Newt promises that if he makes it to a second term as president, he will build a base on the moon. Really? There's nothing better to spend money on here? ........Education? Infra structure? Alternative Energy?
A moon base?........really?
Printable View
Newt promises that if he makes it to a second term as president, he will build a base on the moon. Really? There's nothing better to spend money on here? ........Education? Infra structure? Alternative Energy?
A moon base?........really?
Anything to avoid talking about what he'd do during his first term.
President moonbeam, you know I might have been ok with a President moonbeam back when Jerry Brown was running but .....
That's why Newt is not electable, he's not just crazy (I think most U.S. policy has been for awhile so that wouldn't be new), but the freak flag flys at full mast with him, the strangest things come out of his mouth.
LOLZ!Quote:
Originally Posted by creaker
Thanks, bae....how fabulously cheesy.
Hilarious.
I'd love if we were prosperous enough to have a really well-funded space program that could do way-out things like that. But the fact is, currently we aren't, and those days are probably behind us. In a decade or so, my state is going to have to figure out more down-to-Earth things, like how to get potable water.
Good luck to all of us.
yes, it would be cool.
that being said, there's already a base on the moon. :)
After Newtie's first term, I think that the idea of living on the moon would be very appealing to me.
Forgive me for itching to send a little campaign financing Newt's way just to help keep this flea circus jumping.
Don't forget the part where he's going to claim the Moon as a U.S. state.
Because, you know, America OWNs it and all.
I seem to remember George W promising to send astronauts to the moon and Mars. That idea didn't get very far. They will promise anything that they think will pull in a few votes.
Queen Isabella promises to build a base in the New World. Really? There's nothing better to spend money on here? ........Education? Infra structure? Alternative Energy? A New World base? ........really?Quote:
Originally Posted by CathyA
President Kennedy promises to put men on the Moon. Really? There's nothing better to spend money on here? ........Education? Infra structure? Alternative Energy? Men on the Moon? ........really?
Yup, Newt Gingrich is just as deranged as Queen Isabella of Spain and President John F. Kennedy were...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5uMQX...CA31C37B670550
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNwmS...deo&playnext=2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zota...deo&playnext=3
Humans _will_ expand throughout the Solar System and beyond. That said, there is no assurance that they will speak English.
Best,
Rodger
this is known in country music as "promising the moon" :)Quote:
I seem to remember George W promising to send astronauts to the moon and Mars. That idea didn't get very far. They will promise anything that they think will pull in a few votes.
The difference between then and now is things on earth (and in this country) have deteriorated GREATLY since then. We are not a prosperous nation at it's height (very far from it), all is not fine here on earth, and IMO it is time to stop pretending.Quote:
President Kennedy promises to put men on the Moon. Really? There's nothing better to spend money on here? ........Education? Infra structure? Alternative Energy? Men on the Moon? ........really?
Quote:
Originally Posted by ApatheticNoMore
If we can avoid disaster for the next two centuries, our species should be safe as we spread into space. If we are the only intellegent beings in the galaxy we should make sure we survive and continue. . . . Our only chance of long-term survival is not to remain inward looking on planet Earth but to spread out into space. We have made remarkable progress in the last hundred years. But if we want to continue beyond the next hundred years, our future is in space.
— Stephen Hawking, theoretical physicist, intervew with Andrew Dermont of website Big Think, 6 August 2010.
Best,
Rodger
Dude, haven't you ever seen Star Trek? English is the universal language, which is good because just imagine if it were Klingon! That is a really hard language for us English speakers to learn.Quote:
Originally Posted by morris_rl
Seriously, I do see your point that there is a fine line between being a visionary and being a nut, but must we really impose ourselves on the rest of the universe?
I saw Star Trek, they had a universal translator. http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Universal_translatorQuote:
Originally Posted by rosebud
Do you think the universe, in its vastness, would notice?Quote:
Seriously, I do see your point that there is a fine line between being a visionary and being a nut, but must we really impose ourselves on the rest of the universe?
