Opportunity, the second Mars Explorer Rover is on the surface andtransmitting!

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 03:23:33 GMT, "Robert J. Kolker"
wrote:



Steven Shelikoff wrote:

guessed. A prime example is the internet. Without government funded
development (no corporation would ever have funded work on the arpanet
back then without a clear view of commercialization) Mr. Kolker would
not have this soapbox with which to vent.

There were bulletin boards prior to the internet. They could have
evolved into a wide computer network. There were also intermachine
protocols in addition to TCP/IP. Arpa was not the only entity working on
hooking up computers. IBM was doing a lot of work independently of
defense contracts.

Hooking up computers by telephone lines was done independently of and
well before Arpa.

And yet here you are, benefiting from the work paid for by government
funds. If you really want to avoid being hypocritical, you would
disconnect yourself from the government developed internet and only use
commercially developed intermachine protocols.

Steve

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 03:23:33 GMT, "Robert J. Kolker"
wrote:



Steven Shelikoff wrote:

guessed. A prime example is the internet. Without government funded
development (no corporation would ever have funded work on the arpanet
back then without a clear view of commercialization) Mr. Kolker would
not have this soapbox with which to vent.

There were bulletin boards prior to the internet. They could have
evolved into a wide computer network. There were also intermachine
protocols in addition to TCP/IP. Arpa was not the only entity working on
hooking up computers. IBM was doing a lot of work independently of
defense contracts.

Hooking up computers by telephone lines was done independently of and
well before Arpa.

And yet here you are, benefiting from the work paid for by government
funds. If you really want to avoid being hypocritical, you would
disconnect yourself from the government developed internet and only use
commercially developed intermachine protocols.

Steve

On Mon, 26 Jan 2004 03:23:33 GMT, "Robert J. Kolker"
wrote:



Steven Shelikoff wrote:

guessed. A prime example is the internet. Without government funded
development (no corporation would ever have funded work on the arpanet
back then without a clear view of commercialization) Mr. Kolker would
not have this soapbox with which to vent.

There were bulletin boards prior to the internet. They could have
evolved into a wide computer network. There were also intermachine
protocols in addition to TCP/IP. Arpa was not the only entity working on
hooking up computers. IBM was doing a lot of work independently of
defense contracts.

Hooking up computers by telephone lines was done independently of and
well before Arpa.

And yet here you are, benefiting from the work paid for by government
funds. If you really want to avoid being hypocritical, you would
disconnect yourself from the government developed internet and only use
commercially developed intermachine protocols.

Steve

In article ,
The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
In sci.physics, Craig Davidson

wrote
on Sun, 25 Jan 2004 06:05:10 GMT
k.net:
snip

You do know that Spirit and Opportunity are unmanned spacecraft? With
your
rant about dangers to crews I wasn't quite sure you knew that.

I wonder if they said that about Christopher Columbus. He lied you
know.
Never did bring back spices from India. What a waste of dollars that
could
be better spent in Spain. (or was it Portugal?)


NASA. 17 deaths. (Did you forget the Apollo 1 ground failure?)

How much is space exploration worth in terms of blood, sweat, and tears?
It's an obvious question.

If 17 dead is too much, then the automobile should be banned, sexual
intercourse should be stopped, and all agriculture should be stopped.
Farming is not safe.
snip

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

In article ,
The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
In sci.physics, Craig Davidson

wrote
on Sun, 25 Jan 2004 06:05:10 GMT
k.net:
snip

You do know that Spirit and Opportunity are unmanned spacecraft? With
your
rant about dangers to crews I wasn't quite sure you knew that.

I wonder if they said that about Christopher Columbus. He lied you
know.
Never did bring back spices from India. What a waste of dollars that
could
be better spent in Spain. (or was it Portugal?)


NASA. 17 deaths. (Did you forget the Apollo 1 ground failure?)

How much is space exploration worth in terms of blood, sweat, and tears?
It's an obvious question.

