In case you missed it: astronomers have discovered 54 planets that are potentially habitable. The news is here. Now where’s my damn warp drive-enabled starship? I could really use a break from creation museums, vaccine deniers and global warming skeptics (i.e. shills for the fossil fuel industry).
Seriously, science is so great. It boggles my mind that some — NOT ALL — people of faith attack it whenever it threatens their beliefs. I’m really not trying to pick a fight, I’m just saying. I mean, for eff’s sake, check out this terrible Bill O’Reilly video. This is the way a dumbass high school bully talks, and it reflects the way a lot of people think (or “think”). Fuck ignorant, idiocy-spreading cock-face piece of shit Bill O’Reilly and fuck his science-bashing fans and fellow-travellers. And triple-fuck the assholes who give a guy this ignorant a TV show. Sorry for the rant, but encouraging stupidity is despicable. There’s this beautiful, amazing universe and idiots want to diminish its wonder. God would NOT APPROVE.
Annnnnyway and also, designer Awesome Klassen sends in this short, entertaining article in the San Francisco Chronicle on why we need to head on over to these planets RIGHT NOW:
The last time humanity discovered habitable masses across an unknown abyss it was North America. In the 500 or so years since, we’ve experienced an unprecedented flowering of commerce, science, and culture. Back then, the average life span was 30 to 40 years. Sure, some bad things happened as a result of this adventuring and colonization. Peoples disappeared. Disease spread. Buffalo died. But on the whole, it looks like the Spaniards, Dutch, and Portuguese were pretty smart to pack entrepreneurs onto ships and send them into the unknown. Let’s do it again!
I can think of more than a few people who might prefer to live in a world where Europeans stayed home and loused up their own damn continent. Is North America really better for Bill O’fuckingReilly? A funny read nonetheless.
