NASA isn't allowed to sell things. It would have had to be some other agency that sold them. Congress would have had to make the call. Plus: who would buy them? No one else could afford to fly them or anything.

Fuck you Dorkly for making me laugh, and then making me feel like an asshole about it when I realized that if HL3 came out tomorrow, I would be pre-ordering that shit fucking yesterday.

Inventions do not belong to the government. Find me a single instance of a patent held BY the US government.

There's plenty of examples of the perils of private industry doing science and technology research. There is huge amounts of private money going into the bio-tech field, and it leads to things like genes being patented to make sure that the companies investing in research profit from their investment. This actually…

I am doing my best not to be annoyed by your implicit assumption that people working for NASA can afford to keep working without pay. We have rent to pay just like everybody else. Go to any other organization and ask how many people would keep working there if they didn't get paid; would you do your job for free? If I…

No, that analogy would be more suited to raising the debt limit. We do have money to cover the checks; we already applied for the credit cards and took out the cash advance. Now that cash is going to sit in the bank while we get hit with late fees.

A government shutdown is NOT a spending cut. I keep seeing this idea circulating on the internet, and it's just wrong. The shutdown will cost taxpayer dollars, not save them. The shutdown of the mid '90's cost the taxpayers about $2 billion; and that's not counting the damage done to economic growth. A shutdown coming…

Depends on how much of their funding they got in advance; but I can tell you that most of the NASA contractors I work with are not going to be able to keep working after the shutdown for very long: and that's assuming their employees don't jump ship when the money stops coming in because they need to find new jobs.

Also, it's not like NASA pays everyone enough that we can all afford to NOT go out and look for other work. There's no way of knowing how long the shutdown will last, how long it will take from the time the government passes a continuing resolution until paychecks get sent out again, or if the continuing resolution…

Does Eugene Systems count as an 'indie developer'? Or are they more of a 'small studio'?

If they do count as indie, than Wargame:Airland Battles should be on this list; it's easily the most satisfying RTS I have ever played:

If anything we need MORE space fleet simulation games. Personally, I'm getting tired of the trend towards massive fleets and massive maps in the vein of Sins of a Solar Empire (great game though) . I want to see a space fleet simulation where you can get a bit more nitty gritty with the control of the ships: manage…

Agreed; if the majority of people in the world were the paragon's of morality that feature as the protagonists in Rand's books; it wouldn't matter what form of government and/or economy we had, because they would always do the right thing anyway. If her characters had been in the government instead of owning…

It sounds like the acts of individuals in Iran who are displeased with talks between the US and Iran; I don't see any reason to treat this as a sanctioned government action. That's just my initial reaction though.

Nope, just helicopters:

I don't agree. People's views of how science works and what scientists are like are heavily shaped by media, and usually NOT media that's deliberate about the message it's sending in that regard. Even if the message of the show is 'while totally socially inept, scientists get to do cool things' people will still…

So yeah, bit characters; the classic scientists stereotypes are still heavily reinforced by the overwhelming majority of content on the show.

Really? I sure never saw any. Certainly all the main characters reinforce that stereotype. It's not just a stereotype that those of us who are scientists are annoyed by; it's a stereotype that keeps people away from STEM fields, and leads to Americans in general being nearly scientifically illiterate.

Well, your criteria is a bit inconsistent and arbitrary.

I might think it was cute and kitschy for Jiffy Lube to call their employees 'Motor Doctors,' and write 'Dr. Smith' on their jumpsuit; not sure if the AMA would like that though, or anyone who has a doctorate for that matter.

There could quite conceivably be a r…

Haha! Figured out the blocking feature on Kinja! So long troll; and FUCK YOU!