Pink and blue uniforms might motivate team
Editor:

I read with great interest the article on Cougar football history. Our football history does stand out with numerous Cougars going on to professional careers in the U.S., Canada and numerous bowl wins. The pink and blue colors of past teams must have been something. Sounds like a bad trip to Moscow, Idaho, on a Friday night. Our present and future teams could be held to ransom on these colors. Either play with intensity and pride, or your next game will be in the pink and blue uniforms. Now that is what I call an incentive. It is win the day for pink and blue. Sometimes a sense of humor can help when we are down and out. Go Cougars!

Michael Jones
alumnus, 1969

Space exploration is a worthy cause
Editor:

It is rather fitting that Dylan Hoff should refer to his Nov 18. opinion column as “Liberal Doses of Absurdity” because that is exactly what his Wednesday column on NASA was: absurd. The notion that the moon is old news only demonstrates ignorance of space exploration. An important part in the future of space exploration will be colonizing planets and moons with outposts from which astronauts and, eventually, the rest of the human race can live and work for extended periods of time. To get to that point, we need to learn how to do it. The moon, being so close to us, is the best place to acquire this knowledge. Humans need water to survive. So by learning more about the frozen water on the moon, NASA and others can better plan for the first human outpost on another celestial body. What we learn from colonizing the moon will be important for efforts to colonize other planets like Mars.

It is just not science of space exploration that Hoff seems to know nothing about, but also the funding of space exploration. How can we expect NASA to do more and more when we keep reducing their funding, forcing them to cut projects and research? For the past 40 years, people seem to have forgotten just how expensive space exploration is. If Hoff so dearly wants to see new spacesuits and new space structures, he should be asking his state representatives to advocate increased funding for NASA in Washington, D.C. NASA can do amazing things, but only if we give them the money they need.

Derek Held
junior
computer science