hi change,
it's a good point and one i missed.
not sure that countdown's posts do good or harm. i usually think that adding information is helpful. but if your optimism is misplaced and out of tune with results, maybe the information supplier is the problem.
or perhaps it is a mixture of goods and harms.
certainly, 2012 has been a debacle for the telescope people. but the delightful thing is, they are looking so far into the distance, the present hardly seems to matter to them. in 2020, all will be well and all shall be well and all kinds of things will be well.