This story reminded me of an article which I read on here some time ago: http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php http://www.longnow.org/view

This story reminded me of an article which I read on here some time ago: http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php http://www.longnow.org/views/essays/articles/ArtFeynman.php . It was fun to contrast the two. It was interesting how the founders were disenchanted with the idea of having to peddle their solutions to merchants and not scientists. I wonder if we can devise a better system for scientific and academic pursuits. I know my university is potentially laying off CS lecturers, while protecting the nano and biotech departments--posturing for grant and loan money. Much like in the article, it always is unfortunate when politics dooms an otherwise forward-thinking endeavor.