| I have a dream. In the dream, the normal people of this earth simultaneously reach the breaking point with this sort of nitwit, wolf-caller, or general loon. One Thursday afternoon, around 2:30, the normal world with turn on them and beat the living crap out of them all en masse. I don't know if it'll do any good, but it'll let us vent. |
Next time you go for a stroll on Mars, be sure you don't leave any litter behind. A plan to keep parts of the red planet in their pristine state could see seven areas turned into 'planetary parks', regulated just like national parks here on Earth. The scheme has been proposed by Charles Cockell, a microbiologist for the British Antarctic Survey in Cambridge, and Gerda Horneck, an astrobiologist from the German Aerospace Centre in Cologne, Germany. "It is the right of every person to stand and stare across the beautiful barrenness and desolation of the Martian surface without having to endure the eyesore of pieces of crashed spacecraft scattered across the landscape," they write in the latest edition of Space Policy.
| Now, didn't that cause an almost uncontrollable urge to holler "Oh, shuddup!"? |
Although scientists have found no life on Mars, Cockell and Horneck point out that many national parks on Earth are protected partly for their geological interest and natural beauty, such as the Grand Canyon and Antarctica. "And if Mars has simple microbial life, there are even greater reasons for establishing planetary parks - to protect that life from human destruction," they write.
| No human being has set foot on the planet yet, and these guys are already demanding to be put in charge — because of their superior Virtue™... |
"We've already crashed unmanned spacecraft there - Mars Polar Lander and possibly Beagle 2 - so there's already an environmental issue," Cockell told news@nature.com. He says the crashes are as irresponsible as dropping robots over the Antarctic... |