The end of an era...STS-135.

Jstas

tonyb wrote: »

Regardless, I'd like to see us set our sights on achieving something deemed near impossible at one point......as a country. It can lift spirits, install a sense of pride to a whole country, something we could use about now,no ?

Dude, stuff like that happens every day in this country. You just never hear about it because "science isn't cool". Unless it's about Global Warming. But some overly tanned, designer clothes wearing, gum smacker discussing the origins of "sea chicken" apparently is so that gets attention while the people advancing society are deemed nerds and mocked.

THAT is where the real shame is.

BlueFox

Jstas wrote: »

Dude, stuff like that happens every day in this country. You just never hear about it because "science isn't cool". Unless it's about Global Warming. But some overly tanned, designer clothes wearing, gum smacker discussing the origins of "sea chicken" apparently is so that gets attention while the people advancing society are deemed nerds and mocked.

THAT is where the real shame is.

Along the same line, executives in search of the Almighty Dollar send engineering jobs overseas. This has multiple effects. One, it allows 3rd world countries to gain engineering expertise which will help their military. Two, it discourages individuals from entering the engineering field since they see their parents, and others, unemployed so that an Indian/Chinese can have their job. Third, it allows 3rd world countries to steal intellectual property that they could never create on their own.

Personally, I feel one of America's benefits is that it allows and even encourages dissent and non-conformity. This is what drives creativity, not a stifling religious and social culture which inhibits creativity.

Soap off.

tonyb

I can agree to that John. Science makes leaps and bounds every day with hardly a mention. Thing is with Nasa anyway, you had a visual that was shared by old and young alike. Brought people together instead of dividing us....so to speak.

As far as nerds go, that maybe true too, but I think if we are to talk about advancing society, opinions vary greatly on what direction those advancements being put forth are taking us....as a society. Hence not really bringing people together, just dividing more.

BTW- What did ya do for the Birthday bro ?

Dance naked ?
Eat a few squirrels ?

Seriously, hope you enjoyed it.

Jstas

tonyb wrote: »

I can agree to that John. Science makes leaps and bounds every day with hardly a mention. Thing is with Nasa anyway, you had a visual that was shared by old and young alike. Brought people together instead of dividing us....so to speak.

As far as nerds go, that maybe true too, but I think if we are to talk about advancing society, opinions vary greatly on what direction those advancements being put forth are taking us....as a society. Hence not really bringing people together, just dividing more.

BTW- What did ya do for the Birthday bro ?

Dance naked ?
Eat a few squirrels ?

Seriously, hope you enjoyed it.

By advancement of society I mean advancing the human race and our collective knowledge of our existence/world/universe. Not necessarily a singular country but people, around the globe. Science, like medical advancements, shouldn't be limited by borders IMO. But people would rather horde stuff to bilk every dollar out of it they can rather than finding creative ways to get that tech out there and still make a buck.

I went to my parents house for my B-day. My grandmother (91) was born on July 9th as well, 57 years before I was. I've shared my birthday with her (and my twin sister) all my life. She has Alzheimer's and dementia. She's not doing so hot. My extended family didn't want to have a B-Day party for her because "she doesn't know where she is or who we are anyway". I told my mom that sucked and I'd go with her to the nursing home and have a party there for her if need be. My mom said "'eff that, you're right! She may not know who I am but I know who she is. We're having the party anyway." So I spent the better part of the day with my ingrate extended family entertaining my grandmother on her birthday.

tonyb

She may not know you big guy, but your hearts in the right place for sure.

I know where your commin' from on the betterment of mankind not having borders. But we throw up those borders for the sake of the money. For instance, certain medical treatments only available in europe and not here, or the other way around. Certain drugs not available here. I guess science can make all the advancments it wants but the end user still has to pay for them. So the problem gets twisted into only the so called rich can afford newly discovered treatments. I know I'm painting with a broad brush here and we have laws and all that, but one has to question if some of these laws, and the FDA have mankinds betterment as their focus, or the protection of profit margins of some big corporations. I tend to lean towards alittle of both.

Anyway, Nasa to me anyway, symbolized the desire to advance all of mankind. We surely didn't keep all our discoveries to ourselves over the decades of space exploration. Aside from anything that gave our military an edge of coarse. Sure hope Nasa comes back even more devoted in the future when the purse strings are loosened up a bit.

cnh

Sounds like a really good thing to do John. I can't imagine 'not' doing the same--alas, my parents are both gone. But my wife's mother had a stroke and she's been flying back and forth to the windy city every few weeks even though her Mom is not fully responsive. Still, it does 'make' a difference in the recovery process for her.

We're all out there for a week the end of July.

Got to agree with tonyb above.

Last year when I was researching and teaching the cream of China's Graduate Scientific crop...it was pretty easy to tell that a majority of research projects at CAS were mining American Scientific patents, achievements, etc. As a quick example; China was developing its own GPS and surveillance tech piggy backing (very heavily) on Google Earth?

Yeah, who owns what is a sticky issue. In an equitable world all scientific knowledge and invention would be free for all to mine but even I know that's a utopian ideal that our current global economic system cannot support and would be devastated by.

So we'll just have to wait for the 24th century of Trek lore? lol

It still goes without saying that the Space Race was fundamental to U.S. advancements and discoveries and if you don't think so you should see how very important Space exploration is for the Chinese and their Identity in the current epoch!

cnh

txcoastal1

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/50-years-50-giant-leaps-how-nasa-rocked-our-world-879377.html

....and don't forget Temerpedic Mattress

...for kids the guy who invented the Super Soaker...and hey it's not just for kids

potee

Wow! What a great read. I have been reading this forum for a couple of years now and this without a doubt is the best most intelligent thread yet, And no arguing.

Kudos to Jstas.

PoTee ( Paul)