To quote me:
Blue-sky, fundamental scientific research will *ALWAYS* pay off, usually in unimagined ways. Transistors and micro-circuitry leading to handheld supercomputers, lasers leading to DVD's and, of course, a document distribution system designed to help Particle Physicists communicate helping to spawn Google. Putting a research station, and a supporting set of villages, on Farside would benefit us in ways unimaginable and as impossible to predict as Blu-Ray discs full of movies were when lasers were being invented. It would also make money right here.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
