Your russia comment is a straw man. Of course they knew the arms wouldnt dissapear. It was a calculated risk. It was play against one large country that you will(it was only a matter of time before some hardliner got in and descided that Europe needed to be under the control of the USSR) fight one day and the world will end, or break that country up and take your chances against the many smaller nations that wont be able to stand individually against your military. I dont know if that calculated risk is paying off, only time will tell with that.
Also, your argument about the Utopia is a bit suspect as well. Even if the military wanted no wars anymore Im sure they wouldnt get it as there will always be greedy people in the world who want more than their share(including the people who control that same MIC). Conflict is a fact of human existance, and the only way to hold on to what you own is to be willing to defend it.
Though, I would have to admit that you are right that the MIC does have a vested intrest in conflicts continuing around the world as opposed to the US seeking diplomatic solution. But I must say that 8 years of Clinton diplomacy has left the world in shambles and Im sure that 8 years of Bush warmongering will leave the world even worse off. What we need is a happy medium where the world can agree on a course of action with out the influence of a profit motive, but that will never happen. Hmm, maybe I should run for president.;-)
Ill listen to an african or an argentinian's complaints about US policy. Because I agree that we have screwed them over and I would change US policy today if I had the power to do so(and yes I do vote but my vote wont change US policy today). But Ill be dead 7 years in the grave before I listen to a European preach to me about being a bad naughty imperialist. Seriously, it was europe that invented imperialism and we are just following in father's foot steps. Europeans need to stop bitching about what the US does. They have done far worse than us and we are atleast trying to change the way our government is doing things. That and Im sure the Europe is just bitching because they dont have the power to stand up to the US. If the situation was reversed Im sure that it would be back to buisness as ussual in Europe and they would be saying fuck the rest of the world because europeans are superior. The europeans are not morally superior. They just want their share of the pie and they are pissed they cant get it(France has this syndrome bad).
Sorry for the rant I just had to get that off my chest.
The latest 2.2 version of the Linux kernel is: 2.4.23 Umm don't you mean that the latest 2.4 version of the Linux kernel is: 2.4.23?
Yes, thats part of the joke. When 2.6 was originally released that was displayed on kernel.org because(I assume) the scripts that automatically generate that page didnt yet know about 2.6 and it claimed the latest 2.2 kernel was 2.4.23.
This is still a problem. I remember a while back gaim had a big problem in that some one made a encryption plugin that used openssl. The gaim developers couldnt distribute the resulting binary because it was a derived work of openssl and openssl's license along with gaim's license(gpl) were incompatible and that violated both licenses to distribute the resulting binary.
Thankfully the problem for gaim was cleared up when the plugin was ported to gnutls, but I would think that the xlib and gtk/qt problem would be very similar. It would violate both licenses to distribute the resulting binary.
Of course,
#include "IANAL"
Oh, and as for a special exception. They would have to hunt down every developer that ever worked on those projects and any other library that needed to link to xlib and get their permision to make the license change. On projects as big as gtk and qt, that is a big problem.
Redhat and the other distributors are not going to stay with 4.3 for the next 5 years. If the license situation is not resolved you will see a fork or see the distributions going with previous forks or the fdo xserver.
I personally see the distributions going with the fdo xserver because a few have already stated that they are switching to the fdo xlibs. I personally predict there will be a fork of xfree4.3 that will basically do mantinence and update drivers and keep it stable till the fdo xserver is ready for prime time. There is a lot of work going into making the fdo X11 distribution much cleaner than that of xfree86. I personally think this switch would have happened in the next year or two anyway, this license change just speeds things up and will only result in xfree86 losing developers much faster.
It is only linking between software with these licenses that is the problem. With most of the licenses above there are ways of getting around it. The problem with the new xfree86 license is that you have gpled software such as gtk and qt that are going to be directly linking with xlib. These plus the various window managers and other applications that link with xlib and are gpled are probably 99% of the use of xlib. I havnt verified this, but Im willing to bet that only 1% of the software that currently links with xlib in debian could keep doing that with this new license. That is why all these distributions will not be shipping xfree86 4.4. They couldnt use it and it would be a waste of packaging.
