Some Docs Do Editor: I read the article “Come Hither, Dear Doc” (Nov. 7) with interest. I am a registered nurse, working in radiation oncology at St. Joseph Hospital. The article certainly described some of the issues related to recruiting physicians to our area, but didn’t report that numerous excellent physicians have been recruited, in multiple specialties. An incomplete list includes: radiation oncology, allergy and immunology, medical oncology, neurosurgery, ENT, radiology and orthopedic surgery. Our community certainly has many medical care challenges, as does the nation, but we do have excellent physicians who have chosen to live and practice on the North Coast. Deborah R. Turkis, Eureka
Thank a Scientist Editor: The letter by GT Buckley titled “Science. Pfft.” (Nov. 14) complaining about the expenses of space exploration and particle physics deserves a response. Approximately 2 percent of the federal budget is allocated for science and medical research. In comparison, about 20 percent is consumed by defense. Scientific research has provided society with an abundance of benefits including TVs, laser-read DVDs, LEDs, MRIs, CCD
cameras, electronic memories, cell phones and improved weather forecasting. Military spending has provided us with Vietnam and Iraq. GT Buckley and I may agree, however, that humans in space are not cost effective relative to robotic missions. Don Garlick, Fieldbrook Editor: You science bashers are so funny! Even so, it’s disturbing how science is increasingly being called a costly “luxury.” What would you have us do? Move back to a flat Earth? Give up medicines? Televisions? Without the science of fertilizers in the “Green Revolution,” hundreds of millions of us would never have been born! Would you have us give up our pursuit of understanding and advancement of knowledge? Many of us consider these intrinsically valuable pursuits in their own right. Another overlooked factor amongst the anti-science crowd is the economic benefit of science. Flying robots to Mars (but one example) stimulates a vast
Cartoon by joel mielke
industrial base employing thousands of people. For each dollar NASA spends, $10 are made from the resulting economic stimu“For peat’s sake, what were they lation. Not a bad return. thinking?!?” Where do you think NASA dollars go? They don’t just load money on — G. Gilbert Yule, commenting on our blog post about rockets and fling it illegal peat-moss mining. See Blog Jammin, page 10. into space. Those dollars are spent on earth! NASA’s 2014 ghanistan. NASA spends about one-tenth Monday. budget is $16.6 billion. that and we get something from it that That’s for everything: Looking down from on high, the astronaut gaped. goes beyond economics. We get a society spacecraft development, probes Where is everyone? On tuesday the animals disappeared; enriched by knowledge and wonder. Do orbiting Mercury, Venus, Mars, you want to live in a society that doesn’t wednesday, the birds and fishes; Saturn, and spacecraft now on value wonder? thursday saw sun and stars snuffed out, the moon magicked away. their way to asteroids, comets, And where does this fantasy of scienJupiter and Pluto. Polls show Then the trees died, and saturday was chaos. tists having huge pay checks come from? people believe NASA’s budget is But the astronaut had been right. On sunday Have you ever compared a scientist’s pay 24 percent of the federal budget. to other professions? Few scientists are God rested. True figure: 0.58 percent. That’s rich. It’s advancement of our understandchump change compared to miliing that motivates most scientists’ careers. tary spending. Every hour we are — Joshua Dollins Mark Bailey, Kneeland spending nearly $11 million in Af-
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