Armed Polite Society
Main Forums => Politics => Topic started by: Tallpine on July 05, 2010, 04:02:54 PM
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/07/05/nasa-chief-frontier-better-relations-muslims/
NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.
Though international diplomacy would seem well outside NASA's orbit, Bolden said in an interview with Al Jazeera that strengthening those ties was among the top tasks President Obama assigned him. He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.
This is about the most far out in space thing I've heard yet.
Could somebody please wake me up?
Funny, I don't remember eating those mushrooms... =|
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He said better interaction with the Muslim world would ultimately advance space travel.
Is that because Muslims have better spaceships than everyone else? What an idiot Obama Appointee.
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Charles Bolden isn't just a political hack. From his biography on Wikipedia:
Charles Frank "Charlie" Bolden, Jr. (born August 19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina, United States) is the current Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps major general, and former NASA astronaut.
A 1968 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, he became a Marine Aviator and test pilot. After his service as an astronaut, he became Deputy Commandant of Midshipmen at the Naval Academy. Bolden is the virtual host of the Shuttle Launch Experience attraction at Kennedy Space Center.[1] Bolden also serves on the board of directors for the Military Child Education Coalition.
On May 23, 2009, President Barack Obama announced the nomination of Bolden as NASA Administrator, and Lori Garver as Deputy NASA Administrator.[2] Bolden was confirmed by the Senate on July 15, 2009.[3] He is the first African American to head the agency on a permanent basis.[2]
Perhaps he is speaking out now in order to save NASA by publicizing the priorities Obama has given him.
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Perhaps a house plant is smarter.
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So let's see . . . first Obama decides to re-task NASA from space exploration to global warming advocacy, and now he wants to use NASA to improve relations with the Moslem world?!?
I read an article some time ago about some people being SO far out of kilter ". . . they were not even wrong." Like a guy who genuinely and sincerely insists the moon is made out of green cheese.
It's starting to look as if BHO is fitting into that mold . . . he acts as if he's mad as a hatter . . . and that worries me.
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I think it would be great if NASA received enough government funding to be able to set its own course. Cooperative ventures with other countries, to share the bill, add tremendous delay and complexity. But I am afraid that sharing the load and bills is a reality today.
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Has somebody seen Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick too many times?
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Charles Bolden isn't just a political hack. From his biography on Wikipedia:
Charles Frank "Charlie" Bolden, Jr. (born August 19, 1946 in Columbia, South Carolina, United States) is the current Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps major general, and former NASA astronaut.
He's a political hack with a resume.
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Has somebody seen Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick too many times?
Bolden might be a bit far along in years to challenge Rahm Emanuel to a knife fight.
Then again, experience and real tenacity might serve him well.
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Y'all are missing this completely. He really can't say that NASA is secretly working on a KE bombardment satellite with the Air Force. Once we get that sucker in orbit above the Middle East and do a test strike, instantly we have better relations.
=D
Okay maybe not.
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However, Bolden denied the suggestion that he was on a diplomatic mission -- in a distinctly non-diplomatic role.
"Not at all. It's not a diplomatic anything," he said.
He said the United States is not going to travel beyond low-Earth orbit on its own and that no country is going to make it to Mars without international help.
I think this quote is even worse than the first one. We can't get past low Earth orbit without help.
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Call me blunt, but it strikes me that the Muslim World does not soon get its house in order the only better relation to be made with them will be akin to the "Better Relations" The Covenant made with The Flood.
Has somebody seen Pitch Black/Chronicles of Riddick too many times?
We keep what we kill?
Works for me. >:D
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Call me when we've decided to give them their own planet.
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NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said in a recent interview that his "foremost" mission as the head of America's space exploration agency is to improve relations with the Muslim world.
And here I thought it was space exploration. I'm confused.
Call me when we've decided to give them their own planet.
We have. It's called Earth.
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must be a nutter comet a comet coming. [popcorn] (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heaven%27s_Gate_%28religious_group%29)
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Somebody picked the wrong week to start sniffing glue.