With the recent addition of xgrid to the apple computing family and the new xserver G5's, Im sure Mr. Jobs and his pixar cohorts are looking into this. Look to this news comming out sometime mid summer just after their latest block buster.
I dont remember saying anything at all about marketshare or about how many people use xfree86. Of course if debian and other distributions switch away from xfree86 it will lose users, but my post was about developers. In a open source project, good developers are like gold. They are what really drive the project and I think the point of my post is that even though these distributions are missing out on this piece of software because of licensing concerns, it is xfree86 who is really losing out big time due to the lose the x strike force who do a lot of porting and other code clean ups for debian.
A lot of that crossplatform ability flows from debian's porting activities, along with many other outside developers who port xfree86 to their platform. Now maybe not all of these groups will be leaving due to licencing concerns, but if debian descides it cant redistribute xfree86 under those terms you can bet the x strike force will looking for a new X11 server.
Im sorry, but your troll doesnt have anything what so ever to do with my comment, take it elsewhere.
It wont be for long. I assume from the discussions on debian-legal and the fact that debian is still chewing on xfree86 4.3, xfree86 4.4 wont ever be packaged for debian.
In my opinion this is a bigger problem for xfree86 than it is for debian. The reason being quite simple. By the time debian is ready for a new version of X11 the fdo xserver will be ready.
Where xfree86 is losing big is that debian is the one that does all the porting to non-i386 and to a degree non-ppc archs. Xfree86 is losing this service because debian will most likely not be packaging version 4.4 and that will result in xfree86 going down hill because debian along with many other developers that are outside xfree86 proper do a lot for xfree86.
Basically what Im saying is that the fdo xserver just got a huge boost in that there will be a lot of former xfree86 developers looking for a new project and as someone who activly uses the fdo xserver, it seems to be the best.
Please correct me if Im wrong, but doesnt IE have plugin support so it can use an external plugin to load certain data types? Why hasnt someone made a png plugin to IE that fixes this. I mean CSS I can understand because it effects the entire page and Im sure IE wont let you have that much control, but png? that should be easy.
But then again, that would make sense and this world has a way of doing the oposite of what makes sense.
First, as long as MS has the patent on the Office 2004 format, they dont need the DMCA. The patent itself precludes others from making use ot the file format.
Second, and most important, MS has been deemed a monopoly. That means that certain actions that most companies can take, it cannot. So, basically if MS descides to sue an OO.o developer, or company selling the product, all that individual has to do is counter-sue for monopoly violations and say they were only providing compatibility as a way to conduct buisness and offer compitition to MS. MS probably sees that and most likely wont touch OO.o until Office's market share drops below 50%. This is when MS will be come dangerous because then it will not be a monopoly anymore and I garauntee MS will be looking for anyway to regain its market share.
From what I hear, debian is going to begin merging a lot of knoppix into debian-installer once they get it to the point that it works and will install the distribution on most machines.
And for those wondering why debian just doesnt switch to using knoppix as the installer instead of d-i? The main problem with debian is that they thankfully have chosen to support 11 different archs. That means that they need an installer that will install on all those archs and that is a pretty hard task. Also they support installs over a serial port, tftp, cdroms, and bacically anything that the computer will boot off of and load a kernel. That is definately a good thing when your trying to get debian installed on a machine several hundred miles away from you.
copy your/boot/config-2.x.y to the source directory as./.config and then make oldconfig. It will go through all the old options setting them and present you with only the new options. Its a text only interface, but its pretty simple to choose between y/n/m/? and each option is pretty self explanitory. I think you can also step back a version using the same method, but Im not sure about that.
Ok, In that case if someone goes and buys a brand new copy of MS Win 2003, some good hardware, and a bottle of vodka Ill do the install while smashed out of my mind. I wont know what Im agreeing to. Then someone can tell me how to tweak the hell out of the box and Ill do the benchmarks.
