Wednesday, March 07, 2007

NASA can't pay for killer asteroid hunt





NASA officials say the space agency is capable of finding nearly all the asteroids that might pose a devastating hit to Earth, but there isn't enough money to pay for the task so it won't get done.

The cost to find at least 90 percent of the 20,000 potentially hazardous asteroids and comets by 2020 would be about $1 billion, according to a report NASA will release later this week. The report was previewed Monday at a Planetary Defense Conference in Washington.

(Via KurzweilAI.net.)


Approximate cost of the Iraq war (so far): $406 billion.

4 comments:

Tony F. said...

Just like they won't pay any attention to climate change and global warming.

Anonymous said...

So _far_, over $400 billion. By the time were done killing a few more 10's or maybe 100's of thousands more of our fellow human beings, the best estimates on just the monetary costs alone are well over a _trillion_ dollars, for both Iraq and Afghanistan, maybe even approaching a trillion and a half or more before it really ends.

Not to mention the loss of freedom, integrity and what ever remained of America's "reputation" before the Bush League of Extraordinary Assholes are done.

What an incredible, tragic waste.

And Osama still lives and plays his terrible "games." Bush and his cabal have more than blood on their hands.

NEO's, meteors, and comets? People don't seem to be able, in most cases, to think that far ahead or beyond their own needs to survive.

Are you surprised? I'm not.

Mac said...

Surprised? Unfortunately, anything but.

Anonymous said...

Update on the war(s) and GWOT costs: $510 Billion and counting...

THE FINANCIAL COST OF WAR (CRS)

The cost of post-9/11 U.S. military operations has now reached
$510 billion, according to an updated estimate from the
Congressional Research Service.

See "The Cost of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Global War on
Terror Operations Since 9/11," updated March 14, 2007:

http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf

(via FAS "Secrecy News" mail list of 3/21/07)

I have this little fantasy, wherein Bush and Cheney are impeached, charged and convicted of war crimes against humanity, as are Rumsfeld, Rove, Feith, and the rest of the cabal, and they are all imprisoned, for life, in a large cell with high-strength ballistic plastic window-walls, like in Hannibal Lecter's cell in Silence of the Lambs. They can chat with each other about just went wrong.

A coalition of peace groups administers the selling of tickets for people to go see and toss peanuts to the neo-con criminals.

For as long as they live. Although they should be offered the option of volunteering to have themselves executed if so desired for their war, ecological, and other crimes.

Just a little dream of mine! ;^}