| Subject: Reagan? Spending? |
Author:
Xpltivdletd
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Date Posted: 10:14:20 02/07/05 Mon
In reply to:
NKLS Cody
's message, "Hubble to Earth" on 12:05:16 02/02/05 Wed
I chanced to have a ringside seat on a Reagan Spending Adventure. It seems some Public Assistance agency in the Tidewater Virginia area was being run by a skilled pol who had created about a dozen do-nothing positions for relatives and friends. During Reagan's 1st term sometime, the artificially bloated payroll of this office got someone's attention, up the Fedgov food-chain. The crook wasn't fired, but his payroll was restored to its pre-nepotism levels. He opted to retire and sent out notices to those his office had served--that Ronald Reagan had closed the outfit down.
This was reported in the "unbiased©," "Mainstream®" Media.
The impending demise of the Hubble sounds to my untrained ear like a similar deal. It happens whenever a Republican in the White House puts his foot down. Bureaucrats who fancy themselves entitled to spend themselves deeper into debt like vengeful divorcees so they can plead "need" as they demand more funding--don't take being told "NO" lightly. After they've damaged several dictionaries looking it up because it's been that long since they heard it, they decide where to cut, such that it will provoke the most outrage.
It is fashionable and traditional to blame the outrage on the Republican elected official the "unbiased©" Media wants most desperately to discredit. But, that's a lot like a drunk losing his keys on the dark side of the street but looking for them under the streetlight 'cause it's easier. If enough of us write our Congresscritters, we may not have to live with that "solution" to a budget "crisis." If instead they abolished the positions of those overpaid chair-warmers whose DERELICTION OF DUTY doomed the last group of Shuttle Astronauts--betcha saving the Hubble would look a lot more affordable. Are you up for such a fight? RKBA! Best regards.
>"What gets me is that they already nixed the
>supposed replacement which was suppose to be better
>than the hubble,
>Thus the idea of servicing hubble in 2006.
>
>Seems like Bush has plenty of room in a budget for the
>wealthy and wars - or if not pass the bill on to
>another generation."
>
>Oh don't get me started on his
>Reaganesque deficit spending practices! The last I
>read on the telescope matter was the tilt toward more
>ground based operations. Check to see if the
>construction companies involved are major GOP campaign
>contributors, because I suspect it may be wise to
>follow the money!
>
>Giant Magellan Telescope to dwarf Hubble
>CHRIS CODUTO/Arizona Daily Wildcat
>
>By J. Ferguson
>Arizona Daily Wildcat
>Tuesday, February 1, 2005
>
>Plans for a new telescope are underway at the Steward
>Observatory, which will allow astronomers to see
>objects in space 10 times better than the Hubble Space
>Telescope.
>
>A consortium of observatories and their academic
>partners have signed an agreement with the observatory
>to produce the first of seven 8.4 meter mirrors
>required to form the next generation of telescopes,
>the Giant Magellan Telescope.
>
>The GMT will be used to research the birth of stars
>and planetary systems, the mysteries of black holes
>and the genesis of galaxies, said Matt Johns, project
>manager for the Magellan Project at Observatories of
>the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
>
>Johns said the first mirror to be cast at the Steward
>Observatory Mirror Laboratory next summer was funded
>by the Giant Magellan Telescope Consortium.
>
>The consortium, of which Carnegie Observatory is a
>lead partner, includes members from previous Magellan
>projects, including the Magellan I and Magellan II in
>Chile.
>
>The consortium members also include the UA, Harvard
>University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
>the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory and the
>University of Michigan.
>
>Johns said the University of Texas at Austin and Texas
>A&M University, who were not part of previous Magellan
>projects, joined the consortium to help build and fund
>the GMT.
>
>J. Roger P. Angel, mirror laboratory director and
>regents professor, said that when combined, the seven
>mirrors would be equivalent to a mirror of 21.4
>meters. The finished product is expected to be
>complete in 2016.
>
>With the help of adaptive optics and correction for
>atmospheric blurring, the GMT will take more accurate
>images at a farther distance than other telescopes.
>
>Angel said the GMT is a reaction to a decadal survey
>by the National Academy of Sciences' astronomy, which
>concluded there was a need for extremely large
>ground-based telescopes.
>
>The GMT is not the only extremely large telescope
>planned, as a competing design called the California
>Extremely Large Telescope is vying for future funds.
>
>A collaboration of the University of California and
>the California Institute of Technology has proposed
>the 30-meter CELT.
>
>Angel said while there is plenty of private funding
>available for both proposed telescopes, they might be
>vying for funding from the National Science Foundation
>and the National Academy of Sciences.
>
>Johns said the funds to pay for the first mirror cast
>at the mirror lab came from a combination of private
>sources and the universities that belong to the GMTC.
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