I can think of many other ways to spend $79 Million +++.
Sure, learning about space, the moon, etc etc is interesting. I find it fascinating. However - at a time when we are trying to fund projects to find cures for cancer, MS, diabetes, rare diseases, and so on and so on, I cannot justify spending this amount of money on an experiment! I just heard on the news that NASA botched this little adventure a bit but I can't offer any confirmation as of yet. Regardless, I am reminded of a line from an Our Lady Peace song that is about the terminal illness of a young child.... several times Raine sings "There's a house built out in space...." and it makes me think that it's mind boggling we have little innocent children dying every single day of illnesses we cannot cure but multi millions of dollars in medical funding may help us move towards finding cures (or may have helped us decades ago), while there is a 'house' out in space. Meaning - how the hell can we manage that, but not help people down here on this planet?
A former coworker of mine is in hospital with her young boy right now because they found out he has leukemia. My bf's daughter had leukemia as a child as well. My cousin had leukemia when he was only two years old. My cousin's wife died of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma when she was in her 20s and had an 18 month old son. My friend's son has an extremely rare neurological disorder that literally causes him to bite himself to the bone so his teeth need to be removed (shocking shocking illness) but it took them 5 years to find a doctor who had even met a child with this before (that's how rare it is). My friend had breast cancer. A child at my daycare had Stage 4 kidney cancer and lost a kidney to it before she was 3 years old. The list goes on and all of us have stories like this ----- but we have to sit and watch billions of dollars being spent on space travel, exploration, and experiments.
We have gotten almost no where with this since the moon landing all those decades ago. There are also people that believe the moon originally was part of the earth until some sort of impact broke it free so would it be a surprise if they found evidence of water on it? I've read many reports that the moon came from the pacific ocean area. So if we find evidence of water, big whoopie doo. There are people dying down here who need help. There are illnesses taking the lives of very young children and people are donating their own cash to try to help find cures but it's no where near what is spend on the space program. The Princess Margaret hospital has been involved with the Weekend To End Breast Cancer for several years and has raised $79 million TO DATE. But NASA could spend that like water in a small experiment that lasted a few minutes? What's wrong with this picture?
One reason. To maintain American exceptionalism. A nation can only remain a superpower if it is leading in science and technology. India and China have made it clear that space exploration and research is a high priority for them, the US will fall behind if it neglects NASA.
ReplyDeleteFinally, a blog that lives up to its title unequivocally.
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you! It's nice to see that these kinds of comments usually come from anonymous posters too ;) 9 times out of 10 in fact. I see a pattern emerging,,,,
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