Why You Should Be More Interested In Mars Than the Olympics

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?"

Comments

Mars

[Dan541]

ya!

Re:Mars

[Dan541]

Because Mars IS more interesting than some boneheads chasing each other around a dirt track. Humanity needs to move on.

Re:Mars

[jhoegl]

"Don't you run from me... DON'T YOU RUN!"

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

Be nice, this is all they have left.

Re:Mars

[DragonTHC]

I see your point, but there's something to be said for being the pinnacle of human physical fitness.

It's exciting to see the fastest person alive.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

"Oooh look, that thing is moving!! :D"

vs

Colonizing new planets.

Re:Mars

[arth1]

It's exciting to see the fastest person alive.

I've seen him. I was sitting at an outdoor cafe enjoying a pint, when I saw someone with a wallet in his hand running, oh, about twice the speed of Ben Johnson, leaving a pair of pursuing cops in the dust. They wouldn't have caught him on motorbikes.

No, wait, fast as he was, he's not the fastest person alive. That would be the trio of Stafford, Young and Ceman. It's amazing that these ~80 year olds hold the record.

Re:Mars

[fahrbot-bot]

I see your point, but there's something to be said for being the pinnacle of human physical fitness.

Pinnacle for a specific purpose/sport/activity perhaps. Track, swimming, gymnastic, archery, etc... fitness (and skills) are not interchangeable. You want to see the pinnacle of human fitness, try something like the US Navy SEALs. [ Any other better examples /. ? ]

Re:Mars

[fiannaFailMan]

1 - Organized sport has largely supplanted war as a means of getting one over one one's rivals. Imperial pissing contests now involve athletic achievement, not who can build the biggest battleship with the biggest phallic symbol guns. I think humanity has moved on quite a bit in many ways, and organized sport is one tool that has helped.

2 - The opening ceremony of the Olympics gave pride of place to honouring two engineers who changed the world: Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Tim Berners Lee. (If I were directing I would have tried to add Frank Whittle in there, but I'm not griping, I thought it was a powerful show and I found it very moving. Probably helped that I watched the BBC's coverage, anyone who watched it on NBC seemed to complain about it.)

Yes the Curiosity mission is exciting and I'll be following it with great interest. But I'll also be watching sports. Hell I'm even going to watch tomorrow's Formula 1 Grand Prix. It is possible to do two things at once, especially when there's about 7 billion of us.

Re:Mars

[NoSleepDemon]

I imagine you're going to need some fairly fit people to survive a trip to Mars without their bodies failing. So the art of physical fitness isn't wasted.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

" the speed of Ben Johnson"

You're Canadian and you're old.

Re:Mars

[Joce640k]

the pinnacle of human fitness, try something like the US Navy SEALs. [ Any other better examples /. ? ]

Nah. If you want fitness try somebody from Cirque du Soleil .. or a Ballet dancer. They'll run rings around one of those Navy grunts.

Re:Mars

[jkflying]

Pentathlon?
Shooting, fencing, swimming, horse riding (show jumping), track running. Not only that, it is a proper competition, unlike the SEALS who have better equipment and intel than the other side ever will.

Re:Mars

[TheLink]

I imagine you're going to need some fairly fit people to survive a trip to Mars without their bodies failing.

Actually no. That's why this Mars crap is not interesting to me.

If they did it right it would be interesting to me. Example of doing space stuff right: work on building a space station with artificial gravity[1], better radiation shielding.

Once we have that technology working in practical ways it removes the main obstacles to long term human space travel and inhabitation. It would no longer matter so much that it takes months to get to some place in the solar system.

Next step would be tests on space-based mining, factories and farms[2]. These can be done concurrently.

Then space colonies, and self-sustaining space colonies.

In contrast much of the human space travel stuff NASA is working on appears to be mostly dead end stuff. You are not going to have a viable human colony using that tech (drugs to slow wasting and bone loss etc). It can come in handy for specific cases, but it's pretty stupid to waste time, resources and money on this sort of stuff at our current tech stage. All that NASA talk about going to Mars is stupid at this stage too- Mars is a gravity well. Only do it later when the space colonies are rich and thriving (from mining the asteroids and trade).

[1] Example option for a small station is using tethers and a counterweight.
[2] Fish farms could be one of the many good farm options. Sunlight + CO2 + nitrogen+iron for algae.The fish (e.g. tilapia) eat the algae, the humans eat the fish. I suspect fish farms could be fine in low-g regions of a space station/colony (water oxygenation could be a problem in zero-g regions, but maybe the fish and their food might be able do fine in an air-water foam). It'll cost a lot to get that much water up into space, but we should later be able to get lots of water from asteroids and similar. So initial ones would be small scale test farms which should cost less to set up.

Farms on the Moon might be worth considering - but there are many unknowns - lunar soil is very very different from earth soil. Might have to stick to hydroponics till we figure more out.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

British SAS are far superior to the US Navy SEALs. (As are the Australian SASR, but even they pale in comparison to the pom's SAS)

Re:Mars

[Aryden]

The olympics have been around since the 8th century B.C. Exactly how many wars do you really think they have stopped? Probably none at all.

Re:Mars

[PolygamousRanchKid]

I see your point, but there's something to be said for being the pinnacle of human physical fitness.

The pinnacle, is of taking the maximum amount of drugs, without being caught at it.

It's exciting to see the fastest person alive.

It's even more amazing, that they are still alive, given the amounts of Bath Salts that they are 'meth-ed up on.

I wouldn't be surprised to see some athletes wig out and do some Florida Zombie style face eating. Now that would deserve a gold!

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

Assuming every single athlete in the world enters the olympics.

Re:Mars

[Hognoxious]

Organized sport has largely supplanted war as a means of getting one over one one's rivals.

Right. I didn't see the Hutus challenging the Tutsis to a jolly old game of cricket, and what's going on in Syria doesn't resemble a game of soccer. Even by Rugby's standards it's a bit on the rough side.

Re:Mars

[happyhamster]

>> pinnacle of human physical fitness

It's more like extreme genetic freaks of nature pumped on top of that full of various performance enhancing drugs. A freak show.

Re:Mars

[fahrbot-bot]

the pinnacle of human fitness, try something like the US Navy SEALs. [ Any other better examples /. ? ]

Nah. If you want fitness try somebody from Cirque du Soleil .. or a Ballet dancer. They'll run rings around one of those Navy grunts.

Possible, but I have trouble imagining a ballerina or Cirque du Soleil performer HALO jumping into the ocean, swimming 5 miles (with full combat gear), hiking 10 miles (w/said gear), doing God knows what over/under buildings, night-vision shooting some bad-guy in the eye and getting the fuck out - all undetected - before breakfast. Just sayin'. But, hey it *could* happen - though aren't those Soleil guys/gals Canadian? :-)

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

Because Mars IS more interesting than some boneheads chasing each other around a dirt track. Humanity needs to move on.

Sadly we as a species have not moved on far enough yet and must have competition between tribes (read nations). The Olympics is of paramount import precisely because the show of tribal rivalries both weakness and strength in an athletic competition is a far better thing than the other tribal sport that we excel at ....WHICH IS WAR.

How soon we forget the importance of Jesse Owens making the Aryan supremacy rantings of Der Fuehrer's Nazis look stupid even to the worst segregation ranting "tighty whities" in Georgia.

NO before we can effectively use, understand and benefit from space exploration we must pull together as one species from one planet not just explore under the banner of the stars and stripes or the great red star or russian eagle or whatever flag!

And having an olympic sporting event that shows our differences as a species to be trivial is a GREAT THING

Re:Mars

[abirdman]

Your thesis intrigues me, and I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.

Re:Mars

[newcastlejon]

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:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

The SAS people used to exaggerate things sometimes when talking to foreign officials invited to their parties. The SEALs once got lost in an orienteering competition across the midst of Europe. Perhaps these things have changed over the years, and the SAS people are talking less bullshit and the SEAL people have trained themselves little basic orienteering on foreign soils.

Re:Mars

[Lumpy]

"but there's something to be said for being the pinnacle of human physical fitness."

and it should be held in a lower value than the pinnacle of human intelligence. But we all know that intelligence is looked down upon and a useless trait of physical fitness is held up as the ultimate a human can be.

Sorry, I don't need to chase down gazelles for food anymore. Highly physical fit is a useless trait to humanity nowdays.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

But the British SAS have an easy to exploit weakness. just go into a field you think they are in and say "France will kick the arse of the english football league any day." and they will instantly stand up to politely disagree with you.

Re:Mars

[konaya]

That still covers quite a few wars, though.

Re:Mars

[fiannaFailMan]

I said "largely" supplanted in the hope that it would ward off the usual /. pedants. Seems like I was wasting my time since you don't know the meaning of "largely."

Re:Mars

[dhasenan]

You need maybe the tenth percentile of physical fitness for a Mars colony. Probably more like twentieth.

For the Olympics, you need people who have molded their bodies for some particular purpose. Most of them have high general fitness. This level of fitness is outrageously high.

Re:Mars

[fiannaFailMan]

How many countries has Germany invaded lately? Italy? Japan? I don't see them flexing their militaristic muscle in the old chest-beating manner. Instead I see forums in which countries do business and work out their scores, like the WTO, the EU, the UN, and international sporting competitions. The battlefield is no longer the first forum of choice.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

Comparing SAS to Seals isn't really the accurate comparison. Delta Force vs SAS might be closer but Delta Force is more singularly focused.

