On Tue, 26 Jul 2005 00:34:16 -0700, wrote:

There is some truth to that, but there is more to it. In this day and
age, politics and public opinion play more of a part than they should (or
used to). Imagine the public outcry if another Colombia happened with
this mission. Public outcry means Congress doesn't fund next year.
That's reality.

That's spineless Americans. NASA also does an atrocious job of
communicating that the goal isn't to have the least failures but
instead to have the most success. I have NEVER heard anyone from NASA
or a congressman or the president make remarks to that effect. They
also do a poor job of managing expectations. They need to come out and
say they expect things to blow up from time to time and that doesn't
indicate a problem with the way NASA is doing business. They should
stop apologizing when something does blow up. I don't apologize to a
tenant when a roof develops a leak. I fix it and move on.

You clearly don't have a good grip on reality. Whether you like it or
not, idealism isn't reality. If you honestly believe that managing an
apartment building is anything even similar to managing a space shuttle
program, you are very much delusional. I have a feeling our conversation
on this matter is nearly over.

Assuming that is true (and I don't know that it is), how does it hurt
us if they go to the moon? We've already been there.

It is a matter of long term national security. Many Americans alive
today have never been in a major war (WWII, etc). They simply don't see
how it could happen, but it could. Countries fight with each other.
This has been going on for a long time and I don't see an end in sight.
"Lately" the country with some combination of the most advanced
technology and the biggest military always wins. China has a
significantly larger population than us. We need to stay far ahead of
them technologically. If we are always ahead, we are always safe. No
one knows who will be fighting who in the future. Saddam Hussein was
once a good guy, now he is a bad guy. Why do Americans believe we could
not be at war with China 30 years from now? I am not forecasting a war
with China in 30 years any more than I could forecast the weather, but I
am quite certain it will one day rain again.

We *ARE* far ahead of them technologically, and will be for any
foreseeable future. You don't think America's technology progress is
indicated only by how many space shuttles we launch, do you? Wake up.

Good. I run Fedora or Red Hat Enterprise Linux on all of my systems.
(Except I have a Mac and a Windows 2000 system specifically for
testing setup in VMWare) I do some software development from time to
time. What is your profession?

Hmmm.... so why do you post from Google Groups? Get a real newsreader.
As for me, I'm an electronics engineer, closely associated with the
federal government...

What newsreader should I use? I am glad at least a tiny fraction of my
tax dollars go to EE's to do something (defense contractor?).

Assuming you are using Windoze, I believe Forte Agent is the most widely
used newsreader. If you do indeed use Linux... (?), I prefer Pan.

--
If you're not on the edge, you're taking up too much space.
Linux Registered User #327951