WilliePilgrim's Comments (623)

“Obama might be the senior member of the executive branch, but congress is the most powerful branch of governement when it comes to the purse strings, and this is a purse-strings issue. Congress should have told him when and how to get there or indict him for contempt. Of course congress can't get it's act together worrying about steroids in baseball or some other triviality now that they have decided to become pervasive in everything the people do. And why not, is the power of congress now little more than a popularity pole since even the upper house has to run in a general election instead of being selected by fellow legislators? Who can give us the most chickens per pot while promising us that the chickens will be paid for by somebody else, while insuring the chickens are morally pure and free of illegal steroids...the legal ones are OK.”

“Grass roots and global. The two concepts are almost contradictions of each other. Yes, grass roots are great and address local issues but when grass and its network of roots become too pervasive, become global, so to speak, they overtake the landscape and squeeze out diversity in animal life. Not every thing lives on grass alone.
It seems that is what's been seen in regards to those who took positions contrary to what a few high profile researchers held and who had much to gain by squelching dissent and differing interpretations of data. Data may be factual but its interpretation is not necessarily so.
Science requires questioning by those who are willing to do the hard thing and counter the consensus. It might seem as if it enables those with the wrong interpretations but if they are in fact wrong research will prove it, whereas ignoring them, calling them names and casting suspicions about their motives only fosters the loss in faith that climate scientists have lately earned.
The church doesn't support efforts to prove its theology is in error, and science is not a church, Rev. Tutu not withstanding.”

“OK..I'll stay tuned. I hope my dad, a WW2 vet and surviving casualty of one of that wars biggest blunders (google "herken forest") does too. I'm his caregiver and just the other day I went to the VA website to see what I could do for him as his decline, gracefull as I try to make it, continues. I have to say, it was a nice site. I'll go back on Monday,but I'm afraid it will tell me how they don't have his records. Of course, they burned up in a big fire in St.Louis in the 60s along with many others of his generation. But we'll see. I'll let you know. I'm interested because I'm a vet too, 72-76, and while I don't have any needs now, and am qualifiied only because I enlisted and and did nothing except serve my term to be discharged honorably, I do "means qualify", which means I have next to no wealth. I should have use the GI Bill to go into Geology instead of fine art. Ha ha! We all can't be Damien Hirsh. But I'm makin' up for it by being the best caregiver any un-reconstructed hippy can be. See ya.”

“Good news, Mayor Newsom. Glad to hear it, though it's funny to hear the Transamerica building being called "the most famous building in SF", though I guess it is the most iconic due to its high profile. I wonder how much money it would take for PG&E to take the lead in the movement towards incorporating the next generation of smaller, safer and lower impact nuclear power generators. That way the entire city will see a huge reduction in its impacts due to emissions. I know at present an idea has about as much chance of flying as a lead balloon, but then again with material sciences advancing at the rate they are, even that might happen if we were truly using science as our guide.
Change happens.”

“Maybe it's time we stop thinking of violent crimes as being just a violation of law with consequent punishment, but as an expression of the individual's sociopathic personality, and as such we should be treating them as mental patients and not as people who must simply pay their debt to society. Our concepts of crime and punishment are an archaic artifact of our age of reason when we thought of misbehavior as a conscious rejection of moral judgement and as such we thought it was something we could induce a person to fix if we showed them the consequences and coerced them with punishment and loss of freedom. We know now that much violent crime is a result of dysfunctional brains due to trauma or genetics or circumstances from their particular life history.
This doesn't mean they should therefore be free but until we examine these cases in light of modern neurology we are simply punishing the mentally ill and paying the consequences of our dependence on outmoded and unscientific perspective. Clearly Clements should never have been free to be at large as he was, but just as sure he should never have been sentenced for behaviors he had not control over.
As for Hasan, he is clearly guilty of a crime,regardless of his mental state, and that crime has a name. it's not the modern buzzword 'terrorism', it's the crime of treason and for that he should be judged severly.”

“Maybe this is part of what Francis Fukuyama meant when he referred to the "end of history", in that there are so many personal views on what we call history, and we are so able to select just what we want in from such a broad range of historical facts that any notion of objectivity is sublimating like a block of dry ice on a warm day. Speaking of which, when it comes to science (climate in particular), it's becoming much the same. The fact that a slight reduction in ocean's alkalinity, while still orders of maginitude away from actually being less than chemically neutral 7, is being called "acidification" is a good example. Trying to understand the objective aspects of even science is becoming, well...history.
Thanks for bringing our attention to this remarkable forum.”

