Space Flight, Pro-Life, and Manatees
Here are a few news items that caught my eye today:
NASA Human Space Flight Review
NASA is planning a review of the Human Spaceflight Program in light of the shifting priorities in Washington. Since the Constellation program was created about 5 years ago, it has struggled to get the funding it needs to meet the goals of returning humans to the Moon’s surface by 2020. While industry executives are more optimistic now than they were last year, it looks like everybody will need a reality check.
My opinion is that NASA doesn’t get the front page press it used to get, and as a result of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan and the Great Recession, I don’t expect that anyone can get them to public support it needs for spending billions on a ‘do over’ to the Moon, let alone the extra billions to get to Mars. There is no cold-war prestige in beating the Russians, or the Chinese.
The old Space Race was seen as a foreign policy program – convince the third world the America is better than the Soviets – which was what got it past congress in the ’60s.
It’s too bad that NASA is now bogged down in writing reports instead of building rockets. It’s incredibly vital that over the long term we get ourselves off this one rock (Earth) and into space.
NYT – NASA to Review Human Spaceflight
Manatees Die in Record Numbers
Growing up in Florida along the St. Lucie river and the Inter-coastal waterway, I would see manatees occasional in the river shallows. I was always excited because they were so big but very peaceful. I the Saturdays where Dad, Mom and I would take out our little speedboat, we could see them along the canals chomping on the green plants close to shore. I was sad to hear that winter has been really hard on them:
Star-Trib/AP – Endangered Florida manatees die in record numbers from nearly two-week cold snap
Pro-Life and Super Sunday
There is a brewing controversy over a Focus on the Family ad that is set to air during the Super Bowl with rising football star Tim Tebow and his mother endorsing a pro-life stance.
When Tim’s mother was pregnant, she was a missionary in the Philippians and she became sick and was strongly encouraged to abort her pregnancy. Instead, she choose to carry here baby to term and gave birth to what is now a talented and respected young man.
The thing that bothered me was the outright bitterness the NOW representatives had in denouncing the ad – which they haven’t seen – and the desire to completely block a counter-point in an open debate using censorship, instead of countering with an ad of their own. I’m pro-life, but if you have a point to make, a reasonable argument, make it. don’t just shout the equivalent of ‘Shut-up, poopie-heads’. Both positions are more complex than that.
Also in this article, note how a sports commentator denounces that ad because in distracts him from his ‘holiest’ of days, Super Sunday. Dude, priority check. I know it’s your profession and I am sure you have a lot of emotional investment in the event, but issues of live and death and moral choices are important to consider. And it’s just a 30 second ad, not a sermon. It’s just a game, too. A very exciting game, but not a religion. Sports is a very hollow religion.
