Just another ISS pic?

[Cody]

I’ve been looking at this pic, taken in the Cupola on the ISS, on and off all day.
There is just something ineffably cool about this image… one day, perhaps, the human race will truly be out there.

[DaddyHoggy]

Casually propped up on one elbow, floating gently against the bulkhead - 7 billion people below, most of whom have no idea that if we stopped fighting and spent our defence budgets on space exploration then we could all have a chance of being there.

Amazing picture. Thank-you for posting the link.

[Commander McLane]

Amazing picture. Looks like a still from a SF show, but it's the real thing. Very cool!

spent our defence budgets on space exploration

Making you jobless in the process? No, we wouldn't want that, would we?

[drew]

Very inspiring. It's almost as if we're almost 'comfortable' with space travel.

I know the ISS is in NEO and barely above the atmosphere, but still v. cool.

Cheers,

Drew.

[Micha]

Ok, so people lose their jobs as a defence contractors. Big bleeding deal - they'd be working in the space industry instead!

Thumbs up to converting "defence" budgets into education, research, and space. I just can't fathom why humans seem so bloody keen on blowing things and each other to bits instead of actually achieving stuff. But that's our species.

Anyway, awesome pic.

[Disembodied]

Ok, so people lose their jobs as a defence contractors. Big bleeding deal - they'd be working in the space industry instead!

Thumbs up to converting "defence" budgets into education, research, and space. I just can't fathom why humans seem so bloody keen on blowing things and each other to bits instead of actually achieving stuff. But that's our species.

Anyway, awesome pic.

I don't think it's a species problem, really – I think it's more of a trap we've fallen into. On 17 January it'll be 50 years since President Eisenhower's farewell address: it's worth taking a look at it and thinking about just how prophetic it was.

Until the latest of our world conflicts, the United States had no armaments industry. American makers of plowshares could, with time and as required, make swords as well. But we can no longer risk emergency improvisation of national defense. We have been compelled to create a permanent armaments industry of vast proportions. Added to this, three and a half million men and women are directly engaged in the defense establishment. We annually spend on military security alone more than the net income of all United States corporations.

Now, this conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence - economic, political, even spiritual - is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.

He might have looked like Elmer Fudd but he knew what he was talking about.

A great pic though, right enough!

[Killer Wolf]

we might not have a space program if it wasn't for warfare in the first place. it's an essential part of planning and design to work out how to use rockets to blow people up before you convert them to going up into space.
course, once we get a huge program in each country making and launching space station, we'll need to develop a program to work out how to shoot them down, *just in case*.

[DaddyHoggy]

Amazing picture. Looks like a still from a SF show, but it's the real thing. Very cool!

spent our defence budgets on space exploration

Making you jobless in the process? No, we wouldn't want that, would we?

I'd happily teach knitting to 7yr olds if it meant no more wars and the conquering of space within my lifetime.

[snork]

I’ve been looking at this pic, taken in the Cupola on the ISS, on and off all day.
There is just something ineffably cool about this image…

Funnily, I like the pictures the other way around much more and find them more inspiring - pictures of the ISS itself, not another one of the Pacific Ocean from space.

[Killer Wolf]

btw, if anyone else finds that pic pitch dark as i do, there's a version on APOD
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap101115.html

[Cmd. Cheyd]

Nice pic.

I'll stay out of the political conversation as it's well established I'm in the minority viewpoint.

[Darkbee]

I hope I get to see a view like that one day. Definitely a bucket-list item methinks, along with swim with (thx Kaks ) the dolphins (don't judge me!).

[Kaks]

No judging, but I've got to ask: how do you swim a dolphin? I really hope it's not a euphemism!

[Darkbee]

I think you're thinking of monkeys or chickens... and there's no spanking or choking going on here. *shows hands*

Thanks for calling attention to my unfortunate mistyping.

[Cody]

Dolphins… beautiful, highly intelligent creatures. Hanging over the side, watching them ride the bow wave of a ship I was on in the Med, is one of my fondest memories… but that’s the only way I like to see them. Swimming with them is something I’m not too sure about… they’re wild animals and should never become familiar with, or learn to trust, us humans. As for dolphins in captivity… a loathsome, hateful idea, that should be banned, along with zoos in general. Sorry, I feel very strongly about such things.