On Mar 2, 10:06*am, Kurt Ullman wrote:
In article
,
*Harry K wrote:

How many pairs of 'x-ray' glasses did you buy as a kid before you
realized they were fake?

*Fake? Damn, that explains a lot.


A quick google search turns up that this alleged
"promise" is apparently based on one line from a speech made to a
group of
scientific writers by the head of the Atomic Energy Commission in
1954, as reported by the NY Times. This link will put it all into
perspective for you.

http://www.cns-snc.ca/media/toocheap/toocheap.html


In the speech he gave, he said:


"Our children will enjoy in their homes electrical energy too cheap
to
meter," he declared. ... "It is not too much to expect that our
children will know of great periodic regional famines in the world
only as matters of history, will travel effortlessly over the seas
and
under them and through the air with a minimum of danger and at great
speeds, and will experience a lifespan far longer than ours, as
disease yields and man comes to understand what causes him to age."


If you take that in context, it's far from clear that he was even
speaking specifically about nuclear power, unless you believe he also
meant nuclear power was going to extend human lifespan, end famine
and
make air travel effortless. And even if he meant nuclear power, as
opposed to science in general, it was clearly totaly speculation, not
specific promises made to anyone to "sell" them on nuclear power.

Take a look at all the other speeches made in that time-
frame of the 50's which made it clear that no one seriously promised
nuclear power
was anywhere close to being free.

But this does show how loons seek to take ANYTHING out of context and
blow it all out of proportion to reality to support their cause.