In any case, if you are talking physical ability, Spetsnaz will take any of them.

Re:Mars

[rubycodez]

You left out the USA, for some reason. Please explain.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah! I stay away from freaks by spending my time reading Slashdot comment threads.

Re:Mars

[DulcetTone]

Actually.. wars stop the Olympics, not vice-versa.

Re:Mars

[Joce640k]

If you define fitness as "endurance" then I dunno who'd win. Those acrobat guys are unbelievably strong compared to normal people and they all have heart rates in the 40's, etc.

Re:Mars

[Aryden]

"as we know them" yeah, but they were still began nearly 3000 years ago in a form that we took and modeled the current olympics on.

Re:Mars

[mcneely.mike]

Farms on the Moon might be worth considering - but there are many unknowns - lunar soil is very very different from earth soil. Might have to stick to hydroponics till we figure more out.

Exactly... start working out the kinks on the moon and build a good base: then go to mars using the moon as a delivery point.
This rush to mars is nuts... rush to get there, then die. Good job: "Never leave a man behind... except for those guys... yeah... they're real, real far away. Yeah."

Re:Mars

[mcneely.mike]

Nah, he's just taken too many steroids. Just like ol' 'hide your face' Ben.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

They stopped ca. 400AD and resumed 1894(ish). How can you say they've "been around since the 8th century B.C"? The ancient games were also only open to Greek-speaking, non-slave men, so don't say the modern games are anything like the ancient ones.

Re:Mars

[fiannaFailMan]

You left out the USA, for some reason. Please explain.

Well. With the exception of the Olympics they're not exactly renowned for participating in international sport, are they? Every time their soccer team does well in the World Cup, heartland insular conservative xenophobes (the same people who are always first to call for war) sharpen their pencils and write articles stating how much they don't care about the global game because they prefer their own version of football. Many take delight in claiming that they don't know the World Cup is happening. Cycling has shot to popularity thanks to the Armstrong factor but it's still very much a minority pursuit in the US and the professional peleton is not dominated by Americans by a long way. Formula 1? They've never even heard of it; their motor racing fans are either watching indycars or they're gun-toting rednecks who watch NASCAR. The big 4 sports in America are American football, basketball, ice hockey and baseball, none of which can claim to be truly globalized. (I know, i know, baseball has a following in Japan and the Caribbean, but hasn't exactly swept the world now, has it?)

Americans who hang out on the left of the political spectrum and are usually opposed to war are the same people who are more likely to take an interest in world sport.

I would argue that there seems to be a correlation between American sporting insularity and American willingness to wage war.

Re:Mars

[PeterWone]

Water-borne life as we know it requires gravity to clarify the water by essentially centrifuging it. Which tells you how to solve the problem and makes your other point even more important. Space will go to the Chinese, because they have a huge booming economy and are prepared to get people killed trying. The first superpower to get hold of an iceteroid will rule the solar system because while everyone else is doing carefully planned orbits and millisecond burns to conserve their limited reaction mass, people with an iceteroid can make all the oxygen they want (fresh air in a space station!) and can make huge prolonged extravagant burns that let them zoom all over the place like in the movies. This will give them a naval superiority unparalleled in human history.

Re:Mars

[donscarletti]

Well originally, the SAS was formed as an elite, crack, secret, crack secret assault force, to work behind enemy lines during the war.

Of course our role has changed somewhat since then. Nowadays our duties are to act primarily as a masturbatory aid for Lewis Collins and various back-bench MPs.

A worrying number of today's parliamentarians are quite unable to achieve sexual gratification without fantasising about the SAS. So basically, we have to go round the place being secret and crack and elite, so that these people will be able to keep their marriages intact.

--Stephen Fry

Re:Mars

[Aryden]

The ancient games were about bringing the best warriors from the martial fields into competition with one another. The modern games are about bringing the best athletes (also referred to as "warriors" on a field of battle) together in competition. At the heart, the tradition is the same. We even continue with games designed 3000 years ago and have added even more warlike games into the mix. Does it really matter that they were only open to Greek free men? No. Does it matter if there was a hiatus? No.

Re:Mars

[RaceProUK]

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.

Technically, the first modern Olympics were in 1850, but it is true the modern Olympic movement was 1890.

Re:Mars

[PyroMosh]

Certainly less useful. But not useless.

I agree that we have our priorities backwards, but that doesn't mean being physically fit can't be nice.

Re:Mars

[Anonymous Coward]

The Rhodesian SAS used to routinely kick the arses of the British SAS in friendly competitions.
Pity they aren't around anymore...

Re:Mars

[tedgyz]

Next step would be tests on space-based mining, factories and farms[2]. These can be done concurrently.

Then space colonies, and self-sustaining space colonies.

First target - LV-223. I hear there are some nice eggs there ripe for harvesting.

Re:Mars

[Finite9]

agreed. All you hear is navy seals this and navy seals that. SAS has always been the best special forces in the world. Because they combine physical and mental fitness instead of producing grunts that can do tactics.

Is SBS just a lame attempt at aping SAS by the way, or do the marines really have the same calibre?

Yea but

[Osgeld]

Running fast and bouncing a ball in a bikini is much more important

Re:Yea but

[fustakrakich]

NBC confirms it with the best ratings ever.

Re:Yea but

[girlintraining]

Running fast and bouncing a ball in a bikini is much more important

It's not more important. The Olympics is science, in the sense that we get together periodically to empirically test our understanding of the limits of the (unaltered) human body. The results have practical application. For example: A convict escaped 96 minutes ago from an overturned van. Uninjured, what is the maximum distance he could have travelled? That's science; although someone who double majored in physics is right now spitting at his computer and yelling something about it being as scientific as an etch-a-sketch is to art, but there it is.

Secondly, it's a meaningless comparison: Space exploration tests a very different human quality than the Olympics does. The Olympics tests human physical attributes. Outer space tests human intellectual attributes. In a sense, NASA is our entry into the intellectual Olympics.

But let's be honest: Most of the time, watching science is very boring. It's not a spectator sport -- it's something you do. MythBusters is one of the few examples of where science can be portrayed in a format that is entertaining. Most of the time, it's arduous, painfully slow, occasionally expensive, and often humbling. As well, people don't get excited when the game is over and the announcer says "I don't know." People get very angry when their spectator sport doesn't have a definite outcome. Scientists, on the other hand, get excited by "I don't know." In fact, it's one of the only professions where "I don't know" gets you the respect and admiration of your peers... assuming they have to admit the same.

And you know what, watching bouncing, sweaty boobies, or a beautifully sculped man moving about is okay too. It'd be like me asking you to stop watching Heroes and watch Battlestar Galactica instead. You don't want BSG, you want fucking Heroes. So okay, watch your Heroes, and I'll watch my BSG, and let us both be happy, instead of arguing over which is better.

Re:Yea but

[theshowmecanuck]

Imagine, someone on a geek website slagging activities where people get together for enjoyment and to socialize.

Re:Yea but

[slashmydots]

Running fast and bouncing a ball in a bikini is much more important

I certainly would have trouble doing that...but I'm a guy lol.

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

I stopped reading at "unaltered". If you think anyone in the Olympics is "unaltered", you don't understand competitive sports. Having been a fitness professional for well over a decade, I can tell you there are at least 40 different types of performance enhancing drugs (including certain types of steroids) that can not be tested for. Being trained how to fool a lie detector test is also very easy.

Personally, I don't get it. Olypmics doesn't actually test anything other than how obsessive someone can be about one particular thing their entire lives. They contribute nothing to society other than entertaining those with nothing else better to do than to watch others do things most of them could never do in their wildest dreams. Science contributes to our society, Olympics don't.

Re:Yea but

[mwvdlee]

In all fairness, most of these sports are individualistic and competitive in nature.
Sports nor it's audience, is by definition enjoying itself more or socializing more than science and it's audience.
I wasn't there at the time, but from what I understand the moonlanding was rather enjoyable and quite a social experience for everybody who watched it.

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

Boobies!

Re:Yea but

[chrism238]

"A convict escaped 96 minutes ago from an overturned van. Uninjured, what is the maximum distance he could have travelled? "

A convict? Don't you mean "A convict stole a loaf of bread and was caught. Uninjured, what is the maximum distance he could be transported, by ship, in 3 months?"

Re:Yea but

[kenorland]

Space exploration tests a very different human quality than the Olympics does.

What quality would that be? The ability to sink vast amounts of money into an inefficient bureaucracy?

Re:Yea but

[Johann Lau]

Bread and circus, motherfucker -- do you speak anything else?

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

Why did you have to go and write a page-long rebuttal to what was obviously *a joke*. :\

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

In this day and age, it seems like science would allow you to get a humor transplant.

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

I can't believe noone's made a pedantic point about the summary's use of "Mini Cooper" as a size comparison. Surely a Mini Cooper is _exactly_ the same size as a Mini, which is exactly the same size as "a small car", right?

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

They're both the same, the achievements of some individuals. You learn something from both, but nothing interesting with short term results.

If you do watch the events, then you're doing it for the entertainment value, and the Olympics win hands down.
However, we're in 2012, you can watch ALL events at the same time. Hell, you can watch most of them at the same time using modest hardware and internet connection.

