What he means is, that department store telescopes are shit; and department store telescopes given as gifts to people who do not care about astronomy will be shit treated in a shitty way. No better way to discourage someone from astronomy by giving them an entirely non-functional telescope.

Besides, there was no advice in your post about what kind of scope to get. Picking up any random thing is exactly what the poster was trying to avoid.

My suggestion, contact a local astronomy club to find out if they have any spare telescopes for sale. They usually have small ones that a member has fixed up and collimated. As an added benefit, they will be happy to teach you how to use it properly.

This is what doomed the Shuttle. It was designed for a totally different mission profile than it was used for. It had unused polar launch capability (from Vanderburg AFB) and large cross-range ability that was not necessary at all to reach the ISS. This caused the shuttle to be heavier, with less range and more expensive than it could have been for the missions it was used for.

I have no doubt that SLS will become the same disaster, as it is going to be designed to do "every mission" and end up doing them all for far more money than it could have.

Yeah like a bunch of computer engineers having to look up money laundering in the dictionary.

Yeah the only coast-to-coast superhero we allow is Space Ghost.

My aunt got cancer and already beat it and I have not yet insulted Timothy. Better fix that now:

You're a jerk, Timothy... A complete kneebiter.

In other news, guy who can afford $350 toy can also afford a medical procedure to enhance every facet of his life.

It might as well have said "People that can afford rift can also afford laser surgery."

As someone who had a $3000 laser surgery done recently. I suggest everyone that qualifies (not all conditions can be fixed) and can afford it to get it. It really is the best money I have ever spent in my life.

I am an amateur astronomer, so one could say about me: "Man buys $3000 laser surgery to enhance $2000 telescope experience." Am I a dope because I spent more on my eyes than my telescope? I get a hell of a lot more use out of my eyes than the scope. Every waking moment vs. that once a month it is actually clear and dark out.

It also enhances my exercising experience, my playing hockey experience, my driving experience, and my swimming experience. I think it helps me not get headaches when staring at a computer screen for hours at a time at work. (though that last one is highly subjective, the rest are true)

Don't even start on the solar powered roadways thing. Driving on solar panels is just not a thing that is currently possible, no matter how much kickstarter wants to make everyone believe.

That being said, there is a ton of effectively useless (undriven-upon) land where solar panels could go. Just the strips of land where the electric lines are could do it.

How the hell is that legal? I can only guess that the power company that owns the network paid off the right politicians in order to allow them to effectively discourage anyone from putting up a solar cell.

Because market analysts lie and manipulate the market for their own ends. They do not give two shits if Tesla succeeds as long as they make money.

What it means is you will be constantly cut off by other drivers, at least on every single multilane highway in the US that I have been on.

Even if you are in the slow lane you can expect to continually be cut off. They even do it to trucks in heavy traffic which is just freaking suicidal.

What good would that do? Their bank doesn't know if the customer's credit card is valid.

This is just a sympathy run for those sorry professionals with afluenza. Nobody gives a shit about poor people addicted to drugs.

This is like pennies to someone that can afford to run Oracle on custom hardware. Why is this even newsworthy?