A Stitch in Haste

NASA has launched (pun intended) a new tool to ensure that people are properly propagandized into thinking that the space agency is both a legitimate public good and just plain neat-o:

NASA has released a clever around-the-house and around-the-city Flash site that details a whole host of common materials that do in fact owe their existence to the space program.

The animations, reminiscent of the Teletubbies' gaudy overcolored domain (and, for those is in the know, the Comet Empire), are obviously geared to children and other gullible types. They identify various everyday items supposedly resulting directly from NASA expenditures.

For example, NASA apparently "invented":

--the guitar ("special vibration analysis equipment")
--the Dustbuster ("self-contained drill")
--baby formula ("algae as a recycling agent")
--cosmetics ("digital image processing analyzer")

Of course, what you won't find anywhere on NASA's website is a list of all the products that were never invented or improved because the R&D money needed to produce or enhance them was diverted to taxes in order to fund NASA and all the other "just plain neat-o" things the government has somehow convinced itself — and others — that it should be doing with taxpayer money. Perhaps they're still exploring outer space looking for them.

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Explanation of post title here.