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the value of science



At 10:01 AM -0800 3/2/00, Jim Green wrote:

I don't know about the Laboratories -- There appears to be mixed reviews --
But no one else has the power to take our money and spend it on the likes
of the Hubble Telescope --a project of great interest for astronomers and
cosmologists but of absolutely no value to the people who provided the
money. I wish I had my money back. Let the feds solicit donations. OR to
spend the money on nuclear weapon research. This was good -- sort of.

While I doubt that three people on this list would agree with you, I will
offer to send you an amount equivalent to your share in the Hubble Space
Telescope. How much are you into it for? Many people would consider it
worthwhile for entertainment value alone (and noble entertainment it is,
in my opinion). HST is certainly worth a few E tickets, even setting aside
the tremendous scientific value of this once uniquely capable facility.

One of our sons will soon move to Los Alamos National Laboratory where he
will be engaged in pure science. I hope it gives you some comfort that
this laboratory also does weapons research. For my part I would love to
have back all the money I paid the US Government for DOD waste. I expect
that is of a different order of magnitude than the HST bill. Describing
weapons reasearch in a time of relative security as "good -- sort of" is,
in my opinion, slightly monstrous.

You really gored my herd that time, Jim.

Leigh