(Updated below)
PZ Myers calls attention to another way to look at the cost of Bush's Endless WarTM:
Hmmm. Estimates of the cost of the war in Iraq range from $4.4 to 7.1 billion per month. If I assume about $5 billion, it looks like we're throwing away about $7 million per hour in that effort; so it looks like a little bit more than a half-hours worth of bloody war costs us $4 million. So let's just stop for about 40 minutes, OK?
What was the point of that calculation? The government is threatening to shut down the Arecibo Observatory unless they can cough up $4 million dollars for its operating budget for the next three years. Wow.
When you hear "Arecibo telescope," you might think, "Isn't that the one that looks for ETs?" And you'd be right. But only partly.
From a WaPo link in PZ's post (emph. added):
But among astronomers, Arecibo is an icon of hard science. Its instruments have netted a decades-long string of discoveries about the structure and evolution of the universe. Its high-powered radar has mapped in exquisite detail the surfaces and interiors of neighboring planets.
And it is the only facility on the planet able to track asteroids with enough precision to tell which ones might plow into Earth -- a disaster that could cause as many as a billion deaths and that experts say is preventable with enough warning.
You know, I hate to hurl back in the face of our beloved Vice President the words "One Percent Doctrine," but …
Update
2007-09-25 15:23 EDT
Jesus' General has another nice perspective, for a different trade-off.
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