Castaigne

The advantage of space research is that it's literally the most challenging design environment we have access to and it's a particularly fruitful area with high returns on investment. To think of it one way, every dollar invested in NASA generates $14 in revenue: http://www.21stcentech.com/money-spent-nasa-waste/

The much tougher design parameters are where all the benefits come from. When companies design cars, they put them through stress tests that are much tougher than everyday use. Even when companies build chairs, they still put them through stress tests. The point being, if a product survives the extremes, it can survive daily use that falls well within those limits. R&D just doesn't work the way people who aren't knowledgeable about it think it does.

I'm a big space nerd, so I'd like to make a couple points: Research into space travel and colonization has direct benefits for life on Earth. The research that goes into building a rocket has applications for the military and aerospace industries. It's a boon for higher education, and thus the towns around them. University towns have many of the benefits of a large city, without the detriments, due to their unique demographics. As for actually colonizing a planet, the benefits for life on Earth are huge. Case in point: if you can survive on Mars, where the atmosphere is lethal, with the incredibly minimal supplies you receive from Earth, you can easily survive on a degraded Earth, where the atmosphere has sublethal effects, resources are diffuse but plentiful, and human capital is massive. The industrial effects are similar. If you can build a biodome and get it to Mars, which would most likely involve some amazing feats of modulation and/or 3D printing, you can absolutely build it on Earth for cheap. More importantly, once factories are up and running for those biodomes, or water filters, or whatever their role is, they can take advantage of economies of scale, so they'll have an incentive to sell those items to more than just a space agency. Space travel is one of the few areas where international collaboration isn't just encouraged, but necessary. The United States and Russia can never fully cut communications, because they both need the other's expertise and infrastructure. Maintaining that relationship obviously isn't either of those countries sole priority, but it still gives them another reason to keep a positive relationship. Research into space also has indirect bonuses. An algorithm to improve images taken by the Hubble Space telescope is also effective at identifying early breast cancer. It's impossible to predict what new discoveries an attempt to colonize Mars may lead to. One final point, people tend to shut down space research without offering any kind of alternatives. The truth is, space research benefits far outweigh the costs, but they're so widespread that it really takes some research to realize it. Saving our own planet is great (and encouraged!), but the best way to do that is by trying somewhere else. It's kind of like going on dates. Some people wait to go on dates until they meet the perfect person, then they find that person and realize they can't get a date with that person because they don't have any practice going on dates.

Is anyone a NSP fan? Their new cover album is great.

North Carolina and Georgia are both pretty great. South Carolina is more like an ugly buffer between the two lol

It is a Hearthstone avie (I play tempo mage a lot), but I don't play Dota 2. The title is actually from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.

Yeah, I can understand that, haha. I can only catch up when a season comes out on DVD since I don't have cable. My favorite anything changes constantly, but Lovecraft has always been at the top of my list. I also like George R.R. Martin, especially his short stories. They share a lot of the positives of ASOIF without being massive books.

North Carolina. I've moved around a bit but I default to NC lol.

The first time I ever saw a video game was seeing a friend playing Pokemon Blue, but my first game was Pokemon Yellow. I really liked the Pokemon movie so my family pitched in to get me a yellow GameBoy Color and a copy of Pokemon Yellow and it was great. I never got that far into it because I had Pikachu and (for some reason) two Caterpies, neither of which were good for Brock, and grinding was a foreign concept to me at that age. Eventually I got my hands on Red and Blue, and I wound up actually finishing them both.

I've yet to drive a BMW, but I'd certainly like to. One of my friends had a 3 series and loved it. I drive a Frontier now and plan on sticking with it for a long time. In the past I drove a Ranger (RIP). My favorite car I've ever driven is the LR4. If I ever get to the point where I just have money to burn I will definitely get my own. As for roads, North Carolina is great. Lots of scenery, well maintained, and the traffic isn't too bad. Maybe I'm just biased, but I've always hated Atlanta traffic in comparison to Charlotte traffic.

Hey y'all. My name is Castaigne and I've been a Fire Emblem fan since 2003, back when the first North American release came out. Was big on Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance, then I fell out of the series until Awakening came out. I really enjoyed Awakening, and I'm currently playing my way through Birthright. I have Conquest to play through as well, and I'll be getting Revelations whenever I work through Conquest. When I'm not playing Fates I spend my time working at an (academic) lab. I'm also a big fan of Adventure Time, Game Grumps, and some other stuff. Anyway, it's preemptively nice to meet you, feel free to message me as I don't bite.