Star Trek skipper not so bold

[BouncyCaitian]

http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm...=news.quirkies

[Snake_Plissken]

Stewart has always been a total jackass. He's a great actor but that's it. His idea of 'boldly going' is to screw 24-yr olds.

[qerlin]

LOL!

[JonA]

I know a lot of people with this opinion.

And if i'm being truthfully honest their arguments do carry a certain weight. I'm not saying I agree with them but I can see their point.

Many people can and do argue that the money spent on the exploration of space would be of more benefit if directed at the poorer areas of the world (Africa). And it's a fair point.

I know many would say that we will all benefit from manned exploration of space but tell that to the woman who has walked thirty miles in no shoes through 40 degree heat for a handful of rice to feed her family.

I for one am of the belief that we can do and should do both. The reason we don't is because certain governments have misguided priorities on what to spend money on.

And Snake - what does screwing 24 yr olds have to do with Stewart's opinions of space exploration? When you get to Stewarts age no doubt you'd love to be screwing 24 yr olds.

[Ergi]

Originally posted by Snake_Plissken
Stewart has always been a total jackass. He's a great actor but that's it. His idea of 'boldly going' is to screw 24-yr olds.

Very mature, really! I'm with Stewart and JonA. I have no problem with the exploration of space, but humanity should have other priorities right now.

[Balok]

If you read the article, Stewart makes some good points. I also believe we have problems to solve here before we inflict ourselves upon the universe at large.

Suppose there are other civilizations out there? And suppose, by their standards, we're third world?

And why would anyone expect him to be like the character he portrays? He's an ACTOR, for pity's sake.

[First of Two]

The point that a lot of money is/would be spend on the space program is overwritten by the fact that the technologies derived FROM the space program more than pay for it.

Sattelites (Landsat) make things like crop planting more accurate - which makes it easier to feed those hungry people.

The drive to produce food that astronauts can eat on space flights resulted in a myriad of food preservation and packaging technologies which make produce last longer -- which makes it easier to feed those hungry people.

How many lives do those little smoke detectors save each year?
Developed for Skylab.

A foam insulation designed as a cushion for objects in space was later modified into a new design for a bicycle helmet... a design my brother was wearing when he fell off his bike and slammed his head into a large tree root. The impact-absorbing material prevented any more damage than a minor headache.

There. Everything from the general to the personally specific. What more do you need?

Wait until we've solved our problems?? Earth's resources are finite. Space is infinite. We WON'T solve our own problems without lookinig elsewhere.

[Snake_Plissken]

Very mature, really!

The guy really is dating a 24-yr old actress. Besides, what's your problem saurkraut boy?

Wait until we've solved our problems?? Earth's resources are finite. Space is infinite. We WON'T solve our own problems without lookinig elsewhere.

Very well said. And as you pointed out many people tend to forget that we derive many tangible benefits here on Earth from space exploration. And besides if the US (or the Europeans) don't have a more ambitious space program then nations with suspicious motives like China will catch up fast.

P.S. Stewart is a dick. He makes Shatner likeable. Besides I think he's saying that to prove somehow he's a serious actor and not into sci-fi.

[REG]

But have we solved the hunger in Third World countries? We didn't because of ambitious and power-hungry warlords always flaunting their military might, raiding villages, kiling and raping men, women, and children. When will space technology take care of that?

When will space technology bring stability to Iraq, Afghanistan, and unstable regions?

When will space technology ensures we twenty- and thirty-something will have social security when we retire?

When will space technology cure epidemics of SARS and AIDS?

Will manned space exploration solve all that problems?

Look, if someone would like to privatize NASA and the space exploration program, by all means go ahead. It would lift a lot of budgetary burden from our government who is responsible for creating and maintaining social services to its tax-paying citizens. If you personally want to donate fund the way we TV audience donate to keep PBS on the air, by all means go ahead.

In a way, I agree with Mr. Stewart. We need to take care of our problem here. Heck, I don't know if the Mars Exploration is going to solve our healthcare or any domestic issues that needed to resolve.

P.S. Sorry if it sounds too political, but as long as NASA is being funded by our government, it is nothing but political.

[Cybrludite]

This guy says it better than I could...

