What is Digg?Sponsored by Best Buy
Geek Squad employee sings for Best Buy in holiday campaign. view!
youtube.com/bestbuy0 - Valerie DeAngelo explains the moment she got the casting call.
132 Comments
- Buelldozer, on 11/14/2007, -9/+155So? I'd rather NASA spend it on a party for guys who push the edges of engineering then watch Congress spend it on a study of goldfish habitat in New Mexico.
- reddevil3, on 11/14/2007, -2/+81Yes let's forget about the billions and billions being spent each week on Iraq, and focus on $500k spent by NASA.
- ganjadude4391, on 11/11/2007, -5/+55Exactly. NASA is one of the few government programs I can back 100%. NASA gives young kids dreams and it gives the american people great new tech. NASA deserves a party every now and again and in this case, I dont mind footing the bill. 500K out of 300 million people is less than a penny per person. Its not the end of the world.
- bagelpirate, on 11/11/2007, -3/+49I'd want a nice vacation and a free four-star hotel too if I was designing a robot to go to mars
- RogerStrong, on 11/11/2007, -0/+26>> NASA has failed to achieve any serious advancement in manned space
>> travel for decades and now they waste what funds they do have
Like what?
I don't mean "what could they do"; I mean "what have they failed to do, that they got the budget and the go-ahead from congress to do?"
NASA would love to have gone to Mars a long time ago. But without a mandate and a budget from Congress to do so, it doesn't have any choice in the matter. Alas, the American people haven't exactly been demanding a trip to Mars or any other big new project. They think it would be cool, but they don't want to spend money on it.
Your problem is with Congress, not NASA. - fadeout, on 11/12/2007, -2/+28They are literally rocket scientists, so what if they get to have a little party after pulling off amazing things like the Mars rover project?
- chi1thook, on 11/11/2007, -2/+25Stupid NASA partying while the Borg are out there.
- Error601, on 11/11/2007, -2/+23That sounds like the product of a use it or lose it situation. If you don't spend your budget, it goes away next year. One reason among many any operation run by the government costs more and produces less than private operations.
- CheeseburgerBro, on 11/12/2007, -1/+22Hi. I work in the event management business. That is a pretty cheap budget for such a big organization.
Seriously -- leave the poor nerds alone.
Factor in transportation, accommodation, food, liquor, audio-visual staging, courtesy and production staff, security, little lemon-soaked paper napkins -- well, you get the idea. It adds up.
And my industry counts on those minor excesses. Don't rock the boat. - geneticlemon, on 11/11/2007, -0/+18This is irritating ... not because NASA is partying (please, by all means, party, my dear scientists), but because it took something like this for CBS to actually pay attention to the department. I'm sorry, but $500K? That's not even a ***** chip in the Department of Defense's budget, so what is the big deal? Get it together, media -- there's a huge ***** elephant taking a ***** in your backyard, and it's not owned by NASA ...
- LooseSeal, on 11/11/2007, -1/+181/6th of a penny.
- carpespasm, on 11/11/2007, -1/+18they also have discovered more ***** about the universe in the past 50 years than we as a species had found out in the past 1000 years.
- shortarabguy, on 11/11/2007, -0/+17Those overspending pigs! How dare they spend 500K?! That will cut short our war in Iraq by several minutes!
- 0260, on 11/11/2007, -1/+17more of our tax money goes to tell kids not to have sex
- Ajajadude, on 11/11/2007, -1/+16Something tells me that NASA people weren't in conventional frats....
- javajockey, on 11/11/2007, -0/+13Sure it's a lot of money, but most of the people who work for NASA can make lots more money in the private sector. I work as a sys admin at NASA Langley and can tell you first hand, most of the engineers barely start at 50K a year. Most will never make more that 80 unless they go into management. So what if there are a few perks. You have to do something to compensate for the wages.
- robbh66, on 11/11/2007, -0/+13So how is this NASA's fault?
- etnu, on 11/11/2007, -0/+13Yeah, I'd much prefer that NASA not honor and reward good work. It's not like space is important or anything.
- osbjmg, on 11/11/2007, -1/+13Amen.
- rironin, on 11/11/2007, -1/+12I don't blame them one bit for this. NASA can't keep top-flight geeks in the organization with promises of glory and Cold War hutzbah like back in the good old days. They need to reward the employees who aren't disillusioned and worked to death already. Honoring good work is something all tech companies need to do, or they lose their talent. These days, NASA's got a lot of competition indeed.
- LuciferChaos, on 11/11/2007, -2/+13FTA: "And most of the honorees? They're not NASA employees. They're from Boeing and other billion-dollar contractors that aren’t picking up the tab."
This isn't even going for NASA scientists, its for corporate contractors. Though I do agree with what someone posted below, that the Iraq war etc. are far larger wastes of money than this. - kiwimonk, on 11/11/2007, -1/+11tha geekiest and smartest guys in America throwin a party? I would glady pay for my fellow geeks to have a good time. Lets just hope this rager airs on NASA TV!
- Nougat, on 11/11/2007, -0/+8Government monopoly on space? Go build a rocket, Einstein. No one is stopping you.
- Comatose51, on 11/11/2007, -0/+8Companies and organizations throw parties all the time. Even Habitat for Humanity throws parties. There's a Nobel ceremony. Have you seen the expense the White House incurs when hosting foreign dignitaries? Flying the President around with his entourage and 747 easily dwarf these expenses. These expenses can often be justified. Rewarding people for their hard work is worth it even if they work for the government. These scientists can get jobs outside of NASA. Retaining and hiring talents is not cheap. $500,000 is really nothing to boost the morale of employees. Government workers have morale too.
