No mod points, so just an "I agree". If the point of spending tens of billions per year is the side-effect technology, then it IS a waste of money. One could have done a trial like this not related to the space program for not a lot of money. The point of space flight is exploration and the eventual colonization of space, not Tang.

(and on a side note, it's been at least a year since I've had mod points)

I find that if an email chain goes more than 3 back and forths that it is a lot more productive to pick up the damn phone and talk to someone. Not sure what that has to do with gossiping.

I'm thinking "around here" means the unemployment line.

No, but that is an excellent point.

Here's the translation: "People are more apt to be influenced by their peers than by science". This is not new; it has been known for decades. The best way to influence someone is to use those around them. This is why you see change.org petitions. The petitions themselves are crap, but if five of your friends send you a petition, you are more likely to think about the subject the same way as your friends.

My lead developer wanted to adopt Silverlight a couple years back for a key application we were developing. I am sure he had strong technical reasons, but getting tied to a highly proprietary Microsoft technology just smelled bad. .NET is one thing, Silverlight scared the hell out of me. I pulled out one of my rarely used veto cards and I'm glad I did.

This kind of intelligent conversation makes me want to wipe out all of my Windows servers, and hire you to install and manage my new Linux boxes.

I sometimes struggle, yes. Folks who are religous, studying the Bible but don't really do anything with it are the most difficult. Those Chrisitans who are active in serving... working with homeless, shut-in visitations, service missions... those I relate to well. When I read the Bible I find that it points out my flaws, not leaing me to tell everyone else how to live

Those that I cannot relate to are those who study the Bible, can quote verse after verse yet don't seem to apply it to themselves...

In fairness, I was an atheist for most of my life and often find their ranting to be just as difficult to listen to :)

It will end when the older generations die off. Newer generations will either be non-believing or be able to reconcile science and their faith. The amount who ignore evolution will diminish.

He denied fusion altogether and stated that it was just a threory and we'd never produced power through fusion despite many attempt. I explained this was false and that there were many instances of fusion demonstrations on earth, just none that acheived break even energy due to engineering complexities. So, yes, beyond hope. And this is a guy with an engineering degree.