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| Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko |
Perhaps I am short-sighted, a modern day Luddite, an ostrich with his head buried deep in the sand but when I heard the news this evening that European robot probe Philae has made the first, historic landing on a comet, after descending from Rosetta - its mothership, I was not about to jump up and down with glee - even though this event happened three hundred million miles from Earth and is the culmination of twenty five years of ingenious technological and scientific team work.
At one level you certainly have to marvel at what the Rosetta team have achieved but the reason for my lukewarm response is that there is so much to do on our planet right now without pursuing sci-fi adventure fantasies in outer space. There are wars and conflicts to attend to. We have to find ways of halting or perhaps reversing population growth. Our reliance on fossil fuels must be remedied somehow. We need to address the widening gulf between the world's have nots and its haves. We have got ebola and Islamic extremists, pollution and a polluted world banking system, child abusers and people traffickers, starvation and desertification, deforestation and diarrhoea - that scourge of infants in the so-called Third World. And another thing - as untold millions of euros, pounds and dollars have been pumped into this European Space Agency project, we still know so very little about our own oceans. These concerns are from the here and now not from some distant sci-fi fantasy world
Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko is a lifeless lump of rock and yes - possibly ice. It has been flying through the universe for millennia and certainly does not hold the key to any of the matters I listed in the last paragraph. Getting to it has been an indulgence for boffins - a huge scientific experiment financially underwritten by the European Union. That energy and that funding would, in my humble opinion, have been better directed elsewhere - to more earthly concerns.
Why seek the stars when we can already see them sparkling?
I agree that it won't solve terrestrial problems but I do admire the search for knowledge and the application of it.
ReplyDeleteThe idea that human beings can solve all questions and dispel all mysteries will probably be our downfall rather than our salvation.
DeleteI tend to agree with everything you've said, Yorky...it is amazing...but.....
ReplyDeletePrecisely Lee. Amazing...but!
DeleteI am an American man, and I have decided to boycott American women. In a nutshell, American women are the most likely to cheat on you, to divorce you, to get fat, to steal half of your money in the divorce courts, don’t know how to cook or clean, don’t want to have children, etc. Therefore, what intelligent man would want to get involved with American women?
ReplyDeleteAmerican women are generally immature, selfish, extremely arrogant and self-centered, mentally unstable, irresponsible, and highly unchaste. The behavior of most American women is utterly disgusting, to say the least.
This blog is my attempt to explain why I feel American women are inferior to foreign women (non-American women), and why American men should boycott American women, and date/marry only foreign (non-American) women.
BOYCOTT AMERICAN WOMEN!
www.boycottamericanwomen.com
Do you mean Geoff Boycott - the famous Yorkshire cricketer? In that sense, most American women would agree to be boycotted as Geoff Boycott has got plenty of money. By the way sir, you should come over to Yorkshire and date a few Yorkshire women. They have thighs like rugby league prop forwards and biceps like coal miners. They would make mincemeat of you my man - mincemeat!
DeleteDo you think he will be back to read your reply YP?
DeleteHang on Carol! You are not one of these awful American women! Perhaps the disgruntled blogger would be delighted to link up with you. Next time he comments I'll point him in your direction!
DeleteI guess I am one of those mean American women he hates so much. He posted on my blog a couple of times. Wow! Some people just need to "get a life."
DeleteMadam Thyme - he says that you "are generally immature, selfish, extremely arrogant and self-centered, mentally unstable, irresponsible, and highly unchaste". Please would you confirm or deny this assertion.
DeleteBet he wouldn't think much of Aussie women either, we'd give him what for !
DeleteHe posted on my blog, too.
DeleteI see you have a new header and font ~ I have used that font YP ~ but I am not sure it is you. If you send me a sample of your handwriting ~ perhaps a signed cheque ~ I will make you your own Yorkshire Pudding font.
ReplyDeleteBTW ~ very exciting news here today ~ your mate Davo is speaking to the AUS parliament.
You mean Cameron? I have already read his speech it goes - "Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah". Thank you for the font offer or were you joking?
DeleteLoved your ostrich YP. There has been a great protest on Bondi beach recently where everyone buried their heads in the sand. I think it was about the world's approach to Climate Change !
ReplyDeleteAmen to that sentiment YP.
ReplyDelete