Disclaimer: This is an opinion piece. All thoughts contained are that of my own. If you have an opinion about my opinion, please use the comment box at the bottom.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA for short. It’s been in the news regarding it’s new budget from President Obama.

This got me thinking…

Why is it even in the budget? It’s the Space Age, and yet, we’ve only made our way to our Moon with our own men. While this is a huge leap from what had been done before, it’s still only so far in the grand scheme of things.

Sure, we’re traveling into space via our machines, and a lot has been done in the last 40 years in these respects…

But imagine a world where we didn’t limit our space exploration, due to an invention of our own: money.

Imagine if all those advancements, if all the discoveries, all the missions had of happened years before. We’d be that much further ahead.

One of the biggest reasons is that our current system, at least in this area of the world, is capitalism: money runs everything. It’s what we know, it’s what we do.

But that’s not to say things can’t change. Things have changed in the past, and they will change in the future, but it’s a matter of when. So why not now?

Space exploration should be on the top of our list. Not only are many of the technologies developed by NASA in use in today’s gadgets and utilities, but NASA are also changing the world every day, by developing even more for their use. These will eventually find their way to consumer use as well.

These technologies create jobs, and most important push us even further towards space, and all that it has to offer.

Which brings me back to my point. Why are we holding them back?

Why are we telling them, “you can do this much, but that’s it for now, maybe more later”.

Why is it even an option to not push the limits of what we know and what we can do, at all times, and as far as they can?

So, how do we thwart this capitalism to give this wonderful cause some structure? My only idea would be an “International Initiative”.

One of the big issues of giving something unlimited money, would be dealing with the inflation that that causes against the people giving. So why not make it everyone’s responsibility?

We as a world community allow this to happen. We allow them to keep on developing past any boundaries that are laid out by “budgets”.

We might just find ourselves those years ahead, and in places where we never thought of even reaching.

These are the places we should be.

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: budget, Community, funding, Life, Money, NASA, Society

budget, Community, funding, Life, Money, NASA, Society Hide

The internet is a wonderful thing, it connects people to the world around them, and around others as well. The benefits are incredible, but there still are issues surrounding how we and others use this great invention.

One of the biggest issues we face is news, and reporting. Journalism has finally come full circle, and most news is spread via the web, even by well known journalists. Newsprint and the 6 o’clock news have turned into online news and twitter feeds.

The updates are faster, more easily accessible, free, but with these advantages comes one big disadvantage: credibility.

If we get our news from these sources, who’s to say the journalists reporting back to us aren’t using the same tools we are? And who’s to say that that source is credible?

Comments on internet articles make it immensely easier for those in the know to correct information, or indulge on information given to remove bias, or to set the record straight.

But those in the know can’t be every where, correcting all the biased or incorrect articles. We need another system.

We need a system, not dissimilar to that used by teachers and professors to check that an essay hasn’t been copied from another source. Something that checks where the information came from, and the relevance and credibility of said source.

A study conducted by a university, or committee will, and should, hold more sway than a publicly edited wiki article, for example.

This will force journalists to check and re-check their sources, and present a better product and better information.

Another facet could be to check the amount and locations of the sources.

An article which pulls heavily from one committee’s findings, yet ignores another reports findings, likely for sake of bias, is not a credible news source, and should not deserve to be considered as such.

With the wide world of the internet, and all that it gives us, one thing we need is credible journalism, but certain measures have to be put in place to force journalistic integrity, and to push for unbiased and correct information in articles.

We need a system, and we need it now.

Any ideas on how to implement this system? Or how we can push for more journalistic integrity?

Popularity: 2% [?]

Technorati Tags: Education, information, integrity, Journalism, Society

Education, information, integrity, Journalism, Society Hide