It's not like the first step on the moon, when there were only a handful of TV channels in the ENTIRE world, and a TV in the house was a sign of wealth.
No, you can even watch it from your phone, your tablet, while going home from work.

Space exploration is not for humans, just robots, the truly exciting times HAVE passed.

Regards,
JW.

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

Wait, I get it... I get it now.

We should, guys, we should dress out space ships up in Bikinis! That will solve EVERYTHING!
Also fake boobs.

Then we can tell all those non-geeks, "hey, if you get a telescope and look up at these positions, you can see tits and bikini in space! AWE!"
Millions. Millions of sales in an instant.

Re:Yea but

[Hognoxious]

Depends whether you're talking metric or notl. A metric small car is a Fiat 500 (the original one). A US small car is a BMW 5 series.

Re:Yea but

[Hognoxious]

Dude, that was the 2000 Olympics.

Re:Yea but

[zakaryah]

But let's be honest: Most of the time, watching sports is very boring... Most of the time, it's arduous, painfully slow, occasionally expensive, and often humbling.

FTFY

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

Olympics push science. Whether it is understanding of human bodies, material science, etc. it all gets pushed forward by the sheer competition. One of my favorite demonstrations they did a few years ago was "shark skin" suits against regular suits and how big of a difference they actually made in reducing water resistance.

Re:Yea but

[Crypto Gnome]

The Olympics is science, in the sense that we get together periodically to empirically test our understanding of the limits of the (unaltered) human body.

Ahahahaha, you must be kidding, right?

Since when has any sport featured nothing but the best of human ability untainted by performance-enhancing drugs?

Insert never ending BLATANTLY LYING drugs cheats here (Marion Jones, amongst others - Google it if you've been living under a rock).

ALL COMPETITIVE SPORTS RESULTS ARE SUSPECT - we can have *no real confidence* that we are catching all the "drug cheats", as proven by the continuing rain of "cheaters" found *many many* years after the fact.

I will say it plain and simple, ALL competitive sports have lots their integrity, cannot be trusted.

BAN all "drugs cheats", not for a week-or-three, but FOR LIFE. Revoke their medal and awards. NEVER let them work in The Sports Industry ever again.

Re:Yea but

[cynyr]

I'll just leave this youtube link here... http://youtu.be/EQTyktUuC4g?t=1m9s

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

Great, the kind of post you always see splashed around sites catering to geeks and intellectuals who have no appreciation for physical prowess, besides moving ones head from the desk to the fridge faster. Athletics is a supreme measure of character; a person's discipline to stick to a regime that creates world class athleticism in a world where most of us are overweight, their coolness under the stress of intense competition where years of training may come down to a 10 second sprint, resistance to the ills of our society that derail every career trajectory, and in some cases charisma. These athletes are honored because their talents abstractly reflect the best of humanity. Don't confuse them with the "dumb jock" who kicked your ass daily after school.

And, don't forget that the Olympics was originally a competition for warriors to show off their combat skills; WTF you think a javelin throw is about? Life isn't all about flipping bits in your basement or intellectual achievements.

Re:Yea but

[hughJ]

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57477857/study-finds-high-tech-shark-skin-swimsuits-do-not-affect-speed/

Re:Yea but

[cyborg_zx]

I like being entertained - can't do anything like what occurs in The Dark Knight Rises but I don't see people getting in the same sort of hoo-ha over its existence.

Re:Yea but

[kenorland]

I'm all for space exploration in principle. But what NASA has actually been doing since the 1970's is difficult to distinguish from TARP or the other waste that Tyson complains about.

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

>But let's be honest: Most of the time, watching science is very boring.

As someone who does research for a living I can agree with this completely. But watching a rover land on mars is NOT one of those times.

Re:Yea but

[Anonymous Coward]

A convict, as in someone convicted of a crime, perhaps?

Re:Yea but

[KingBenny]

panem et circenses, i stopped watching the olympics when boxers were no longer allowed to use those little lead balls in their gloves, something's gotta be the opium for the masses now religion no longer does the trick

Re:Yea but

[redlemming]

If science is boring, then you have chosen to make it boring.

That's actually very common in our society. It is common to hear people joke "that book was so boring it put me to sleep", without realizing that by thinking this way they are shooting themselves in the foot.

There is nothing wrong with watching television, or going to the movies, or playing video games, provided it is done in moderation. However, what happens to large numbers of people is they get so used to being entertained by someone else, with minimal effort on their part, that they either lose or never develop the internal mental skills needed to make things entertaining. These people depend almost completely on external sources for their entertainment, instead of learning to draw pleasure in the learning process, and in the material being learned, from within themselves.

The more hours in a given week a person spends depending upon Hollywood, or ESPN, or video games for their entertainment, the harder it is to switch over to being able to derive entertainment from within. It's a lot like a drug dependency.

No educational institution in the country even begins to provide sufficient information for people to understand what is actually going on in their world, no matter what degrees a person has. Education provides a foundation for lifetime learning, nothing more.

People that understand this will train themselves to be able to enjoy non-fiction media such as books or video presentations. They will learn to enjoy this material, and they will find ways to MAKE it interesting or entertaining, and thus not "boring".

The mental processes involved are not much different from those required by persons who do the various arts, such as playing an instrument, or dance, or yoga, or the martial arts. Over the long term, an artist will spend many hours learning and maintaining the skills required for their art. Do you think it is possible to spend the huge amounts of time required to learn (and maintain) skill at an art without learning to generally enjoy the process?

One does not need to have the legendary discipline of a Marine Corps drill instructor to develop these mental skills, nor does one need to be an Einstein at time management. It is simply a matter of building skill in small doses, and thus slowly, gently -- over the long term -- building the internal habits and mental skills need to support enjoying the learning process. One learns to make a subject -- any subject that matters to the individual -- interesting, allowing one to derive entertainment from within, rather than being dependent upon external sources of entertainment.

Unfortunately, it is a rare teacher in our schools that thinks to teach this to their students, which means it is one of those things you have to figure out for yourself after leaving school.

But if there was Olympic leap frog...

[Anonymous Coward]

...Maybe I'd actually be interested in the Olympics.

Re:But if there was Olympic leap frog...

[Tablizer]

...Maybe I'd actually be interested in the Olympics.

Especially if unicorns are involved.

Re:But if there was Olympic leap frog...

[Anonymous Coward]

If Obama came out in favor of oxygen, Republicans would suffocate in protest.

He is against carbon dioxide which is part of the same respiration process. Mass asphyxia in 3, 2, 1

Re:But if there was Olympic leap frog...

[Lumpy]

You are a genius! I need to get this perfect weapon to the democratic party ASAP!

If all the dems come out as loving and supporting oxygen and breathing, we can eliminate the republican plague overnight! You sir are an american hero.

Oh for the love of..

[Anrego]

There’s insanely amazing stuff happening every day. Marvels of human achievement and technology all around us. And for each, there is usually a group of people around it who:

a) lives and breaths the stuff
b) can’t fathom why everyone else doesn’t feel the same way

It doesn’t work like this. Even if you could some how identify the one absolute “top of the pile” thing that everyone should be focusing on, it’s completely impractical for everyone to do so. It’s the same reason we can’t have every scientist in the world working on say, cancer research. You need some of them to be trying to figure out how to get rid of wrinkles.

Some people don’t care about space. A lot of people don’t care about space. Arguing that they should care about space because it’s a more “worthy” thing to care about than whatever they do care about is just ridiculous.

As to trying to frame the story so it’s more in-line with the stuff they are interested in... even more ridiculous. You can’t trick someone into caring about technology by turning it into a human interest story.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

It's all part of the Space Nutter religion. Complete disdain for normal human activity, but somehow caring about the entire species getting off this rock. Presumably, the "species" is limited to the Cheetos-dust-covered, basement-dwelling morbidly obese translucently pale worshipers of 1960s Space Age propaganda.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[KingAlanI]

Yeah, this was a blatant failed attempt to tie together two disparate news stories, however interesting they may be to certain people on their own.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[ColdWetDog]

It's all part of the Space Nutter religion. Complete disdain for normal human activity, but somehow caring about the entire species getting off this rock. Presumably, the "species" is limited to the Cheetos-dust-covered, basement-dwelling morbidly obese translucently pale worshipers of 1960s Space Age propaganda.

Still pissed that your parents wouldn't send you to space camp?

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

Still pissed that no one will ever go further than low Earth orbit?

PS: Your "joke" is as old as the crust in your pants.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow.

We are sending a full size remote control car to another planet, and its just somebodies *opinion* that its news worthy and amazing.

You know what? It doesn't matter what people "care" about. Most of them are idiots who care about going to heaven.

This IS a more worthy thing to "care" about than whatever else it is that interests your idiot mind.

Though you wouldn't understand, being the drooling idiot you are. At least you are "normal" and "care" about the right things - TV, sports, religion, whatever other thing it is that you "care" about that is bullshit.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree, on the whole. But proof of life somewhere other than earth really is the sort of thing that broadens appeal. Just like how beating the Russians to the moon made people pay attention.

Meanwhile, it's good for people to hear what important things are going on. They don't have to become scifi nerds, but they might be a little less cynical about the nickel per month they give to nasa.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[mosb1000]

I agree with the general sentiment, but I still don't think we need scientists figuring out how to get rid of wrinkles.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

have you been to space camp? I have and let me tell you, I could understand being butthurt for not being able to go!

