5 ms·

US opts to not rebuild renowned Puerto Rico telescope

38 points by kentlyons 4y ago

metadat 4y ago
One of the more memorable 90s 007 action scene venues. Rest in peace, friend.
hbrav 4y ago
"For science, James?" "No, for budgetary reasons."
- CamperBob2 4y ago
  I don't know Elon Musk gets out of bed in the morning, having blown $40 billion on Twitter when 1% of that would probably be enough to endow an institution like Arecibo for generations if managed properly. I'm projecting my own preferences on him, of course, but still. He seemed to be more of a genuine space geek than he turned out to be.
  - Tarq0n 4y ago
    Musk is exchanging some assets and liabilities for other assets, leaving him with a similar balance sheet afterwards. That's not the same thing as "spending" money the way you and I do it.
    - CamperBob2 4y ago
      You could use the same reasoning to buy lottery tickets. That's basically what he's doing, by buying Twitter at a premium.
  - nyc_data_geek1 4y ago
    He's in fact the most irresponsible human on Earth, perhaps in all of human history imo. At this pivotal moment, he is wasting tens of billions of dollars on a vanity acquisition because he is profoundly insecure, rather than taking that capital and using it to address some of the pressing threats life on Earth faces now. If he really gave a shit about "expanding the light of consciousness into the cosmos", he'd be working on ensuring a viable biosphere locally before blowing billions on dopamine clickfarm. As it stands we don't seem likely to have time to establish self-sufficient off-world human presence before we render Earth unable of sustaining much in the way of life or advanced civilization, and as the (second) richest man on Earth, he is uniquely positioned to have a quantitative impact on that outcome. Everyday he wakes up and chooses not to, and people still think he's anything but a mercurial egomaniacal robber-baron, should be considered a coup for his PR staff.
    - CamperBob2 4y ago
      I dunno, that seems a bit over the top. If Musk were inclined to do exactly what you or I would do, he'd never have gotten as far as he has. So the whole question is largely moot. He's done a lot of good, and could do a lot more, but instead chooses otherwise. It's his money... well, some of it is, anyway. I don't harbor him any ill will for spending it as he sees fit. It's just a bummer, is all.
    - tanseydavid 4y ago
      At least he is not trying to build a 100 mile long linear city in the middle of the desert.
      - nyc_data_geek1 4y ago
        cold comfort
ncmncm 4y ago
If they could not scare up the scratch even to maintain the first one, what are the chances of building a new one? And of them maintaining that one? That said, the I-35 bridge in Minnesota could have been maintained, but was re-built at ruinous expense. Is the new one now maintained properly? Or does it need less maintenance? Apparently the old one was built with certain metal plates that were too thin by half, such that had they been of sufficient thickness, the abysmal state of maintenance would not have led to wholesale collapse, and we would today still be using the ill-maintained bridge. So maybe collapse is a solution, not a problem? Presumably the money to build a new bridge did not come from the same account as what is used or fails to be used for maintaining bridges. Though maybe that account should be drawn down for maintenance, which would seem a radically better use of the money. The US is in decline. Can it be turned around? Probably not so long as fully half the population is easily persuaded to throw its full-throated support behind an out-and-out grifter for its chief executive office.
- ianai 4y ago
  Yeah the USA seems to have problems when the entire internet seems to head nod at statements of its impending demise. On the internet, birthed and still largely dominated by firms, tech, and research based and US funded. People in past decades said Japan was going to overrun the US. Didn’t happen. China and India are themselves floundering in their own ways - but I suspect it’s simply their population having been out moved by their governments. Further, I don’t see people in foreign nations clamoring to mirror the Chinese systems nor to immigrate there. Theirs isn’t a system with widespread appeal. Corporations are learning doing business in China is more likely to get your business nationalized by the CCP than enriched. And of course Russia would be a laughing stock if it didn’t look like a monkey that had just picked up a fully loaded automatic rifle in a filled room. I think it’s more that the internet has brought a wide recognition of where humanity really is nowadays. And the autocrats are attacking the world with the internet. Please stop pushing against stability and towards world war.
  - vaidhy 4y ago
    Being self-critical means world war? If I say I am flawed, I do not mean that others are perfect.. just that I am flawed. This kind of exceptionalism that US can do nothing wrong and even it does something wrong, we should not talk about it since others are worse does not make sense.

