"It takes 2 YEARS to reach Mars!"

(oops)

Which doesn't change the fact that every government agency is probably going to take a budgetary hit in the near future. Even the relatively small ones.

"I also said elsewhere in this thread that there needs to be a way to isolate NASA from political and budgetary whims..."

"It takes 2 YEARS to reach Mars!"

"The point is not whether SETI has produced something of scientific/practical value, it's that it could. "

Money. And the unwillingness to spend it. That's why it hasn't happened sooner...and we didn't have anything like today's debt then, either. It's still not a done deal (and we don't need a BFR like the Space Launch System to do it, either...it will, if anything, suck away developmental money)

"I have to see if it's available on DVD."

That which became the International Space Station also began with Reagan:

"I wonder what Richard Feynman thought of Altered States..."

I think the first time I ever heard of sensory deprivation tanks (I knew well of John Lilly at this time, but only his dolphin work) was in the TV movie that kicked off the original 'Hawaii Five-O.'

I don't know if you can call it 'investing,' but we (that is, NASA) will be paying Russia for access to ISS (and at a greater seat price than civilian tourists pay), until one or more of the four CCDev partners* have operational orbital manned spacecraft.

Dolphins, too must always have a sense of depth, especially as air-breathing mammals, they have to always have an awareness of where and how far the surface is.

That should've been; "You got time on me.' I can't seem to edit that post...

That referred to an item by Malcolm Brenner. See his book 'Wet Goddess' for more.

You time got me, I was only 24 then...

Nah, this is more nearly Sid and Marty Krofft on acid...

So did I. August 1970. The interview with Paul Ehrlich. (at the ripe old age of 16...it happens I'm as old as the magazine itself)

I had that issue for many years. the 'Science and the Future' was a headline I couldn't miss (and 'sex with a dolphin' pretty much sealed the deal)

So it does.