Then, if MS comes knocking with a lawsuit, my response will simply be, "What EULA? I was legally impaired while installing your product and its your fault for not ensuring that I was of sound mind before making the agreement with me." MS has no legal recourse as it is as good as the EULA was never agreed to from a legal stand point.
Since you obviously didnt see what I was replying to. Ill point it out to you. The parent said that we dont see all those that "your country" kills on CNN every day. I wasnt talking about the 500 troops. Now see my point?
Because NASA astronauts are any less volunteers who know and accept the risks involved with space flight. Even back when the Apollo 1 accident happened they were mainly airforce personel who, "made the choice of living dangerously as a career." NASA still got its butt reemed for that accident and only JFK's proclamation kept NASA's shot at the moon alive.
The point is that back when the USAF was doing all of its experimental stuff, and even today, they did it secretly or with highly restricted observance, so when there is an accident it isnt all over the prime time news as was the Columbia and the Challenger. Its the very open nature of NASA that causes the press and public opinion to turn on them in such a manner. Also its the very way NASA bills the manned space flight as such a standard thing before the Columbia accident and the way that accident was shown live for the nation.
Who is in the Space Shuttle when there is an accident really doesnt matter. It is how NASA handles itself and projects the image of infalibility to the press and the nation as a whole. That was one of the big things the CAIB came back with. NASA needs to work within its means.
Your country? I see so your putting the blame for all the civilian deaths on the U.S. Thats intresting cause last time I checked it wasnt the U.S. who was setting off car bombs and random drive by shootings. These things may be happening because the U.S. is there, but if the terrorist organizations and Sadaam's remnant cared anything at all about the civilians they would find a way to attack the U.S. forces in the area without having civilians die in the cross fire. Also many more people died under Sadaam than are dieing currently.
Note: I am not supporting the war in any way, Im just really getting tired of people who bend and warp the facts to fit their own personal crap view of the world.
I believe the article contains a slight inaccuracy in that the RCC panels were actually made to take the heat and force of a turbulent flow.
Remember, back in the 1970's when the shuttles were designed, Computational Fluid Dynamics didn't really exist and they didn't have the techniques or the brute force computational power to solve the Navier-Stokes equations to see if it was going to be a turbulent flow or a laminar flow. So as a result the RCC panels are actually about two times as thick as they need to be.
So, basically the other panels were handling the temperature and aerodynamic loads just fine, it was the stream of super heated gas that got inside the wing that did all the damage. In fact if you read the CAIB report it says that the shuttle could have survived if the RCC panels had not been breached and instead had only been damaged. It was the breach that caused all the problems, not the rough surface nor the turbulent flow.
I know this because when the Columbia accident occurred my incompressible aerodynamics professor pulled out copies of some of the actual analysis of the shuttle from back in the '70's. They were pretty cool to look at and were using some of the same techniques we were learning.
Anyway, thats just my slight nit pick. On the whole it was a very moving article.
It really amazes me that VT can afford to waste so much money on a super-computer. Really, could they have not waited the 4 months to get their brand new shiney G5 based super-computer and not wasted so much money on all those G5 towers?
I mean sure they can use them in computer labs and such but it still seems like a waste in the current education environment of tight budgets and program cutting.
All Im saying is that this money probably could have been put to better use else where than getting VT their brand new toy "right now" instead of waiting 4 whole months to get the hardware they really needed for the project.
I think the space tug would remain permanently attached and could take care of those duties that the gyroscopes and the HST's own engines were doing. Also part of the over all proposal is the idea that one could boost the HST into a close orbit with the ISS where it could be serviced, then once it has been serviced, boost it into a much higher orbit still in a similar plane with the ISS so it could be brought down for periodic service and upgrades. Thus extending the life of the HST and giving the ISS a purpose other than a self serving stop for the space shuttle.
This seems to be a win for everyone and I dont see the cost in it if we are planning on attaching a booster to bring it down anyway. Instead boost it into orbit with the ISS and do the repairs. It seems to be a good idea to me.
