There Is No Cure For Curiosity.
An important point: the DMV is not open on Mondays.
So in the end, I did not have to spend my birthday hanging around in a bureaucratic waiting room to get a new driver's license. Which is just as well since my attention was riveted to the live webcast of Curiosity's landing on Mars, and the ensuing press conferences* in the small hours. (I was a sleepy owl all day today.) In just over the last 24 hours, apparently the internet's attention has been equally split between "OMG ROBOT ON MARS" and "OMG MOHAWK." Reactions that I find difficult to fault.
Mohawks aside, watching people's reactions from all over (through social media) to the landing a movable science lab on Mars-to exploring, to celebrating curiosity, to working together, to reaching beyond the sphere of our own world-has been amazing and overwhelming. It warmed the cockles of my heart and gave me a glowing faith in humanity, which is pretty much the best birthday present I could ever have.
. . .
SPACE!
The pre-landing Twitter exchange between Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Curiosity was also pretty priceless:
I maybe perhaps overdid some Curiosity retweets on the Twitter, enough to lose a follower or two. But if we're being honest here, if you can't get behind the excitement of humans on a little blue marble looking up in awe as collectively we reach out to other planets in the spirit of curiosity . . . then I have no business knowing you.
* Astronomy press conferences and the journalists they attract are my very favorite kind.
This entry was originally posted at http://chronographia.dreamwidth.org/91999.html and has
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.
So in the end, I did not have to spend my birthday hanging around in a bureaucratic waiting room to get a new driver's license. Which is just as well since my attention was riveted to the live webcast of Curiosity's landing on Mars, and the ensuing press conferences* in the small hours. (I was a sleepy owl all day today.) In just over the last 24 hours, apparently the internet's attention has been equally split between "OMG ROBOT ON MARS" and "OMG MOHAWK." Reactions that I find difficult to fault.
Mohawks aside, watching people's reactions from all over (through social media) to the landing a movable science lab on Mars-to exploring, to celebrating curiosity, to working together, to reaching beyond the sphere of our own world-has been amazing and overwhelming. It warmed the cockles of my heart and gave me a glowing faith in humanity, which is pretty much the best birthday present I could ever have.
. . .
SPACE!
The pre-landing Twitter exchange between Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Curiosity was also pretty priceless:
I maybe perhaps overdid some Curiosity retweets on the Twitter, enough to lose a follower or two. But if we're being honest here, if you can't get behind the excitement of humans on a little blue marble looking up in awe as collectively we reach out to other planets in the spirit of curiosity . . . then I have no business knowing you.
* Astronomy press conferences and the journalists they attract are my very favorite kind.
This entry was originally posted at http://chronographia.dreamwidth.org/91999.html and has
comments. Please comment there using OpenID.