Quote:
Originally Posted by rosebud
Since you mention Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry certainly thought so:
"Let me end with an explanation of why I believe the move into space to be a human imperative. It seems to me obvious in too many ways to need listing that we cannot much longer depend upon our planet's relatively fragile ecosystem to handle the realities of the human tomorrow. Unless we turn human growth and energy toward the challenges and promises of space, our only other choice may be the awful risk, currently demonstrable, of stumbling into a cycle of fratricide and regression which could end all chances of our evolving further or of even surviving."
— Gene Roddenberry, 'Hailing Frequencies Open!' The Planetary Report Vol. 1, April/May 1981.
Best,
Rodger
Thanks for brightening my day. I can't see anything but humor in that. Maybe Newt is thinking of establishing some cheese mines to relieve world hunger. How about some golf programs for inner city ghetto residents to inspire them to be upwardly mobile.
Let us see:Quote:
Originally Posted by alan
"We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations."
— President Jimmy Carter, part of the English language message on the 'golden record' attached to Voyager 1, the first man-made machine to leave the Solar System, 1977
Best,
Rodger
Quote:
Originally Posted by alan
Yes, but it all lands up as English!
If we survive as a species long enough I would imagine that it is inevitable that we will develope the technological breakthroughs that will enable us to colonize other planets. I'm not that optimistic that we will be around as a species that long.
Au contraire!Quote:
Originally Posted by rosebud
Quote:
The universal translator (also referred to as a "UT" or
translator circuit) is a device used to decipher and interpret alien languages
into the native language of the user.
+1Quote:
If we survive as a species long enough I would imagine that it is inevitable that we will develope the technological breakthroughs that will enable us to colonize other planets. I'm not that optimistic that we will be around as a species that long.
"If man survives for as long as the least successful of the dinosaurs—those creatures whom we often deride as nature's failures—then we may be certain of this: for all but a vanishingly brief instant near the dawn of history, the word 'ship' will mean— 'spaceship.'"Quote:
Originally Posted by rosebud
— Arthur C. Clarke, quoted by Hugh Downs, Ad Astra, Fall 2008.
Best,
Rodger
What is this "au contaire" you speak of?Quote:
Originally Posted by alan
So let me understand this. The UT thingy is translating everything into English just for me? That's great cuz I hate subtitles.
we need babble-fish. much more reliable, i've heard.
Yes. What would be the point if it translated Klingon to Ferengi, and you weren't Ferengi? Duh!!Quote:
Originally Posted by rosebud
The UT translates the alien language to the language of the LISTENER. So, since you speak English, you hear only English. If you were Klingon, you would hear Klingon. Actually there was an episode of Deep Space Nine where the UT was broken and the humans who were interacting with the Ferengi couldn't understand them.
edited to correct my spelling of Ferengi. I'm trusting Alan's spelling.:thankyou:
So you're saying this miraculous device could help me understand Obamacare?Quote:
Originally Posted by peggy
I would imagine most politicians would be terrified of a device that translated what they say into something each listener could actually understand. They'd have a much harder time backpedaling and insisting that what they said wasn't actually what they said.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg
Forgive me, I haven't read all of this thread.
A funny I read on facebook today....
"Can we just make Newt president of the moon colony?"
Unfortunately comprehension is up to the individuals ability.;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg
No, it would still be Feregi to you.Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg
As soon as somebody demonstrates the art of flying, settlers from our species of man will not be lacking [on the Moon and Jupiter]. . . . Who would have believed that a huge ocean could be crossed more peacefully and safely than the the narrow expanse of the Adriatic, the Baltic Sea or the English Channel? Provide ship or sails adapted to the heavenly breezes, and there will be some who will not fear even that void [of space]. . . . So, for those who will come shortly to attempt this journey, let us establish the astronomy: Galileo, you of Jupiter, I of the Moon.
— Johannes Kepler, letter to Galileo Galilei, 'Conversation with the Messenger from the Stars,' 19 April 1610.
In my own view, the important achievement of Apollo was a demonstration that humanity is not forever chained to this planet, and our visions go rather further than that, and our opportunities are unlimited.
— Neil Armstrong, July 1999.
