馬天林的博客開始

So begins my blog. I have a number of aspirations for the blog, and hopefully those come to fruition. I will be moving to Taiwan in August (of 2009) for some language study and, as current plans dictate, to pursue a masters in International Relations. The blog will no doubt at that point become primarily a travel blog. I do, however, reserve the right to write on whatever comes to mind. One goal of which is to research issues that I find myself lacking knowledge about and to research them, to fill the gaps. So hopefully once in a while I'll talk about something new I've learned about. I'm open to suggestions.

As for the title of my blog, it is quite simply the literal translation of my Chinese name. I could probably have come up with something more clever or something that will show the theme of the blog but there isn't one really. Since "sky" is part of my name then, I shall reserve the right to talk about anything under, in, and above the sky. Also since "sky" in Chinese can also mean "heaven" or "god" I suppose that leaves the theological realm open as well. I don't even know why I'm breaking this down. This blog is about whatever I want it to be, nuff said (whether it needed to be or not).

My first post was going consist of me researching the value of NASA and all that, because I get very frustrated when I hear people say that we should cut NASA's budget if not altogether. It is by no means the most expensive government funded program out there, but it is by far one of the most open to scrutiny. NASA has been one of the more beneficial endeavors of the United States. We have have so many technologies invented and/or improved because of the necessities of space travel and flight. Not to mention the awing walk on the Moon that inspired scores of American youth into the sciences. The intangible benefits are no doubt great.

You think the sustainability movement is strong now? Think of the required technologies to get people to and to establish a successful base on the Moon, let alone Mars. A crew sent with a finite amount of resources on a journey to Mars that takes years. This would require recycled waste, water, a lasting energy source, and so on.

I'll stop there though so as not to continue on in generalities because I would like to write something about that sometime in the future. Unfortunately my sources for the NASA budget usage compared to other US ventures is based solely on me remembering my American Politics course from 3 years ago. More on this later I suppose, BUT I would like to talk about one thing I think that we can all agree upon which could very well be the saving grace of NASA:

"Sky Falls, Who Cares?"

Some time ago while listening to NPR I was shocked to hear that we tracked an asteroid come in over Earth and later collected it's pieces. We had 20, count 'em 20 hours of notice. No, it was not big enough to cause harm, only big enough to cause rejoicing in related academia. Is this disconcerting to anyone else? These catastrophes have happened, and will happen again. I realize this, like many issues, often seem distant and abstract. More something for the realm of Hollywood. Problem is, that this one isn't as abstract as we'd like, just easily forgettable. No one has been building special jet fighter-like shuttles to land on asteroids to deliver a special team of roughneck American oil drillers to save the day (Armageddon reference). It's a collection of Astrophysicists and the like musing over potential doomsday scenarios going without funding, and without significant political power.

Maybe people should stop worrying about December 21, 2012 and start thinking about April 13, 2036:

Death by giant meteor

How to deflect a killer asteroid

p.s. :
Neil DeGrasse Tyson is an astrophysicist who earned his BA in Physics from Harvard and his PhD in Astrophysics from Columbia. Sorry for the underlines. He's up there with Bill Nye in my book, check him out.