"Larry Jaques" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 9 Dec 2010 10:21:03 -0800, "anorton"
wrote:

So who, exactly, summarizes the research projects for the layman vote on?

I don't know yet. They're probably suggested by anyone who reads a
real unfundable loser of a project, like AGWK stuff.


A congressman from a state that is pushing to teach creationism? A sleazy
politician can make anything sound bad (and this guy has never been
anything
but a politician
http://www.adriansmith.house.gov/ind...1&It emid=61).

He gave an example of modeling the sound of things breaking for the video
game industry, and asked, "do we want to subsidize the gaming industry?"
What he misses is that synthesizing the sound of something breaking is an
extraordinarily complex problem of applied math and physics that has never
been solved before now.

Come now. CD collections of any possible sound are available on the
Internet for ten bucks a pop. Why is synthesis even necessary?



Come now. Why are CDs necessary? My Gramophone works perfectly fine.




The applications could be applied to video games,
but they also could also be applied to modeling effects of sonic booms,
explosions and all kinds of things yet to be thought of. This research
made
news in the engineering magazines I read. In any case basic science is
not
supposed to be driven by applications but by pushing the bounds of what
has
not been done before. But even if the Congressman was perfectly accurate
and
the research could only ever be useful for the video game industry, this
industry is one of the few growth industries in the US worth many billions
of dollars and thousands of jobs.

Oh, please!


Ok, lets not advance scientific understanding of a physical phenomenon that
happens every day. Lets not support a growing industry that successfully
competes with foreign companies. Instead, lets fund that same Nebraska
Congressman's beloved corn subsidies and corn ethanol mandates. We will
have to cut quite a few more projects to even come close.




Here is an article describing how misleading his summary is. Remember,
these
are probably the most egregious examples he could find.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/...ismisleadin g

They found some nice rationalizations there, didn't they? g

CUT!

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