Political Planetarium Projector

We try to stay away from politics here - my mom said to never mix business and politics. Sorry Mom, I'm about to break that rule.

The curious folks over at Gizmodo picked up on something during the last presidential debate. Apparently, in an attack at Obama's approval of pork barrel spending, John McCain mentioned that Obama had earmarked a $3 million projector for the planetarium in Chicago, Illinois.

Could that really be true?

Looks like the Adler Planetarium was looking to replace their 40-year old Zeiss Mark VI start projector with an ultra-cool Universarium Model IX which can not only reproduce a stunning image of the night sky, but can do it with full-color motion. It's based on the "starball concept". I have no idea what that is, but it sounds really, really cool.

The proposal never happened, the money never came through, but that's not the point. I'm just happy that our presidential candidates are arguing talking about how much to spend on the latest and greatest electronics gear. See, you're not alone. -Leslie Shapiro

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