Apollo's Edgar Mitchell on Politics

I was reading through Cory Doctorow's Boing Boing today and came across this quote from Apollo 14's Edgar Mitchell commenting on the pettiness of global politics. I could comment or expound, but why bother?

Would You Boycott Science Fiction Writers Because Of Their Politics?

From IO9 blog - who loves to live on the edge - comes a really interesting poll. The poll has one question - "Would You Boycott Science Fiction Writers Because Of Their Politics?"

Made ya stop and think didn't it.... Would you not buy or read a writer's work because you disagree or dislike their political ideology?

For me it is more or maybe less complicated. My choice would be a bit more than left right independent, republican, democrat or what have you. At different times, I know that I have abandoned a writer when their belief set or religious beliefs ran counter to my own. It really is more to it as you might suspect. When this set of beliefs bleeds into the writings, when the income from those writings help support them and when finally aggressive and negative tactics are used to control public opinion as such - when something along those lines takes place then yes, I would "boycott" a writer. But then, I may have added to many qualifiers into the mix. Because I think "politics" tries to simplify the question. It is in truth, it should read, if you found a writer's ideology objectionable or repellent, would you support them through purchasing of their writings?

Still - you might read it different. Take a trip over to the IO9 questionaire and weigh in.

Kirk McCain & Spock Obama

artist Drew Friedman painted this piece for the New York Observer



<- complete Boing boing article ->

Politics Threatens U.S. Occupation of Space Station

The Universe Today has noted that once again politics is interfering with the space program. With the recent chilling of U.S. - Russian relations, due in part to the recent Russian invasion of Georgia, Congress is understandably reluctant to authorize buying Soyuz seats for U.S. astronauts.

The problem is that "NASA also is counting on using the Soyuz to bridge the five-year gap between the end of shuttle operations in 2010 and the debut of the Constellation program in 2015." This gap is the result of delays caused by short sighted politicians underfunding NASA.

NASA Administrator Mike Griffin notes that this leaves only three possibilities. Either there won't be any U.S. and partner country astronauts on board the ISS for a time, or NASA will be authorized additional money to extend the space shuttle's life, or Nasa will be told to keep the shuttle flying without extra money. Griffin doesn't say it, but the last possibility is the most typical of Congress.

<The Universe Today article>

(Thanks Dave, I might want to suggest everyone take a look at a previous article I wrote dealing more with the political end of what is happening here. At risk here is of course the ISS, what is in play though is a WMD non proliferation waver that Russia has enjoyed for some time now and is about to expire. <- read more ->)

science is distorted to promote political and corporate agendas

Shaun Saunders sends in a link from Newstarget.com that purports that the reporting of science today is more closely akin to political motivations than it is to the advancement of scientific knowledge.

Writer Mike Adams points out that science primarily publicized today is science that supports the interest of business, most notably in medical and environmental science.

Under the Bush Administration, government-employed scientists are routinely told they cannot report results indicating the progression of global warming.

The clinical trials used by the Food and Drug Administration to make drug approval decisions are conducted almost entirely by the drug companies themselves. These companies go out of their way to hire scientists willing to design and run these studies to produces precisely the result that the drug companies want.

And there is so much more. Click the article title or this link for the comlete article.