OT, Government Waste

[Uncle Monster]

I found the video I was looking for a few posts back. If this doesn't anger you then you don't deserve to be a citizen. ?( ?_? ?)?

show-clips

[8~{} Uncle Wasted Monster

[Frank]

Got this one this am:

When NASA started sending astronauts into space they quickly discovered that ball-point would not work in zero gravity.

To combat this problem, Congress approved a program and NASA scientists spent a decade and over $165 million developing a pen that writes in zero gravity, upside down, on almost any surface and at temperatures ranging from below freezing to over 300 C.

The Russians used a pencil...

Your taxes are due again in April, 2017.

[Dan Espen]

How does it feel to be party to the spreading ignorance in America?

Snopes:

NASA never asked Paul C. Fisher to produce a pen. When the astronauts began to fly, like the Russians, they used pencils, but the leads sometimes broke and became a hazard by floating in the [capsule's] atmosphere where there was no gravity. They could float into an eye or nose or cause a short in an electrical device. In addition, both the lead and the wood of the pencil could burn rapidly in the pure oxygen atmosphere. Paul Fisher realized the astronauts needed a safer and more dependable writing instrument, so in July 1965 he developed the pressurized ball pen, with its ink enclosed in a sealed, pressurized ink cartridge.

Fisher sent the first samples to Dr. Robert Gilruth, Director of the Houston Space Center. The pens were all metal except for the ink, which had a flash point above 200°C. The sample Space Pens were thoroughly tested by NASA. They passed all the tests and have been used ever since on all manned space flights, American and Russian. All research and development costs were paid by Paul Fisher. No development costs have ever been charged to the government. Because of the fire in Apollo 1, in which three Astronauts died, NASA required a writing instrument that would not burn in a 100% oxygen atmosphere. It also had to work in the extreme conditions of outer space:...

Just a few seconds with Google can avoid the embarrassment (assuming you care). Government workers are just like any other workers. They go to work and try to do their jobs just like everyone else. Sometimes they make mistakes, sometimes not. I suspect the folks at NASA are pretty damn smart and make a whole lot less mistakes than most. Show a little respect.

[Oren]

FISHER SPACE PEN CO. BOULDER CITY NEVADA USA

"... a pen that uses pressurized ink cartridges and is able to write in zero gravity, underwater, over wet and greasy paper, at any angle, and in a very wide range of temperatures."

[gfretwell]

The Russians asked what was wrong with a pencil