Category Archives: Blogs' Archive

On October 19th, 2014, at about 6 o’clock in the afternoon, Greenwich Mean Time, a  comet by the name of Siding Spring  came within about 140,000  kilometers of Mars.  NASA scientists called it a “close shave” and had the three spacecraft currently orbiting our much mythologized neighbor hanging out on the side of the planet away from the comet.

Siding Spring

This leaves me with 3 questions.  First, how do they name comets and what’s the back story behind this one? Because Siding Spring sounds kind of cool, it’s as if comets get named by Hippie parents, which might well be more or less the case. I’m sure most NASA  scientists were nerds in high school and college, and spent   at least a bit of time out in the parking lot smoking doobs before astronomy class.

Second, and this isn’t so much a question as it is a statement, if they can predict the path of a comet with that much exactitude, and remote control spaceships that are orbiting around a planet that is not our own but so far away that the Earth is only a dot in the sky from there, then driverless cars are just around the corner, we probably have the technology  already, and traffic deaths will drop to about zero.  We should get on that ASAP and the only reason we don’t, I’m sure, is because people are total dicks about their cars.

Third, and this is something I’ve thought about a fair bit but if any of you reading know more about the science than I do (which would not be a tremendous stretch) feel free to enlighten me.  If a comet, made  mostly of water, were to strike Mars head on, a  big old dinosaur killer right smack in the old Mons Olympus, wouldn’t it be kind of an amazing thing?  I mean, it wouldn’t be a catastrophe at all because nobody lives there, at least not yet and, it seems to me (and this is the part where I admit I don’t know the science) Mars would get a lot of water, a bit extra mass and, with a bit of luck, an atmosphere.

It could even render the place habitable.  Granted, of  course, it didn’t just shatter  it like a pumpkin.

I’m not too confident that the cease-fire between Ukraine and the Russian backed Eastern Ukrainian separatists will hold.  Most cease fires don’t.  Like young romances or start up businesses,  they are hopeful  things, but most of them fail, many of them almost immediately.  Still, we keep trying because we must.  And I’m holding my thumbs, as they say here in the Czech Republic.

It seems to me that, despite 5,000 deaths so far, none of the sides involved (I count 4, there could be more,but it’s definitely not just two) want peace as much as they want an advantage.  When I say four sides, I am counting Ukraine, the Russian speaking separatists in the East, Russia (which is definitely involved,   Putin’s in this right up to his beady, little eyes), and “the West,” i.e. Europe, NATO, and the CIA.

It also seems to me (although I should admit at this point that I am not an expert on the region so I’m just spitballing) that the end result is inevitable.  Although it’s not clear exactly where the lines will be drawn, some sort of partition has got to happen.  So, why not just fast forward to that point, negotiate it out, with provisions that any loyalists can get out to the West and any Russian speakers in the West can go to the East – in fact, keep a friendly border so people can go back and forth as they like – and let there be peace.

Some of the good folks  over at SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) are getting a bit impatient looking for signals, and would like to take a more proactive approach to the problem.  That would be METI (messaging extra terrestrial intelligences.

A lot of scientists (Stephen Hawking, Neil DeGrasse Tyson, some of the people at SETI) think this would   be a boneheaded, potentially suicidal thing to do.  I understand their reasoning.  Any species advanced enough to be able to get here from another star system, is so much more advanced than us they could do whatever they wanted -pods in the basement, hypergalactic bypass – and there wouldn’t be a damned thing we could do about it,  so maybe we should just keep our heads down.

Nonetheless, I vote yes.  Here are my reasons:  First, that barn door has been open for awhile and closing it now doesn’t guarantee they won’t find us.  I’m not talking about Voyager, which has now cleared the Solar System and is carrying a message from mankind to whoever may find it – sort of a message in a bottle.  I’m talking about television.  If SETI doesn’t send a rational, coherent message, the aliens might base their  view of our society on watching Honey Boo Boo, in which case they’d be justified in any horrible thing they wanted to do.

