Neil Armstrong, 79. Nine years older than Leonard Susskind, and he looks ten times healthier.
What's amazing about Armstrong is how underground he went after his great accomplishment of being the first person to walk on a planet other than our own. Such a selfless, wonderful man. Such a hero.
But now? Now, it's Mr. Celebrity time! :-)
Keep it up, Neil, don't relent.
From one Engineer to another far more accomplished than myself, keep fighting the bastards and never relent, never give up, and never surrender the good, good fight, lest we all witness the dying of the light.
Click here for the article that inspired my current rant.
Hi Steven,
ReplyDeleteI would certainly agree with you saying that Armstrong knowing more about space programs then Obama and yet after reading the atruvle you pointed to not quite being sure about Arnstrongs’s own vision as what should be the right course. The only thing I find to be consistent in all this is knowing that for years now NASA has been adrift without having any true direction. I find its become a football for most politicians to have kicked around, rather than finding them as having any understanding its vital importance. For me the only thjing I find certain is we won’t have to be worry about the Vulcans showing up shortly with concerns about our rapid and perhaps premature progress,-)
Best,
Phil
Hi Steven,
ReplyDeleteJust as a follow up comment, I think Gerard t'Hooft's thoughts on the subject as being the most long term practical and sustainable approach to future space exploration and exploitation. That’s to say as much as I respect the thoughts of engineers I value the thoughts of leading scientists even more at times ;-)
Best,
Phil
The thing about America and Space, Phil, is that even though we have a ton of money, we also have had the most Conservative Republican President in our history followed by the most Liberal Democratic President in our history.
ReplyDeleteWe're in a sort of civil war right now, with the 74 percent of us who are moderate losing badly to the extremists. The internet makes it easy for the extremists to find a voice. Being extremist, they're the loudest ones in the room, so people listen, unfortunately. I say unfortunately because people with less than 100 IQ's have the right to vote.
Should they?
In any event, both extremest camps hate Space exploration, because it costs money.
Democrats would rather have that money spent on the poor; the Republicans on tax cuts.
So in the end, American Space exploration loses. I'm not too worried though, just annoyed really. Someday we'll get a moderate like TR or JFK or LBJ back in power, and things will improve.
We'll be fine.
Thanks for the 't Hooft link, Phil. I love him dearly. Is he our top scientist at the moment?
Hi Phil, you wrote:
ReplyDelete...as much as I respect the thoughts of engineers I value the thoughts of leading scientists even more at times
They're all good, Phil.
What do you think of Elon Musk.
Hi Steven,
ReplyDeleteDon’t take me wrong as I would rather live in a world filled with engineers than a world as it currently represent as being filled and run by financiers, lawyers and politicians. It’s sad to think about what’s happened to a nation founded on principles inspired and inked by visionary intellectuals such as Jefferson and Franklin. If they in some way they could return to America today I’m almost certain they would call for a new revolution as being the only means to rectify the situation.
Best,
Phil
I hear you, Phil. There are actually as many Engineers as ever, just not as many in The West anymore. India is thick with them. "Outsourcers" know what I'm talking about. China's not too shabby in that regard either.
ReplyDeleteRevolutions happen when the vast majority of the population is put down. Thomas Jefferson wrote that a new revolution every 20-30 years would be healthy for a country. He may be right, but America has a habit of creating "quiet" revolutions thanks to technology.
Originally an agricultural economy, the invention of railroading in the 1830's turned us gradually into a manufacturing economy, one that was enhanced by affordable automobiles in the 1920's, and further enhanced by applied transistors in the 1950's and microcircuits in the 1970's.
Then came the global corporations, cheap computing, and "outsourcing" to the poorer nations, all have which led to a paradigm shift to a service economy, as "makers" of things, and therefore the things themselves, became imported. Layoffs ensued, and continue to do so.
Cars were imported first, from Japan. Then clothes from the far east, and by now just about everything.
Good for those countries that Americans still like to buy crap. Just not as much as we used to.
We'll all be working for the government soon, Phil. Who else will offer us jobs?
Hi Steven,
ReplyDeleteI think this outsourcing of design and engineering is a terrible development, as it creates the situation where the people who live in a society are no longer its creators, builders and visionaries. This not only has financial repercussions, yet negatively impacts on the pride and confidence of such individuals and nations have in themselves. This has had America and our own country losing their can do attitudes, to have the most important thing of all being lost, with that being their potential. You being a engineer and a science enthusiast like myself know better than others, that nothing has the ability to go beyond its potential as being one of the most fundamental laws of nature. It has been often said that a nation and its people are defined by its dreams and I’m simply contending that it is the scientist and engineers which are not simply those that have them come true, yet are the makers of dreams. So what would one call a nation imagined and shaped by the dreams of others than their own?
Best,
Phil
NAFTA, Phil, was one of the best laws ever passed for wealthy Canadians and Americans, and the absolute worst for the majority of the citizens of our two countries. The only Politician in America in my lifetime whom I think was worth a damn, Ross Perot, campaigned heavily against it, to no avail. The equation being:
ReplyDeleteRoss Perot Common Sense <<< Connecticut Country Club Lobbying Cash
America went from 20 million jobs to 15 million jobs overnight during the last administration of Dumbo, the War President. Most of of those jobs aren't coming back.
The Wealthy have an average IQ of 100, possibly less. They assume, correctly, if they go overseas for the nearly limitless pool of cheap labor, their profits will increase.
They forget and neglect their customers, however. If they impoverish and lessen the wealth of the middle class which buys their products, thereby whittling away at said middle class, their sales go down.
It takes a year or two for the accounting to catch up with reality, and by then the damage is done and you can see the light bulb (a wee one) slowly light up over the heads of the Wealthy class: What have we done?
Damage, that's what, but by then it's too late.