NDT on Trump's "Space Force"

[I_am_not_mafia]

Science serves whoever uses it and pays for it.

Your link though does show that NDT is indeed the complete and utter twat muppet that he appears to be.

Anything can be abused by wealth and power. But scientific method itself is a tool. 

There is still a huge difference between science being used by friend or foe to be used to make weapons, even chemical weapons to kill others, and corporate science used to attract shareholders, such as big pharma. And the separate ethic of say a neutral scientist merely making observations, like an astrophysicist, or "Doctors without boarders". 

Big oil has bullied the planet's governments and even used propaganda masked as "science" to protect the industry's profits when REAL scientists are sounding the alarm of global warming.

Also scientists are generally people who actually care about the world and who prefer to educate themselves rather than stay ignorant. After all, you don't become a scientist to get rich but for the love of knowledge. Generally to achieve something useful.

[Brian37]

Anything can be abused by wealth and power. But scientific method itself is a tool. 

There is still a huge difference between science being used by friend or foe to be used to make weapons, even chemical weapons to kill others, and corporate science used to attract shareholders, such as big pharma. And the separate ethic of say a neutral scientist merely making observations, like an astrophysicist, or "Doctors without boarders". 

Big oil has bullied the planet's governments and even used propaganda masked as "science" to protect the industry's profits when REAL scientists are sounding the alarm of global warming.

Also scientists are generally people who actually care about the world and who prefer to educate themselves rather than stay ignorant. After all, you don't become a scientist to get rich but for the love of knowledge. Generally to achieve something useful.

I wouldn't put it like how you put it.

I would say there certainly are plenty of scientists who do care, I'd agree with that. But there are scientists who work for the global weapons industry, and even make and maintain nukes in enemy states. There are scientists who work for chemical companies and oil companies whom dream up ways to make cheaper products to attract shareholders and boost profits, it is the company itself that pays them, and that company doesn't itself always care what damage that product may do to the environment.

Ethical scientists do care yes. But there are corporate "scientists" who only care about making money for the company they work for.

[Yonadav]

Anything can be abused by wealth and power. But scientific method itself is a tool. 

There is still a huge difference between science being used by friend or foe to be used to make weapons, even chemical weapons to kill others, and corporate science used to attract shareholders, such as big pharma. And the separate ethic of say a neutral scientist merely making observations, like an astrophysicist, or "Doctors without boarders". 

Big oil has bullied the planet's governments and even used propaganda masked as "science" to protect the industry's profits when REAL scientists are sounding the alarm of global warming.

Also scientists are generally people who actually care about the world and who prefer to educate themselves rather than stay ignorant. After all, you don't become a scientist to get rich but for the love of knowledge. Generally to achieve something useful.

American tax payers are the biggest funders of R&D on the planet. An awful lot of the scientists who are working on government funded R&D are doing so with the intention of patenting their discoveries and making many millions of dollars. Defense contractors all have their roots in government funded R&D. The internet, computers, and cellphones all came out of government funded R&D. Scientists working with government funding develop new drugs in university labs, patent them, and then go on to make millions of dollars off of their government funded research.

Don't get me wrong. I love scientists. I love research and development. But in America our socialized costs for private profits monster is completely out of control. Our scientists live on welfare while doing research, and then bilk us for many millions when they make profitable discoveries that were paid for by us.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Also scientists are generally people who actually care about the world and who prefer to educate themselves rather than stay ignorant. After all, you don't become a scientist to get rich but for the love of knowledge. Generally to achieve something useful.

I wouldn't put it like how you put it.

I would say there certainly are plenty of scientists who do care, I'd agree with that. But there are scientists who work for the global weapons industry, and even make and maintain nukes in enemy states. There are scientists who work for chemical companies and oil companies whom dream up ways to make cheaper products to attract shareholders and boost profits, it is the company itself that pays them, and that company doesn't itself always care what damage that product may do to the environment.

Ethical scientists do care yes. But there are corporate "scientists" who only care about making money for the company they work for.

Yeah but that is also their job. It doesn't mean to say that the scientists themselves aren't also caring people. Working in industry as a scientist myself I do find that scientists are more likely to be conscientious of what they are doing. Of course there are always exceptions, but you're more likely to get a conscientious scientist than a conscientious entrepreneur for example, or a conscientious administrator. And the fact that the scientist is working in industry shouldn't be taken as an endorsement of industry. Often it's the only work available to the scientist. There is a reason that post-doctoral work is badly paid, has very limited job security and requires you to put your life on hold. Because so many scientists would still prefer to be working on academic research than working in industry. Unfortunately less than 10% of those who complete a PhD actually get the chance to develop a career in academia.

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Also scientists are generally people who actually care about the world and who prefer to educate themselves rather than stay ignorant. After all, you don't become a scientist to get rich but for the love of knowledge. Generally to achieve something useful.

American tax payers are the biggest funders of R&D on the planet. An awful lot of the scientists who are working on government funded R&D are doing so with the intention of patenting their discoveries and making many millions of dollars. Defense contractors all have their roots in government funded R&D. The internet, computers, and cellphones all came out of government funded R&D. Scientists working with government funding develop new drugs in university labs, patent them, and then go on to make millions of dollars off of their government funded research.

Don't get me wrong. I love scientists. I love research and development. But in America our socialized costs for private profits monster is completely out of control. Our scientists live on welfare while doing research, and then bilk us for many millions when they make profitable discoveries that were paid for by us.

Not necessarily bigger than the EU though. True, the EU is not a single country but investment in science is made via European-wide funding bodies. What you are describing is very different to what happens in Europe. Remember, America is not the world.

Brexit: The EU is a science powerhouse - leaving it will put us behind the US in innovation

The EU is already a scientific juggernaut, with a total academic output that's 20 per cent higher than the US. This should be no surprise given the combined EU population of over 500m versus America’s 319m. Europe as a whole produces a third of the world’s research outputs.

