The following Dodgers have been smited by the JDK for their crimes against Jam:
All the girls! for picking on the JDK and damaging his already delicate self esteem!
The Basserd Who Nicked Copper's Stuff For the offense of nicking Copper's stuff. You are a tw*t, whoever you are and we all hope you get run over by a tram in Nottingham. Or Liverpool. Or whereever else they have trams!
Copper For the crime of playing with her Wii instead of her Jammie pals!
Last night I had a debate with someone about whether the study of space has ever provided any discoveries which have directly benefited mankind back on earth.
By space (for the purposes of the discussion) we mean the area beyond our immediate solar system -
I winged it a bit with mention of the understanding of the future of our Star and possible radio telescopes and the like, but struggled for more cool examples - you got any?
__________________
I'll take arrogance and the inevitable hubris over self-doubt and lack of confidence.
"Everyone has a plan, until they get punched in the face" - Mike Tyson
You could just as easily ask why people bothered to explore the New World. Ask an American, they can probably explain that one.
Resources is an easy one - we haven't found any yet, but we're pretty much only starting out.
100 years ago, people might have asked why we'd bother goinmg into space at all, but that's given us satellite TV, GPS, advanced meteorology and mobile phone tech. Lots of the developments on planes and cars were pioneered by the space program. How about miniaturised medical technology or laptops or digital image processing (driving the development of MRI scanners)? You can thank space for them too.
Oh... and Google Earth.
When asked 'why bother?', a scientist reportedly answered the question with words to the effect of: 'Would the world be a better place if the ceiling of the Sistine chapel was painted with white emulsion?' Sadly I can't remember who it was and I can't be bothered to google for it!
For the record, I believe that both Velcro and Teflon were invented before the space race started.
Well, the search for a single thoery that would apply to the whole universe, from the tiniest individual atoms to the movement of the planets themselves has led to the development of quantum mechanics and string theory ... so I guess that would count as influencial ...
What's that done? Led to more accurate predictions of weather patterns ... um ... :)
More accurately, learning about and developing these theorems has led to shed loads of modern technology like Flash memory, without which your phone, digital camera and USB stick would be useless. In the case of the USB stick it would simply be a cover for the USB port :)
Digital imaging, LCD screens for TVs, plasma technology, Lasers.
So, if you like astrophysics (macro) leads to better understadning of nano-size physics ... which means you get a nice telly.
:D
-- Edited by Henglegert Rinkerdink on Saturday 25th of April 2009 04:21:41 PM