I dont think the idea is to attach it to the ISS. The general idea is to bring it into a close orbit with the ISS so it can be serviced then boost it into a higher orbit and just bring it back down whenever it needs more servicing.
On a similar note, the ISS needs space tugs like this one and needs to prove its usefulness as a repair shop in space. If you could use the ISS in this fasion to repair the HST then you could easily retro fit the ISS to build the type of vehicles needed to send a manned mission to the moon and mars a lot easier than if you were to simply launch the vehicles whole or try to assemble them in open space with the space shuttle(or its replacement) as your only aid.
An ISS with space tugs and large Saturn V style rockets could prove to be an excelent assembly area for any manned missions to the moon or mars. Without such a facility you need to send up the man power to assemble the vehicles along with a work platform each time you want to assemble a manned mission to mars. But with the ISS you have a permanent facility to do all the science and assembly work that the space program really needs. I think this kind of space tug is one of the very items that is nessicary to carry out space travel that is both cheap and useful for science and the common man. The other three items being the ISS, a heavy lift vehicle(such as the Saturn V in a modernized version), and cheap, reusable shuttles ala the X-Prize. If NASA had these four items then manned missions to mars and the moon would become so much cheaper and easier, and the added science that could be done would be emense.
Im going to take exception to the generalization that you just made about religious types lacking intellectual curiosity.
That is just stupid and stereotyping people. Some of the most intelectually curious people I know are extremely religious. In fact my own religious beliefs fuel my intellectual curiousity.
Please, in the future please try to seperate persons with a belief in a higher power from people who are so short sighted they cant see past their own noses(reference: you and Bush).
Acctually Im going to take you out of that particular group and just lump you in with all the idiots of the world. Im really tired of people seeing religion as an automatic -1 stupid mod. Learn to stop sterotyping people based on their religious beliefs, nation of origin, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Descrimination is the same in whatever form it comes.
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Your russia comment is a straw man. Of course they knew the arms wouldnt dissapear. It was a calculated risk. It was play against one large country that you will(it was only a matter of time before some hardliner got in and descided that Europe needed to be under the control of the USSR) fight one day and the world will end, or break that country up and take your chances against the many smaller nations that wont be able to stand individually against your military. I dont know if that calculated risk is paying off, only time will tell with that.
;-)
Also, your argument about the Utopia is a bit suspect as well. Even if the military wanted no wars anymore Im sure they wouldnt get it as there will always be greedy people in the world who want more than their share(including the people who control that same MIC). Conflict is a fact of human existance, and the only way to hold on to what you own is to be willing to defend it.
Though, I would have to admit that you are right that the MIC does have a vested intrest in conflicts continuing around the world as opposed to the US seeking diplomatic solution. But I must say that 8 years of Clinton diplomacy has left the world in shambles and Im sure that 8 years of Bush warmongering will leave the world even worse off. What we need is a happy medium where the world can agree on a course of action with out the influence of a profit motive, but that will never happen. Hmm, maybe I should run for president.
Ill listen to an african or an argentinian's complaints about US policy. Because I agree that we have screwed them over and I would change US policy today if I had the power to do so(and yes I do vote but my vote wont change US policy today).
But Ill be dead 7 years in the grave before I listen to a European preach to me about being a bad naughty imperialist. Seriously, it was europe that invented imperialism and we are just following in father's foot steps. Europeans need to stop bitching about what the US does. They have done far worse than us and we are atleast trying to change the way our government is doing things.
That and Im sure the Europe is just bitching because they dont have the power to stand up to the US. If the situation was reversed Im sure that it would be back to buisness as ussual in Europe and they would be saying fuck the rest of the world because europeans are superior.
The europeans are not morally superior. They just want their share of the pie and they are pissed they cant get it(France has this syndrome bad).
Sorry for the rant I just had to get that off my chest.
The latest 2.2 version of the Linux kernel is: 2.4.23
Umm don't you mean that the latest 2.4 version of the Linux kernel is: 2.4.23?
