Weather prediction models and techniques were mostly sponsored by military — same reasons here.

Wrong. The UK’s Met Office has always been a government-funded organisation, and has led the world in weather prediction.

We all know about ARPANET program, right. Well, DARPA was conducting military research. Evil Republicans do not plan to cut military programs, right?

Yes, for the internet, but the WWW was invented at CERN, which is most definitely government-sponsored.

No special whinge for science

We engineers are the real kings, though.

Without us you have nothing. NOTHING, I tell you!

Salisbury Cathedral was built without engineers.

Come to think of it, so were all of Europe’s great mediaevel cathedrals.

Now if I could only figure out why my horoscope and my fortune cookie don’t agree… Anyone know of a method for doing that?

Well, 3 years after that I tore the ischial tuberosity tendon region in my left leg. And now, 8 years after that, I can confidently say that I can tell when the seasons are about to change and that it hurts like a @#$@. For at least the last 3 years I’ve noticed more and more impact on non-injured tendinous regions. I believe that my inability to get enough cardiovascular exercise, as a result of injuring a core tendon/muscle region, is directly responsible for hindered circulation, which obviously results in poor heat maintenance for the extremities.

I’m sorry to hear about your back. Keep up with the cardio or you’ll get to become your own case study into weather pattern sensitization over time…:)

> As I sit, I squint at my computer…
(computers were created as a by-product of military research, then commercialized by IBM and Apple and the rest is history).

> LCD monitor…
LCD was invented by George H. Heilmeier, then an employee of RCA — big big monopolistic company.

> so I put on my prescription glasses to see better
The medieval (or maybe even ancient) invention made for pure commercial purposes.

> so I take a couple of ibuprofens
…discovered by Boots Group, a “big pharma” company…

> with a glass of fresh clean water from my tap.
Well, the slaves of Ancient Rome should be credited for this technology. Definitely government intervention here.

> when I got an MRI
OK, the research that led to MRI was government-sponsored indeed.

> cortisone injection
The procedure was invented at Mayo Clinic. Well it isn’t a for-profit company, but neither a government-sponsored entity.

> I looked online
We all know about ARPANET program, right. Well, DARPA was conducting military research. Evil Republicans do not plan to cut military programs, right?

> That weather page
Weather prediction models and techniques were mostly sponsored by military — same reasons here.

Now guess what. We _do_ need science, that’s right. But what governments now like to finance is mostly not science. The right way to finance science is business and military applications, as it was for years.

Cheers.

My point was simply that the good doctor seems to have a pair of designer rose colored glasses when looking at science. I was astounded to find out just how many nuclear warhead tests were performed back in the day. Thousands of them and I am sure those scientists were all there busily analyzing the data. Seriously, after ten or so you’d think they’d know the damned things worked. Science is a tool nothing more and scientists are subject to the same flaws as everybody else. They work for money and not (as a body) for the greater good and comfort of humanity, however you might define that.

We didn’t even get to all that science that is done just to satisfy the curiosity, or increase the prestige of, the scientist and will never impact any decision made by anybody living on the planet ever.

And if scientists as a body did have the good of humanity at heart what then could one say about a no longer practicing scientist who quit the field voluntarily to become an author or philosopher instead. Were they tired of doing so much good perhaps?

3) Also a world with engineers

Computer technology just exploded almost 30 years ago; I gave up my quest to remain abreast of all developments back in 1992. I frequently use 90 milliwatt machines which fit into a matchbox (and leave plenty space) and which perform 20 times faster than my ancient Apple2e (these new gizmos are a mutant cousin of the CPU powering the Apple2e).

I share your concern about the excesses of the cold war, and the still-present threat to human civilization posed by the 10′s of thousands of nukes still out there. However, the current nuclear weapon arsenals are not even remotely capable of “sterilizing the biosphere”, by brute power or via fallout.

The best estimate for the impact that finished off the dinosaurs for example is around 100,000 G tonnes, and that didn’t come within a factor of 100 to sterilizing the biosphere generally. The total human nuclear arsenal is around 10 G tonnes. We probably couldn’t even wipe ourselves out, at least not directly. Heck we’ll probably manage a more severe mass extinction of species without a nuclear war, than we would with one.

It is not simply a question of what they have done FOR you, but also what they could do TO you.

The story is Isaac Asimov’s “Profession”. Available for online reading here:
http://www.abelard.org/asimov.php

To funding for your new pc , research lines and peers finding please check the non-profit agingportfolio.org.

Pictures speak louder than words.

You may now kiss my IEEE ring.

Yeah, but it was orders of magnitude worse back then. Science *has* most assuredly improved humanity’s lot, along with free markets, the recognition of the individual having innate human rights, and the idea that government should have rigid boundaries. Those things finally broke the back of the endless millennia of royalty/serf structures. I know it’s popular these day to hate on such things, but history is what it is for any who care to study it with an open mind.