“I "get" where you're comin' from, Cynthia, and if you wish to equate your commitment to your partner with a political treatise of equal rights, so be it. I've been to a lot of wedding in churches, in redwood groves, in fancy buildings that were between people who when they finished their ceremonies were not automatically made responsible for each other nor could they share in each other's benefits from insurance,but to say it wasn't legal implies they could have gotten arrested for it. Clearly it is legal to get married to anyone you wish and making the act public underscores the commitment which is good for you and yours, as well as your community, who I hope will work to make the cultural aspect have equality in the secular view of the law. In other words, I say go ahead and get married wherever you want. It wont make a difference as to how you feel about your partner, which is what marriage is all about and it adds fuel to the fire to get domestic partnerships recognized as legitimate contracts that all aspects of civic life must recognize as valid. Get government out of religion and religion out of government. Everyone will be happier when we are treated equally, but let's not equate a religious ceremony with a contract.”

“I like the recent suggestion from Andy Grove who suggested that the kind of engineering practices which have propelled the semiconductor industry be applied to medical technology. As we become more and more informed as to the inner workings of biophysics and biochemistry the solutions to many of the diseases which ravage our population will become more specific, effective and more personalized to each person's particular medical needs while also becoming cheaper as they are applied to a word-wide market.”

“I'd much prefer that instead of being angry with the party crashers, we were thankfull for their showing our security service the gaping hole in their coverage. It wasn't that there wasn't enough, or that we don't spend enough, but the kind of perceptual blindness that a clever adversary can hope for and look for when trying to sink the titanic, so to speak.
But, no, we see an angry red-faced agency going after the symptom instead of the cause, further strengthening the indictment against them.
Do you think the Mossad would make a big deal about this? I suspect they'd quietly correct themselves. Of course, I say the agency is all self-inflated, but the bottom line issue is that the news media thinks they should be, portrays them as such, and in fact is resorting to the same tactic whenever it encounters a news item that doesn't follow the script..outrage! Wink wink nod nod..eyeball rolling and vein popping to boot.”

“Buzz; thanks for keeping the issue of our space program current, even if it requires you to "bang the drum repeatedly". I agree with your perspective in many ways and in its most fundamental intent; we need to support creative, daring, and masterfull developement or risk losing what we've invested, as well as the technical expertise and even the military high ground we've spent so much attaining.
Having done a lot of reading on the subject, I've come to wonder why we've come to a fork in the road and refuse to go forward. For that matter why not take both roads. That would be the scientific way to explore the options, but neither road should involve cold-war era approaches to space using balistic missiles desinged to fit into secret silos. We need a new approach; either the electromagnetic mass accelerators, or rail guns for high-g delivery, or something I've become aware of recently; the SeaDragon as put forth by Robert Truax in the early 60s. What a remakable approach and clearly one designed to be done cheaply and effectively, though no good for hiding from cold war era spies and competitors. Maybe India or Japan with their longer history of open developement will take up the torch...no pun intended. Keep 'em flying, Buzz.”

“I'm ardent in my desire to see the environment be addressed in a muscular and vigorous way using international cooperation, but these fears over CO2 are just not substantial enough. This is not an opinion I just came up with and it is the result of much studying and time trying to grasp the first priniciples in climate and geology and the other realm of nature that result in our weather and climate. The argument against CO2 just hasn't convinced me and, evidently a lot of others who despite the unfortunate name calling, continue to have legitimate concern about our civilization's relationship to the planets natural systems but cannot tolerate the lack of good science that should compell the world to take these steps which necessarily means we will do less in areas that actually can use the effort. Whether the sea level rises or not the Maldives and Bangladesh are in terrible places for permanent populations unless they follow the lead of the Dutch who long ago realized that for them nature was shifting and needed constant attention. They are enlightened, the rest of the world who expects the world to remain static, and even waste huge amounts of effort in the futile attempt to regulate climate are the unrealistic ones. Use the money to create the clean energy future, not to choke the industrial economic system that offers us the way to do that best.”

“Are we prepared to witness what will be seen by the muslims of the world as a martyrdom?
It will not surprise me if instead of a vigorous defense by the accused we will see a presentation of the radicalized islamic claims of grievances and the call for further jihad in the most long-term, persistent and militant sense. Our system is set up with a presumption of innocence and a desire by the defense to defend themselves from wrongful accusations. It all falls apart when the defendant does not want either of those two things and when the defendant most above all want the attention of the public.
This is not a civil case. It is about an enemy conducting war. The fact that it cannot be attributed to a soveriegn state has complicated the matter but the undeniable truth is that this is not a case of murder but a war crime.
We will see this problem of perception should Major Hasan's act of treason (not terror) come to a civil trial.
Why have our experts taken to buzzwords as they pander to the media instead of coming up with rational and established approaches which have been shown to work? I have my suspicion.”

