Unfortunately, it's not my choice. The knee-jerk "anti-socialist" plurality that currently seems to have a stranglehold on the reins of government is making that choice for me. And they are opting for more inequality, illness, fear, death, and most especially, guns.
My daughter is already seeing this in high school. She told me the other day that with the current unit of her Principles of Engineering course, she was pretty sure she had an 'A', but didn't understand any of it. It's a real problem.
I think fusion will be a viable power source about the same time the Year of the Linux Desktop finally shows up.
Re:Great things will happen in the next 50 years
on
NASA Turns 50
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· Score: 1
Except for the fact that your history is all wrong, I agree with you.
NASA's problems have been many...but one of the biggest has been that they try to push the envelope too much, and then they don't have the budget to see the project through (anybody remember NASP, or the endless series of redesigns of the space station? What about the never-ending quest for a shuttle successor?). Back in the early days, they had more budget, they took smaller steps, and made more progress...Look at the early X planes, for example. Or look at all the rockets they blew up...er...launched before they developed the Saturn V.
As for the Portuguese...let me refresh your memory...ever heard of a place called Brazil? What language do they speak there? What about Goa and Macao? Not exactly on the back side of Lisbon. And Angola and Mozambique? Portugal did amazingly well, considering it was at best a second rate European power...thanks to the foresight of people like Henry the Navigator.
Columbus was from Genoa...in Italy.
If you want a model for the U.S. from the era of colonial empires, I would suggest Imperial Spain. Richest and most powerful country in the world at that time, with an empire that spanned the globe until it frittered away its vast resources in a never-ending series of wars (and more than a bit of corruption). Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?
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Unfortunately, it's not my choice. The knee-jerk "anti-socialist" plurality that currently seems to have a stranglehold on the reins of government is making that choice for me. And they are opting for more inequality, illness, fear, death, and most especially, guns.
My daughter is already seeing this in high school. She told me the other day that with the current unit of her Principles of Engineering course, she was pretty sure she had an 'A', but didn't understand any of it. It's a real problem.
I think fusion will be a viable power source about the same time the Year of the Linux Desktop finally shows up.
Except for the fact that your history is all wrong, I agree with you.
NASA's problems have been many...but one of the biggest has been that they try to push the envelope too much, and then they don't have the budget to see the project through (anybody remember NASP, or the endless series of redesigns of the space station? What about the never-ending quest for a shuttle successor?). Back in the early days, they had more budget, they took smaller steps, and made more progress...Look at the early X planes, for example. Or look at all the rockets they blew up...er...launched before they developed the Saturn V.
As for the Portuguese...let me refresh your memory...ever heard of a place called Brazil? What language do they speak there? What about Goa and Macao? Not exactly on the back side of Lisbon. And Angola and Mozambique? Portugal did amazingly well, considering it was at best a second rate European power...thanks to the foresight of people like Henry the Navigator.
Columbus was from Genoa...in Italy.
If you want a model for the U.S. from the era of colonial empires, I would suggest Imperial Spain. Richest and most powerful country in the world at that time, with an empire that spanned the globe until it frittered away its vast resources in a never-ending series of wars (and more than a bit of corruption). Sounds kind of familiar, doesn't it?
Chris