From James Lileks at http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive...04/020504.html

Making movies takes up many resources which could be directed at our own planet. For that matter, millions of pounds are spent in England annually for theater productions – I propose a ten-year moratorium on all stage shows, with the money distributed directly to our own planet. And after we have gotten things right on this planet we can get back to such frivolous luxuries as theater. What’s that, you say – theater employs many people? Theater inspires imaginations, adds to our store of knowledge, helps us define what it means to be human?

And exploring other words doesn’t, eh. Noted: the future of humanity shall consist not in getting this place right but watching angry Pinter screeds about that wretched meat we know as our own flawed species. And when we leave the theater we can look up and behold an infinite world we must never pollute.

And this from an Englishman! If he’d been around when first the Brits put out to sea he’d be a wet blanket on the whole idea of boats.

I realize that this now opens me to charges that I am a basement-dwelling pasty-skinned blobbo uberdork whose knowledge of female sexuality is grounded entirely in “Mudd’s Women,” but for the record: I live upstairs, it’s pale season where I live, and I’m about seven Atkins-assisted days away from a six-pack. But I am a dork.

And Patrick Stewart has now become T. J. Hooker. I know him not.

[Balok]

Originally posted by Snake_Plissken
The guy really is dating a 24-yr old actress.

So? Why is that your concern?

Originally posted by Snake_Plissken
Besides, what's your problem saurkraut boy?

When you make a comment like this, you instantly disqualify yourself as an authority on who's a "dick". Sorry. You're the only person I can remember who characterizes the man this way. What happened, did he snub you at a con or something?

Originally posted by Snake_Plissken
Besides I think he's saying that to prove somehow he's a serious actor and not into sci-fi.

He doesn't have to prove that, actually. He'd got numerous other movie roles, and long before he was cast as Picard he played all kinds of Shakespearean characters.

[Balok]

Originally posted by First of Two
Wait until we've solved our problems?? Earth's resources are finite. Space is infinite. We WON'T solve our own problems without lookinig elsewhere.

So ... you propose that instead of trying to solve our problems, we export them?

Nice.

What happens if we discover a planet made of oil and gold that has primitive inhabitants? Throw 'em a few smallpox infested blankets and move in when they've all checked out?

We're not *ready* for space. And if there are other species out there, I'm sure they rather not have us out there with them.

Yes, we've made a great many advancements through space research. But we haven't had a strong space program for decades, and yet, somehow, the progress of science has not slowed.

Add to that the fact that the U.S., at least, is currently struggling under a $500 billion (with a 'b') dollar deficit, and you can, I think, see why some folks aren't interested in picking up the tab for a Mars junket. If you can't, we'll have to agree to disagree, because this thread is veering dangerously close to political, if it isn't there already.

[Cybrludite]

Now, speaking just for myself, waiting until we've got things perfect here is shorthand for never going. Humanity is flawed. Always has been, always will be. We can make improvements, but society will remain no more than three meals from a total breakdown. There has never been a golden age where all people lived in harmony & affluence and slept safe abed without rough men standing ready to violence on their behalf. Improving the human condition is a Good Thing. Pefecting it is the height of hubris. Attempting it leads to Jonestown on the lower end, and Bergen-Belsen or the Gulag on the high end. If you want us to wait until we're perfect before moving off this hunk of rock, it means that, objectively, you want humanity, and eventually all other life on Earth, to go extinct. We came close to the brink in 1962. We dodged a cosmic bullet in 1989. Even if our luck holds out, Sol will eventually burn all her hydrogen, swell to a red giant, and scorch this pretty blue marble we're stuck on. Ye canna change the laws o' physics.

[Cmdr Powers]

Here, here, Cyberludite!

Absolutely smack on.

We spend less than 1% of the Federal Budget on space exploration. Were that money to be freed up it would make an extremely small dent in the current, inflated social programs that we have in the budget.

Mining a single asteroid would probably pay for the entire, clear back to the 50s, space program.

Wake up folks. Even the Bible says the poor will be with us always.

We can do both. We should do both.

And we should do it with the help and cooperation of the rest of the planet- since we're all in the same 'boat'.

[REG]

Too bad we taxpayers can't individually choose where our own tax money (the ones we pay out of our pocket, but not others) will go to. If I had my choice, it would go to social services, while Cmdr Powers and Cyberludite can invest their taxes on NASA and Space Exploration

I assume that NASA's financial management have been reformed since the Columbia Incident (as well as the Challenger Incident).

If that makes me a wet blanket, so be it.