White House Responds To Death Star Petition
It all feels like something out of a comedy, or perhaps even a parody, but it's real. And amazingly, the petition received more than enough signatures to force the White House to address it. And address it did. Unfortunately, the response probably isn't the one most people were hoping for. Here's a snippet from the response: "The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it. The Administration does not support blowing up planets."
Perhaps even crazier is the response. Those quotes above are real, and are attributed to the White House. Who knew the folks at 1600 Penn. Ave. had such comedic prowess? At any rate, the White House reminds petitioners that we already have a Space Station, with six astronauts living in it right now. Still, that's not as cool as a Death Star, is it?
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What about a more manageable sized Death Star maybe only 100 yards in diameter with not planet destroying lasers but country or continent destroying lasers... I'm sure the overall cost would be 1/10 that of a full sized version, creates jobs, adds to defense, we wouldn't be destroying planets, we all win right? Maybe the U.S can sell tours to geeks to help fund the project. |
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The international space station is about 100 yards in diameter. Country destroying lasers are still science fiction at this point... or at least that's what my company said I should tell anyone that asks. The White House could fix this whole system if they made it such that any time you wanted to vote on a petition, you had to vote on the validity of 3 other petitions. If the majority of people said they were invalid, they would be dismissed. |
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Sure take the virgin space flight up there and target some place in the middle of the ocean. That would be kinda badass!! |
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So then at that size it's definitely doable |
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The White House response is HILARIOUS: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/response/isnt-petition-response-youre-looking |
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Definitely have to hand it to the White House. At the very least it was a great PR move, if not solid demonstration of a good sense of humor. |
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Here a link to a rather more serious petition ; i e, to make the metric system (SI) the standard in the US. Almost certainly easier to do than to construct a so-called «Death Star» and with far greater and far more beneficial consequences for the country. Perhaps HH would care to cover the issue, which presumably is of interest to all techies.... Henri |
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Yeah, I come from a country that used the metric system and the American system is...baffling at best. I get that it'll be hard to switch, but it'd be a switch to something infinitely simpler. I don't see it happening any time soon but maybe some day... |
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The metric system is already the standard in the US (since 1975: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_Conversion_Act), it's just not compulsory. When you do carpentry and stuff, feet are still useful because of the easy division by 3 and 4. |
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In this connexion I wonder how many HH readers have seen this report to the effect that a petition will now have to be signed by 100 000 rather than 25 000 registered petitioners before the White House is required to respond ? Cynical as I am, I can't help but wonder if this move wasn't motivated by an explicit desire to avoid having to respond to the petition to switch to the metric system - in practice, not merely in an act of Congress which seems to have resulted in nothing more than the establishment of a board whose activities during the last nearly four decades seem scarcely to have been epoch-making.... Henri |
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Maybe we should focus on the light saber first? |
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We already got star wars, why not add the death star to it? |
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