These expenses seen reasonable to me. A lot of the reactions here are knee jerk reaction about government expenses. Believe it or not, government must spend money to do its job. - getoffmybridge, on 05/05/2009, -0/+8Rather my tax money go to this than Congress's holiday bonuses.
- Pilot85, on 11/11/2007, -0/+8bull. There won't be private science ventures into the solar system for quite some time to come. Theres no money in it. NASA is by no means going to be rendered obsolete.
- mattsw84, on 11/11/2007, -0/+7I wish we could get people fired up about space exploration again. Its seems like the take of the TV and the internet no one cares about anything besides themselves.
- Scagli3tti, on 11/11/2007, -0/+7The sad thing is your comment is not hyperbole. In fact, it's an understatement. ~500k gets consumed every minute.
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/09/21/AR2007092102074.html - inactive, on 11/11/2007, -0/+7Every company pays for the occasional business party to allow workers to let off steam. Why? Because a relaxed happy employee is a more productive one.
Government agencies are no different. You can say that they are becuase you are paying for it. But *****. You are paying for Apple's business parties too in the way of higher prices. You are paying for Coca Cola's Annual Christmas party every ime you buy a can of Sprite. If it makes the workers more productive (which has been proven to be the case) then there is nothing wrong with it. In the long run, it saves money. - kiegh, on 11/11/2007, -0/+6This is ridiculous. The perfect pot meet kettle scenario. Senate spends millions on galas and ***** functions, yet they won't let people who actually think for a living have a very rare occasion of glamor for a deserved honor? How pitiful.
Don't digg this story, it's a pitiful attempt at an unnecessary spotlight adjustment. - Ajajadude, on 11/11/2007, -1/+6Way to stretch that one beyond it's breaking point. I'm not seeing your connection between NASA scientists and execs for private firms.
- EXreaction, on 11/11/2007, -1/+6They made the numbers bigger to make more people read it and distract people from the real problem, Iraq.
- Tenlow, on 11/11/2007, -2/+7Well i mean those guys went to the moon. THE FREAKING MOON. They deserve a few drinks on my dime. If I could, I'd check the box that deducts an extra few dollars out of my paycheck and sends it to nasa.
- DonKarnage25, on 11/11/2007, -3/+8Read the Article.
"And most of the honorees? They're not NASA employees. They're from Boeing and other billion-dollar contractors that aren’t picking up the tab."
Ok.. now I'm a little upset. - subtrakt, on 11/11/2007, -1/+6This is not a big deal.
- fadeout, on 11/11/2007, -1/+6"NASA has failed to achieve any serious advancement in manned space travel for decades and now they waste what funds they do have."
Yeah, there's nothing amazing about going into space safely on a 20 year old aircraft strapped to a rocket. Congrats on spouting something stupid outside of a Ron Paul or Israel thread for once, though. - Bodhinature, on 11/11/2007, -1/+6I'd rather them party on a paltry 500k than crazies like Halliburton partying on multiple billions for delivering nothing.
- shortarabguy, on 11/11/2007, -0/+5500,000 is change in the government's pocket. You'll never put that much down for a party, but the president's security alone probably dwarfs that over the course of a week of travel and publicity.
- inactive, on 11/11/2007, -0/+5They messed up and used the metric system again.
- inactive, on 11/11/2007, -0/+5Why? Those contractors work extremely hard for NASA too. And wouldn't you rather have the people that are designing these expensive vehicles to have less stress and higher morale, so they will do their jobs better?
- shortarabguy, on 11/11/2007, -0/+5Just to put this in perspective, keep in mind that estimates have put the war in Iraq at costing about 122,800 dollars per minute. The US Federal government has a budget of 2.2 trillion dollars. That's 2200 billion( or 2200000 million( or 2,200,000,000,000)) dollars.
Yes, it's a lot of money by your standards, but your standards are nowhere near the scale of a massive first-world country. The federal government spends a LOT of money to begin with. - lhbaker, on 11/11/2007, -3/+7Astronauts aside, the only way a goverment agency like NASA can retain talent is to wine and dine. Party away, folks, but not the night before you take one of our death-trap shuttles into orbit.
- digthedug, on 11/11/2007, -0/+4"If you think that's pricey, consider this: the NASA holds its big awards every time there's a shuttle launch. December's extravaganza will be the third one in 2007. Honoring all those people is costing you about $4 million a year."
- thebellmaster1x, on 11/11/2007, -1/+5If you're going to use a dupe account, at least don't use a dupe comment. Ass.
- fadeout, on 11/11/2007, -0/+4At least change your posts enough to not look copy and pasted from your other account?
- noahhoward, on 11/11/2007, -0/+4Conventions and awards are not a waste of money. They foster creativity and competition and serve to remind people why they are working as hard as they are. Most companies attend or host awards and conventions, NASA just happens to be a state-funded company.
- noahhoward, on 11/11/2007, -0/+4Wow... your events sound much more interesting than any of the government events I've ever been to.
- EXreaction, on 11/11/2007, -1/+5I'd take one of those "death-trap" shuttles into orbit any day of the week. It's probably a hell of a lot safer than driving anywhere.
- thebellmaster1x, on 11/11/2007, -1/+5Of course, because, God knows, NASA gets QUADRILLIONS OF DOLLARS every year and they piss it away instead of, you know, flying up to the International Space Station and attaching parts.
And what sort of military-industrial missions need to take place in space? Have a need to conquer Mars, you psychopath?
Hey, I've got an idea--let's scrap government entirely and just hope we can have enough people come to your backyard to build a Space Shuttle. I'm sure there won't be any problems. - flexhose, on 11/11/2007, -0/+4A party for people who do really cool ***** for our country that I can actually be proud of. I want all my tax dollars to go to this.
-
Show 51 - 100 of 133 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is