And Salomon2003... you obviously have NO idea what you are talking about, and this statement proves it...
'andy is overreacting- i think he needs to stop being so political and challenging everythign that tim throws at him. sure its a tragedy, but its not like because of this the end of the world is nearing. '
How does any of my argument relate to poltics. If you've noticed SVHucker stepped into the argument on MY side, and he's always been against me in arguments about politics. If anything, the arguement has to do with personal beliefs and religion. We established that. The space program is very important to me. I've always followed it since I was a little kid, and my family went to view a shuttle launch in Florida. I am now trying to step in and prove to people that those astronauts' affect on society/the human race were more important and positive than that of the average person. How they are symbols of courage. And how when they died, a large peice of America died with them. People jumping into the arguement with nothing to add besides the repition of what was said before should just stay out. We've already addressed the points people are posting. Read the damn thread.
And PhattSarah... you're telling me that Astronauts are no more important than the average Doctor or Nurse? Does the average doctor risk his life every time he does his job? The average doctor is generally overpaid. An astronauts salary is around 40,000 - 70,000 USD. That's like a quarter of a doctors STARTING salary. In fact, the average network sysadmin makes about that. Doctors are an integral part of todays society, yes. However, astronauts are an integral part of TOMORROWS society. They do the research so new cures can be developed for diseases though uncurable, they do work to study things such as muscle atrophy, effects of zero g, etc... all of which tomorrow's doctors will eventually use. The experiments run on the space shuttle could save millions of lives eventually. And Tim, do you realize that when I talk about the space program, I am talking about everything connected TO the space program, I'm talking about all the offshoot research and stuff... already said all this stuff... and I'll say again 'RTFP' Read the fucking post.
People have to realize that the space program is more than just telescopes and travelling to other planets... most of the research they do is done to benifit people here on earth... this is probably the 4th time I've said this... why can't you people get it into your head.
-Andy
/.
PPP... yes
'When you say 'I wrote a program that crashed Windows', people just stare at you blankly and say 'Hey, I got those with the system, *for free*'.' -- Linus Torvalds