Re: NASA gets SGI 2048-core Itanium 2 supercomputer

Neil Rieck wrote:
On Nov 28, 4:31 pm, VAXman- @SendSpamHere.ORG wrote:
In article
<303adb89-0e85-457b-861e-9ce261885...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Neil Rieck <n.ri...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

{...snip...}

I am not against the stem-cell research. proNJ has most of the major
pharmaceutical research in the states, so why must the state fund
that
which, until now, has run fine as commercial enterprise? I may have
been happy to see the referendum succeed if the proNJ's fiscal house
wasn't in such a shambles but expending $.5Billion, when the state is
already so deep into the hole that it may ever crawl out, without ANY
guarantee that the research would pay off is wrong. The state's con-
stitution (not that any constitutional rights exist in the USA) says
that the government can't gamble with tax dollars.


Your public/private points reminded me that HHMI (Howard Hughes
Medical Institute) is allowed to work in these areas because they
receive no public funding in these areas. My only comment on this is
that some projects might be too big to be done alone (like going to
the Moon in 1970). I hope that privately funded organizations are
cooperating in order to avoid dupicated work.

NSR

Firstly, it's a long time since I had a W2, so I have no vested interest in
this question ...

Can someone give me one, clear, unequivocal reason why manned space flight
out of earth's orbit in any way justifies its cost relative to unmanned
missions (which are massively less expensive) to other solar system bodies?

Star Trek is TV, not reality.

I simply do not see the benefit, other than political prestige.


Dweeb


.