patrick.net

Bellingham Bill says

funny thing about astronomy is whatever they discover is utterly useless in any big-picture economic analysis

Depends on the bigness of the picture.

Early observations of the orbits of Jupiter's moons led to a conundrum: they appeared from behind Jupiter sooner or later, depending how far away Jupiter was:

The first real measurement of the speed of light came about half a century later, in 1676, by a Danish astronomer, Ole Römer, working at the Paris Observatory. He had made a systematic study of Io, one of the moons of Jupiter, which was eclipsed by Jupiter at regular intervals, as Io went around Jupiter in a circular orbit at a steady rate. Actually, Römer found, for several months the eclipses lagged more and more behind the expected time, but then they began to pick up again. In September 1676,he correctly predicted that an eclipse on November 9 would be 10 minutes behind schedule. This was indeed the case, to the surprise of his skeptical colleagues at the Royal Observatory in Paris. Two weeks later, he told them what was happening: as the Earth and Jupiter moved in their orbits, the distance between them varied. The light from Io (actually reflected sunlight, of course) took time to reach the earth, and took the longest time when the earth was furthest away. When the Earth was furthest from Jupiter, there was an extra distance for light to travel equal to the diameter of the Earth’s orbit compared with the point of closest approach. The observed eclipses were furthest behind the predicted times when the earth was furthest from Jupiter.

Source

Further measurements of the speed of light led inexorably to special and then general realtivity, with a huge confirmation coming during the 1919 solar eclipse (light bent by the sun).

Our understanding of orbital mechanics led to our satellite industry; adding in general and special relativity allowed the timekeeping on the GPS satellites - massive economic benefit from that.

You are more likely to die in an asteroid impact than by terrorism. If we are able to prevent such impacts in the future - governments are just starting to take this seriously - the economic benefits are effectively infinite.

And if we become an interstellar civilization, then the economic upside positively dwarfs whatever we'd see from asteroid mining.

The Original Bankster says

he's never discovered anything

second time im saying this

Give credit where credit is due.
1. He furthered the interest in science and astronomy, which is lacking among American students. (especially among Black students)
2. He contributed towards the progress of astronomy, which leads to important discoveries. Most achievements are team efforts.

HydroCabron says

And women are fat and give bad head.

Not true. Fat women give the best head.

Neil is a dickhead. Even to little girls:

http://rebrn.com/re/neil-degrasse-tyson-corrects-a-girl-for-opening-a-question-with-112342/

Strategist says

Most achievements are team efforts.

this is nonsense women made up to get credit for work men do.

every great scientific discovery was made by an individual who is driven.

Bellingham Bill says

Somehow this is missing from the Trump / GOP economic message.

Agreed with your message regarding corporate profits but it's disingenuous to think that someone who kowtows to Wall Street is going to do better on that front.

Bellingham Bill says

It's really not economical to pretend unskilled labor here is worth $20+ an hour.

True, but secret trade deals don't make this crap better, esp. if accompanied by lots of unskilled immigration. Trade should be truly free without any secret deals, but open Tarrifs are still better than secret deals nobody gets a look into.

Bellingham Bill says

but the Drumpf family business in real estate.

Scamming people from the day they arrived in this country.

This is simply untrue. Yes, he used the system to his advantage, but he has been employing many people for many years. If you think that the "scammed" the populace and should be sent back then you have to be consequent and send Hillary straight to prison, along with Pelosi the insider trader. Making use of bankruptcy laws while employing people doesn't even compare to passing and abusing a law that by itself should be regarded unconstitutional, robbing people in the market blind by way of insider info while taking money from the taxpayer for lavish salaries at the same time all the time while employing not a single person. These people are so criminal (yes and some are Republican) that Trump is a fucking saint in comparison.

Bellingham Bill says

Let's not pretend that the conservative side isn't 90+% bullshit on these issues, k?

Sure, I have issues with both parties, especially regarding handouts and subsidies.