Secondly, even though they might be thousands of years more advanced than us, by the time the message gets there and back, we will also be thousands of years more advanced than we are now, and what a millenium or two of change it’s going to be.  We are accelerating at an astounding pace now, and that’s only going to increase.

Third, if they come here and discover us without our having made the first overture, they are likely to view us as hopeless primitives,  unworthy of their consideration.  They may see us as food, a source of cheap labor, a  curious little animal to be dissected and studied, or a curiosity, to be brought back to their native planet and kept in zoos.  If we contact them first, we  might get a bit more respect.

The most important reason, though, is just that it’s in our nature, it’s the nature of all life one Earth and perhaps life everywhere.  Life either continues to grow and change and evolve or it withers and dies.  We can no more not try to contact them than we can crawl  back into the womb.

It is going to happen.  I feel it should.

I’ve often stopped to wonder at Fate’s peculiar ways; it seems that all the famous men were born on holidays.

-author unknown

Tomorrow will be Friday the 13th, and the day after that is the most awkward day of the year, Valentine’s Day.  I’ve no idea what to get for Helena, but I know I’d damned well better get something.

They Changed the Human Race

The human race has been around long enough, there is enough history and enough different religions and cultures and traditions, that every day has some  significance.  Today, February 12th, was a very important day in history.  February 12th, 1809.

The repercussions weren’t actually felt until the middle of the century, but two men were born that day who would transform the world dramatically.  In England, Charles Darwin was born.  His family was wealthy and intellectual.  His father was a doctor.  His mother was a Wedgewood, of the famous China making family.  His grandfather, Erasmus Darwin, was a well known poet.  Great things were expected of baby Charles.

Lincoln was born on a farm in Kentucky.  It’s possible that he exaggerated his poor beginnings in his campaign literature, but his family was a hell of a long way from rich.

Darwin attended prestigious schools and universities.  Lincoln had very little formal education,  but once he learned to read, he read widely.

The two men did have things in common, though.  They were both ardent abolitionists, which is the thing Lincoln is remembered for.  They were both big into science, which is the thing Darwin is remembered for.

Lincoln made great use of the newly invented telegraph in his  war effort.  And,  he built a hell of a lot of railroads.  Before Lincoln, it took months to get across the continent,   and a lot of people didn’t make it.  After Lincoln it was a a train ride, it took a few days, and it was a relatively safe venture.

It is a coincidence,of course, that they were born on the same day. But it’s a mighty coincidence, and worthy of note.

Jon Stewart is going to step down as host of The Daily Show.  He has been there 15 years which is pretty much the same as forever.  Liberal Americans everywhere are saddened.

Jon Stewart

Jon is a very funny guy.  But that’s not the main thing, because there are a lot of funny guys out there.  Although he makes me laugh, his role as political commentator is far more important than his role as comedian.  In fact, I’d put him in the same category as George Carlin.  A lot of the people who rave about them being great comics really love them because they  agree with their politics.

Nobody roasted the Republicans like Jon.  He made them look like absolute idiots and he usually did it just by quoting whatever stupid thing they were all saying that day and then showing a montage of clips in which they said the exact opposite.  It’s formula stuff, but I’ve never seen anybody else do it half as well and I don’t know who they’re going to get to replace him.

There will be somebody.  There is no shortage of up and coming young comics.  There never is, and never has been, a shortage of up and coming young comics.  I can’t imagine there ever will be.

I  don’t know what Jon is going to do next.  Some have suggested that he wants to direct films.  If so,  I  wish him luck.  Others have suggested that he should run for public office.  I’d support that.  Being a successful comic does not necessarily qualify someone for elective office but it doesn’t disqualify them, either.  Al Franken is doing a pretty good job of it.

At any rate, Jon:  You were great, we loved you, we’ll miss you, and we wish you the best of luck in whatever you do next.