[meteorite-list] What do you get when you cross an astrologer and alawyer?

From: Sterling K. Webb <kelly_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri Apr 22 22:57:55 2005
Message-ID: <4269B992.8D90CEFB_at_bhil.com>

Hi,

    The real "violation of the natural balance of the Universe" occurred 500 years ago when, with the
beginnings of experimental science, the human race was pulled, kicking and screaming and burning heretics
along the way, down the pathway that would lead to a 1000-fold increase in the amount of energy available
to human beings.
    This energy would be used (along with the knowledge required to apply it) to increase the food
production of the planet 25-fold, to reduce the death rate 10-fold, and to actually eliminate some
diseases that had decimated humanity for millennia, resulting in a 8-fold population increase (when
compared to growth rate of the previous 500 years).
    Not only is the very existence of all these human beings made possible, but their health, safety,
lifespan, wealth and luxury have all been increased beyond the wildest expectations of anyone alive 500
years ago.
    Unfortunately, science and technology has performed a transformation of the human condition so
profound that a vast variety of human goonballs of every whacko stripe has proliferated out of control.
People like Bai, and the medieval whackos who want to outlaw Evil-Lution, and the ingeniously natural
fibered folks who want to get rid of technology, and all the other varieties of exotic flowers, can only
exist because the very things that they are opposed to made a world so safe and tolerable that they can
survive and even flourish in it.
    These and their many other ilks should all have to live in special enclaves where everything that any
of them want to get rid of is gone. They get to go everywhere by walking or ox-cart; they get to do
without electricity, medicine, computers, and the rest of the entire list of everything invented in the
last 500 years. If they get sick, they have to take their chances. They get to have 13 children and watch
9 of them die in infancy. They get to have a life span of 27 years. They get to try to sustain themselves
by hand labor on five acres of land (2 hectares). They get everything that they say they want, until, of
course, they are found screaming and pounding on the gate to get out. (I'm not a cruel person. Let'em
out. Maybe they've learned something.)


Sterling K. Webb
------------------------------------------------
Darren Garrison wrote:

> http://www.space.com/astronotes/astronotes.html
>
> April 20
>
> Russian Astrologist Sues NASA
>
> NASA has been taken to court in Russia over its plans to crack open a comet.
>
> Marina Bai, a Russian astrologist, filed a lawsuit last month with the Presnensky district court in
> Moscow, demanding that the U.S. space agency call off its $311 million Deep Impact mission. As reported
> in MosNews.com, Bai is also asking for 8.7 billion rubles ($311 million) in compensation for moral
> damages.
>
> ???The actions of NASA infringe upon my system of spiritual and life values, in particular on the values
> of every element of creation, upon the unacceptability of barbarically interfering with the natural life
> of the universe, and the violation of the natural balance of the Universe,??? Bai said in her claim.
>
> Deep Impact, which is already in space, is scheduled to collide with Comet 9P/Tempel 1 on July 4th of
> this year. The spacecraft will be used to dig out a crater in the comet. Scientists will then
> hope to learn what a typical comet is made of.
>
> The district court dismissed the Bai???s case, but the Moscow City Court took up the appeal and will
> rule following a hearing scheduled for May 6.
>
> Benny Peiser, a researcher at Liverpool John Moores University who follows asteroid science and the
> surrounding media and public attention, said even some Russian scientists have jumped on this court
> case, calling the space mission an act of "vandalism that cannot be justified."
>
> "I can only hope that this irrational technophobia is not a sign of things to come in other parts of
> Europe, which is already falling worryingly behind internationally in science and technology, never
> mind space exploration," Peiser told SPACE.com.
>
> -- SPACE.com Staff
Received on Fri 22 Apr 2005 10:57:22 PM PDT