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[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tom Merkle) wrote: >Jeffrey Bell wrote a great opinion piece for SpaceDaily that takes on >one thread often bandied about here--the historical exploration >analogy: > >http://www.spacedaily.com/news/oped-03zzx.html > >Although I think we should be spending more than we currently are on >space, I agree that NASA will no more lead us to space exploration >than Cheng Ho did China to world colonization. >But Jeffrey Bell draws some questionable conclusions about what caused >Nordic and Chinese exploration to sputter. I think most would argue >that Nordic exploration might well have continued to colonize America >if the Little Ice Age hadn't arrived to kill it off at its most >vulnerable stage. Agreed, because somehow he missed the economic roles of those colonies. That's what the Space Cadets miss. The European colonization was driven by two factors a) economics and b) the White Man's Burden. The 'prestige' colonies of the late 1800's were an anomaly. D. -- The STS-107 Columbia Loss FAQ can be found at the following URLs: Text-Only Version: http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq.html Enhanced HTML Version: http://www.io.com/~o_m/columbia_loss_faq_x.html Corrections, comments, and additions should be e-mailed to [EMAIL PROTECTED], as well as posted to sci.space.history and sci.space.shuttle for discussion.
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