In defense of NASA: was Re: Wirin' up blinkenlights

Without getting into detail, which would require I refresh my memory about a number of these examples, I'd point out that EPOXY is one that came about by accident, although there are many others. I'd be surprised to find that someone set out to build a semiconductor, knowing that the physical chemistry of the substances involved, and that people, though they knew in advance that such things could be done, simply hadn't bothered for one reason or another. Likewise, I recently saw a PBS program that went into some detail about the invention of RADAR. That certainly wasn't planned out in advance. Nobel (according to another PBS program) didn't set about to invent Nitrogycerin, nor, knowing about nitrogycerine, did he set out to invent nitrocellulose, And, of course, there's the Post-It. That certainly was an accident, resulting from a spill, according to the inventor, who was interviewed on an NPR program.