NASA scuttling more space missions so it can spend more on global warming

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 11:30:16 AM UTC-6, AM wrote:

BTW, sadly wars are not going to go away either. It's part of our
nature, it's what humans do...

That's just silly. I don't think there's _ever_ been a war between, say, the side of Edmonton north of the North Saskatchewan River and the side of Edmonton south of the North Saskatchewan River. In fact, despite conflicts of economic interest, Edmonton has never been at war with either St. Albert or Sherwood Park either.

Of course wars can happen when irresponsible individuals arise to the leadership of a sovereign political unit.

But that's easily fixed. Two obvious remedies present themselves:

1) Design the political process in such a way that irresponsible individuals do not have the opportunity to participate as candidates.

2) Limit the number of sovereign political units to one. Then it will have no one to wage war against.

While (2) is guaranteed to work, it could have drawbacks in practice, since eliminating war is not the only desideratum.

John Savard

On 5/6/2014 2:12 PM, Quadibloc wrote:
On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 11:30:16 AM UTC-6, AM wrote:

BTW, sadly wars are not going to go away either. It's part of our
nature, it's what humans do...

That's just silly. I don't think there's _ever_ been a war between, say, the side of Edmonton north of the North Saskatchewan River and the side of Edmonton south of the North Saskatchewan River. In fact, despite conflicts of economic interest, Edmonton has never been at war with either St. Albert or Sherwood Park either.

Of course wars can happen when irresponsible individuals arise to the leadership of a sovereign political unit.

But that's easily fixed. Two obvious remedies present themselves:

1) Design the political process in such a way that irresponsible individuals do not have the opportunity to participate as candidates.

2) Limit the number of sovereign political units to one. Then it will have no one to wage war against.

While (2) is guaranteed to work, it could have drawbacks in practice, since eliminating war is not the only desideratum.

John Savard



War is truly part of human nature. Some malicious people are just
inclined to do great harm to others. They use any means and pretexts to
do so.

There has not been one time in human history where we have had no war,
or certain humans trying to impose their will on others...

On 06/05/2014 14:09, wrote:
On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 8:52:10 AM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:
On 01/05/2014 12:27, wsnell01 wrote:

On Thursday, May 1, 2014 7:00:24 AM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:

On 01/05/2014 11:38, wsnell01 wrote:

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 12:51:51 PM UTC-4, Uncarollo2 wrote:

I'm tired of subsidizing oil wars

Name one that the US started.

Iraq II (the Bush grudge match). It also went momentously pear shaped.
There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq despite all the lies.

Then perhaps Hussein should not have interfered with UN weapons inspections.

--- brown's rant deleted ---

You can't deny the facts. Dubya had his gratuitous war and declared it
unilaterally without the appropriate UN mandate for action.

Bliar made the UK into a supine lapdog that trotted along obediently.

In the places where the inspectors were allowed to look, nothing was found.


Even after we had invaded Iraq nothing remotely like WMD was found.

Lying Neocons fabricated their "evidence" of WMD to stage Dubya's war
aka Iraq II "The Grudge Match" because it suited US domestic politics.

They really only wanted an excuse to use their newest hi-tech weapons in
a glorious pyrotechnics display widely advertised "Shock and Awe".

The irony was that until then Saddam and Al Qaeda hated each other but
after that stupid US invasion they found a common cause to unite them.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 5/6/14 1:20 PM, Martin Brown wrote:

You can't deny the facts.

Novel idea.
Doomed by near universal denial of facts by all and sundry.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 4:20:42 PM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:

You can't deny the facts.

Even after we had invaded Iraq nothing remotely like WMD was found.

Fact: The only way to verify that was to invade.

Fact: In the places where the inspectors had been ALLOWED to look, nothing had been found.

Fact: Saddam had used gas warfare on innocents.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 12:30:16 PM UTC-5, AM wrote:
On 4/30/2014 12:51 PM, Uncarollo2 wrote:

On Wednesday, April 30, 2014 7:58:57 AM UTC-5, wrote:

On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 11:12:13 PM UTC-4, Uncarollo2 wrote:



On Tuesday, April 29, 2014 6:29:31 PM UTC-5, wrote:





I'm tired of subsidizing Walmart with my tax money.







