Building a Death Star

This isn't really a tech post, but being a Star Wars fan, thought this was worth a column.

When President Obama took office, he set up a website called We the People, where anybody can post a petition with some exceptions. If it gets 25,000 responses, (since updated to 100,000) then the White House will respond to the petition within 30 days.  Many crazy petitions have been posted.

But the single craziest was someone posted a petition that the U.S. should build a Death Star.

Surprisingly, 34,435 people signed the petition, including me.

On January 12, 2013, the White House responded! I'll save you the lengthy response, and zero in on the best line in the article.  Paul Shawcross, the White House's adviser on science and space said, "The Administration does not support blowing up planets." There are many other tongue-in-cheek responses, but it is a priceless response.  Any self-respecting Star Wars fan has to read this.  Clearly Shawcross is a fan.

That line alone is worth the read. Not just that it'd cost an estimated $850 quadrillion dollars.  And this doesn't count the inevitable construction cost overrun.

However, that didn't stop someone from starting a Kickstarter project to build one for us.   He asked for 20 million Euros, and established the estimated cost of $850 quadrillion as the "stretch" goal.  This was to provide "start-up" funds to build out the design before actually building the thing. Alas, only $438,402 (after currency conversion) was committed, so it did not fund.

I've been thinking we may need to invade Canada and Mexico to increase our tax base so that we can afford our very own Death Star.

Quite possibly the greatest Tweet ever!

For any boy who grew up in the 1980s, like myself, there are some movies that really grab the imagination.  Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Die Hard, The Terminator are all in there.

And then there's.... ROBOCOP!

For the uninitiated, RoboCop is a movie that takes place in futuristic Detroit. A major corporation decides to develop cyborgs that can take over the overwhelmed local Detroit Police Department.  They get an existing cop who is on the verge of death, and convert him into a Cyborg. Sounds vaguely like Darth Vader from Star Wars when I put it that way.

Anyway, RoboCop is played by Peter Weller.  If you don't know him, he played Admiral Marcus in the recent Star Trek Into Darkness movie.

RoboCop, even the name rolls off your tongue. Say it real slow, Ro-bo-cop.  It has a vague sense of intimidation just by saying it.

On February 7th, 2011 (Not sure, could be 2010, but haven't been able to find a specific year), a lowly guy from Massachusetts tweeted to Detroit Mayor Dave Bing this.

Amusing thought isn't it?  Nobody thought it'd go anywhere.

Then Dave Bing actually replied!

See his dry response.









This sent Twitter into a frenzy at the thought.  Someone set up a Facebook page.

Someone then set up a Kickstarter page and asked for $50,000 to design, build, and install the statue. They actually did it - and raised about $67,000 from 2,718 backers.

Here's a current picture of the statue in development.  This needs to be painted silver, so obviously they're not done yet.

Here's what RoboCop looks like in the movie.











This campaign illustrates one of the first successful crowdfunded public/private partnerships in recent history.  A statue about a movie character???  What will people think of next!  Building a pool in the East River of New York City?  Oops, they've already got that idea there also.