Yes, thats part of the joke. When 2.6 was originally released that was displayed on kernel.org because(I assume) the scripts that automatically generate that page didnt yet know about 2.6 and it claimed the latest 2.2 kernel was 2.4.23.
Get it now?
This is still a problem. I remember a while back gaim had a big problem in that some one made a encryption plugin that used openssl. The gaim developers couldnt distribute the resulting binary because it was a derived work of openssl and openssl's license along with gaim's license(gpl) were incompatible and that violated both licenses to distribute the resulting binary.
Thankfully the problem for gaim was cleared up when the plugin was ported to gnutls, but I would think that the xlib and gtk/qt problem would be very similar. It would violate both licenses to distribute the resulting binary.
Of course,
#include "IANAL"
Oh, and as for a special exception. They would have to hunt down every developer that ever worked on those projects and any other library that needed to link to xlib and get their permision to make the license change. On projects as big as gtk and qt, that is a big problem.
Redhat and the other distributors are not going to stay with 4.3 for the next 5 years. If the license situation is not resolved you will see a fork or see the distributions going with previous forks or the fdo xserver.
I personally see the distributions going with the fdo xserver because a few have already stated that they are switching to the fdo xlibs. I personally predict there will be a fork of xfree4.3 that will basically do mantinence and update drivers and keep it stable till the fdo xserver is ready for prime time. There is a lot of work going into making the fdo X11 distribution much cleaner than that of xfree86. I personally think this switch would have happened in the next year or two anyway, this license change just speeds things up and will only result in xfree86 losing developers much faster.
It is only linking between software with these licenses that is the problem. With most of the licenses above there are ways of getting around it. The problem with the new xfree86 license is that you have gpled software such as gtk and qt that are going to be directly linking with xlib. These plus the various window managers and other applications that link with xlib and are gpled are probably 99% of the use of xlib. I havnt verified this, but Im willing to bet that only 1% of the software that currently links with xlib in debian could keep doing that with this new license. That is why all these distributions will not be shipping xfree86 4.4. They couldnt use it and it would be a waste of packaging.
With the recent addition of xgrid to the apple computing family and the new xserver G5's, Im sure Mr. Jobs and his pixar cohorts are looking into this. Look to this news comming out sometime mid summer just after their latest block buster.
I dont remember saying anything at all about marketshare or about how many people use xfree86. Of course if debian and other distributions switch away from xfree86 it will lose users, but my post was about developers. In a open source project, good developers are like gold. They are what really drive the project and I think the point of my post is that even though these distributions are missing out on this piece of software because of licensing concerns, it is xfree86 who is really losing out big time due to the lose the x strike force who do a lot of porting and other code clean ups for debian.
A lot of that crossplatform ability flows from debian's porting activities, along with many other outside developers who port xfree86 to their platform. Now maybe not all of these groups will be leaving due to licencing concerns, but if debian descides it cant redistribute xfree86 under those terms you can bet the x strike force will looking for a new X11 server.
Im sorry, but your troll doesnt have anything what so ever to do with my comment, take it elsewhere.
It wont be for long. I assume from the discussions on debian-legal and the fact that debian is still chewing on xfree86 4.3, xfree86 4.4 wont ever be packaged for debian.
In my opinion this is a bigger problem for xfree86 than it is for debian. The reason being quite simple. By the time debian is ready for a new version of X11 the fdo xserver will be ready.
Where xfree86 is losing big is that debian is the one that does all the porting to non-i386 and to a degree non-ppc archs. Xfree86 is losing this service because debian will most likely not be packaging version 4.4 and that will result in xfree86 going down hill because debian along with many other developers that are outside xfree86 proper do a lot for xfree86.
Basically what Im saying is that the fdo xserver just got a huge boost in that there will be a lot of former xfree86 developers looking for a new project and as someone who activly uses the fdo xserver, it seems to be the best.
Please correct me if Im wrong, but doesnt IE have plugin support so it can use an external plugin to load certain data types? Why hasnt someone made a png plugin to IE that fixes this. I mean CSS I can understand because it effects the entire page and Im sure IE wont let you have that much control, but png? that should be easy.
