Reply To: T-shirt designers unite and take over

[Tasmodevil44]

This is getting a little off the subject, but believe me jeg3, you don’t have to tell me about our lovely Gov’t non (action) of good ‘ol Uncle Sam…… and how good research money of taxpayers at work is poured down the drain. Everybody already knows about all the mismanagement and waste (Heck, doesn’t everybody these days ?). There’s just no continuity or consistency to NASA, the Pentagon, or anything else these days. Build an Apollo Saturn 5 rocket, then scrap it. Finance a renewable space shuttle only ” half – assed “, by going with dangerous external tank and solid – fuel boosters…… instead of riding ” piggy – back ” on larger rocket plane…… then scrap all invested in the shuttle, too. Finance the Bussard nuclear fusion device, then cancel all funding as soon as it begins to look very promising…… what a way to run a government ! ! !

And the very sad thing about it is not only that we were so close (but still so far thanks to gov’t dropping the ball), but also the fact that all the knowlege and expertise for this may be permanently lost and unrecoverable. Bussard is now deceased R.I.P. , as well as a lot of these other old – timers. Many of the younger physicists are specialized in things like solid – state electronics and robotics and the like, but lacking much of the plasma and vacuum physical know – how of many of these old guys. And although many people don’t believe in conspiracy theories (and consider them all to be nuts), how much specially intrenched vested interests like oil companies, coal mining and the like may have been involved in killing it ?