# Curiosity Humor



## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## LeeJ (Jul 4, 2007)

That looks about right.

Lee


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Funny stuff Dan , Regarding the present landing on Mars I can't help but think of all the wood 2 billion dollars would buy Or more realistically how many people could be fed or housed with that much money.


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## KyleT (Aug 8, 2012)

Now, I know that this is a comic, and some of these responses may coincide with the light-heartedness of the post, but Jim, I cant help but disagree with that point of view.

The space program is what inspires people of all ages to dream of a better tomorrow. It inspires children to ask deep questions, to solve real problems, to long for a life of discovery and improvement. There are so many pieces of technology that we use on a daily basis that found their way into existence because of the space race in the 60's and 70's. The space program used to be one of the few things that the nation WAS'T divided over. Everyone loved it. Everyone cheered when we landed on the moon, held their breath when shuttles re-entered the atmosphere, and cried when the Challenger exploded in '86.

The current budget for NASA is one half of one percent of the total US budget. I say double it. I say give kids a reason to dream again, a reason to want to become an engineer or scientist, not just a lawyer or video game developer.


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## RetiredCoastie (Sep 7, 2009)

I agree Kyle T. Also Look at all the jobs that have been created since we first went into space. Many people overlook the improvements in our lives that are directly related to the aerospace industry. One of the very limited government enterprises that we actually receive any benefit from.


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## Joshuah (Jan 10, 2011)




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## PurpLev (May 30, 2008)

heh - nice post.

to add to Kyle and RC - not to forget to mention all the improvements in machinery, alloys, adhesives, and other composites that directly contribute to woodworkers either by providing new materials and tools to work with and also in reduction of prices of machinery and tools in general bringing the possibility of a 'home shop' with actual machinery to the average Joe.


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Thank you Kyle… Couldn't have said it better.

Yeah as a scientist I am biased in favor of this, but as a gradeschooler watching the apollo landings is part of why I enjoyed and pursued science as a career.

This program specifically was 2 Billion out of a nearly 4 trillion annual spend. so only 0.05% of the federal spend for 2011 launching this


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## a1Jim (Aug 9, 2008)

Hey Dan sorry to change focus on your post.

I see I'm in a minority here, I know the space program has brought us many positive innovations and inventions but I'm afraid I'll have to agree to disagree on this one. I feel if you are homeless or hungry all the great inspiration and innovation is kind of lost on you as you watch you child go to bed hungry or in some case starve to death because they didn't get a lousy hand full of rice. nether does someone who is in that situation think about what percentage of the national expenditure they need. I respect all of your opinions but as for me I feel when we spend our tax dollars we need to spend it on people first ,I know it's very debatable as to what' programs include spending on people first. I won't comment any more on this I know I've already hi jacked Dan's fun post.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

Hey Jim, perhaps, if we close down NASA altogether the starving homeless guy will be the aerospace engineer with his worthless Phd.

The reality is, homelessness and hunger are, in fact, vastly reduced due to technological improvements innovated by the space program and science. Advanced farming techniques, advanced equipment, not to mention genetically optimized food crops have tripled our productivity in food production.

The hunger problem is not for the lack of having food, or a means to distribute it. (Our government subsidizes food crops and gives a large portion of it away to foreign countries and even dumps a huge surplus into the ocean each year.) The problem is a lack of politcal organization, will and motivation to do something better with our resources.

If we stop developing technology, though, we will devolve into a third world country. (Maybe then, it will be the Etheopians coming to OUR aid as they launch thier space program.)


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)




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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

Food preservation, freeze dried foods, packaging materials like mylar, (granola bar wrappers), polyethylene bottles (think zip-lock bags, water bottles and 2L soda) and others that allow better packaging and preservation of food are all in large part due to our investment into space technology.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

woot!

I agree with in technology advancements are fabulous, but I also *very much agree with a1Jim.*

We as a nation need to take care of *all* of our people.