All of the following individuals are on record as believing that we must expand beyond the Earth:
http://www.spacequotations.com/colonization.html
Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong, Isaac Asimov, John Jacob Astor, J. D. Bernal, Frank Borman, Ben Bova, Ray, Bradbury, William E. Burrows, Charles Chafer, Arthur C. Clarke, Michael Collins, Walter Cronkite, Paul Davies, Freeman Dyson, Newt Gingrich, Buckminster Fuller, Robert Goddard, Michael Griffin, David Grinspoon, Stephen Hawking, Robert A. Heinlein, T. A. Heppenheimer, Frank Herbert, Charles Holbrow, Richard D. Johnson, Johannes Kepler, Timothy Leary, Bruce Murray, Elon Musk, Larry Niven, Hermann Oberth, Gerard K. O'Neill, Jerry Pournelle, Corey Powell, Martin Rees, Gene Roddenberry, Carl Sagan, Marshall T. Savage, Robert Shapiro, Charles Sheldon, Olaf Stapledon, Max Tegmark, Henry David Thoreau, Frank J. Tipler, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, Rick Tumlinson, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, Tom Wolfe, U.S. Human Spaceflight Plans Committee, John Young, Robert Zubrin,
If Newt Gingrich is crazy for advocating a permanent settlement on the Moon, then he is in extremely good company...
"Imagine how foolish you would feel if you didn't try only because someone said you're a lunatic."
— Paul Horowitz, Harvard physicist and SETI veteran, Discover magazine, July/August 2010.
Best,
Rodger
Quote:
Originally Posted by mtnlaurel
Let us establish the moon colony and then offer Newt the position. My guess is that he would accept...
Best,
Rodger
"If Newt Gingrich is crazy for advocating a permanent settlement on the Moon, then he is in extremely good company..."
Crazy is secondary (I love the idea myself; I'm a huge space nut). Poor priorities are primary. This is the man who begrudges federal spending on keeping ordinary people fed, housed, and educated in a catastrophic economic situation not of their making. Otherwise, I'm sure it wouldn't be the object of so many derisive comments. Rodger, you're a big supporter of the concept, obviously, and I love that you're so passionate about it. But where do you suggest the trillions to do it might come from?
If the human race is to survive and thrive in the long term, then we simply must expand into space. As Arthur C. Clarke once said so trenchantly:Quote:
Originally Posted by puglogic
"There is no way back into the past; the choice, as Wells once said, is the universe—or nothing. Though men and civilizations may yearn for rest, for the dream of the lotus-eaters, that is a desire that merges imperceptibly into death. The challenge of the great spaces between the worlds is a stupendous one; but if we fail to meet it, the story of our race will be drawing to its close."
— Arthur C. Clarke, Interplanetary Flight, 1950.
Setting up a colony on the moon need not cost trillions of dollars. Use a prize system, as was successfully done in aviation, and as was successfully done with the Ansari X-Prize for achieving suborbital flight.
For example, offer a tax free cash prize of $20 billion for the first private entity that can establish a colony on the moon staffed by 10 people or more for 720 consecutive days. If nobody achieves the terms of the prize, it costs the American taxpayer nothing. If it does succeed, a capability exists that the U.S. may contract to use as needed...
If you wish to avoid a monopoly, offer two such prizes, say $20 billion and $10 billion. Even $30 billion is between two and three orders of magnitude less than the trillions of dollars the naysayers throw around as the minimum cost of such a colony. And if I am wrong in this and the cost is on the order of trillions of dollars, then there is no cost to the American taxpayer, as the prize(s) will go unclaimed.
Newt Gingrich explicitly stated that he was strongly in favor of establishing such prizes.
Best,
Rodger
Had to stop and read this in Slate today after the discussion here:
http://www.slate.com/articles/techno...ars_plan_.html
Apparently not everyone is impressed by Newt's idea.
And to think Obama got flack from Republicans for wanting to give some funds to help a planetarium.
Hi, Rodger!Quote:
Originally Posted by morris_rl
This all completely ignores the fact that it would take 8 years to build the space program to get there--making it Newt's retirement home. :moon:
The new part, building a habitable base on the moon, would probably take longer.