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anrego]

Yes, yes.. let the butt hurt flow through you..

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anrego]

I generally think having people working on the thing that interests them is important, even if there are better things they could be doing that don't. Mainly for two reasons:

a) Someone working on something they are passionate about is going to achive way more.

b) I tend to subscribe to James Burkes school of thought when it comes to progress. If you haven't read is work (or seen the amazing Connections series) the basic idea is that what drives change is largely unpredictable. Advances in one area lead to advances in completely unrelated areas. Thus, you never know what seemingly insignificant thing might drive a major advancement. Maybe someone will be working on something to make penises bigger and discover something that eventually leads to a cure to some major disease.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[dgatwood]

Yeah. They get to climb into a real shuttle for a test firing. And every now and then, a little robot decides to launch them into orbit with no oxygen, food, or long-range communications gear.

No, wait....

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

This IS a more worthy thing to "care" about than whatever else it is that interests your idiot mind.

In your opinion.

We are sending a full size remote control car to another planet, and its just somebodies *opinion* that its news worthy and amazing.

Yup.

Nah, you're the one who doesn't understand... at least as far as what the post you replied to was saying.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anrego]

Unless they walk and talk.. probably not.

_if_ we find anything, it's going to along the lines of finding some indicator that there is a distinct possibility that maybe, just maybe, at one point there was an environment that could have supported say.. some bacteria.

Not saying this isn't incredible, and I personally am fascinated by it all.. but I do understand why the world isn't on the edge of their seats..

Re:Oh for the love of..

[fahrbot-bot]

Yes, yes.. let the butt hurt flow through you..

Spending some time in the Olympic Village have you? (Simply Google: Olympic Village Sex)

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

The point of the article is to argue that NASA isn't doing a good enough job with its publicity. He points out that there are similar, perhaps more inspiring stories to be found in the development of Curiosity, than the Olympics, and that it's a shame that NASA isn't showing us that. He's not really arguing that people should care about space, but that NASA should be doing a better job to inspire those that do, and instil that in new generations who could care.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Xest]

To be fair, people would be interested, but...

On one hand you have live HD/3D streaming of a bunch of different sports events running solidly for a few weeks.

On the other you have something that sure, sounds interesting, but the only access to information on it is the odd article in a newspaper/on the internet about it.

I'm sure if they also had video of the event which they could broadcast in HD/3D then people really would flock to the TV to watch it, but you can't realistically expect people to spend more time reading a few paragraphs of text on a subjct than you can watching a few weeks worth of video content.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

That is the Zen of Butthurt.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know if it is a religion, but there is an understanding that, like leaving your Mom's basement, humans will have to learn to get off this rock or go extinct. Earth will not be livable forever. Getting off this rock is the only way that those "normal human activities" will continue.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut the fuck up, retard.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[John Hasler]

I still don't think we need scientists figuring out how to get rid of wrinkles.

Wait until you have some and then say that again. In any case, skin wrinkles are not just a matter of appearance. They result from the loss of flexibility of the largest organ in your body. Restoring skin flexibility would be a step toward reversing the effects of age.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[jez9999]

On one hand you have live HD/3D streaming of a bunch of different sports events running solidly for a few weeks.

On the other you have something that sure, sounds interesting, but the only access to information on it is the odd article in a newspaper/on the internet about it.

Hey, there's ZERO evidence of religion and yet billions of people spend a lot of time practising it.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Anonymous Coward]

pics or it didn't happen

Re:Oh for the love of..

[mosb1000]

I have plenty of wrinkles.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[PeterWone]

Speak for yourself, basement-boy. Most of my days and a lot of my creative time involves computers and that leaves me tanned and tired. I'm currently building industrial controllers for the irrigation system on my acreage. This particular project involves trenching, laying pipes, steel fabrication, high pressure plumbing on pipes at least an inch and a half in diameter, retaining walls, earthmoving, turfing, seeding and hauling big rocks by hand on slopes where heavy equipment is impractical. It's very outdoorsy and keeps me in pretty good shape for my age.

Personally I don't care much about the rest of humanity, but I'd like to get into space. There's no escape from people here on Earth, and as the population rises, the resources available to individuals decline. Worse, freedom declines as encroaching populations use their collective power to tell me what I can and can't do and even what I may not think or say. And then they demand I pay for their intrusion.

If could get into space and be the first to gain control of significant orbiting ice (for oxygen and reaction mass) it would be a short path to independence. It would be easy to pen all the nations at the bottom of their gravity well: even if they launch lots of missiles, they'll all have to climb along predictable paths with very limited manoeuvering options and plenty of time for anyone with lots of reaction mass to fling rocks at them. Regardless of nation of origin, the first group in space to achieve material sustainability will declare independence about ten minutes after deciding they don't need anything else from the ground.

Robert Heinlein figured out the social aspect of space secession half a century ago ("The Moon is a Harsh Mistress") and Niven and Pournelle figured out many of the details in the eighties (Footfall) though they didn't apply them to the same question. NASA keeps asking the wrong questions, but nevertheless finds many useful answers.

Space is a good idea. I don't think it unltimately matters for me; the status quo will last long enough for me to live out my life in what is, historically, luxury and excess. But if the chance came, I would take it.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[Crypto Gnome]

You can’t trick someone into caring about technology by turning it into a human interest story.

Which is one reason why NASA has become less relevant to society as they have less Man'd (or Woman'd) missions.

Bugger sending machines, send people.

Sure it'll mean people sacrificing their lives for the joys, fame, and science of exploration.

A large part of what it means to be human is to strive in the fact of impossible odds, to take risks, and to put your life on the line.

Being desperately afraid of losing even a single life has crippled space exploration. And, quite frankly, diminished our humanity.

Re:Oh for the love of..

[ethanms]

I don't know if it is a religion, but there is an understanding that, like leaving your Mom's basement, humans will have to learn to get off this rock or go extinct. Earth will not be livable forever. Getting off this rock is the only way that those "normal human activities" will continue.

Forget keeping it habitable or not. It's the same reason you don't want your entire team in the same bus or plane... if something happens--an accident, a giant meteor, whatever... you lose all your players.

By leaving this planet we will enable the survival of our species beyond planetary cataclysms. Now I would suggest that a moon colony, although a good start, is not sufficient because it is tied too closely to Earth. Mars isn't sufficient either because we rely on the same star, but again, it's a good start. We need to leave this solar system and eventually this galaxy.

However all that said, I do believe we are rapidly reaching an impasse where the gains from furthering this cause are simply not worth it to average member of this species, and as a result we probably will be lucky to have a Moon/Mars colony within 100 years, let alone near light or faster than light travel speeds.

It's not a Khardashian

[Scutter]

People don't care about it because it's not lip-synching an over-produced pop song, it doesn't have actors trying to pawn things, it's not trying to sleep with a housemate, and it doesn't carry crab traps.

Re:It's not a Khardashian

[Anonymous Coward]

So what you are saying is that NASA needs to start claiming that if there is life on Mars, it might be coming to get us!

Some headlines for Fox News:

"Rover to land on Mars to search for hostile alien life"
"Is the War of the Worlds coming? NASA will find out soon"
"Mankind Unleashes Nuclear Assault on Mars!"
"Earth Attacks!"

Re:It's not a Khardashian

[dgatwood]

Could Mars have oil? Film at 11.

Re:It's not a Khardashian

[Anonymous Coward]

People don't care about it because it's not lip-synching an over-produced pop song, it doesn't have actors trying to pawn things, it's not trying to sleep with a housemate, and it doesn't carry crab traps.

What might make people care about science is if we all stop being snooty and condescending about what other people enjoy watching in a way that makes us seem even more like a bunch of antisocial jerks who would spend all our time navel-gazing if only our heads weren't shoved quite so far up our own posteriors. You don't think we have any irrelevant obsessions in our community? How much collective time has been wasted on Buffy, or arguments about he respective merits of Doctor Who v Star Trek, or Kirk v Picard...

Re:It's not a Khardashian

[Anonymous Coward]

Bad idea. It's easier to nuke Mars than it is to create a sustainable environment there.

Re:It's not a Khardashian

[Crypto Gnome]

Could Mars have oil? Film at 11.

Dunno if it has oil, but Mars Needs Women! (oddly enough - we've know this since *before* we first walked on the moon)

Re:It's not a Khardashian

[Anonymous Coward]

it's not a Khardashian

it doesn't carry crab traps.

Redundant much?

Re:It's not a Khardashian

[Anonymous Coward]

+1, Bummed out.

Also because

[Kohath]

The Olympics are self-important beyond their entertainment (or any other) value. Not interested.

Re:Also because

[rebelwarlock]

What entertainment value?

Re:Also because

[mfwitten]

A quick googling shows that about 10960 athletes from 204 countries have come together in competition within one city. If you can't find the value in that, then I feel sorry for you.

Re:Also because

[Kohath]

Please explain the value then.

People from seperate countries do things together all the time. We have air travel and the internet. They can do things together, so why wouldn't they?

Re:Also because

[rhyder128k]

But only a few will have the honour of serving the Tripods inside the city of gold.

Re:Also because

[viperidaenz]

a billion people from all over the world have all come together to join Facebook. I still find no value in it though.

