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I followed the mission of the space shuttle Discovery with some interest. I stayed up all night to watch Steve Robinson repair the tile gap fillers, and I stayed up all night again a few nights later to watch the Discovery land. I thought it was pretty damn cool, not to mention rather unnerving in the event that anything went wrong. I watched both events live on NASA TV since the former wasn't broadcast until after the fact (CNN chose to discuss starving children in Africa and some kidnapped brat instead) and the latter was littered with talking heads. What especially irritated me about the TV broadcast of the tile gap filler repair was that after I'd watched the whole thing live via NASA's website, an hour later I switched on the news, and some network was broadcasting it like it were just happening, complete with future tense. I could have called them and bawled them out for false broadcasting, but it was easier just to change channels. Anyway, the day after the shuttle landed, FOX news was already going on about how it was a bad idea to spend all this money on the space program. I'm surprised they managed to squeeze that tidbit in, what with all the verbal diarrhea they were spewing about Mick Jagger and John Kerry. Anyway, it was infuriating to see how little these morons cared for what I believe is the future of mankind. Seriously. If the human race as we know it on Earth is going to survive, then we're going to have to explore space. Duh. In case anyone hasn't noticed (and apparently, Murdoch and his minions haven't), this planet is overpopulated, polluted, and running low on resources. At this rate, it will end up like it did in Red Dwarf: Better Than Life (Grant and Naylor), as a giant landfill with no life forms. Earthlings would live on other planets instead, preferably with less disastrous results. I think it's highly likely that if there are other life forms out there, and if they are aware of us, they have damn good reason not to visit us. Hell, we've probably been banned. "Ew, Earth, don't go there; they can't even take care of their own planet." Or, like in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy—
"What do you mean, you've never been to Alpha Centauri? For heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light-years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs that's your own lookout.
"Energize the demolition beams.
"I don't know . . . . [A]pathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all."
I'd rather be reading The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy than wasting my time thinking about FOX news. Rupert Murdoch can fucking shove it; I've got aliens to read about. |