“Having been a federal worker in a number of capacities from enlisted military man, to fire-fighter to park ranger, none of which were career for me and for which I have no regrets, never wishing to become one, but I know that there are good people doing good work, and I also know that all the good work in the world can be for naught when one careerist who is determined to protect their rice bowl at all costs becomes an impediment to effective solutions. I don't know what the remedy is, but a smaller battleship is desireable; one that is nimble, effective and not worth trying to controll by corrupt means. Sounds like the antithesis of what we're getting regardless of the direction in which the battleship is going.
I don't necessarily want better services or better services if it means that the individuals incentive to do things for themselves becomes gutted. I think deToqueville's observations should be on people's minds when they ask what they wish to see Federal service be. Cheers.”

“Maybe she should, and maybe she shouldn't, but the decision is up to her corporate bosses and not by some panel of judges who decice whether journalistic standards were observed. I gave up watching the media (in contrast to following the press) some time ago and I am befuddled as to why so many people rely on such flimsy reporting so obviously framed to maximize the audience's feeling that the issues as presented are how they need to be viewed...oh, right. Profits are the result of viewer numbers.
Even wonder why the keepers of journalistic excellence (or so they say of themselves) never suggest that in return for having the legal right to pedal their programming they should contribute to a media outlet that is free from commercial and political interests, independent of the gross numbers of viewers and instead focus on being an outlet for unbiased and actively researched and objectively verified journalism? Gee I wonder...or should that be G.E. I don't wonder.”

“Gee, I wonder what other public spirited leader/political power broker, ex-vice president, international player, peace prize winner, scion of a powerful political family, and one time contender for the CEO or America Inc is actively promoting government action in such a way that it would enrich them personally? Hmmm....Do they all just fly around to exotic locations for meeting so they can laugh at us for our incredible naivete? If you think 100 million is a lot, you have to consider what the tens of trillions being anticipated that will flow into organizations targetting specific transactions and exchanges of money over the next several decades until we finally reach 'the ideal climate".
Putting one's money where one's mouth is doesn't necessarily mean the same thing as putting one's mouth where the money is.
Is there no way that policy when involved with this much money can be made transparent so we see just who is going to benefit prior to our national interests promoting specific action? Not bloody likely.
For all its drawbacks, capitalism when untainted by government corruption and interferrence, is possibly the most transparent and competitive system that does the best job at seeing to the fairest distribution of wealth. If anyone is making that much money it should be open to others to compete for it, and not simply handed off to one's yachting buddies.”

“Frustration over NASA is understandable, but don't overlook that NASA is a beaurocracy just like the rest of the federal apparatus. We need leaders to make it work and make it work efficiently, which in NASA's case is to direct developement in various ways.Too bad it's been hijacked by DoD since the beginning (in fairness the it was the only game in town) and locked into the balistic missile paradigm..so suitable for war but so unsuitable for space faring. Look up Truax's Sea Dragon concept, or some of the electromagnetic mass-driving systems. No good at all for use as defense weapons but ideal for cheap payloads to space, and therein lies the problem, I think.
Oh, and private companies definitely should play a role...not all of them even in the US or in any one country for that matter. Big risks, big payoffs.”

“These findings on lunar h20 are exciting and worthwhile having, and I am an ardent supporter of space developement, though the degree of excitement regarding this "rich" find of lunar ice seems a bit premature and simultaneously deflects us from serious examination of new technologies for space exploration under the assumption that our water problem is all but over. What kind of ore processing do you think it will take to gather 24 gallons of water from a million tons or lunar regolith? First to gather it with a bulldozer, then to extract it, then to purify it...then what? It'll cost more than gold. If we can find a way to get that equipment to the lunar base (a prerequisite I'd think before we can harvest it) cleaply enough, then it would seem we also would have a launch system in place that is so cheap we might as we bring our own already pure water with us. Of course it wont happen with balistic missiles. We need a electromagnetic mass driver, or a Truax SeaDragon concept, not very suitable for the DoD, but ideal for cheap commercial space dev. That's where it's at, not archaic rockets designed for warheads, modified for spam in a can. But by all means, let private industry take the lead. It's raining soup (maybe it's Ramen packets) and we need an economical system to send up a bucket. We have the water here already.”

