military planners were totally conned by the shuttle proponents.

A reusable launch vehicle was the logical next step in space technology, although the shuttle turned out to be much less reusable and more expensive to operate than planned.

I agree that Bush is largely serious about throwing money to the aerospace companies and doesn't care about the science.

Incremental improvements are sufficient to support space travel, although it will take a long time to be affordable for "ordinary" people.

 

[KenJames]

Good God, man! Don't mention Heinlein!

Next thing Dubya will be sending the whole Marine Corp. to the moon because he believes it's the ideal place from which they can drop rocks on the Taliban.

Oops! Sorry! I sure don't want to give Bush any more bad ideas.

Of course, that assumes Bush reads. Maybe Laura would read it to him.

 

[Colleen Thomas]

Ooopsy

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Incremental improvements are sufficient to support space travel, although it will take a long time to be affordable for "ordinary" people.

I don't think space travel will become feasible until people learn how to make money from space. That seems to be the way the human race works. So far all it's good for in that regard is communications.

---dr.M.

 

[KenJames]

I don't think space travel will become feasible until people learn how to make money from space. That seems to be the way the human race works. So far all it's good for in that regard is communications.

---dr.M.

I agree, but I think there are plenty of ways to make money from space and ingenious people will find them. That's also how the human race works.

We already know that some industrial processes, such as semiconductor and drug manufacture, are well suited to space development.

The car I just bought was manufactured in Japan. A hundred years ago, nobody would have thought it would be possible to make money building cars and transporting them across an ocean. I think space industry will be highly profitable, and commonplace, fifty years from now.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

There is one, much more lucrative and easy way of making money with it: sponsorship.

 

[shereads]

Funny you should mention that.

Why not sell licensing rights and allow some tastefully displayed brand logos, to help defray the cost of virtually every taxpayer-built public facility?

The Kraft Foods Enterprise Space Shuttle.

The Budweister Freeway (a 100-mile stretch of I-95) would blend seamlessly into the Citbank Highway of the Americas.

The St. Louis arch could become the McDonalds' Golden Arches St. Louis Arch, and a permanent trust fund set up for its maintenance.

I'm in advertising, and I can tell you that clients would eat this stuff up. The moon billboard idea has been pondered for years. In fact, imagine its potential use as a political campaign billboard. BUSH/RUDY 2044, appearing first as just a mysterious hint of color on the surface of a quarter-moon, and gradually revealed to a fascinated world night after night. Primitive tribes in isolated parts of the world would be terrified, and that alone would be worth a fun movie.

EDITED to correct the America-centric nature of the post, by proposing the Guinnness Stout Chunnel, the Citibank Buckingham Palace Changing of the Guard (those things have to be a bitch of an expense to put on; I'm sure there are sponsors who'd love to help) and perhaps the Mahatma Rice Taj Mahal.

 

[shereads]

Imagine Coke and Pepsi battling for the rights to emblazon a logo on the first manned Mars lander.

We don't need no steenking taxes.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Sorry, I missed it

 

[shereads]

Sorry, I missed it

You know what they say about great minds thinking alike, etc. Quasi is the one who first mentioned that the only practical use for the moon that he had ever heard proposed was for an enormous billboard.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

You know what they say about great minds thinking alike, etc. Quasi is the one who first mentioned that the only practical use for the moon that he had ever heard proposed was for an enormous billboard.

It does have the shape of a Coke bottle cap...

 

[shereads]

Why not accept bids from sponsors to determine the first words spoken on Mars?

"I'm going to Disney World!" leaps to mind.

 

[shereads]

It does have the shape of a Coke bottle cap...

It looks a lot like a baseball, also.

And a Frisbee.

If I were a cheese company...I'd want it done up in green with a Kraft label.

 

[minsue]

If I were a cheese company...I'd want it done up in green with a Kraft label.

Oh, that's by far my favorite!


- Mindy

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Completely random change of subject. Yesterday I came home from school in a hydrogen powered bus. I think the column of white steam gives it a very cool industrial-retro look.

http://www.stcp.pt/images/noticias/H2Bus.jpg

 

[shereads]

That is extremely cool.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

We have three of them, I think, and they're being tested as part of a European program of some sort. I'll try to find out more.

Most of the fleet here in Porto is running on natural gas, by now, and has been for a few years. Good thing we don't have our own fossil fuel resources, so the same people that import oil can now import gas or any other technology and everyone will be happy.

 

[KenJames]

Completely random change of subject. Yesterday I came home from school in a hydrogen powered bus. I think the column of white steam gives it a very cool industrial-retro look.

http://www.stcp.pt/images/noticias/H2Bus.jpg

Cool indeed! That definitely trumps my new hybrid gas-electric car.