I agree, something seems amiss.
As a nation we flipped over anticipation of mans next achievement.
New car models were as exiting as, as!!! Hmmm.
(WOW!!! That one has fins…)

Okay. Now your in my area of expertise. The space shuttle is so freaking old I remember Reagan saying “Cool” while attending a launch.
I just put in a bid to build a model of the 2 part rocket ARES which is replacing the space shuttle.



Check it out: (Go to, “How We'll Get Back to the Moon.” and click on, “View animation…”)
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ex...ain/index.html

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Only a liberal would know how hard it is to get a nicotine patch to stick to a monkey.

I'm glad that they are upgrading. Hopefully it isn't too late to stimulate the public with the prospect of space exploration. I honestly believe that space exploration and a global move towards colonization could be one, among many things, that helps unite us more as a species.

Here's a reason why this nation is losing its edge: our imagination. To be intrested in something, and become truly passionate, that field must capture your imagination. What I find more and more in my education is that the teachers of such fields as science, computer science, and engineering do a horrible job at capturing my attention. In school, I am almost constantly told to leave all the fun stuff to the professionals, here was the most interesting experiment conducted in my sophomore year of High School, mixing Baking soda with Vinegar. In an electronics course I took, we were not told how electronics work, rather, we were instructed on how to use them, and that we should never try to work with such electronics. I disobey these teachers, and enjoy furthering my education outside of my education, by going to places that I call a book building, errr.... library ... see what I mean?

lol wrong. Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller were all masters of Greed. Maybe we aren't greedy enough.

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Proud to be an American...
"Occam's Razor. The simplest explanation is almost always somebody screwed up." - House

I think the problem is that American culture trains a bias against education and the educated.

US government spends more than almost everyone as a percentage of their GDP on public education and ends up with idiots.

Japan spends well below the global average on public education related to their GDP and their private education is growing. They end up with the smartest people on Earth.

Support Intelligence, ban public education.

I think that you are both correct.

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"Bring the boys back home!"--Pink Floyd

NFA JJG 42-95

Free People/Free Markets

Following the Path of the Beam

Your complaint is that we have fewer monopolies? Thats a good thing, it creates a more efficient economy with more competition.

You mock the achievement of setting someone on the moon, yet through NASAs advances the telecom sector has been greatly advanced.

If you want technological advances

In industry I'll point you to the fact that GE is near undisputed in its supremacy for the development of turbines, for power generation and aviation, as far as the field of aviation Boeing has been recently trouncing Airbus, after recent news that the Airbus 380 would be delayed.

In the defense industry our technology is beyond that of any other nation.

the three major manufacturers of processors, Intel, AMD, and Sun, are all american corporations. The major producers of graphics cards are Nvidia and ATI, granted one is canadian, its all still in North America. Even more, Seagate and Western Digital the two major harddrive manufacturers are both American.

Fact is, in practically every market sector the US players are typically very dominant, the lack of monopolies or names that you recognize means nothing. Monopolies, when they can be avoided, should be. Donald Trump is an excellent example of how the people who make the headlines about business, outside of the business sector, usually aren't indicative of anything.

We're second in the world for attaining tertiary education, behind Canada, above all of Europe. If there really is a bias, it certainly doesn't manifest itself in the relevent statistics.

http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/ed...nment-tertiary

Bemused giggles.

This is only true if you use only 3rd world nations for comparison.

If you compare 1st world nations, you will that the USA consistently and constantly ranks last, or darn close to it, in public education funding.

Forget percentages of GDP (that is designed to hide the facts, not show them) - just look at real dollars per student.

I think we spend more on heating in our schools (per student) up here in Canada than the total funding per student in Mississippi...

This one is rich.

USA has the worst public education system in the western world, and the highest proportion of private education - and consistently the lowest rankings for education outputs.

Most of those nations that beat the USA in the rankings do it with public education systems, including Japan.

And education has NOTHING to do with intelligence. NOTHING.

Hey Donkey Left, I like your style on this thread. There are plenty of smart people who have jobs that don't pay lots of money. TEachers come to mind. There have been many advances in science and technology. MAybe it just doen't seem like it because it's not repoted except in trade journals. Also, scientists and engineers and even doctors and nurses and educators aren't "sexy" jobs in this celebrity obsessed media culture. How much airtime does a new diabetes drug get versus the time some actress screwing some actor gets.

Please calm down. Just because you have no clue as to what you are talking about does not mean you are right. The OECD i was getting my facts from groups 30 developed countries to make their comparisons, not the world. Please do some more research before jumping to conclusions.

Ya hear that Michael!

DO MORE RESEARCH!

For shame. You oughta know better.

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"Jesus said: I have cast fire upon the world, and behold I guard it until it is ablaze."
Gospel of Thomas

It was a little easy to figure out who the resident best googler thought he was.

Methinks you misconstrue Donkey's humorous comment.

And if you think my posts are driven by what I dig up on Google on any given day, you are sadly mistaken.

I don't place much faith in any factoids or statistics posted on the WEB.