“I love the space elevator concept. Why not? It's just about the best way for many applications, but it won't be the only way, and before we can build it we'll need the technology to create functioning platforms, manufacturing techniques in space, and a facility for engineering on that scale. It'll be easier to do when we're in space and using the resources of the asteroids and abundant and high density energies possible and available in space. cheers.”

“Excellent points. A genuine commitment for a few trillion into space research, focusing on space based solar and exploring/exploiting the asteroids and developing the kinds of research platforms (both conceptual and physical) that go along with it, using humans and robots, will usher in an era that will address our social/environmental problems better than most current programs which attempt to address them now.”

“One of my favorite pieces of speculative science literature...marvelous reading.
The future is wide open if only we'd take the long view.”

“Wow! I just googled up a description of how that SeaDragon concept would work. Brilliant. I can't believe I hadn't heard of it and am mystified as to why it was never developed.
Here's the link to rocketry forum that lays it out, for anyone who's interested:
http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=33011&p=3&topicID=6333675

As I think about it I wonder if the reason it wasn't developed is because we were so hooked on making our efforts in space compatible with our balistic missile system and the defense industry's interests in keeping it all nice and compact under their auspices. That Turax dude was brilliant and deserves to have his ideas brought into the discussion. I hope Dr. Aldrin will address this. Our lagging ship-building industry would benefit from this immeasurably. cheers.”

“Great perspective, Buzz. And really great comments too, despite the smattering of "we need to fix (fill in your pet social program here), before spending money to go ruin some other planet" sentiments. I just read where the money that's being asked for "climate stabilization" is going to range into the tens of trillions over the next 20 to 30 years. Yikes! Surely even a few trillion would end our dependence on petro-fuels by creating the 500 or so 1.5 gigawat nuke plants..goodbye dilling,goodbye soot, and goodbye suspicions of co2's implications...while creating a domestic industry that creates wealth for the world; wealth for space in abundance, with eventual paybacks to make resource scarcity a thing of the past. As I know you've heard before; it's raining soup and we need a bucket in space to capture it and bring it back to a planet hungry for to explore.
While I know you're a rocket scientist and fully appreciate the current technology, how about showing support for some of the alternate ideas of electromagnetic mass driving railguns or similar concepts to get the fuel, reaction mass, water, shielding and high-g capable payloads up there cheaply and cleanly. Please keep us optimistic,forward-looking types involved and please, ask us or tell us how we can make it happen. You are a hero for these realistic perspectives in many ways even more than your courage in space.”

“Thank you for bringing her work to our attention. The artist has mad something that we all realize in our self-conscious way, and puts it into a bigger context, it seems. Her website is quite nice. Might want to let others know to have their volume turned on.”

“What's being a porn performer got to do with anything? Or for that matter what difference does being a felon have to do with it? These days, thanks to our expanding busy-body government trying to trump up any cause so they can write laws and make themselves appear usefull, you can be a felon for sleeping overnight in your car in a national park. Heck, you can be legally required to forever report yourself as a sex offender if your snoopy neighbor finds you naked in your own backyard, or if someone sees you urinating, or if your sex partner lies to you about their age! Or if someone else uses your computer and looks at what turns out to be underage girls and there are those who want to make it against the law if the sex performer only seems to be underage! I guess when we're all in prison we'll finally get the free medical coverage we've longed for, but just like so many other things we long for, if the gov't is supplying it at your expense you are likely to realize the wisdom of the old adage: be carefull of what your wish for...you might just get it, and when it comes to the getting from our gov't servants, rest assured you'll get it but good, and you won't likely enjoy it...but they will.
When do the morals police start peeking in windows and taking notes....it's all for the children, don'tchaknow?”

“By the way, if anyone wanted to make the case that the people who are so concerned about whether we teach evolution in schools, or if we believe the consensus on climate change, have almost no understanding of scientific reality they'd need to do little beyond read some of the specualtions and concerns voiced in these comments. What a laff. It's no wonder China, India,..heck, even the least educated nation will be able to "eat our lunch" in the future. They're investing in education by producing the scientists and engineers that create the future, while we're promising every kid no matter how smart of dumb an opportunity for a college education in enlish lit or hotel/motel management as we see NCLB means lowering the standard...and every child is above average at least in their weight to height ratio and their consumption of junk food and television.”