Though I suppose Iran might have some interesting advances in missile technology, and would like to have more.
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Did y'all miss the Iranian Robot? It is only a matter of time before the Sharia Kill Bots take over.
Iran unveils robot descended from ancient Persian royalty
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/07/iran-unveils-ro.php
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.80c425d08e43bd8ab419c2b2bb578795.141&show_article=1
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.breitbart.com%2Fimages%2F2010%2F7%2F4%2FCNG.80c425d08e43bd8ab419c2b2bb578795.141%2Fphoto_1278233437774-1-1.jpg&hash=4a350adac5438011224f430bd6632d4fb0463136)
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Just ignore the Made in Japan tag and the Intel Inside sticker on the back.
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Did y'all miss the Iranian Robot? It is only a matter of time before the Sharia Kill Bots take over.
Iran unveils robot descended from ancient Persian royalty
http://dvice.com/archives/2010/07/iran-unveils-ro.php
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.80c425d08e43bd8ab419c2b2bb578795.141&show_article=1
(https://armedpolitesociety.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.breitbart.com%2Fimages%2F2010%2F7%2F4%2FCNG.80c425d08e43bd8ab419c2b2bb578795.141%2Fphoto_1278233437774-1-1.jpg&hash=4a350adac5438011224f430bd6632d4fb0463136)
Do the girl-bots have to wear a burka?
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I was just thinking that it would cover up the logo. HOWEVER, does Sharia law prohibit advertising on the outside of the burka? What if we started a company to pay muslim women to wear burka's with ads on them? =)
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http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.80c425d08e43bd8ab419c2b2bb578795.141&show_article=1
"Walking slowly like human beings with regular arm and leg movements are among its characteristics," it said. "Such robots are designed and developed to be used in sensitive and difficult jobs on behalf of a person or as help."
They need a protocol droid.
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It's apparent you guys missed the NASA memo on the Advanced Flying Carpet program...
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The full horror of this decision is not that NASA is 'engaging the Islamic world'. If anything, that's the least controversial part of the deal.
The problem is that NASA is folding back from space travel. NASA's goals are now talking to schoolchildren about space, engaging other nations in space research, talking to Muslims about space. Nothing about these things is actually bad per se – but the thing that's key here is that none of these goals are about actually going to space.
And this is fairly reasonable.
What could NASA – given its current budget and the state of the economy – accomplish in space right now?
Of course, it would be possible to go to the moon. But unless a quality jump occurs in the size and capacity of carriers, a permanent moon settlement is not currently in the cards. All that we could do at the current level would be to send a handful of astronauts, have them hop about on the surface, conduct some experiments and go home. The scientific benefit of sending such astronauts is very limited – as far as I understand, there's very little they could do there that a moon rover of some kind could not do better and cheaper.
Every kind of major accomplishment – not just a shiny mission for the cameras, a major accomplishment – bigger lifters, a moonbase, a Mars shot, anything of this kind requires money and political will. The technology for these things is not outside the reach of humanity. Blueprints and design studies for lifters that can heft 500 tons into orbit at once existed since the 1960's. But right now, the will isn't there and we all know it.
Now I am all for private space travel. Private space travel is going to cut lifter prices of orbital lift and rocket engines, and possibly enable private moonshots at some point as the prices fall due to competition. But we're not talking about the future of space travel in general here – we're talking about NASA.
It seems to me that this new statement by the NASA director is a portent – not of some reconciliatory moves towards Muslim nations, but of NASA accepting a 'caretaker' status and giving up, if temporarily, its role as a leader in actual space travel.
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Do the girl-bots have to wear a burka?
If a girl-bot acts "obscenely" does it get stoned/beaten or does its programmer?
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both, why try to save stones? they're cheap. [popcorn]
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Since the guy and others brought up the issue of past scientific accomplishments of the Muslim world I have a question. Were those accomplishments actually done by Muslim people or by the cultures/people the Muslims conquered?
