http://www.cdi.org/hotspots/issuebrief/ch5/
As far as I can tell, the modern version of the program began in 1983 when Reagan gave his "Star Wars" speech. Between 1984 and '94, $70.7 billion was spent. The total reached $95 billion by the year 2000. We are now spending $9 billion per year. Estimates are that by the year 2025 we will spend $238 billion. I am not sure whether that is the expected grand total, or whether that means we will spend an additional $238 billion. The numbers are so astronomical the difference hardly seems to matter.
Our national research establishment supposedly cannot spare $1 million for cold fusion. Not even $100,000. It will not take seriously the notion of spending $6 billion on a space elevator, while NASA admits it has spent $25 billion on the International Space Station, some experts estimate it is actually spent much more than that, and the total final cost of the Space Station is estimated at $100 billion. In short, diversity is not allowed, new ideas stand no chance, spending priorities are haywire, and knowledgeable leadership does not exist.
But before we denounce the government and move to shut down the federal research establishment, let us remember that U.S. private industry and universities have done *absolutely nothing* to advance cold fusion. The government may seem hopeless, but the alternatives are no better. At least the Navy and has made recent contributions.
Let us hope things are happening behind the scenes.
I was recently sorting through my late mother's papers and publications. I found some handwritten doggerel on a memo pad, probably dating from the 1970s, when she was chief of the Center for Human Factors Research at the U.S. Census Bureau. Perhaps this sheds some light on the problem:
If you write English / plain enough Nobody wants / To read your stuff But jargon, redundancy Bluff & cant Are guarantees Of a federal grant
- Jed
