I'm sure everyone reading this thread has known at least one incredibly intellegent person who fit in perfectly. The link between intellegence and "fitting in" is not nearly as direct as most of these posts indicate. Other tendencies may lead to this conclusion. Maybe antisocial people find more time to read or think about things that their parents would reward them for; maybe the chicken came before the egg. Certainly, this article is an oversimplification.
Unfortunately science isn't something we can leave up to the people. Too often, the public can't see the immediate advantages of research. The benefits of Space Travel are particularly important to all of society, though.
Limited resources will always be the primary cause of poverty. Eventually, space travel will decrease the resource deficiency as other sciences have by allowing humans to bring resources in from outside of our planet. Asteroid mining is a possibility.
One day, we're going to blow this Earth of ours up. Destructive capabilities are only increasing. Not only is Mars (among other non-Earth locations) a distinct colonial possibility, terraforming Mars might be the destiny of our race.
Continual human space exploration may not currently be as productive as robotic missions, but these missions provide inspiration and an immediate goal (exploration, human destiny, blawblaw Columbus blawblaw) to the public. A Mars mission would be a wonderful way to focus the people on something more important than Iraq.
The next step might, though, be the design and construction of a new spaceship. Soon enough, there will be no one left in NASA with shuttle designing experience. The time to act is now. This does not mean we should discontinue Shuttle trips, though. NASA will look into the Columbia disaster and discover a number of possible reasons for the disaster. These errors will be eliminated and future missions will be that much safer.
The importance of space exploration and increased NASA funding is not something that should be left to a check box on your tax form. Its something that requires immediate and massive attention as it is important to all of society, all of Earth. Bush seems to be in favor of increased funding. I'm just afraid he's going to go all JFK on us and give me something positive to remember him for. In any case, I hope those in Congress that hate the man as much I do don't make this a partisan issue. Hopefully Democrats can begin championing research issues more than they have in the past.
-Sorry 'bout the rant, Ben
I agree, but your Jumping the gun on a few points. First, we're going to destroy the planet before nature does. Second, Mars should be our primary focus. Not only will Mars colonies soon be within our scientific grasp, but terraforming Mars is a distinct possibility. The Red Mars, Green, Blue, and Magenta Mars books provide a nice old school science fiction look into such a possibility.
I think your missing the original point of the post. Its a question of does this mean Microsoft is selling more Xboxs or can they not push the inventory. These numbers clearly don't provide enough info to answer this.
We won't see more than 9 official planets. That number will drop before it increases.
Early 20th century data showed inexplicable deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. Some scientist tried to find a planet that could explain these deviations. In 1930, Tombaugh was able to find it using some crude star imaging. At first it was estimated to be about a tenth the size of Earth. This size and the need to explain data irregularities make originally labeling Pluto a planet reasonable. Today we know Pluto's mass to be about.22% of the earths...not nearly enough to account for deviations now known to be flaws in data, not actual deviations in orbit. Having a great deal in common with other trans-Neptunian Kuiper Belt objects, few astronomers consider Pluto to be a planet at all. Its official status is completely dependant upon tradition. The International Astronomer Union won't defend its title forever, though. Tradition is not likely to hold up a decade or two from now. True astronomers will never consider this new object in the same league as the closer 8. Comparisons to Kuiper Belt objects are too convenient. Some who just want money for the field (or themselves) might throw the word planet around, but that's only to gather attention.
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I'm sure everyone reading this thread has known at least one incredibly intellegent person who fit in perfectly. The link between intellegence and "fitting in" is not nearly as direct as most of these posts indicate. Other tendencies may lead to this conclusion. Maybe antisocial people find more time to read or think about things that their parents would reward them for; maybe the chicken came before the egg. Certainly, this article is an oversimplification.
Unfortunately science isn't something we can leave up to the people. Too often, the public can't see the immediate advantages of research. The benefits of Space Travel are particularly important to all of society, though. Limited resources will always be the primary cause of poverty. Eventually, space travel will decrease the resource deficiency as other sciences have by allowing humans to bring resources in from outside of our planet. Asteroid mining is a possibility. One day, we're going to blow this Earth of ours up. Destructive capabilities are only increasing. Not only is Mars (among other non-Earth locations) a distinct colonial possibility, terraforming Mars might be the destiny of our race. Continual human space exploration may not currently be as productive as robotic missions, but these missions provide inspiration and an immediate goal (exploration, human destiny, blawblaw Columbus blawblaw) to the public. A Mars mission would be a wonderful way to focus the people on something more important than Iraq. The next step might, though, be the design and construction of a new spaceship. Soon enough, there will be no one left in NASA with shuttle designing experience. The time to act is now. This does not mean we should discontinue Shuttle trips, though. NASA will look into the Columbia disaster and discover a number of possible reasons for the disaster. These errors will be eliminated and future missions will be that much safer. The importance of space exploration and increased NASA funding is not something that should be left to a check box on your tax form. Its something that requires immediate and massive attention as it is important to all of society, all of Earth. Bush seems to be in favor of increased funding. I'm just afraid he's going to go all JFK on us and give me something positive to remember him for. In any case, I hope those in Congress that hate the man as much I do don't make this a partisan issue. Hopefully Democrats can begin championing research issues more than they have in the past. -Sorry 'bout the rant, Ben
I agree, but your Jumping the gun on a few points. First, we're going to destroy the planet before nature does. Second, Mars should be our primary focus. Not only will Mars colonies soon be within our scientific grasp, but terraforming Mars is a distinct possibility. The Red Mars, Green, Blue, and Magenta Mars books provide a nice old school science fiction look into such a possibility.
I think your missing the original point of the post. Its a question of does this mean Microsoft is selling more Xboxs or can they not push the inventory. These numbers clearly don't provide enough info to answer this.
We won't see more than 9 official planets. That number will drop before it increases. Early 20th century data showed inexplicable deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. Some scientist tried to find a planet that could explain these deviations. In 1930, Tombaugh was able to find it using some crude star imaging. At first it was estimated to be about a tenth the size of Earth. This size and the need to explain data irregularities make originally labeling Pluto a planet reasonable. Today we know Pluto's mass to be about .22% of the earths...not nearly enough to account for deviations now known to be flaws in data, not actual deviations in orbit. Having a great deal in common with other trans-Neptunian Kuiper Belt objects, few astronomers consider Pluto to be a planet at all. Its official status is completely dependant upon tradition. The International Astronomer Union won't defend its title forever, though. Tradition is not likely to hold up a decade or two from now. True astronomers will never consider this new object in the same league as the closer 8. Comparisons to Kuiper Belt objects are too convenient. Some who just want money for the field (or themselves) might throw the word planet around, but that's only to gather attention.