It saddens me that just over a decade ago, I went snorkeling and saw beautiful corals in a wide variety of colors with plenty exotic fish and other marine creatures… now all that’s left is bleached coral and 95% of the wildlife has gone with it.
It saddens me that when I was young, I grew up with a variety of birds and squirrels, porcupines, foxes, bats and howling owls at night… that’s all gone because all the trees have been replaced with houses.
It saddens me to see how long the list is of animals that have gone extinct in the last couple decades and it’s frightening to see how many are expected to go extinct in the next couple years.
It saddens me that with all the evidence of what is going on, there are still a lot of people in powerful positions that deny everything because they live here and now and they only care about filling their pockets. It saddens me that people still keep voting for such people too.
But I’m oh so grateful that I don’t have any kids so I never have to explain them why their parents, their protectors let that all happen…
this saddens me as a parent , not in a disrespectful way to you , but that one day my children wont be blessed with the natural beautiful things i grew up with , but i wouldnt trade my children for anything
Tell me about it @fidalgo_vapes. I worked at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center for many years during the “good times”, and it was something to see. Still have all my mission patches and coffee mugs for every mission. Great times.
It saddens me that so much money is spent/wasted on sending things into space. Rather than searching out new planets to mess up, spend the cash on fixing the problems on this one.
The Space Shuttle program ran it’s useful lifespan. It was outdated and expensive and like Apollo, was ready to be upgraded to a more sophisticated and reliable system. The SLS system is replacing the Shuttle program. It is more sophisticated, and more capable than the Shuttle was. It will be used for many things, including a manned trip to Mars soon. Yeah, it’s really happening. And it’s really cool, too.
*Forget the rest of the post. I’d rather just be happy that the SLS system is a go and leave it at that.
The U.S. currently spends 0.5% of it’s annual budget on space exploration. Yes, that’s half a penny of every tax dollar. I, for one, think that we should be spending a little more on NASA and looking to other areas of our national budget (War on Drugs, anyone?) to reallocate for fixing some of the issues we currently face.
In a time that is seeing a big rise in a focused ignorance in science(Flat earthers, anti-vaxxers, climate change denial) having NASA and Space-X continuing to explore our galactic neighborhood is a good use of those funds. These programs not only contribute to our base of knowledge about our universe, they also help to inspire kids to think big. If one of NASA’s current or future programs bring even 100 kids a dream of being the next Neil Armstrong or developing the next engine to bring interplanetary travel a reality, then I’m all for it.
That’s a lot of money to spend on the dreams of a hundred kids. Maybe spend the cash on feeding, clothing and protecting thousands.
Not being from the USA I should probably mind my own business though and concentrate on how I think my taxes are being misused.
It saddens me that Toys R Us is closing down. On the rare occasion I got to go as a child, it was like walking into a beautiful dream. I love taking my kids there and seeing there faces when they looked at all the isles of toys.
@tartarusspawn I have hundreds of these, but your post made me dig out a few of them. A reminder to what that period meant. Most people don’t fully understand the full impact of what was done, and how we were bettered for it.
I’ve seen the shuttle launch once from across the river in port St. John unfortunately I had to work that day or I would have had a lot better view friend of my father had passes
and heard it come home.
There is no other sound like the space shuttle coming in for a landing. Was working at Burger King in port St. John when shuttle came in . Was unloading the truck… scared the hell out of me and the delivery drivers. Looked over at the grocery store . It may have been an optical illusion but to this day I swear that glass was liquid and looked like the surface of the ocean waves and all. Sad my daughter will never see or hear anything like that…
Sorry but that’s a rather short-sighted comment. No amount of money will ever achieve that. Did you ever consider the search for new habitable planets is because this one might be beyond repair?
I lived a few miles away from there for those years and watched many launches. Night launches we would go see in person, crazy to see up close at night! Also watched the Challenger disaster live. We weren’t sure what had happened, but it was very apparent. That saddened me …after the utter shock. I think I moved a couple years after before the program had restarted …sad.
Fair enough, money might not be able to fix and repair all the problems but it can certainly help with social problems. Food, clothing, a safe place to sleep,education,health care…
I don’t live anywhere near there but was lucky enough to be in Ormond Beach on business for the second to last launch (2011 maybe?) They made all of us stop and come out to the parking lot. I didn’t know there was a launch so I thought the plant was on fire or something. Anyway, even from that distance, like 60 miles, you could hear the thing roaring up and see it racing off to space. It was very impressive and something I know I’ll never forget. Really cool stuff. I envy you @SessionDrummer.
Yep. Microwave, Styrofoam (IIRC), Teflon… The list is long and impressive for the side benefits that we’ve gained in materials alone, never mind processes, etc.
Microwave was not directly space program related, as far as I can tell.
Styrofoam and teflon neither, clearly.
That being said, to respond to the remarks of the good quality of life before rockets, they are counter intuitively positively linked.
Space/Military investment is one of the only way for the US to inject cash in the real economy.
The issue being who lines their pockets on the way, and for space it seems that this is less of a problem than for military.
In the case of space next to all the money ends up in local developments with measurable scientific discoveries finishing in the public domain.
In short it is pretty good structural investment as part of a broader education/infrastructure/health investment portfolio.
That being said, having worked with some of the surplus programmable chips from the shuttle I am very happy never to have been forced to fly on the thing, as cool as the idea sounds.
American engineer Percy Spencer is generally credited with inventing the modern microwave oven after World War II from radar technology developed during the war. Named the “Radarange”, it was first sold in 1946.
And styrofoam
Ray McIntire - Styrofoam Inventor. Dow Chemical Company scientist Ray McIntire invented foamed polystyrene aka Styrofoam. McIntire said his invention of foamed polystyrene was purely accidental. His invention came about as he was trying to find a flexible electrical insulator around the time of World War II.
, but i wouldnt trade my children for anything