38 points by kentlyons 4y ago

metadat 4y ago

One of the more memorable 90s 007 action scene venues. Rest in peace, friend.

hbrav 4y ago

"For science, James?" "No, for budgetary reasons."

CamperBob2 4y ago
I don't know Elon Musk gets out of bed in the morning, having blown $40 billion on Twitter when 1% of that would probably be enough to endow an institution like Arecibo for generations if managed properly. I'm projecting my own preferences on him, of course, but still. He seemed to be more of a genuine space geek than he turned out to be.
- Tarq0n 4y ago
  Musk is exchanging some assets and liabilities for other assets, leaving him with a similar balance sheet afterwards. That's not the same thing as "spending" money the way you and I do it.
  - CamperBob2 4y ago
    You could use the same reasoning to buy lottery tickets. That's basically what he's doing, by buying Twitter at a premium.
- nyc_data_geek1 4y ago
  He's in fact the most irresponsible human on Earth, perhaps in all of human history imo. At this pivotal moment, he is wasting tens of billions of dollars on a vanity acquisition because he is profoundly insecure, rather than taking that capital and using it to address some of the pressing threats life on Earth faces now. If he really gave a shit about "expanding the light of consciousness into the cosmos", he'd be working on ensuring a viable biosphere locally before blowing billions on dopamine clickfarm. As it stands we don't seem likely to have time to establish self-sufficient off-world human presence before we render Earth unable of sustaining much in the way of life or advanced civilization, and as the (second) richest man on Earth, he is uniquely positioned to have a quantitative impact on that outcome. Everyday he wakes up and chooses not to, and people still think he's anything but a mercurial egomaniacal robber-baron, should be considered a coup for his PR staff.
  - CamperBob2 4y ago
    I dunno, that seems a bit over the top. If Musk were inclined to do exactly what you or I would do, he'd never have gotten as far as he has. So the whole question is largely moot. He's done a lot of good, and could do a lot more, but instead chooses otherwise. It's his money... well, some of it is, anyway. I don't harbor him any ill will for spending it as he sees fit. It's just a bummer, is all.
  - tanseydavid 4y ago
    At least he is not trying to build a 100 mile long linear city in the middle of the desert.
    - nyc_data_geek1 4y ago
      cold comfort

ncmncm 4y ago

If they could not scare up the scratch even to maintain the first one, what are the chances of building a new one? And of them maintaining that one? That said, the I-35 bridge in Minnesota could have been maintained, but was re-built at ruinous expense. Is the new one now maintained properly? Or does it need less maintenance? Apparently the old one was built with certain metal plates that were too thin by half, such that had they been of sufficient thickness, the abysmal state of maintenance would not have led to wholesale collapse, and we would today still be using the ill-maintained bridge. So maybe collapse is a solution, not a problem? Presumably the money to build a new bridge did not come from the same account as what is used or fails to be used for maintaining bridges. Though maybe that account should be drawn down for maintenance, which would seem a radically better use of the money. The US is in decline. Can it be turned around? Probably not so long as fully half the population is easily persuaded to throw its full-throated support behind an out-and-out grifter for its chief executive office.

ianai 4y ago
Yeah the USA seems to have problems when the entire internet seems to head nod at statements of its impending demise. On the internet, birthed and still largely dominated by firms, tech, and research based and US funded. People in past decades said Japan was going to overrun the US. Didn’t happen. China and India are themselves floundering in their own ways - but I suspect it’s simply their population having been out moved by their governments. Further, I don’t see people in foreign nations clamoring to mirror the Chinese systems nor to immigrate there. Theirs isn’t a system with widespread appeal. Corporations are learning doing business in China is more likely to get your business nationalized by the CCP than enriched. And of course Russia would be a laughing stock if it didn’t look like a monkey that had just picked up a fully loaded automatic rifle in a filled room. I think it’s more that the internet has brought a wide recognition of where humanity really is nowadays. And the autocrats are attacking the world with the internet. Please stop pushing against stability and towards world war.
- vaidhy 4y ago
  Being self-critical means world war? If I say I am flawed, I do not mean that others are perfect.. just that I am flawed. This kind of exceptionalism that US can do nothing wrong and even it does something wrong, we should not talk about it since others are worse does not make sense.