[meteorite-list] "Meteorite" for $7.1 billion per gram!

[Gerald Flaherty]

As always Doug, I am in awe of the knowledge and wisdom at your fingertips. 
A Positive spin "half empty/half full" always sways me in that direction.
I too see only advancement of our paultry human knowledge as the benifit of 
Stardust.
A smidgen of Mercury or Venus to compare our present unclassified "ites" 
might just make someone a "billionaire" as a side benefit to just the 
satisfaction of "knowing".
It's difficult enough to squeek budgetary commitment for NASA out of a 
overtaxed National Budget.
Let's celebrate success without wringing our hands over the world's "always 
desparate condition".
Jerry Flaherty
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <MexicoDoug at aol.com>
To: <marcin at meteoryt.net>; <accretiondesk at gmail.com>; 
<meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 5:12 PM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] "Meteorite" for $7.1 billion per gram!


> Marcin writes:
>>Think what could be done in Earth for  that
>>ammount of money (except next War ofcourse).
>>Thousands of  people die becouse have no food. Lets think about this when
>>next time we  look on photo of microscopic grain in a gel :-|
>
> Marcin, a lot of responsibility does come with NASA's territory.  Not  a
> whole lot could be accomplished by spending $200,000,000 on Earth, 
> though.
> People spend this kind of money every day, and the change is 
> imperceptible in the
> large scheme of human events.  There is a natural  limit to the resources 
> on
> earth, do you think the real solution is to spend  money or to think out 
> of the
> box?  Is the real solution jamming more and  more in the same place as 
> waste
> only accumulates daily and resources are  continually dwindled?
>
> Don't forget, in economics "spending money" is very different for the 
> social
> good than for an individual's personal benefit.  The money is still  in 
> the
> economy and not destroyed, it only changes hands, and thus is still 
> available
> for giving.  The grains collected by Stardust were obtained at  $0.00 per
> gram.  The numbers of $ really are irrelevant to your  argument.  It just 
> passes
> money around from one gear in the society to  another - in this case the
> receivers are employee scientists so they don't add  to the starving ranks 
> of the
> world and be forced to work in a non-unionized  sweat shop and then get 
> their
> jobs sent overseas to feed the overseas middle  class and perhaps 
> corruption.
> This is a collective benefit giving handouts  to the scientists that 
> preserves
> a culture of technological advancement which  today has even started to
> outsource major portions of the missions to European  countries and keep 
> their
> scientists from the breadlines as well.
>
> The end result maintains the earthly culture of keeping a bunch  of 
> employed
> scientists and engineering geniuses on call and hard at work,  reaching 
> for
> the stars.  It bolsters a society benefiting from everything  this culture 
> grabs
> from outside of our stagnating terrarium and knowledge  base, and keeps
> afloat an industrial behemoth which can support  novel and cutting edge
> advancements for the whole of human societies, tending to  advance human 
> rights and
> respect.  That same industry would degenerate into  a bunch of dejected 
> scientists
> and has-been high-tech companies that would  vanish into hungry oblivion
> themselves, without this support.  Somewhat  like Katovice was 30 years 
> ago.
>
> That sadly won't mean much to someone who keels over in hunger  tomorrow.
> You can alleviate his problem as Mother Teresa sagely  advises "If you 
> can't
> feed 100 people, the just feed one.":
> _http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites_
> (http://www.thehungersite.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CTDSites)
> _http://hunger.stanford.edu/help_body.html_
> (http://hunger.stanford.edu/help_body.html)
>
> Best wishes, Doug
>
>
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