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Since the guy and others brought up the issue of past scientific accomplishments of the Muslim world I have a question. Were those accomplishments actually done by Muslim people or by the cultures/people the Muslims conquered?
Some of the more important accomplishments in mathematics are Muslim in origin. But the Muslims ALSO are famous for reviving/protecting/translating a variety of Ancient texts. Our knowledge of Aristotle almost completely comes via the Muslims.
They also created several of the economic institutions we enjoy today.
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NASA, under Obama, is becoming what every institution in America is destined to become: a global social welfare organization in which America subsidizes its own "humbling."
There are people who debunk the glorious medieval accomplishments of Islam, you know, but in any case the "is" is what matters, not the "was."
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Arabic numerals, investigation of magnetism, astronomy . . . sure. Give credit where credit is due.
And I've no doubt that some capable scientists today are Moslem.
But what have Moslems done scientifically as a culture lately, with "lately" understood to mean the last couple of hundred years?
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Just as our schools have turned into engines of Self-Esteem--psychological rehab, as it were--rather than engines of Learning, so our Government itself has turned into an engine of Self-Esteem for Everywhere But America. The only shocker here is that spearpoint is, somewhat confoundingly and more than a little risibly, NASA!
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I guess I was thinking that the Muslim controlled areas of the time were heavy trade routes which were information routes as well for trading information from the East and West. They were in an ideal position to collect a lot of knowledge and ideas from different cultures.
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The full horror of this decision is not that NASA is 'engaging the Islamic world'. If anything, that's the least controversial part of the deal.
The problem is that NASA is folding back from space travel. NASA's goals are now talking to schoolchildren about space, engaging other nations in space research, talking to Muslims about space. Nothing about these things is actually bad per se – but the thing that's key here is that none of these goals are about actually going to space.
Then there is really no point in allowing the agency to exist any longer. Disband NASA and take the money they would have gotten and award contracts to the likes of Sir Richard Branson and Bob Bigelow who are already doing space travel developement on their own dime.
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Ceding America's legacy and lead in space exploration is part of The Great Humbling. We are fools to permit this.
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Then there is really no point in allowing the agency to exist any longer. Disband NASA and take the money they would have gotten and award contracts to the likes of Sir Richard Branson and Bob Bigelow who are already doing space travel developement on their own dime.
And this is already being done.
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Then there is really no point in allowing the agency to exist any longer. Disband NASA and take the money they would have gotten and award contracts to the likes of Sir Richard Branson and Bob Bigelow who are already doing space travel developement on their own dime.
BHO & Company are more likely to divert the money to whatever organizations have been spun off from ACORN or the Black Panthers. :mad:
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Ceding America's legacy and lead in space exploration is part of The Great Humbling. We are fools to permit this.
This right here.
It's similar to giving South Africa credit now for being the "Cradle of Humanity". What have they done for the world lately?
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Arabic numerals, investigation of magnetism, astronomy . . . sure. Give credit where credit is due.
And I've no doubt that some capable scientists today are Moslem.
But what have Moslems done scientifically as a culture lately, with "lately" understood to mean the last couple of hundred years?
I hear suicide vest technology has grown by leaps and bounds...
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I hear suicide vest technology has grown by leaps and bounds...
How about the gas laser and fiber optics? These are the work of a Muslim scientist. You're surfing the Internet right now because of the work of a a man named Ali Javan.
Or in space, ever hear of man named Mohammad ABdus Salam?
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How about the gas laser and fiber optics? These are the work of a Muslim scientist. You're surfing the Internet right now because of the work of a a man named Ali Javan.
Or in space, ever hear of man named Mohammad ABdus Salam?
Where did that research take place? Where were they educated?
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No one says Muslims, today, can't excel in science and technology, but they are unlikely to do that within the womb of the Ummah or if they are strict believers who think all knowledge is contained in one book.
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Where did that research take place? Where were they educated?