Re:Also because

[ganjadude]

It is pretty much the one time the entire planet gets together, to accomplish "something" We compete with countries we are at "war" with in friendly games. It may not be much fun to watch if you arent into the sports that make up the Olympics, I tend to watch the swimming due to my swimming backround but thats about all I personally care about but there is plenty of value in the Olympics, entertainment and otherwise.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

It's because of the opening cermony that the americans are pissed off. National Health Service and Unions when the brit's showed what achievements they were proud of (industrial revolution and human rights...) that really pissed off those toothless yankies without health care.

Re:Also because

[bmo]

I can ignore it because NBC has ruined it.

The last time I saw good Olympics coverage was when I was in Canada and watching the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano via the CBC.

I'm skipping this one.

--
BMO

Re:Also because

[PhamNguyen]

I feel sorry for you

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

..and lead; Praise the Masters, the Cappers will be here soon.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

What is the value? Did the Olympic Games bring peace like the 6th and 12th Olympic Games? Did the Olympic Games bring happiness like forced evictions or hormone therapy to 'manly' women? How about the massacres and bombs? Or propaganda campaigns?

The Olympic Games are a joke. It is a capitalist system where the richest of the rich can watch elite athletes compete against each other and pretend that they are part of a world community while the local community is beaten into submission. It isn't the world community coming together, it is the world community of the 1%.

Re:Also because

[wvmarle]

Finding value in that is not too hard.

All I have to do is to look back at the battle over broadcasting rights in this city (the rights holder doesn't have a free-to-air channel, and is obliged to broadcast some footage on free channels).

So yes, there's a lot of value in that. And no, I don' t care. I even completely missed the opening ceremony (the only one that I'd care to watch - it's usually a great spectacle) by completely forgetting when it was. If I remember I may try to hunt down a recording from TPB later. But for the rest, oh well, let them have their fun. I'm happy not to be in London now.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

Please explain the value then. People from seperate countries do things together all the time.

What is different about the Olympics is that people do peaceful things. Unlike some of the other scenarios where people from some of these countries come together.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

Neither did the "investors" that are looking at a PE of 115. Wonder what the bailout of that one is going to look like.

Re:Also because

[Kohath]

Business is peaceful. People from any different countries come together for business every day. Only they do it without the self-important hype.

Re:Also because

[Colonel Korn]

Please explain the value then. People from seperate countries do things together all the time.

What is different about the Olympics is that people do peaceful things. Unlike some of the other scenarios where people from some of these countries come together.

The Olympics are separated from other international athletic competitions in two primary ways: 1) they're the most commercialized, corrupt, money-driven competition with the greatest focus on advertising and 2) they have a propaganda tradition mostly based on Hitler's contributions to the games. Both of those points are despicable.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

The Boston Marathon has 26000+ run it every year. Granted, it's only a single sport and no more than 20 have a shot to win it, but hey, most athletes at the games have no shot, either.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

It's because of the opening cermony that the americans are pissed off. National Health Service and Unions when the brit's showed what achievements they were proud of (industrial revolution and human rights...) that really pissed off those toothless yankies without health care.

Wait... you're seriously trying to compare US to British health care systems, and decided that dentistry is the best example of where the Brits show us up?
LOL.

Re:Also because

[roman_mir]

Out of all the words you chose to use 'value', why? What is the value in that? It would be much better if 10960 companies out of 204 countries came together to exchange information in terms of value.

If you think Olympics does anything to help 'world peace' or some such nonsense, well then you haven't been paying attention, it does nothing for that.

Re:Also because

[Barsteward]

Unless you are an arms dealer ....

Re:Also because

[trifish]

Seriously, if you feel sorry for me because of that, then I feel sorry for you, sir.

Re:Also because

[litongxili]

Sales rolex replica, High-quality replica rolex watches,Top brand watches,all luxury watches for sale cheap and cheapest only $59 ,Buy cheap watches online at http://www.replicawatches007.com/

Re:Also because

[The Slashdot 8Ball]

From the World Health Organisation Oral Health Database:

The metric used is the number of Decayed Missing or Filled Teeth in 12 Year Olds.
England has a mean DMFT of 0.7, and
USA has a mean DMFT of 1.19,
that is the average American 12 Year Old has worse teeth than the average English 12 Year Old.

Further, NHS dentistry fees:

£17.50 ($28) for an examination
£48 ($75) for simple procedure, such as root canal work, or removing teeth
£209 ($329) for anything else, such as crowns or dentures

Consider yourself shown up.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

So you must have problems with the transistor, one of the inventors was an avowed hardcore racist, and the Apollo missions overseen by a German who helped develop the V-2 built by slave labor? Please explain.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

Absolutely right. The Olympics is a corrupt commerce that has lost sport spirit completely.

However, sport is good as long as you do it. Watching sports is nonsense.
The olympics are interesting from a science angle only for chemists anyway.

Real science events like the Mars rover landings and explorations are magnitudes much more important for humanity in any aspect. This is the kind of event that should have 24/7 covering in all media all the time. Not stupid useless sport stuff.

Re:Also because

[pandymen]

Investors haven't found value in FB either. Watch it continue to plummet

Re:Also because

[Hognoxious]

The Olympics are not a sentient entity, so imbuing them with feelings or emotions is retarded.

And you know, they might be singular too.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

Carry golden conches up a big green turd. Their whole lives were only a preparation for that moment.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

What's wrong with you? "The most commercialized"? The Olympics must be the only international sporting event where there's no advertisement on athletes clothing or in any venues. Name me one other event where this is the case.

And why the hell are you pulling in Hitler? I mean, why is it a point that he appreciated the Olympics?

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

Who the fuck are you?

No. No value at all has been found in the Olympics.

Now, feel sorry for me while I get on with my life! :)

Re:Also because

[Urza9814]

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
http://www.techdirt.com/search.php?cx=partner-pub-4050006937094082%3Acx0qff-dnm1&cof=FORID%3A9&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=Olympics

Re:Also because

[rubycodez]

it's just patriotic chest-thumping with human products of science. not interesting.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

I said this once already: It's Freedombook.

Re:Also because

[dargaud]

A quick googling shows that about 10960 athletes from 204 countries have come together in competition within one city. If you can't find the value in that, then I feel sorry for you.

No I don't. For me sport is what I do, not what I show other people I do. If people want to run, FINE, but competitions are just as dumb as a pissing contest.

Re:Also because

[toddestan]

Name me one other event where this is the case.

The WWE?

Re:Also because

[isorox]

that is the average American 12 Year Old has worse teeth than the average English 12 Year Old.
 

But that's not fair.

The average American doesn't care about the average American. Those that earn a decent wage, as long as they don't piss off their employer, can afford private healthcare (unless something goes seriously wrong).

If you took the average 12 year old from a rich family, you'll find the figures are different. The poor don't count in America, they don't want to count. They'll happily vote for thing to cut any aid they already get, in the naive hope that working hard will eventually mean they can afford healthcare and a house in the suburbs.

America is a piss-poor country unless you're rich. The USA spends 17.4% of it's GDP on health care thanks to the "free" market approach. The UK spends 9.8% of it's GDP.

America could easily afford it's own version of the NHS, it would help the poor and unfortunate. It would mean people would spend more time looking after their kids rather than working 2 low-paid jobs to afford their dentist bills. It would also help the middle classes -- it would allow labour mobility. If you lose your job, you don't have to hope to hell that Lisa won't need braces.

American's don't believe in community though, and would rather spend more money on getting less, as long as they think their neighbour isn't getting something for nothing.

Re:Also because

[PeterWone]

What right a government has to spend a boatload of taxpayers' money so a bunch of people can run around in circles? I don't care how well they execute their chosen useless skill, except to the extent that I am pleased they enjoy it and I am in favour of them having freedom to do it, at their own expense on their own time.

Re:Also because

[PeterWone]

And then you'd buy them anyway, because failing to do so would severely disadvantage you. After a while you'd stop thinking about it.

Re:Also because

[Crypto Gnome]

The Olympics are self-important beyond their entertainment (or any other) value. Not interested.

Seems to me you're describing "reality television" exactly. Which is amazing because, for once, this *actually* is televised reality (unlike its namesake).

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

roman, I think you're a crazy Randist, but fuck, when you're right, you're right.

Re:Also because

[Anonymous Coward]

Awesome! Loved the trilogy.

Not exclusive...

[sackbut]

I'm pretty sure I can follow both. And be interested in both.

Re:Not exclusive...

[LWATCDR]

Exactly, the Olympics is a story about people achieving, the rover landing is about humanity achieving. Both are worthy to watching. I mean the Olympics is not like the Kardashians, WWE, or any of the other mindless drivel on TV. Not only that but they are not a case of one or the other. The landing will be at 1:31 am which is 5:31 am UTC so unless they the Olympics have events at 5 am you will not have to miss anything but some sleep.
In other words STUPID WASTE OF TIME FOR A SLASHDOT STORY. Maybe it would be better to spend time watching the Olympics and the rover landing than posting or reading junk like this.
   

Re:Not exclusive...

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is it suggested or even implied that they're exclusive? Who are you arguing with?

Re:Not exclusive...

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we put the landing on tape delay so that the rover lands during prime time EST?

Re:Not exclusive...

[Anonymous Coward]

ummmmm, From the freakin headline?
Why You Should Be More Interested In Mars Than the Olympics
I get the whole - I didn't read the article thing, but THE HEADLINE?
You need a few less significant digits in your ID before you start pulling that shit noob.

Re:Not exclusive...

