Robert Ballard on Colbert Report
I love Robert Ballard. I grew up with his books on the Titanic, the Bismarck, and the Isis. I must have read the first two about 80 times each.
I also have a friend working for Bob Ballard in Rhode Island on underwater archaeology.
So I was unpleasantly surprised when I saw him trash talk NASA on the Colbert Report on Feb 10, 2009.
Admittedly, he makes a lot of good points. Because of maritime law, which guarantees countries owning habitable land exclusive economic zones (EEZs) 200 miles offshore, there is a lot of real estate that the US knows precious little about.
But why make NASA your whipping boy? And why attribute it to quasi-religious needs to become closer to God than historical/economic reasons stemming from the Cold War and the importance of satellite systems to the modern economy?
On a side note, in a conversation I had with a member of the National Academy of Sciences staff, he said that astronomers are the whiniest constituency of scientists fighting for NSF budgets. Maybe Ballard knows something I don't.
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