Driving in to HELL (aka: H&Ks) this morning I was listening to a story on NPR about a big ol' meeting of the space nerd/geeks going on in Prague today. Astronomers from around the world are planning to determine the specifics concerning the requirements to qualify heavenly bodies as planets. I know………..I'll give you a moment to catch your breath and wrap your brain around THAT one. Well, I guess I can think of dumber reasons to visit Prague (like mine: party!) but seriously, I thought we had the whole what-constitutes-a-planet thing down already, what with the nine already-agreed-upon planets we have and all. The dilemma appears to be Pluto: planet, yea or nay? One astronomer said he had gotten a ton of hate mail from elementary school children (terrorist threat perhaps?) begging that Pluto not be downgraded to lesser than planet status! Silly children, it's not like being downgraded will impact property values there or cause Disney to rename that yellow dog or anything major like that. The problem appears to be that keeping Pluto in a "planet" status may force astronomers to qualify three other "things" out there as planets as well, including the "mass" pictured here (where I am definitely planning to purchase beach front property---just look at that view!). And to all this I can only say: WHO GIVES A FLYING FUCK? Maybe it's because I'm not into science fiction or maybe it's that we have a few other pressing matters here on earth, oh like all that turmoil in the Middle East, global warming and how I'm going to be able to afford $4 for a gallon of gas soon, that all this planet crap seems just a little frivolous. Even Kate Hudson and the questions surrounding if she and Owen Wilson are "an item" seem a little more interesting than "Is Pluto Too Puny to Be a Planet?". Seriously, maybe this collective brainpower should be used for something more relevant and possibly focused on fixing THIS PLANET (if in fact we decide we actually deserve that term). But that's just my humble opinion, and I've been wrong about way more important stuff before. Evidently invading Iraq was't the huge mistake I originally suspected it would be, so there you go.
4 comments:
I agree completely.
We should suspend all activity, funding and even thought on the fundamental hard sciences until we all learn to get along here on earth.
But we wouldn't have invented Tang!
Wow, billions of dollars are thrown at NASA and all we got for it were moon rocks and tang. I think we, as a species, would have survived without tang and in case you missed my post yesterday, we got rock for days.
Or you could look at the benefit list at: http://www.ethicalatheist.com/docs/benefits_of_space_program.html
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