How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything

Re:How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything by scoofy on Friday November 14, 2014 @08:57PM (#8610587)

This is actually a very fascinating part of my childhood. I was in middle school in Midlothian, TX during the time the "super collider" was being build in Waxahatchee. I was a kid, i was fascinated about this. The schools took it upon themselves to start teaching physics to 6th graders. The whole town knew it was a big deal. Then one day, it wasn't.

I'd moved away, and heard it was turned into place to grow mushrooms. I never understood when i was young, why they wouldn't want to build something so important. To be honest, i still don't really understand why we didn't build it aside from simply "Republicans." I'll check out the film.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superconducting_Super_Collider

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Re:How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything by JackFr on Saturday November 15, 2014 @01:29AM (#8611038)

The SSC was killed in the 103rd Congress by a Democratic majority in both the House and the Senate and a Democratic president.

https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/103-1993/h526 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/103/hr2445/text

The project was originally championed by Republicans (and Democrats from Texas.)

"Reagan Calls Super Collider 'Doorway to New World'" March 31, 1988|Associated Press

http://articles.latimes.com/1988-03-31/news/mn-896_1_super-c...

George Bush: Remarks at the Superconducting Super Collider Laboratory in Waxahachie, Texas July 30, 1992

"Now, the super collider. The super collider is one of the greatest scientific projects in the entire world. This place attracts scientific genius the way our U.S. basketball players attract autograph seekers over there in Barcelona. So for me it is an incredible honor to be among you and to hear of your dreams and accomplishments."

http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=21280

But I wouldn't want actual facts to cloud your worldview. You want to know why it was cancelled? Try Google.

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Re:How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything by mikeyouse on Saturday November 15, 2014 @02:26AM (#8611118)

Again, it's not as straightforward as that. It was started under Reagan and never adequately funded which is why it was behind budget and schedule in 1993. Cato and other conservative think tanks came out strongly against it in the early 1990's as well[1] which is why Bush dramatically cut funding in his budget in 1992.[2] When it came down to the final vote in the Senate to kill the program, 53% of Democrats voted to keep it (29/45) and 70% of Republicans vote to kill it (31/44).[3] The Republicans then went on to a massive sweep in 1994 based largely on promises to dramatically decrease government spending, where they highlighted projects like the SSC as wasteful.

There is plenty of blame to go around.

Steven Weinberg has a good piece about the failure of US politicians to support 'big science': http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/may/10/crisis-...

[1] - http://www.cato.org/pubs/briefs/bp-016.html

[2] - http://www.csmonitor.com/1992/0630/30013.html

[3] - http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_c...

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Re:How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything by nsxwolf on Saturday November 15, 2014 @01:51AM (#8611072)

This clashes with my worldview and prejudices, so I refuse to accept any of your facts.

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Re:How a Shrimp Treadmill Became a Political Plaything by dkersten on Saturday November 15, 2014 @04:05AM (#8611262)

Never let facts get in the way of your beliefs...

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