But then again, that would make sense and this world has a way of doing the oposite of what makes sense.
Two things:
First, as long as MS has the patent on the Office 2004 format, they dont need the DMCA. The patent itself precludes others from making use ot the file format.
Second, and most important, MS has been deemed a monopoly. That means that certain actions that most companies can take, it cannot. So, basically if MS descides to sue an OO.o developer, or company selling the product, all that individual has to do is counter-sue for monopoly violations and say they were only providing compatibility as a way to conduct buisness and offer compitition to MS. MS probably sees that and most likely wont touch OO.o until Office's market share drops below 50%. This is when MS will be come dangerous because then it will not be a monopoly anymore and I garauntee MS will be looking for anyway to regain its market share.
From what I hear, debian is going to begin merging a lot of knoppix into debian-installer once they get it to the point that it works and will install the distribution on most machines.
And for those wondering why debian just doesnt switch to using knoppix as the installer instead of d-i? The main problem with debian is that they thankfully have chosen to support 11 different archs. That means that they need an installer that will install on all those archs and that is a pretty hard task. Also they support installs over a serial port, tftp, cdroms, and bacically anything that the computer will boot off of and load a kernel. That is definately a good thing when your trying to get debian installed on a machine several hundred miles away from you.
copy your /boot/config-2.x.y to the source directory as ./.config and then make oldconfig. It will go through all the old options setting them and present you with only the new options. Its a text only interface, but its pretty simple to choose between y/n/m/? and each option is pretty self explanitory. I think you can also step back a version using the same method, but Im not sure about that.
Ok, In that case if someone goes and buys a brand new copy of MS Win 2003, some good hardware, and a bottle of vodka Ill do the install while smashed out of my mind. I wont know what Im agreeing to. Then someone can tell me how to tweak the hell out of the box and Ill do the benchmarks.
Then, if MS comes knocking with a lawsuit, my response will simply be, "What EULA? I was legally impaired while installing your product and its your fault for not ensuring that I was of sound mind before making the agreement with me." MS has no legal recourse as it is as good as the EULA was never agreed to from a legal stand point.
As always,
#include "IANAL.h"
Since you obviously didnt see what I was replying to. Ill point it out to you. The parent said that we dont see all those that "your country" kills on CNN every day. I wasnt talking about the 500 troops. Now see my point?
Because NASA astronauts are any less volunteers who know and accept the risks involved with space flight. Even back when the Apollo 1 accident happened they were mainly airforce personel who, "made the choice of living dangerously as a career." NASA still got its butt reemed for that accident and only JFK's proclamation kept NASA's shot at the moon alive.
The point is that back when the USAF was doing all of its experimental stuff, and even today, they did it secretly or with highly restricted observance, so when there is an accident it isnt all over the prime time news as was the Columbia and the Challenger. Its the very open nature of NASA that causes the press and public opinion to turn on them in such a manner. Also its the very way NASA bills the manned space flight as such a standard thing before the Columbia accident and the way that accident was shown live for the nation.
Who is in the Space Shuttle when there is an accident really doesnt matter. It is how NASA handles itself and projects the image of infalibility to the press and the nation as a whole. That was one of the big things the CAIB came back with. NASA needs to work within its means.
Your country? I see so your putting the blame for all the civilian deaths on the U.S. Thats intresting cause last time I checked it wasnt the U.S. who was setting off car bombs and random drive by shootings. These things may be happening because the U.S. is there, but if the terrorist organizations and Sadaam's remnant cared anything at all about the civilians they would find a way to attack the U.S. forces in the area without having civilians die in the cross fire. Also many more people died under Sadaam than are dieing currently.
Note: I am not supporting the war in any way, Im just really getting tired of people who bend and warp the facts to fit their own personal crap view of the world.
I believe the article contains a slight inaccuracy in that the RCC panels were actually made to take the heat and force of a turbulent flow.