[Yonadav]

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American tax payers are the biggest funders of R&D on the planet. An awful lot of the scientists who are working on government funded R&D are doing so with the intention of patenting their discoveries and making many millions of dollars. Defense contractors all have their roots in government funded R&D. The internet, computers, and cellphones all came out of government funded R&D. Scientists working with government funding develop new drugs in university labs, patent them, and then go on to make millions of dollars off of their government funded research.

Don't get me wrong. I love scientists. I love research and development. But in America our socialized costs for private profits monster is completely out of control. Our scientists live on welfare while doing research, and then bilk us for many millions when they make profitable discoveries that were paid for by us.

Not necessarily bigger than the EU though. True, the EU is not a single country but investment in science is made via European-wide funding bodies. What you are describing is very different to what happens in Europe. Remember, America is not the world.

Brexit: The EU is a science powerhouse - leaving it will put us behind the US in innovation

The EU is already a scientific juggernaut, with a total academic output that's 20 per cent higher than the US. This should be no surprise given the combined EU population of over 500m versus America’s 319m. Europe as a whole produces a third of the world’s research outputs.

I don't know, Mathilda. Our defense spending is orders of magnitude greater than anyone else's. It's one of the reasons that we keep saying that we can't pay for healthcare. I wonder if the EU really does outspend us on total R&D, and even if it does, that is a pretty recent development. In America, we tend to believe that Europeans would be at war again, were it not for US soldiers serving as hostages in the European alliance. Our dark humor about Europeans being at each other's throats again, were it not for us, isn't quite funny. We really are pretty sure that you folks would be trying to kill each other again, within 15 years of a complete US withdrawal from European affairs. So we're off to make space safe for everyone.

[I_am_not_mafia]

I don't know, Mathilda. Our defense spending is orders of magnitude greater than anyone else's. It's one of the reasons that we keep saying that we can't pay for healthcare. I wonder if the EU really does outspend us on total R&D, and even if it does, that is a pretty recent development. In America, we tend to believe that Europeans would be at war again, were it not for US soldiers serving as hostages in the European alliance. Our dark humor about Europeans being at each other's throats again, were it not for us, isn't quite funny. We really are pretty sure that you folks would be trying to kill each other again, within 15 years of a complete US withdrawal from European affairs. So we're off to make space safe for everyone.

That's interesting to hear because the perception in Europe is very different. America is more likely to be viewed as imperialistic. The motivation for the European Union isn't just to stop another European war but to give us clout to resist American standards. A huge fear about Brexit for example is that a trade deal with America will see much lower standards in food, farming and health care.

[Yonadav]

I don't know, Mathilda. Our defense spending is orders of magnitude greater than anyone else's. It's one of the reasons that we keep saying that we can't pay for healthcare. I wonder if the EU really does outspend us on total R&D, and even if it does, that is a pretty recent development. In America, we tend to believe that Europeans would be at war again, were it not for US soldiers serving as hostages in the European alliance. Our dark humor about Europeans being at each other's throats again, were it not for us, isn't quite funny. We really are pretty sure that you folks would be trying to kill each other again, within 15 years of a complete US withdrawal from European affairs. So we're off to make space safe for everyone.

That's interesting to hear because the perception in Europe is very different. America is more likely to be viewed as imperialistic. The motivation for the European Union isn't just to stop another European war but to give us clout to resist American standards. A huge fear about Brexit for example is that a trade deal with America will see much lower standards in food, farming and health care.

Yeah, we know about being seen as imperialists. And we are. Cheer up. In the aftermath of a hard Brexit, you folks might become our 51st state.

[Brian37]

That's interesting to hear because the perception in Europe is very different. America is more likely to be viewed as imperialistic. The motivation for the European Union isn't just to stop another European war but to give us clout to resist American standards. A huge fear about Brexit for example is that a trade deal with America will see much lower standards in food, farming and health care.

Yeah, we know about being seen as imperialists. And we are. Cheer up. In the aftermath of a hard Brexit, you folks might become our 51st state.

Yep, Britain fell for their conservative bullshit campaign, just like too many Americans continue to fall for GOP crap.

[Anomalocaris]

I don't know, Mathilda. Our defense spending is orders of magnitude greater than anyone else's. It's one of the reasons that we keep saying that we can't pay for healthcare. I wonder if the EU really does outspend us on total R&D, and even if it does, that is a pretty recent development. In America, we tend to believe that Europeans would be at war again, were it not for US soldiers serving as hostages in the European alliance. Our dark humor about Europeans being at each other's throats again, were it not for us, isn't quite funny. We really are pretty sure that you folks would be trying to kill each other again, within 15 years of a complete US withdrawal from European affairs. So we're off to make space safe for everyone.

That's interesting to hear because the perception in Europe is very different. America is more likely to be viewed as imperialistic. The motivation for the European Union isn't just to stop another European war but to give us clout to resist American standards. A huge fear about Brexit for example is that a trade deal with America will see much lower standards in food, farming and health care.

In the aftermath of brexit, the brexiteers would undoutedly attempt to insert Britain militarily as an independent imperialist power into regions of conflict, send Britain’s one lone aircraft carrier the world to show the flag so as to flatter nationalists and nestagic imperialists and create the impression Britain was still its own greater power, not beholden to the EU or weakened by brexit, and brexit was a decisive step towards renewed greatness and not a petulant insertion of aging head into sand.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Chester Nimitz was the wizard for the USN in the Pacific during WWII. From there it went down to a seaman named Fahey, who knew the boat went with the pointy end first.

Sounds like someone is resentful that he's not the type who could ever be trusted to helm a ship.

Sorry?