[IP] valuable scientific research (not)

[Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>]

Delivered-To: dfarber+@ux13.sp.cs.cmu.edu
Date: Thu, 04 Dec 2003 04:38:14 -0500
From: Alexandros Papadopoulos <apapadop@cmu.edu>
Subject: valuable scientific research (not)
To: Dave Farber <dave@farber.net>


Hi Dave!

We live in strange times.

*On the one hand, you get "scientists" spending incredible amounts of
time and money to discover the formula for the "perfect toast".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3248822.stm

Food scientists at the UK's University of Leeds have developed a formula
for making the perfect piece of toast.

The equation - which details butter and toast temperature - took three
months and cost £10,000 to develop.
<snip>

*On the other, you get half of the world's population without access to
clean water, and 5,000 children dying *daily* as a consequence.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/676064.stm

Half the world's population is living in unsanitary conditions without
access to clean water, according to a UN-backed report.

The report, drawn up by the World Commission on Water for the 21st
Century, says three billion of the world's most deprived people live in
squalor and misery without access to proper sanitation.

One billion of them have no access to safe water at all.
[...]
UN water expert Brian Appleton says 5,000 children die needlessly every
day from waterborne illnesses:

"That's equivalent to 12 full jumbo jets crashing every day," he says.

"If 12 full Jumbo jets were crashing every day, the world would want to
do something about it - they would want to find out why it was
happening."
<snip>

Have we completely lost it?

-A

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