Contact with Columbia Lost!

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by notyoueither


OK. So people are to run these things by you first to get the measurement of where an event fits on the BC tragedy scale, then they can commence mourning properly. A little full of ourselves today, yes?

People can do what they like. Am I not allowed to make my opinion known?

[Dauphin]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov


But this thread is about this specific tragedy. That was its purpose. To come in here and kvetch about it is either thoughtlessness or attention-seeking, and I'd wager a bit of both are involved. If you don't deem it worthy of your interest, go somewhere else and leave those who do care about it alone.

I am responding to specific comments made at me, am I supposed to ignore them?

[The Mad Monk]

Big Crunch is trying to be deep.

He isn't succeeding.

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Big Crunch


I am responding to specific comments made at me, am I supposed to ignore them?

Those comments were in response to your own thoughtless post.

Look, next time you have a loved one die, I will show up at the funeral and say, "Get a grip, people! It's just one person! People die every day, why is this so sad? Stop yer crying!" We'll see how well that goes over.

Blind cynicism is not a pretty trait.

[Sirotnikov]

Big crunch, do you also do this to private people?

I mean, do you come to, say, funerals, and tell people "hey, there are thousands of people starving in africa! stop crying!" and demand that all the people that came except the immediate family leave?

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Gatekeeper
As someone on another board stated eloquently, humanity's collective IQ declined today with the deaths of the Columbia crew.

Gatekeeper

If this is all that matters, then we can more than compensate by offing Bush.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Agathon
If this is all that matters, then we can more than compensate by offing Bush.

Enough of this crap... There are more than enough threads to bash Bush...

Enough of the personal crap as well... stay on topic and stop the personal insults.

[Panag]

hi ,

Siro , special report on cnn , "Columbia a tragedy" at 0300 our time

have a nice day


and guys can we please leave the personal remarks

[Agathon]

Most deaths are incredibly mundane affairs. These people were taking incredible risks to contribute to the fund of human knowledge. My own feelings are similar to those of the astronauts - it's sad, but those are the risks, and we devalue what the dead stood for if we don't realise that they thought the risk was worth it - they were willing to pay the price to help humankind; most aren't - we should admire them for that.

While in some respect it is true that all deaths are the same, there are surely some that are more poignant than others. For example, the death of Scott and his party was an heroic death. Kennedy's assassination was the death of one person, but meant more to people because of the circumstances. The murders of Ghandi, Allende, Che Guevara and Bishop Romero were more significant than most other murders given who they were the circumstances. Ditto for the massacres at Wachita and Glencoe.

It's not the deaths themselves, but the circumstances and context that make the difference.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Ming

Enough of the personal crap as well... stay on topic and stop the personal insults.

Couldn't resist the Bush one, sorry. It was like a ripe fruit waiting to be plucked. Bad me.

What personal crap? I didn't get at anyone other than GWB and he doesn't post here to my knowledge.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Agathon
What personal crap? I didn't get at anyone other than GWB and he doesn't post here to my knowledge.

The Bush comment was aimed at you... the personal crap comment was aimed at other people... AND THEY KNOW WHO THEY ARE

Now get back on topic.

[Agathon]

As I was saying....

Space exploration is one area of human endeavour where most of us have an interest. The ISS is a good example of this. I'd wager that the Russian and Western scientists were kind of relieved to get the Cold War trash out of the way so that they could get on with being scientists - after all the disinterested inquiry of science is necessarily a collective enterprise which all its true adherents want to succeed independently of national allegiances - so this affects everyone who cares about the advancement of human knowledge (like me).

Having said that, I can understand the Americans and the Israelis have additional reasons for grieving.

[Chemical Ollie]

Some of my own thoughts about the crash: I'm old enough to remember seeing Colombia's first landing on live television in school back in 1981. I have also seen Endevour take off on site at Cape Canaveral. It was a night launch, pretty cool sight.

Of course I feel sorry for the victims of the accident, but not more than I would for the victims of a local bus crash. After all, the Astronauts volonteered for a mission they knew to be dangerous. I feel more sorry for the space program as such and the delays this will bring.

Lousy cheapskate Budget. If the Bu****es hadn't frozen Nasa's budget then the ISS would actually be worth something these days. ..

Cutting funds to the great scientific space program makes sense in a country where it is not only fully legal, but as I heard quite common, by school teachers to refuse or ignore teaching the Theory of Evolution. Furthermore this same country is still playing around with the obsolete pounds, gallons and inches, while the rest of the world have adapted the metric system. The conservative Christians who voted Bush must be celebrating now when Scientific progress is taking a step backward. Perhaps they dont dance like they according to rumours do in Gaza, but anyway...

At the same time, how much money are spent on a missile-defense system that won't stop the only realistic nuclear treat anyway, which is a small bomb smuggled in by boat or similar means and planted in place (like spy mission "plant nuke" in CIV2). Why not transfer some money from building rockets that's not needed to building rockets that the whole world want?

Don't get me wrong here, I do not hate Americans or something like that just because I bash some general features of US and the politics of the current government...

About the conspiracy theories (act of God, terrorists, airplane seen close by etc): Yeah Right, space terrorists! How long before we hear the "Act of Alien" theory?

About the Jewish angle to this: What about the Indian angle? Are the Pakistanis celebrating like the Palestinians, now that an Indian astronaut died?

[DanS]

The conservative Christians who voted Bush must be celebrating now when Scientific progress is taking a step backward.

You have some weird opinions. Does the EU spend so much money rolling the dice on great scientific progress? Does the EU have a large portion of christian conservatives?

Even removing military R&D, the US spends more than the EU on science as a %-age of the economy. I wonder what basis you think you have to criticize.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Thank God they dont.