Skydiving from 25 Miles Up 282
chisox writes "The Observer has a story about a retired French army colonel who is soon to make a free fall parachute jump from 25 miles up. In the process he will break the sound barrier, reaching a top speed of mach 1.68 before he opens his parachute 1,000 metres above the Earth. Of course, if the chute doesn't open, the hole he'll make will be about 1,000 metres deep." Well, actually his max speed will be high up and near the earth the atmosphere will have slowed him down to terminal velocity.
Re:Wouldn't be cool if he died (Score:3, Insightful)
I personally have no desire to float 25 miles up into the atmosphere in temperatures over a hundred degrees below freezing just so I can fall faster than the speed of sound. But if this guy wants to do it, more power to him. As long as SOMEONE is reaching higher for what nobody in their right mind would ever want to do, the rest of the world will benefit as a result, even if indirectly.
I'm not saying that funding medical research is bad. Its just as noble an endevour as any other. But to say that other reasearch does no good for the world simply because the immediate results do not, is very short sighted and reeks very badly of the "everything's already been invented" mentality. And besides, consider the fact that since he has partially funded this effort of his, the experiments he's carrying out will benefit agencies that otherwise would have to spend their own money to carry out similar experiments anyway. That means that money will be saved.. which means it might be available elsewhere, including your own personal preferred pet projects. And that's just looking at things from an immediate economic point of view.
-Restil
Re:His Ears (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Wouldn't be cool if he died (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what the moral difference is between robbing someone on the street at gunpoint, and using your government representatives to do it for you?
None.
What you state is VERY contrary to the spirit of freedom and individual liberty. What someone does with his own time and money is no business of yours at all.
How about your own life? That money you spent on that new RAM upgrade could have gone to help AIDS victims. That money you blew on beer and pr0n magazines could have gone to help the homeless.
See what I mean? This is, in essence, what socialism is: A central comitte decides what is done with money, property, and individuals, NOT the individuals.
I don't think that is what you are advocating, at least, I hope not...
If not for the individual freedom the USA is supposed to stand for, and the incredible spirit of adventure and creativity this spawns, the world wouldn't have had:
Charles Lindburgh
Wilbur and Orville Wright
Who both did things that were thought to be nutty at the time.
There is a reason why most great inventions of the past 150 years have happened in America. One word: Freedom.
Freedom to do with what is yours, and what gifts you have, as you will.
Re:Where Did He Get the Funding??? (Score:2, Insightful)
As Slashdotters we should recognize people trying to do "crazy" things are the ones who expand the frontiers of our society. Would you also have nominated the lunar Apollo teams for the darwin awards?
If slashdot were around in 1633 perhaps we would also be the first to condemn Galileo as a heretic lune.
Re:No... (Score:2, Insightful)