No one should go to sleep hungry or die for lack of health care.


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## MT_Stringer (Jul 21, 2009)

NASA provided my sister with a job for 25 years. She worked in the department that scheduled payloads. Not any more. With the fear of layoffs, she finally found another job.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

Dan-o, I also agree that we should be taking care of *all *our people.

*I disagree with the oft implied assertion that spending money on NASA is why were aren't taking care of them already.*


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

2.5 billion was spent on this project over the last 8 years. 
We should probably be able to figure out how to feed and house people with the other 4,000 billion we spent last year.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## jeepturner (Oct 3, 2010)

I like the cartoons, and would like to offer the following to the discussion of monetary priorities. Feeding those who can not provide for themselves and space exploration are not mutually exclusive. To put a perspective on our priorities we argue over the merits of this project, 2.5 billion on the mars mission over eight years, and speak little of 2 billion every week in Afghanistan and Iraq while wasting the lives of our young. "lack of enough is an illusion".


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

We've tracked the global food harvest via satellite with amazing precision since the mid 1970's using TIROS-class weather satellites built and launched by NASA. Food crops are planned and coordinated from this information. This feat alone ensures that food production is globally coordinated so there is enough of each needed crop to feed all of our populations.

These platforms are largely unchanged still today.

The problem is politcal, *not *technological and *not *financial.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)




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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)




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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## 280305 (Sep 28, 2008)

Thanks for all the great cartoons. Threads like this are the reason that I don't hide the off-topic titles.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

NASA's budget is near .5% of the federal budget and that would not nearly be enough to help with some of the down to earth problems.

It comes down to a cost/benefit exercise … will the benefit outweigh the cost … and that IMO cannot be answered at this early stage in this mission.

I am holding back judgement! No one thought that the space program would have provided the benefits it has to date …. are these worth it?


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## Jim Jakosh (Nov 24, 2009)

And with all this new technology, don't forget what we learned from the space ship that landed near Rozwell, NM in the desert in 1947. Companies have reverse engineered many products from what was found there- PN junctions ( transistors), teflon, etc. Remember transistors come out in 1955 -8 yrs later!!

I think it is better if we have space technology in private hands instead of paying 10 times for the same things through the government. Those folks are so far removed from the costs of things that they pay the high costs with our tax money- and then they say that Social Security is broke. Yea, they spent it on everything else.

Neat cartoon!!, I'll bet the space invaders went back to their planet saying there was no intelligent life down here, too- after watching Congress!!

Tee Hee…..


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

The transistor concept was first posited in the late 1780's if I remember history correctly.
They were first made from vacuum tubes in 1907 and then in solid state semi-conductors in 1949.

But keep pushing the conspiracy theories. They're fun!


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)




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## Sawkerf (Dec 31, 2009)

I've never understood the thinking that says "Just think of all of all the (insert cause of your choice) we could help iwith that money."

Why does anyone think that the money spent would have necessarily gone to (insert cause of your choice) at all? Dan-o says to "take care of all of our people". What does "take care of" mean? Do we spend whatever it takes to put everyone in the 50th percentile? What would that do to the people in the top 50%?

Every society that has ever existed has had it's poor and downtrodden. I wonder how many of those societies even came close to helping theirs as much as we do ours.

Give me a society that is willing to reach for the stars any day.


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## 280305 (Sep 28, 2008)

I would think that most of the money the US spends on the space program stays in the US anyway. I admit, I don't have the facts, and if anyone does, I'd be glad to learn them.

I do know that I'd like to see more of my taxes go to space exploration and less go to a bunch of other things.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

A law was passed in the mid nineties that allow a certain percentage of product to be made overseas. Back-in-the-day I worked for a company that made 90 or so systems for the space shuttle and other rockets etc.


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## 280305 (Sep 28, 2008)

This just in:
http://www.theonion.com/articles/nasa-calls-it-a-mission-as-curiosity-rover-fills-u,29115/


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

saved some up from yesterday … >grinz< just keeping myself entertained. 

