If 17 dead is too much, then the automobile should be banned, sexual
intercourse should be stopped, and all agriculture should be stopped.
Farming is not safe.
snip

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

In article ,
The Ghost In The Machine wrote:
In sci.physics, Craig Davidson

wrote
on Sun, 25 Jan 2004 06:05:10 GMT
k.net:
snip

You do know that Spirit and Opportunity are unmanned spacecraft? With
your
rant about dangers to crews I wasn't quite sure you knew that.

I wonder if they said that about Christopher Columbus. He lied you
know.
Never did bring back spices from India. What a waste of dollars that
could
be better spent in Spain. (or was it Portugal?)


NASA. 17 deaths. (Did you forget the Apollo 1 ground failure?)

How much is space exploration worth in terms of blood, sweat, and tears?
It's an obvious question.

If 17 dead is too much, then the automobile should be banned, sexual
intercourse should be stopped, and all agriculture should be stopped.
Farming is not safe.
snip

/BAH

Subtract a hundred and four for e-mail.

"Robert J. Kolker"

How will knowing whether bacteria ever
lived on Mars promote the General Welfare and Defend the Republic
against enemies foreign and domestic.


It won't. General Welfare is an illusion of fat people. Sitting in front of
TV,
eating pizzas and thinking how smart we are is nothing, just a puff of empty
air.
Achieving something, discovering something (in us and outside of us), now
THAT's something.

I fail to see how a voyage of men to
Mars can plausibly be thought to pay off for the rest of us. At least
NASA is not promising to bring back gold and spice.


You need more spice to make more pizzas?
Besides the likes of YOU don't finance NASA. Since only 0.7% uf US budget is
spent on NASA,
only 0.7% of population is paying for it, and you are paying for something
else (more stupid laws, perhaps.) Isn't this fair?

I'm just happy the world is SO complex and fun!

JD

"Robert J. Kolker"

How will knowing whether bacteria ever
lived on Mars promote the General Welfare and Defend the Republic
against enemies foreign and domestic.


It won't. General Welfare is an illusion of fat people. Sitting in front of
TV,
eating pizzas and thinking how smart we are is nothing, just a puff of empty
air.
Achieving something, discovering something (in us and outside of us), now
THAT's something.

I fail to see how a voyage of men to
Mars can plausibly be thought to pay off for the rest of us. At least
NASA is not promising to bring back gold and spice.


You need more spice to make more pizzas?
Besides the likes of YOU don't finance NASA. Since only 0.7% uf US budget is
spent on NASA,
only 0.7% of population is paying for it, and you are paying for something
else (more stupid laws, perhaps.) Isn't this fair?

I'm just happy the world is SO complex and fun!

JD

"Robert J. Kolker"

How will knowing whether bacteria ever
lived on Mars promote the General Welfare and Defend the Republic
against enemies foreign and domestic.


It won't. General Welfare is an illusion of fat people. Sitting in front of
TV,
eating pizzas and thinking how smart we are is nothing, just a puff of empty
air.
Achieving something, discovering something (in us and outside of us), now
THAT's something.

I fail to see how a voyage of men to
Mars can plausibly be thought to pay off for the rest of us. At least
NASA is not promising to bring back gold and spice.


You need more spice to make more pizzas?
Besides the likes of YOU don't finance NASA. Since only 0.7% uf US budget is
spent on NASA,
only 0.7% of population is paying for it, and you are paying for something
else (more stupid laws, perhaps.) Isn't this fair?

I'm just happy the world is SO complex and fun!

JD

The best thing we could do would be to boost the space station up to a
nice
stable orbit, lock it up, and hand the keys over to the Chinese. Then
NASA
could do a great deal more real science with unmanned missions at fraction
of the cost.

Do you mean the INTERNATIONAL space station? Or were you referring to some
local American one?

Do you people even know that the world is round and there _is_ land across
the Atlantic?

JD