[theshowmecanuck]

And given the complexity of the operation, the landing isn't even really assured yet. People will probably be really interested if it crashes and however many hundreds of millions of dollars is trashed. Money they'll say would be better spent promoting sports and fitness and getting fat kids away from the front of the computers or game consoles (and the irony here is that at least some of them will be playing sports games while sitting on the couch, mimicking a bunch of guys whose combined salaries could probably finance NASA, or pay for basic health insurance for all of America's uninsured, and then some). Anyway... hopefully if the lander does touch down successfully, the general public will be just as interested to hear it is running around and with luck finding micro-martians to talk to. Regardless, I am interested in the Mars landing. And the Olympics.

Re:Not exclusive...

[EdIII]

It's not a waste of time for a slashdot story apparently. Look at the rest of the comments.

It sure has brought out plenty of butthurt and bitter people that are very rude and condescending people.

You know what? It doesn't matter what people "care" about. Most of them are idiots who care about going to heaven.

Take that gem for instance. I think the article itself is trolling.

Re:Not exclusive...

[GoodNewsJimDotCom]

Trying not to be redundant, but restating it for emphasis. Some people don't get what other people are interested in, and it does matter. Yes, there is an overlap in these two things! You're precisely right there is an overlap about people achieving. Some people go through life just trying to do as little as they can. Some people are conflicted in themselves if they should strive or be lazy. And there are a bunch of people on the side lines saying,"Strive harder because it has results, or don't strive at all and be lazy because striving isn't worth it."

With the economy the way it is, there are a ton of people who strived their entire lives, and now they're out of school, but there isn't any work for them to engage themselves. This is the time where everyone has to go,"Do I keep striving? Or The world is unfair because I strived so much and never get a chance?" Obviously the correct choice is to keep striving, keep educating yourself through the Internet, and maybe starting a personal business.

The opening line in Hamlet rings true,"To be or not to be". To be requires you to strive. Just because you strive doesn't mean you will win, but it shows your core self is one that will not give up. You cannot be in this world unless you strive and fight your best for yourself, and your family. There are two types of people in this world: Those that fight and work for every inch of ground they can gain, and the ones looking to take the easiest path. If you don't decide who you want to be, and let yourself be blown by the wind, that is unfortunate. When you look at the world seeing those who are willing to work hard to achieve a goal, and those who want reward without effort, you can really appreciate the achievements of others even if they're not in your field. This current world favors masters of single tasks over jack of all trades currently. So try and master something and appreciate the masters in other fields.

This is a bit of philosophy, but it doesn't have much to do with Christianity. Christianity says you should strive to work so you can use your excess to help the poor, orphans and widows. Christianity says in order to be great, you must give it all away sacrificially and be the servant of all. So in a way, you're supposed to strive in Christianity so you can help more people, but striving in itself is a separate thing.

I think we should all aim to strive, but it is fine to take breaks so we don't burn out.

Re:Not exclusive...

[Anonymous Coward]

Most people won't be interested in both. OP's is a lament that people don't care about things that actually matter, things that are actually important to civilization's future. It's the distress call of the nerd upset they're surrounded by idiots, and in response look at what happens. Look at the people climbing over each other to pack attack the OP, like monkeys flinging their own shit because their intelligence was threatened.

Re:Not exclusive...

[girlintraining]

Exactly, the Olympics is a story about people achieving, the rover landing is about humanity achieving

No. They're both about human achievement. I can't think of anything in modern history that was solely the work of a single person. Even these athletes, as impressive as their performances are, depend on large numbers of people to realize their potential. In this, our race around a rubberized track, and our reach for the stars stem from a universal truth: All human achievement comes from cooperation. We can achieve almost nothing, even our own survival, alone. But together, there is almost no limit to our potential, individually and collectively. This is the message of science, the message we brought with us to the moon, the message left on archaic recordings in the ships we've sent beyond the reach of our own sun.

In other words STUPID WASTE OF TIME FOR A SLASHDOT STORY. Maybe it would be better to spend time watching the Olympics and the rover landing than posting or reading junk like this.

Your time would be better spent thinking less about yourself. Our greatest failing as a people is in the value we place on individuality, to the point where many now compete for limited resources while few live in superfluous abundance. In so doing, our collective and individual potentials both are limited to far less than what we're capable of. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that you (and everyone who reads this) needs to spend less time fighting each other, trying to prove themselves right, arguing, and to begin to work together. This requires that we sacrifice our individuality in order to become part of something far greater than ourselves. Of all the subcultures in western society, the scientists and engineers understand and practice this best. Learn from their example.

Re:Not exclusive...

[mbone]

The opening line in Hamlet rings true,"To be or not to be".

Act 3 scene 1. It's nowhere near the beginning.

Re:Not exclusive...

[arkane1234]

I was thinking the same thing...

It's not like one thing happens on this planet at a time. In fact, it's possible for two things to happen!

Re:Not exclusive...

[Anonymous Coward]

the Olympics is a story about people achieving

ROFL - the Olympics is about graft. The sucker athletes are there just to provide a spectacle to distract from the graft.

Re:Not exclusive...

[Barsteward]

"This is a bit of philosophy, but it doesn't have much to do with Christianity. Christianity says you should strive to work so you can use your excess to help the poor, orphans and widows. Christianity says in order to be great, you must give it all away sacrificially and be the servant of all. So in a way, you're supposed to strive in Christianity so you can help more people, but striving in itself is a separate thing."

There would be no poor if the so called Christians gave their excesses instead of created more ways to fleece the poor. ALL religions claim this virtue but only a few actually do it, and the few that do it are good people in spite of their religion and there are plenty of no delusion that give their excess wealth to the needy

Re:Not exclusive...

[Anonymous Coward]

The olympics are about people "achieving" ? Achieving useless crap, yeah. What does it matter if someone is the fastest runner of the world besides turning into a media whore ? Does it bring progress to humanity ? will it fix our broken economy ? are they bringing science that will create new, useful stuff ?

Professional athletes, footballers, rugbymen [...] are less useful to society than a fucking bricklayer. The bricklayer builds houses, that's 999% more useful than looking at some jerk spend the whole of his life running on a track.

Re:Not exclusive...

[dagelf]

You're frigging awesome! Will you marry me? As even Sebastian Thrun recently discovered, Universities are all about exclusion rather than inclusion. Also, do you really want me to believe, that now, 100 years on, the best way to teach something is by explaining how it was stumbled on in a different century? I think there's scope for friendlier scientific language in many fields and that that can change peoples standard response of throwing their hands in the air and exclaiming: "I'm not smart enough!" - to one of engagement and perhaps even progress.You're frigging awesome! Will you marry me? As even Sebastian Thrun recently discovered, Universities are all about exclusion rather than inclusion. Also, do you really want me to believe, that now, 100 years on, the best way to teach something is by explaining how it was stumbled on in a different century? I think there's scope for friendlier scientific language in many fields and that that can change peoples standard response of throwing their hands in the air and exclaiming: "I'm not smart enough!" - to one of engagement and perhaps even progress.

Re:Not exclusive...

[LWATCDR]

Thank you Mr. Toohey.

I'm capable of being interested in both.

[mfwitten]

Join me in celebrating the wonders of our world.

Re:I'm capable of being interested in both.

[ambidextroustech]

I am with you. I really won't be too obsessed with the Mars rover because there aren't too many feeds from it. It's scope to the public is limited, unlike the Olympics.

That being said, this is HUGE. The discoveries of this rover will be comparable to the Hubble Telescope (if successful of course) but like HST, it may have some hiccups and upsets; we shall see either way.

Re:I'm capable of being interested in both.

[blagooly]

Yup. TFA points to NASA's fear of failure, leading to failure to inspire. NASA has always been secretive. We never knew how dodgy things were and are. And NASA depends on politics, has no real self determination. Current failures are on the current US political class, the current Admin, who evidently see no value in it. Tool HuffPo labor in typical incoherence, pointing the finger at the shadow on the wall. "Reality". The common thread to me is corrupted institutions. IOC, SEC, FBI, BATF, Justice, EU, U.N. Broken. IOC and NCAA are two of a kind. The current worldwide Boomer legacy. "We Broke it". The IOC political statement of a parade of beds is Classic comedy. This to open a worldwide celebration of health, fitness, pushing the limits of endurance, testing the individual to an extreme. A parade of beds. Makes me think the person(s) responsible were secretly channeling Monty Python, giving the bureaucrats the finger. The joke on them. I hope so. That they do not see this is a major part of the problem. I choose to overlook this to appreciate what it means to the individuals involved in the games. To imagine what it would be like to be there, to be one of them.

