Why You Should Be More Interested In Mars Than the Olympics 409
New submitter hugeinc sends this quote from an article by author Andrew Kessler:
"Next week, while we're all watching NBC, a nuclear-powered, MINI-Cooper-sized super rover will land on Mars. We accurately guided this monster from 200 million miles away (that's 7.6 million marathons). It requires better accuracy than an Olympic golfer teeing off in London and hitting a hole-in-one in Auckland, New Zealand. It will use a laser to blast rocks, a chemical nose to sniff out the potential for life, and hundreds of other feats of near-magic. Will these discoveries lead us down a path to confirming life on other planets? Wouldn't that be a good story that might make people care about science?"
The problem with the golf analogy... (Score:5, Informative)
...is that golf isn't currently an Olympic sport (but has been added for 2016), and isn't being contested in London this year.
And yes -- sometimes it is these little details that can cause the non-scientists to completely ignore you. Some will feel there isn't much use in hearing your message about space science if you can't even get the details right about what is happening here on Earth.
Yaz
After last night's coverage on NBC... (Score:4, Informative)
After the disappointing, and frankly insulting performance put on by Matt Lauer and Meredith Viera (who I watched while growing up as local TV personalities) and the execrable Ryan Seacrest interviewing Michael Phelps instead of showing the 7/7 memorial, and the NOT EVEN 5 MINUTES BETWEEN COMMERCIALS, I'm done with the Olympics for this go-round.
So much this: http://www.slate.com/blogs/five_ring_circus/2012/07/28/nbc_olympics_coverage_meredith_vieira_think_it_s_cool_to_be_ignorant_.html [slate.com]
FUCK NBC. Fuck all of this crap.
Yes, the Mars Landing is much more relevant. I would rather watch grass grow and paint dry than turn on NBC coverage of the Olympics.
--
BMO
Murphy Lander (Score:2, Informative)
This is a complicated landing scheme. It makes me nervous. Unlike the last mission, there is only one rover, so it's all or nothing.
Re:Mars (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Mars (Score:4, Informative)
The olympics have been around since the 8th century B.C.
Actually the games as we know them started in the 1890's. There was a bit of a gap between the Fourth Century and then.
Re:Also because (Score:4, Informative)
I agree with the parent. If you were giving money to hardcore racists every time you purchased a transistor...then yea, I would have a problem with them. Same way I have a problem with people supporting the tyrannical organization that is the IOC. In order to host the Olympics, the host country must pass laws that essentially abolosh all civil rights in any cases where the Olympics are involved. You no longer have any right to free speech (assuming you did before they came...,) you are assumed guilty until proven innocent of any IP violations, they cause forced evictions, violate safety laws for the workers building the Olympic facilities...by supporting the Olympics you are supporting the IOC, and the IOC is just generally a horrible organization.
See:
http://www.vice.com/rule-britannia/the-vice-guide-to-the-olympics-part-1 [vice.com]
http://www.techdirt.com/search.php?cx=partner-pub-4050006937094082%3Acx0qff-dnm1&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Olympics [techdirt.com]