Remember, back in the 1970's when the shuttles were designed, Computational Fluid Dynamics didn't really exist and they didn't have the techniques or the brute force computational power to solve the Navier-Stokes equations to see if it was going to be a turbulent flow or a laminar flow. So as a result the RCC panels are actually about two times as thick as they need to be.
So, basically the other panels were handling the temperature and aerodynamic loads just fine, it was the stream of super heated gas that got inside the wing that did all the damage. In fact if you read the CAIB report it says that the shuttle could have survived if the RCC panels had not been breached and instead had only been damaged. It was the breach that caused all the problems, not the rough surface nor the turbulent flow.
I know this because when the Columbia accident occurred my incompressible aerodynamics professor pulled out copies of some of the actual analysis of the shuttle from back in the '70's. They were pretty cool to look at and were using some of the same techniques we were learning.
Anyway, thats just my slight nit pick. On the whole it was a very moving article.
It really amazes me that VT can afford to waste so much money on a super-computer. Really, could they have not waited the 4 months to get their brand new shiney G5 based super-computer and not wasted so much money on all those G5 towers?
I mean sure they can use them in computer labs and such but it still seems like a waste in the current education environment of tight budgets and program cutting.
All Im saying is that this money probably could have been put to better use else where than getting VT their brand new toy "right now" instead of waiting 4 whole months to get the hardware they really needed for the project.
Maybe you could run it in WINE?
Not so much any more. They have been on the decline lately.
Though their chicken sandwhiches are still the best around.
For hamburgers I go to Hardee's now. They seem have better quality food.
I think the space tug would remain permanently attached and could take care of those duties that the gyroscopes and the HST's own engines were doing. Also part of the over all proposal is the idea that one could boost the HST into a close orbit with the ISS where it could be serviced, then once it has been serviced, boost it into a much higher orbit still in a similar plane with the ISS so it could be brought down for periodic service and upgrades. Thus extending the life of the HST and giving the ISS a purpose other than a self serving stop for the space shuttle.
This seems to be a win for everyone and I dont see the cost in it if we are planning on attaching a booster to bring it down anyway. Instead boost it into orbit with the ISS and do the repairs. It seems to be a good idea to me.
I dont think the idea is to attach it to the ISS. The general idea is to bring it into a close orbit with the ISS so it can be serviced then boost it into a higher orbit and just bring it back down whenever it needs more servicing.
On a similar note, the ISS needs space tugs like this one and needs to prove its usefulness as a repair shop in space. If you could use the ISS in this fasion to repair the HST then you could easily retro fit the ISS to build the type of vehicles needed to send a manned mission to the moon and mars a lot easier than if you were to simply launch the vehicles whole or try to assemble them in open space with the space shuttle(or its replacement) as your only aid.
An ISS with space tugs and large Saturn V style rockets could prove to be an excelent assembly area for any manned missions to the moon or mars. Without such a facility you need to send up the man power to assemble the vehicles along with a work platform each time you want to assemble a manned mission to mars. But with the ISS you have a permanent facility to do all the science and assembly work that the space program really needs. I think this kind of space tug is one of the very items that is nessicary to carry out space travel that is both cheap and useful for science and the common man. The other three items being the ISS, a heavy lift vehicle(such as the Saturn V in a modernized version), and cheap, reusable shuttles ala the X-Prize. If NASA had these four items then manned missions to mars and the moon would become so much cheaper and easier, and the added science that could be done would be emense.
Im going to take exception to the generalization that you just made about religious types lacking intellectual curiosity.
That is just stupid and stereotyping people. Some of the most intelectually curious people I know are extremely religious. In fact my own religious beliefs fuel my intellectual curiousity.
Please, in the future please try to seperate persons with a belief in a higher power from people who are so short sighted they cant see past their own noses(reference: you and Bush).
Acctually Im going to take you out of that particular group and just lump you in with all the idiots of the world. Im really tired of people seeing religion as an automatic -1 stupid mod. Learn to stop sterotyping people based on their religious beliefs, nation of origin, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. Descrimination is the same in whatever form it comes.
And that would narrow the list down how?