You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

Than Mars, & BY FAR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IESrRo129I (Wormwood's coming). Look up "U.S. Naval Map" on Google too alongside FEMA camps plus "New Madrid Fault" (plus Polaris/The NorthStar now moving in still photos when it was a solid point forever, this is indicative of earth wobble), with earth magnetic field failure and pole shift and then lastly, lookup Niburu/Planet X. Hope you're in a safe spot, IF there really is one.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[khallow]

plus Polaris/The NorthStar now moving in still photos when it was a solid point forever, this is indicative of earth wobble

Polaris has never lined up exactly with the Earth's north pole. And there's a natural precession or "wobble" of the Earth due to it being in orbit around the Sun, that will cause the axis to shift away from Polaris over the years.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[ambidextroustech]

Yup, none of the Universe is static.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

Not like now. Long term exposure photographs show it. It's also now widely known that the earth's magnetic fields weakening and FULL polar shift will occur soon. Niburu/Planet X's is also not a comet (Elenin, "extinction level event notable impact nemesis") it was later said to be, and though first spotted in infrared in 1983? It was "hushed up" soon after. The Russians even stated that much recently enough! Gosh I wonder why? Perhaps because every 3,600 yrs. this bastard passes thru and wipes us out ala Noah's great flood (see that U.S. Naval Map on that note, they're predicting that and they've gone under the seas into the caverns to do so). What's the "trigger"? Niburu/Wormwood kicking off the New Madrid fault. Helps explain the massive ruins on the bottom of our seas too (past civilizations wiped out by it and I think MANY times). FEMA camps galore with 3 body plastic caskets are in place too. Wonder why (not).

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[wonkey_monkey]

You should be more interested in your dosage.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

Watch this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eRaE-pWltA&feature=related Stars are usually found with a binary pair star too mind you... this is ours and its bogus/wormwood from Revelations in the Bible! You're right about "not static", because neither are civilizations on earth because of this, every 3,600 years. You may find this 10th planet admission from NASA enlightening also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6oLoP9eNw&feature=related after they "hid it" back in 1983, after first admitting it, then not (but now they are).

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

Look up the U.S. Naval Map on Google and New Madrid Fault, as well as FEMA camps. Heck, Former Governor, Navy Seal, and actor Jesse Ventura was even on it also http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9EpqBf0oCY on the Denver Airport (that will spook you, trust me). I hope I am not right at all. I only know what I've been seeing. This spooked me the most http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eRaE-pWltA&feature=related Deny what's in the videos I posted in this exchange also. Good luck.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-dvQnhtDwM&feature=related

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[khallow]

Not like now. Long term exposure photographs show it.

Long term exposure photographs have always shown it.

It's also now widely known that the earth's magnetic fields weakening and FULL polar shift will occur soon.

The former is known, the latter isn't known, though flipping of the poles will happen sooner or later. There however is no reason to expect pole flips to coincide with most other space phenomena, including potential near passes from high mass objects.

Perhaps because every 3,600 yrs. this bastard passes thru and wipes us out ala Noah's great flood (see that U.S. Naval Map on that note, they're predicting that and they've gone under the seas into the caverns to do so). What's the "trigger"? Niburu/Wormwood kicking off the New Madrid fault.

There's no such evidence of a 3,600 year global flood cycle. And the faults of the world don't create or release water.

And a regular near pass by a large mass (Wikipedia says four times the mass of Earth) will frequently perturb the orbits of all the inner planets and the asteroids in the Asteroid Belt. We don't see any signs of that. All the inner planets have pretty circular orbits and there are many more asteroids in Jupiter resonant orbits (which is where you'd expect them to be sans Nibiru) than in unstable orbits (where you'd expect more of them to be, if Nibiru was coming through so frequently).

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crU9sM5QTUk&feature=related

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen to this and disprove its points http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crU9sM5QTUk&feature=related I hope you do with counter facts. I don't want this to happen anymore than anyone else but it did scare me between it and the U.S. Naval Map plus the massive erection of FEMA camps (800 of them). Thanks.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Sulphur]

Than Mars, & BY FAR http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IESrRo129I (Wormwood's coming). Look up "U.S. Naval Map" on Google too alongside FEMA camps plus "New Madrid Fault" (plus Polaris/The NorthStar now moving in still photos when it was a solid point forever, this is indicative of earth wobble), with earth magnetic field failure and pole shift and then lastly, lookup Niburu/Planet X. Hope you're in a safe spot, IF there really is one.

Look up the Russian word for Wormwood. Its near Kiev.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

Take a listen, tell me what you think of this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crU9sM5QTUk&feature=related Thanks.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/02/15/scientists-telescope-hunt-massive-hidden-object-in-space/

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[khallow]

That would be a different and much more distant object than the so-called "Nibiru". And it's effects would manifest over long time frames, like millions of years rather than every 3,600 years.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[Anonymous Coward]

It isn't "The Black Knight Satellite" (Chirogenic Box) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRXOPn1uXAw though that is interesting too. Very interesting and Time Magazine did an article on it back in the 1950's (maybe Tesla hearing aliens as he stated wasn't b.s.). Anyways, did you listen to the John Moore Video I posted earlier above? It talks more on 3,600 year cycles of Niburu/Planet X. I am actually looking for others to give me data on disproving some of it which is why I ask here: This place is chock full of skeptics and it's one time they're very useful. Thanks.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[arkane1234]

The thing to remember is that the universe is by no means one constant motion.

The earth has an eccentric orbit, and the planet itself wobbles on it's spinning axis. (think of a top)
Add in other gravitational pulls from objects around Earth (and other objects in space), and it's all chaos theory in it's truest form.

Re:You should be more concerned about this

[khallow]

I am actually looking for others to give me data on disproving some of it which is why I ask here: This place is chock full of skeptics and it's one time they're very useful. Thanks.

Well, let's start with the claim that there are 3,600 year cycles. That seems by far the weakest evidence. First, keep in mind that if the cycle length were off by a few hundred years, then that John Moore video wouldn't sell, it'd be a problem for some future generation. He has financial incentive to claim there is a problem now.

Historically, there hasn't been any particular problems in 1800 BC or 5400 BC (or previous times for that matter). The worst of social collapses happened at other times (such as the collapse of Greek and Middle East cultures around 1200 BC or the Dark Ages during the period of 500-1500 AD).

In astronomy, we don't see highly elliptical planetary orbits or signs that a lot of asteroids have been thrown around. Frankly, if a fair sized planet was going through the inner Solar System every 3,600 years, which is very frequent in terms of a Solar System that's 4.5 billion years old, I don't think we'd have an asteroid belt to speak of.

Geologically, there are a number of places that would show evidence of any sort of periodic disturbance, but which don't (at least on that time scale): lake beds, ice cores, and the surface of the Moon (which I might add shows few asteroid impacts in the past few hundred million years!).

Yes..

[Anonymous Coward]

I, for one, welcome our new robotic life finding machines.

Re:Yes..

[techno-vampire]

On Soviet Mars, robotic life finding machines welcome YOU!

People should

[Anonymous Coward]

People should like what I like not what they like. Only my opinion matters and if you have any interests I don't have then you are wrong and should change that.

How much of an asshole do you have to be to hold an opinion like this? Some people enjoy sports and some people like polishing rocks. The world is a diverse collection of people and just because you might not care for the Olympics doesn't mean its wrong for any one else to do so.

Re:People should

[EmperorOfCanada]

People should like what I like not what they like. Only my opinion matters and if you have any interests I don't have then you are wrong and should change that.

How much of an asshole do you have to be to hold an opinion like this? Some people enjoy sports and some people like polishing rocks. The world is a diverse collection of people and just because you might not care for the Olympics doesn't mean its wrong for any one else to do so.

I do care where my tax dollars go. I would vote zero dollars going to any sport beyond the level of entry level kids sports. It would be a great world where those who vote for more arenas and stadiums get discount tickets to those. But those who vote for more space exploration and science get the vaccines, safer cars, weather forecasts, and get to fly in airplanes built using modern technology.

Re:People should

[fiannaFailMan]

Publicly funded sports y and facilities can be a spur for economic growth and urban regeneration when handled correctly. The value of inspiring young people to get involved in healthy activities should not be underestimated.

Re:People should

[bloodhawk]

Sport helps promote health and fitness, lack of these costs you far more than is spent on sports. Sometimes it irks me with how much is spent on some sports, but that is still better than not spending any.

Re:People should

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. over the top reaction. someone tells you why you should be more interested in Mars than the Olympics and you take it as interfering with your rights to exist as an idiot. You can still do both or neither. :-))

Re:People should

[Anonymous Coward]

This is untrue. Arenas do not spur economic growth, it is the exact opposite. Sure it soubds logical and all, but fact is, areana workers get paud shit, and the jobs created are menial. The money would have been better spent tryuing to apur local small businesses, except of helping out one billionaire.

People have a budget for entertainment . They dont just atay home cause there is no local team. They will spend that money regardless. Now would u rather it go to several small businesses, ot one guy?

Stadiums creating economic growth is a myth created by said bilionaire, anyone who has taken econ 101 knows differently. There is infact a punlished case study that proves this if you bother to google it instead of parroting what your bought congressmen tells you.

Re:People should

[Anonymous Coward]

>I do care where my tax dollars go. I would vote zero dollars going to any sport beyond the level of entry level kids sports. It would be a great world where those who vote for more arenas and stadiums get discount tickets to those.

As long as they pay the taxes used to build these things.

Re:People should

[rolfwind]

Since your parent was talking about sports beyond those in school, I really have to wonder about the veracity about your claim. Will less professional stadiums really lead to less fitness in the overall population?

Looking to Europe, they don't have have more stadiums, they have things on the local level, more (free) clubs and to add to that, more consistent sidewalks/bicycle_paths/mass_transit and less of a car culture.

So I have to call bullshit on this claim. Sports for kids are good. But the real money going towards ego-stroking pro-sports so the fans can sit in their chairs and gawk at other people doing things isn't helping anything.

Re:People should

[John Hasler]

Publicly funded sports y and facilities can be a spur for economic growth...

