Perspective

[unixronin]

Those of you interested in astronomy will probably be aware that the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, the 305-meter Arecibo dish in Puerto Rico, is threatened with closure because the National Science Foundation doesn't have enough room in its budget to keep funding it.  The amount in question?  A paltry $8 million.  The Very Long Baseline Array is also threatened; it needs a further $10 million.

Now, let's take a look at the ongoing cost of the war in Iraq.  According to the Congressional Research Service, the cost of the war in Iraq over the past four years is a hair under $340 billion.

So, let's do some math here ... 340 billion divided by four years ... still too big, keep dividing ...

Yup.  Approximately forty nine minutes worth of Iraq war funding, allocated to the National Science Foundation, would save Arecibo from closure.  One hour and fifty one minutes' worth would save both Arecibo and the VLBA.

Think about it.

Comments

[lenfant-de-jeu.livejournal.com]

I like this, can I link?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Be my guest.

It is even worse than that

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Not that I agree with playing silly buggers with numbers like this, but...

The Iraq war is significantly underfunded. We are not replacing equipment at anywhere near the rate we are using it up. The only thing with an adequate replacement level is armaments.

Re: It is even worse than that

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Indeed. Of course, one could also point out that the NSF isn't asking for the entire $18 million, they're just asking for some assistance to share the cost. The point, really, is that the combined budget for Arecibo and the VLBA is much less than 1% of what we're spending on the Iraq war. (It's also relatively little known that Arecibo plays a significant part on projects like Skywatch, which potentially impact -- so to speak -- the entire planet.)

Re: It is even worse than that

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

I happen to agree. But then, science is my thing.

Now compare the cost to what we are spending on Medicare D, or Social Security. The comparison get significantly less cute in a hurry.

[smandal.livejournal.com]

Recently, Jim Simons ponied up $13M to cover a budget shortfall at Brookhaven's RHIC. I don't think it's good policy to expect billionaire Fields Medal winners in shining armor to come to the rescue ...

[zaitcev.livejournal.com]

I met this fallacy before. Another fun thing is to compare with salaries of bureucrats in Dept. of Education and those in Human Services, which waste more than whole Iraq war. Comparing with farm subsidies works nicely too. With Iraq we at least get something worthwhile out of the money (to name just one thing, the likes of the survival of western civilization, including those working at Arecibo).

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I've yet to be convinced of the argument that the war in Iraq is a matter of survival of Western civilization. There are good arguments that, on the other hand, it has significantly destabilized the region, and there are a great many people both in and out of the military who are of the opinion that a civil war in Iraq is now inevitable. (There's also quite a few who say it's already begun, it just isn't obvious yet.)

On the other hand, if we're tossing the survival of civilization around, Arecibo makes significant contributions to projects which monitor near Earth objects and earth-crossing asteroids, including Project Skywatch. (Not all Skywatch observations are optical.)

The point is simply that we have two useful and productive instruments, both of which do important work, facing closure for the sake of a sum of money that's lost in the background noise compared to the amount we're spending on an ill-conceived and ill-planned war that, frankly, we had no business starting in the first place.

[zaitcev.livejournal.com]

I can also count how many Arecibos can be saved by switching NASA from Shaft to DIRECT or any othe reasonable alternative. But it just doesn't work that way.

BTW, destabilization of the region is a GOOD thing. When it was "stable" it was a little cozy refuge of oil-pumping despots. Of course we want to destabilize them.