​


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

​


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## BTK (Jul 9, 2012)

I'm all for it. Dreaming and pushing limits keeps hope alive. Plus, the trickle down effect. I still carry a Fisher NASA Space pen.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

MARS








..


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Good thing that SarcasticRover - didn't say "My god! it's full of stars!"

Got to remember sawkerf - no matter how much money is ever spent on taking care of people 50% of the people will be below average (except at Garrison Keilors Lake Woebegon) "where all the children are above average"

Cheers!


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## jmos (Nov 30, 2011)

Great cartoons.

I'd be more in favor of buying fewer B-2 bombers at $2.2billion a pop than cutting NASA.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## madts (Dec 30, 2011)

Mittwit will never get it!!


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## pierce85 (May 21, 2011)

Great stuff Dan-O!

The Onion article linked to by ChuckV - http://www.theonion.com/articles/nasa-calls-it-a-mission-as-curiosity-rover-fills-u,29115/ - left me in tears…


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## madts (Dec 30, 2011)

Go Dan-O. We need more rovers and less B-2's


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## DrDirt (Feb 26, 2008)

Good thing we had visionary presidents back in 2004?

History

*NASA called for proposals for the rover's scientific instruments in April 2004,[62] and eight proposals were selected on December 14 of that year.[*62] Testing and design of components also began in late 2004, including Aerojet's designing of a monopropellant engine with the ability to throttle from 15-100 percent thrust with a fixed propellant inlet pressure.[62]

By November 2008 most hardware and software development was complete, and testing continued.[63] At this point, cost overruns were approximately $400 million.[64] The next month, NASA delayed the launch to late 2011 because of inadequate testing time.[65][66][67]

Between March 23-29, 2009, the general public ranked nine finalist rover names through a public poll on the NASA website.[68] On May 27, 2009, the winning name was announced to be Curiosity. The name had been submitted in an essay contest by Clara Ma, a sixth-grader from Kansas


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

NASA was interviewing professionals to be sent to Mars.

Only one person could go, and he will not return to Earth.

The first applicant, an American engineer, was asked how much he wanted to be paid for going.

"A million dollars", he answered, "because I wish to donate it to M.I.T."

The next applicant, a Russian doctor, was asked the same question.

He asked for two million dollars.

"I wish to give a million to my family, he explained, "and leave the other million for the advancement of medical research."

The last applicant was an Indian politician (Laloo Yadav).

When asked how much money he wanted, he whispered in the interviewers ear, "Three million dollars."

"Why so much more than the others?" the interviewer asked.

Laloo replied, $1 million is for you, Ill keep $1million, and well give the American engineer $1million and send him to Mars."


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## madts (Dec 30, 2011)

This has been and is toooo funny.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## Dwain (Nov 1, 2007)

It is faulty logic to assume that the space program is taking money away from the fight against poverty in the United States, or that by stopping the space program we will suddenly have the resources to stop it. Clearly, we have the resources now. Stopping the space program (and let's be honest, the space program is in pretty poor shape anyway) will do nothing to help starving children get a handful of rice. We as a nation can and should do both. One is not dependent upon the other.

I am also very unconvinced that there is an epidemic of children dying of starvation in the United States. This argument just doesn't hold water.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

Dwain,

True, taking money out of the space program is about as cost saving as killing off Big Bird. Neither of these expenditures consumes enough money to provide four squares for many people. Besides, if it did, beuracracy would eat it up anyway!


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

The Big Bird franchise is worth $500,000,000.00 at last estimate. I think it would survive the defunding of PBS.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

DS251 but defunding of *PBS* could hurt everyone. We actually watch PBS more than network TV because network TV is all the same except possibly sports!


