One wish...Follow

I'll go for the international angle, since domestic politics doesn't affect me all that much.

My biggest wish would be that Obama starts working on a two-state solution in Israel/Paletine, now. Or at least, after the Israeli elections in Feb. As opposed to the very end of his Presidency, as is usually the case. And hopefully, this time, we can implement the solution that all parties agree needs to be implemented. The theory is all there, and everyone pretty much agrees on what needs to be done. I have no doubt this would be the start of a virtuous cycle in the ME. Israel could then normalise some of its relations with neighbouring Arab countries, and maybe, just maybe, the region would be a tiny bit more stable.

Also, if he really is the Messiah, he should feel right at home in the ME. So yeah, no giganticly unrealistic expectations, or anything.

All good suggestions. I'll throw in a wish for him and Biden and whoever else is good at twisting arms to do what they can to free up the credit/bailout logjam and get banks lending again.

I agree with this. It's disgusting how much more expensive University is in the US vs Canada. Tuition in Canada might cost you $30k for 4 year.

Really? Maybe I should study in Canuckia...

NPR was talking this morning about the possible creation of a "Bad Bank." Apparently sorta similar to the original plan of the government buying up all of those "toxic" assets. They set up an entity that buys up the bad stuff, then they attempt to recover as much of the loss as possible. Whereas with the original TARP plan, the government would just eat the losses directly, in fact they were even going to overpay for those assets to "convince the banks to go for it."

I think the original plan was going to be a huge, huge benefit for the banks, and now that it has been changed, they're being pissy and not lending.

The numbers I've heard indicate it would be about 10 times cheaper to go back to capsules. My understanding is the soviets made a shuttle, launched it once, realized it was way too expensive and went back to capsules. I'm not saying there aren't better designs out there. I've heard a small shuttle-like device for humans plus a larger payload (no humans) launcher would be vastly better (cheaper, could lift more, etc).

That said, for science, human space flight has very little value. The shining moment for humans in space (for pure science) was to fix the hubble. Of course there are other reasons for humans to be in space. And I support those despite the fact that budget could do so much for science.

At the end of the day, however, those who want science fiction come to life should put more into the NSF.

Tuition to the University of California (UC) system is about US$5000/year. Cal State system is like US$4000/year. The community college system is very cheap and there is a program for ensured transfer from community college to a UC school (with good grades). California is large, but there are about 10 UC campuses plus 23 state ones and a ton of community colleges (like 100), so they are very accessible. There are also many ways to get financial help, although some are unsavory. (Note: tuition doesn't include room and board. If that would be included in Canada, that is a large difference for those moving away from home.)

The Soviet Buran shuttles were never launched because the funds for their fuel tanks and boosters was cut in favor of the Mir station. Yes, the shuttle as it exists currently is expensive. Much of that is in the maintenance and upkeep costs. Back when the shuttle was made we didn't have the technology to create large precision ceramic surfaces easily, and those we could produce were very brittle. Maintianing those tiles is one of the most expensive portions of space shuttle operation. The other cost is the fuel tanks and reloading the solid rocket boosters. With a 2 stage to orbit aircraft mothership/shuttle package, you would have far lower operating costs than from a conventional shuttle, increased safety, higher payload and return capacity. Or they could dust off the Venture star prototype. The problems with that design were fixable, and its substantially complete. Anything but a poorly designed capsule.