No Responses to “Friday Linkzookery - 14 Dec 2007”

1. GeekLethal Says:
   December 14th, 2007 at 4:39 pm

   MO, As for baseball- if you would, go over to the Ministry and explain why you care about the story, or why I should. Because judging by the media exposure this is getting, it’s as if the moon landing, the Kennedy assassination, and VE Day are all happening at the same time.

2. Murdoc Says:
   December 14th, 2007 at 7:20 pm

   GL: I weighed in. MO readers feel free to wander over to the Ministry and weigh in yourself.

3. Dfens Says:
   December 15th, 2007 at 11:30 am

   Ironically, the very fact that anyone gives a damn is the reason it happens. On a more significant subject, I recently ran across an excellent article by Dennis Wingo (funny name, but good guy) on the death of space exploration in the US. This part really hit home:
   

   Thirty five years ago the United States turned away from a robust space exploration program in order to ‘focus on our problems here on the Earth’. How is that going? The fact is that this turning away, a turning inward, has not solved the problems that we have spent trillions of dollars of national wealth addressing. In any experiment, in any business, in any nation, if after the spending of trillions of dollars one would expect that if the problem has not been solved, then we need to look at alternate approaches. Space is the startling alternative, one that has not truly been tried since the early 1970’s and the end of the Apollo program. However, that being said, we cannot continue on a path in the space agency or in our national commitment to space with halfway efforts. The time has come to be bold again, to take the president and congress at their word and construct a new space program that is a national program that goes well beyond simply NASA’s efforts, though NASA will continue to be the linchpin.

   I guess the answer to the ‘how is that going’ question would be the 24/7 attention being paid to drugs in baseball while the real story about the death of our exploration program is left for a handful of geeks like me to give a damn about. In the long run, what’s really significant?

4. Dfens Says:
   December 15th, 2007 at 11:31 am

   Let’s try that link once again.

5. Bram Says:
   December 15th, 2007 at 3:23 pm

   Recruits - Only the Army Reserve fell short on recruiting - and they are almost exclusively non-combat jobs.

6. Vitor Says:
   December 15th, 2007 at 8:01 pm

   About NATO, remember that the current armies of most members have little experience, I mean…what experience the current french and german armies has? Some secondary role in the Gulf War? I believe that the Vietnam War shaped the US Army quite well. Even if the US werent able to win the war, it gave a lot of experience and real output.

7. James Says:
   December 16th, 2007 at 12:27 am

   About NATO, remember that the current armies of most members have little experience, I mean…what experience the current french and german armies has? Some secondary role in the Gulf War?’ Its not experience that is the issue, its the will to act that is the issue. The Canadians, Australians are not the most warlike, but they have the will to act. To be honest I do not expect much from Europe. The French mostly surrender to the Germans and Italians surrender to everyone else. The Germans feel guilty about stomping everyone, and besides whenever the Germans start getting frisky, everyone in the area starts getting nervous. That said, if they lack the will to act, the least they can do is stop bitching about holding our coats while we go forth and do what is necessary.

8. Vitor Says:
   December 16th, 2007 at 11:12 am

   I agree with you, James, but I think it also contributes the fact that the australian, british and canadian armies have a strong mutual relationship with the US army. Of course, all that thanks to cultural proximity.

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