In my head I picture some punks gleeful over their latest destructive escapade. I am taken back to the Beavis and Butthead era. “Whoa, cool. You blew stuff up huh huh. Do it again.” But this isn’t some kids blowing up bugs with firecrackers. It’s NASA.
Now I know large numbers — ludricous numbers — aren’t supposed to faze us anymore. I mean, think of the Iraq war cost, but $333 million does seem like a lot of moolah that could go to other more pertinent issues affecting mankind.
And I quote: ???I can???t believe they???re paying us to have this much fun,??? exclaimed Don Yeomans, a Deep Impact mission co-investigator for JPL. ???The impact was bigger than what I expected.”
Yes, yes. Blasting a very large probe into an even larger hurling rock is very important. I agree. In fact, I think I had fun with similar experiments as a child. And one in particular, that I fondly remember, is the wonderful ripple effect of skipping a rock on the surface of a pond . . .
I feel similarly about the nature of the universe. Especially when speaking on such large scales, at such ludricous speeds. All in the name of science. Couldn’t leave well enough alone.
I quote: “It???s clear that the ejecta was still coming out, at least after the [impact] event.” Certainly.
And anyways, I’m not the only one harping on the subject. This rant is particularly interesting because 1) It’s an intelligent analysis of the issue and 2) The name of the blog is Fantastic Planet, one of the best movies ever [Good, weird scifi. And even better we can learn a thing or two from the Traags whose science experiment with those peskies bipeds from Terra went horribly awry].
