[TheForge] nukkin' skeeters OTOTOT

[Andrew Vida]

Gabriel Cain wrote:
> It rather sounded to me like the funding would be going to stop 
> parasites.  I myself am not a fan of malaria, nor the destruction and 
> pain it has wrought around the world.  

	And still does.  There is one form which will put you into a coma and 
kill you in 24 hours, give or take.
> 
> Scientific R&D is the backbone of society.  Wanna get mad? Get mad at 
> financial companies who dream up ways of trading fictions. 

	On the whole I agree with you.  However, while there is nothing wrong 
with such R&D in principle, the fact that so much of it has been put 
unsound uses, mostly by government with DoD being a central culprit, 
that it is not altogether unreasonable for some of the taxpayers to find 
their undies in a bunch.

	We live in ridiculous times - or rather, a time of ridiculous 
attitudes.  AT&T Bell Labs, my former employer, was the single greatest 
fount of inventive genius ever established - more so than even places 
such as Lawrence Livermore Labs, and that is really saying something. 
They spent money like water on "pure" research, which resulted in items 
like the transistor.  Hell, my friend Frank was one of the *inventors* 
of WDM (wavelength division multiplexing) back in the 70s (that's right 
folks, it is THAT old, not a 90s invention).  Without that, nary a one 
of you would have a broadband connection.  You'd be paying at least 
$2000/month for a T1 line.  Pure R&D made your life possible.

	Want to REALLY get angry?  Consider that those we put into office - our 
congress critters, and presidents such as Clinton and Bush - who have 
either positively gutted agencies such as SEC and FTC or done so through 
neglect, have allowed the scoundrels at the Fed and through them those 
at the top seats of our largest banks to foist these dark days upon us. 
  Start asking who are they that pull the strings from unseen corners 
such that every life on this list is threatened.
> 
> -Gabriel