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Why Mars May Be Difficult
An anonymous reader writes with a link to this "dramatic article leading up to the three Mars probes for December/January at NASA's JPL (also hosted at Ames) on Mars risks: Two out of three missions to the red planet have failed. After 300 million miles of deep space, 'One colleague describes the entry, descent and landing as six minutes of terror,' says Dr. Firouz Naderi, manager of the Mars Program Office.
Descending at 1,000 miles per hour, with only 100 seconds left at the altitude that a commercial airliner typically flies -- things need to happen in a hurry. Doesn't mention solar flares, electronics shielding, signal snags or budget tightening. The previous account listed the top 10 reasons Mars was hard in 1976."
And let's not forget dumb-ass contractors doing science in English units when everyone else is metric.
"You might as well get your son a ticket to hell as give him a five string banjo." -unknown minister
And a big enough man to post Anonymously. Remember, I can always change my ID. You will always be a Coward.
Not quite sure what the temple reference is about though, old chap.
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I work with several Jews, and when I was a little boy growing up my bestest friend was a Jew. My post said nothing anti-Jewish or anti-Israeli, because I'm not. I'm still more than a little confused.
Totalitarianism can be a good thing in the right circumstances. The totalinarianism of Julius Caesar and Augustus Caeser during the later period of the Roman Republic had a massively positive effect on the history of Europe, and by turns America (except if you're a native American I guess.) Democracy, however you define it, can be a bad thing in some circumstances.
As to whether nationalism is on the rise in Europe - most of the countries in the Europe have centre or centre-left governments. Many countries in the EU are looking to share defence, economic (the Euro) and social policies. Hardly rampant nationalism.
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We have "I'm not racist, but..." followed by blatantly racist argument
I think that you mean "dictator". Augustus Ceaser was from what I know fairly enlightenedWell, he took control of pretty much most aspects of Roman society - military, economic, judicial and moral. But it was a totalitarian dictator that Rome needed at the time given the previous decades of murderous civil war. Totalitarianism isn't necessarily bad, democracy isn't necessarily good. Would the world have been better if a moderate totalitarianism dictator came to power in 1930's Germany than the election of Hitler?
I just assumed that because you are European, you are against Israel's right to exist, most of you seem to be.
Israel has a legal right to exist, but I sincerely believe that the functioning of a state should be entirely separated from that of any religion. Someone once wrote 'The lights that now shine brightest behind stained glass, will cast the darkest shadows upon the human heart.' Incidentally there is a persuasive Jewish anti-Zionist argument which runs along the lines of Israel should be created miraculously by God, not by man.
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maybe I just assumed that because you are European, you are against Israel's right to exist, most of you seem to be
Israel, of course, has a right to exist and Jews, like everybody else, have a right to live in peace and exercise their religion.
But Europeans question whether Israel or any other state has a right to discriminate against members of other religions, and Israel is doing just that. The main reason Israel isn't just giving citizenship to Palestinians within its borders is, after all, religious. Trouble is, if Israel did that, it would cease to be a Jewish state.
This is Israel's problems, it's Israel's violation of human rights and international law, and it is for Israel to come up with a solution. Europe is giving Israel a lot of political leeway (not to mention financial support and favorable treaties), but for Israel to demand to be beyond criticism is going too far.