The former is/was an Iranian immigrant who worked at MIT. The latter is a Pakistani citizen who works with the PAkistani space program. Is also a Nobel laureate.
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The latter is a Pakistani citizen who works with the PAkistani space program. Is also a Nobel laureate.
begging the question? where did he go to school?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdus_Salam
Salam's father was an officer in the Department of Education in a poor farming district. His family has a long tradition of piety and learning.
At age fourteen, Salam scored the highest marks ever recorded for the Matriculation Examination at the Punjab University. He won a scholarship to the Government College, Punjab University, in Lahore. As a fourth-year student there, he published his work on Srinivasa Ramanujan.[4] He received his master's degree from the Government College in 1946. That same year, he was awarded a scholarship to St. John's College, Cambridge University, where he completed a BA degree with Double First-Class Honours in Mathematics and Physics in 1949. In 1950, he received the Smith's Prize from Cambridge University for the most outstanding pre-doctoral contribution to Physics.
He obtained a PhD degree in Theoretical Physics at Cambridge. His doctoral thesis contained fundamental work in Quantum Electrodynamics. By the time it was published in 1951, it had already gained him an international reputation and the Adams Prize.[5]
[edit] Later career
He returned to the Government College University, Lahore as a Professor of Mathematics from 1951 to 1954 and then went back to Cambridge as a lecturer in mathematics.
In 1956 he was invited to take a chair at Imperial College, London, where he and Paul Matthews created a lively theoretical physics group. He remained a professor at Imperial until his retirement.
During the early 1960s Salam played a very significant role in establishing the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC) – the atomic research agency of Pakistan – and Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) – the space research agency of Pakistan, of which he was the founding director. Due to Prof. Salam's influence President Ayub Khan had the Nuclear Power Plant near Karachi (KANUPP) personally approved, against the wishes of his own Government[6]. Salam was also instrumental in setting up five Superior Science colleges throughout Pakistan to further the progress in science in the country. Salam was a firm believer that "scientific thought is the common heritage of mankind," and that developing nations needed to help themselves and invest into their own scientists to boost development and reduce the gap between the Global South and the Global North, thus contributing to a more peaceful world. Salam also founded the Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) and was a leading figure in the creation of a number of international centres dedicated to the advancement of science and technology.
In 1964, Salam founded International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, in the North-East of Italy. He was the Director of ICTP from 1964 to December 1993. The Centre has since been renamed to (The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics). In 1959, he became one of the youngest to be named Fellow of the Royal Society at the age of 33.
In 1998, the Government of Pakistan issued a stamp carrying his portrait as part of a series entitled "Scientists of Pakistan."[7]. He was a foreign fellow of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences [8]
[edit] Religion
Abdus Salam was a devout Muslim, and a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community[9], who saw his religion as integral to his scientific work. He once wrote: "The Holy Quran enjoins us to reflect on the verities of Allah's created laws of nature; however, that our generation has been privileged to glimpse a part of His design is a bounty and a grace for which I render thanks with a humble heart."[5]
During his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize in Physics, Salam quoted the following verses from the Quran:
“ Thou seest not, in the creation of the All-merciful any imperfection, Return thy gaze, seest thou any fissure. Then Return thy gaze, again and again. Thy gaze, Comes back to thee dazzled, aweary. ”
He then said:
“ This, in effect, is the faith of all physicists; the deeper we seek, the more is our wonder excited, the more is the dazzlement for our gaze.[10] ”
In 1974, when the Parliament of Pakistan declared Ahmadis to be non-Muslims, he left Pakistan for London in protest.
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The exception that proves the rule?
The most important thing about this latest Obama lunacy is not the act itself but the fact that the mainstream media in America won't cover it because they know well how harmful it would be to the Chosen One.
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and today, Gibb's announces that Bolden must have "mis-spoke"... no muslim outreach, etc.
Gibb's is starting to remind me of that Bagdad Bob character the Sadam Hussein spokesman.