I'm tired of subsidizing this:







http://dailycaller.com/2012/11/27/gm...-electric-car/





I'm tired of subsidizing oil wars - the trillions spent on useless wars, the cost of defending the sea lanes so oil tankers can travel unmolested, the countless thousands of lives lost in these wars, the damage to the environment done by oil spills and pollution, the increase in greenhouse gases which will cost untold trillions down the road, and on and on. I would rahter have my tax money spent on solar energy and electric propulsion. It's coming, regardless of how much you wish it away.





Sounds good but it will not happen the way you think.



The power source of the future is nuclear. Matters not if we like it or

not, it's the highest power density supply we know of. It is also the

cleanest.





BTW, sadly wars are not going to go away either. It's part of our

nature, it's what humans do...

I'm all for nuclear energy. Charging electric vehicles for propulsion, solar to augment daytime peak use.

new forms of electric storage are only about 5 years away. They will be based on the concept of the super capacitor with chemical battery in parallel. High energy density, rapid charging.

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 6:05:17 PM UTC-4, wrote:
On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 4:20:42 PM UTC-4, Martin Brown wrote:



You can't deny the facts.



Even after we had invaded Iraq nothing remotely like WMD was found.



Fact: The only way to verify that was to invade.



Fact: In the places where the inspectors had been ALLOWED to look, nothing had been found.



Fact: Saddam had used gas warfare on innocents.

Fact: He also had 17 tons of uranium oxide which (during the war) was transferred to Canada for processing into nuclear fuel. What do the libs think Saddam wanted to do with that material?

On Monday, April 28, 2014 10:02:07 PM UTC-4, Uncarollo2 wrote:
On Sunday, April 27, 2014 6:02:51 PM UTC-5, RichA wrote:

On Friday, April 25, 2014 11:26:56 AM UTC-4, Uncarollo2 wrote:



So you feel that the ultra-wealthy don't have enough money yet, that they need more? Thanks for enlightening us.





Uncarollo





They don't owe you or anyone else a living, is the main point.



Pope Francis took a hard stance against inequality on Monday in a tweet sent from his official Twitter page: Inequality is the root of social evil.-- Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 28, 2014



Rich, go argue with the Pope.

If that "liberation theologist" was in South America in 1985, he'd find himself at the bottom of a well.

On 07/05/2014 06:49, RichA wrote:
On Monday, April 28, 2014 10:02:07 PM UTC-4, Uncarollo2 wrote:
On Sunday, April 27, 2014 6:02:51 PM UTC-5, RichA wrote:

On Friday, April 25, 2014 11:26:56 AM UTC-4, Uncarollo2 wrote:

So you feel that the ultra-wealthy don't have enough money yet, that they need more? Thanks for enlightening us.
Uncarollo

They don't owe you or anyone else a living, is the main point.

Pope Francis took a hard stance against inequality on Monday in a tweet sent from his official Twitter page: Inequality is the root of social evil.-- Pope Francis (@Pontifex) April 28, 2014

Rich, go argue with the Pope.

If that "liberation theologist" was in South America in 1985, he'd find himself at the bottom of a well.

The deranged rightard solution to anyone they disagree with.
So much for freedom of speech!

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

I don't venture into political discussion for I well know the practitioners and commentators are really from the same social class but differ on consumerist ideals however one quote worth noting is from the political class and by no means a way of self-congratulation -

"Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people." Eleanor Roosevelt

SAA is like the outside world,few can discuss ideas while the bulk discuss social events,agendas and the people representing the different sides of the same consumerist coin. Nowadays there isn't even a discussion of events but people barking across at each other looking for a reaction instead of a response which leaves only meaningless personal insults - a race ti the bottom in other words.

When people are ready to get back to astronomy they may do so by expanding the idea of what astronomy is and what it does.