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## darinS (Jul 20, 2010)

I agree oldnovice. The most watched station in my house is the *Create* channel of PBS. All the network tv is the same crap ("reality" shows that aren't real, "sit coms" that aren't funny, and many others). I get all my tv from the airwaves (meaning I don't have either cable or satellite) so unlike many, I don't have 100+ channels to pick from.


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

I'm not advocating defunding of PBS, just that, since Bid Bird and many other shows *are *commercially viable, (and outright financially successful), implying that removing public funding for it (A relatively small percentage of revenues, I believe), would spell doom for PBS is just false-In fact, they very likely would be financially better off if they were commercialized.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

I watch PBS some, but listen to NPR at least 2 hrs a day during the week driving back and forth to work.

Have for over 30 yrs.


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## smitdog (Aug 20, 2012)

Here's a twist for you, we attribute all these wonderful discoveries to space research but what started space research in the first place was anything but "Curiosity". We entered the space age on the heals of WWII and spurred forward by the Cold War and the fear of nuclear attack. Take it a step further and the race really began after the Soviets launched Sputnik into orbit soon followed by Yuri Gagarin. The race to the moon was a direct result of the competition between Communist USSR and Capitalist USA and the fear that Communism would spread around the world as fast as Yuri flew around it. So in a way we can thank the fight between Capitalism and Communism for many of the technological advancements that we have today.

Too many people around my age and younger don't take the time or maybe just don't care about history. Like the famous quote from George Santayana, "Those who cannot remember the past, are condemned to repeat it."


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

The Earth and Moon as viewed from 9.5 million kilometers away in space.









I forget which spacecraft took this picture.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

DS251, understood about PBS but you probably also understand defunding PBS is not going to put a dent in the deficit which was my only point with a twist of humor!

The earth and moon from 9.5 million km away, simply astounding; so where is you workshop?


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

*oldnovice*, it has just about as much effect as cancelling the newpaper while you're trying to pay off huge household debts. I think it is more of a mindset than significant progress.

Our National Debt is 1.5 times larger than our GDP. This is dangerous territory and an ever larger percentage of our tax dollars goes to pay interest on the debt. This is a heavy burden which diminishes our quality of life.

Hyper-inflation is a real danger when the debt service approaches the GDP. It is not just a theory, it has happened to a couple dozen countries in my lifetime. A loaf of bread is $2 today, $10 tommorrow, $100 next week and $1000 next month. It takes generations to recover from this.


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

DS251,

Yup, lived through it in Germany! My mom had hundreds of 1 million mark (before the Euro) notes and it would take a wheelbarrow full to buy a loaf of bread!

But, I believe that we, the U.S., are more resourceful!


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

I sure hope so.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

​


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## madts (Dec 30, 2011)

NASA's only problem is funding. Funding causes development. Development causes Ingenuity. Ingenuity causes start-ups. And then things start to roll. Just like when 24 people went to the moon. A new jet fighter costs more than a probe to Mars. WTF. Lets gets going somewhere and let it not be to Afghanistan or Iraq.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## madts (Dec 30, 2011)

I think that nails it. I wander if they have a gerrymander on Mars?


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## madts (Dec 30, 2011)

Glad to see you back Dan'um.


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## Bogeyguy (Sep 26, 2012)

Jim, I'll bet if you look for statistics you'll find that a large amount of our tax dollars go toward, Health and Human services. Just sayin. Now if you want to talk waste, how about the jerks they call congress?? LOL! Thats another rant. LOL!


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## oldnovice (Mar 7, 2009)

*Bogeyguy* I just want the perks they get … health care …. life time pension … some get security details … get to give themselves raises, and those are only the published/known perks.

But the money spent on HHS + NASA, pale compared to the military! *END OF RANT*


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## DS (Oct 10, 2011)

Mars Rover = $800m

Team to Operate = $1b

Drawing a penis on the surface of another planet = *Priceless*.


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)

curiosity kills the cat
..


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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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## DanYo (Jun 30, 2007)




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