Nonsense. Commercial sports activitities such as the olympics are entertainment. They are fine for those who choose to expend their own resources on them but funding them with tax money forces people who get no value from them to pay for them and diverts resources away from productive uses. They no more "spur economic growth" than would hiring people to go around smashing windows in order to "create jobs" for glaziers.

Re:People should

[fiannaFailMan]

The area surrounding AT&T Park in San Francisco used to be derelict and barren. Now it's being gentrified with better public transportation links, loft apartments, cafes, bars, office space and other businesses moving into the area. Property values have gone up. People want to live in an area where there's stuff to do.

Re:People should

[Anonymous Coward]

Looking to Europe, they don't have have more stadiums, they have things on the local level, more (free) clubs and to add to that, more consistent sidewalks/bicycle_paths/mass_transit and less of a car culture.

Standard Slashdot Response to this:

Europe is tiny. The whole of Europe can fit into Rhode Island. The USA must drive everywhere and have large stadia because it is so incomprehensively vast. I mean you might think its a long way down the road to the chemists, but thats just peanuts compared to the USA.

I don't care about either.

[colsandurz45]

I'll care when the Olympics are ON Mars.

Re:I don't care about either.

[Anonymous Coward]

On Olympus Mons no less!!

Re:I don't care about either.

[JoeRandomHacker]

(Oblig. B5)

Franklin: "Well, the patient is confused, delusional. Unable to separate his natural sense of loyalty for his home team from the reality that they stink, and only got to the playoffs on a technicality."
Ramierez: "Yeah, what technicality? The Mars team hit more home runs than any other team on the books!"
Franklin: "Only because Martian gravity is 40% less than Earth normal. Alright, the ball travels faster and further skewing the results. Now once they hit Earth gravity, Helen Keller could bat better than any one of them."

Re:I don't care about either.

[JoeRandomHacker]

Of course, baseball isn't an olympic sport anymore, but it translates well enough to other sports.

Re:I don't care about either.

[slashmydots]

The long jump would be freaking epic!

Re:I don't care about either.

[tradica]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Mons

Re:I don't care about either.

[naroom]

The Space Olympics didn't work out too well actually.

Well...

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't give a fuck about mars.

But i give even less of a fuck about the olympics this year. The entire thing is one giant commercial moneygrab anymore.
And everyone involved manages to fuckup their part too.

I'm more interested in how london is a police state under martial law because of the olympics... that's some messed up stuff right there.

Re:Well...

[colsandurz45]

I'm more interested in how london is a police state under martial law because of the olympics.

Oh please, London was a police state before the Olymipics.

Re:Well...

[newcastlejon]

Oh please, London was a police state before the Olymipics.

That's debatable, but there certainly weren't any SAM launchers on roofs before Olympic madness set in.

WAY BETTER THAN THE OLYMPICS

[Anonymous Coward]

I care more about space than the olympics! well done, thank you for bringing some normality into a competitive driven society! :D

Not watching olympics

[Anonymous Coward]

Next week, while we're all watching NBC

No I won't be watching Olympics. I want to. But my family doesn't own a TV, in favor of the Internet (and thus more control of what we watch.) Oh, and all of our computers at home are running Linux, so no Silverlight plugin - which probably doesn't matter since NBC will be broadcasting diddly-squat online anyways.

Sooo.... I'm off to The Olympic Bay!

I am equally disinterested

[Anonymous Coward]

Travelling to Mars and running marathons seem similar enough to me that since I can do neither, meh!

Impact Of The Decade

[Anonymous Coward]

Oh Dear ... Not Again ... Feet to Meters ... Meters to Feet.

A misplaced decimal and the whole mission and the fate of NASA in the most challenging budget year of the USA and all including EPA and NSF are now doomed ... Doomed ... DOOMED.

This is what happens when 'Geographers' are hired as 'Scientists'!

NASA will get what it payed for! In Spades.

LoL

Re:Impact Of The Decade

[cjjjer]

Actually this might be good timing, if the rover crashes nobody will ever know due to the Olympic coverage.

sexy sports stars

[KingAlanI]

they're athletes, of course they're in shape (okay, some athletes and/or some sports are an exception).
Minimal clothing is appropriate for exercising in the heat. Tight clothing won't get in the way (whether other players or inanimate objects on the field of play)/

Is is played up beyond that, though?

Re:sexy sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah that explains why the rules for beach volleyball require men to wear speedo's (don't know the non-Australian term for this kind of swimwear :-) )

Re:sexy sports stars

[Geek70]

No, no - the Australian term is "budgie smugglers".

Re:sexy sports stars

[Hadlock]

They're also in the top one millionth of the population in terms of physical genetics (at least, for individual performers, team sports is less physically selective and more mental/socially selective).
 
The brain is very, very good at determining positive physical traits, and labels them accordingly as attractive. Then there's also the whole celebrity angle.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Dark$ide]

No, no - the Australian term is "budgie smugglers".

We've even started calling them "budgie smugglers" here in Pomgolia.

Unfortuneately too many of the links I can find point to dailyfail.co.uk so I won't post them here.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Hognoxious]

The brain is very, very good at determining positive physical traits, and labels them accordingly as attractive.

Nonesene, it's largely driven by fashion. Being anorexic, which many girls aspire to, is not healthy. Marilyn Monroe was somewhat chunky by modern standards. Go back a few centuries and fat chicks were teh hotness.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think this is an accurate portray. You can have the head of a horse and still be a world-class athlete. Think of a species like peacocks.

Besides, attraction is much more complicated than just physical performance. For instance, it's perhaps in general more sexy to know that the person is a winner than seeing the winner's body.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

We call them that in the UK too, and since we're the hosts we'll let everyone call them that for the duration of the games.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

Nobody finds anorexic girls attractive. Marilyn Monroe was highly attractive by modern standards. Fat chicks were never hot anywhere.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

My brain must not be working then. I find most male athletes ugly as fuck.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Hognoxious]

Ever heard of Rubens? No, not the sandwich.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

PETA is going to be PISSED!

Re:sexy sports stars

[webmistressrachel]

Actually, the generic term is "swimming trunks". Similar to the way in which Nike make trainers, Speedo make swimming gear. You wouldn't call all trainers Nike, would you?

Re:sexy sports stars

[mgcarley]

They still are in many countries, including but not limited to India and most of Africa.

Re:sexy sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the generic term is "swimming trunks". Similar to the way in which Nike make trainers, Speedo make swimming gear. You wouldn't call all trainers Nike, would you?

Are you a jerk when people use terms like asprin, brassiere, escalator, and zipper?? Or is it only with sports items?

When I was a kid...

[wzinc]

...the Olympics (and all sports) existed for the sole purpose of preempting my favorite TV shows.

Re:When I was a kid...

[spooje]

It's summer so they're all repeats anyways.

Re:When I was a kid...

[Grayhand]

...the Olympics (and all sports) existed for the sole purpose of preempting my favorite TV shows.

Wait a minute, there's good shows on broadcast TV. What channel????? I've got butkus since Dish dropped AMC/I dropped Dish.

Re:When I was a kid...

[Anonymous Coward]

The word you want is 'bupkis.'

Re:When I was a kid...

[Anonymous Coward]

...the Olympics (and all sports) existed for the sole purpose of preempting my favorite TV shows.

Wait a minute, there's good shows on broadcast TV. What channel????? I've got butkus since Dish dropped AMC/I dropped Dish.

wzinc must be very old.

good job

[Anonymous Coward]

on never privatizing nasa and it costing the world billion (yup the world, because you ain't paying enough taxes to cover your dept...)

Public ignorance is deliberate policy

[Anonymous Coward]

Caring about space travel instead of games in the Circus Maximus would require an educated populace. An educated populace would be better equipped to keep asking inconvenient questions about why too-big-to-fail banks get government bailouts, while people losing their jobs (and all too often their homes) to outsourcing get nothing.

So....

[Anonymous Coward]

Why can't I be interested in both?

Re:So....

[Anonymous Coward]

Why can't I be interested in both?

You're not supposed to point out obvious false dichotomy in the submissions.

catpcha: sinner

Olympics can teach too

[EmperorOfCanada]

The Olympics can teach us all kinds things about government corruption and inefficiencies. How the IOC is allowed to change the laws of a country ranging from IP to road laws. How the IOC gets a country verging on bankruptcy to spend around 20 billion dollars so that the 1%, the VIPs, and a token handful of us rif-raf can feel important. One the best examples of this is how the VIPs got so many tickets that the stands are half empty for venues that are "Sold out". Another is that the city with some of the worst traffic in the western world created lanes just like they had in Soviet Russia that were limited to well connected people.

All this to watch various countries send their OCD athletes who have nearly destroyed themselves try for a medal.

Bread and circuses.

The only silver lining is that the company that was an inch away from privatizing the police in Britain has humiliated itself to a point where this won't happen. Another study in where a company that can't find its ass with its hands was able to schmooze its way into the corridors of power and milk this single schmoozing skill for billions.

If the money and effort (considering what that many athletes working out for that many hours must also be worth) put into the Olympics were instead were to have been put into science and space exploration we wouldn't be watching a car sized robot touch down on Mars but would be watching the amateur Olympic team representing Mars participate in a scaled down Solar Olympics.

Re:Olympics can teach too

[Anonymous Coward]

You're angling this like there's no value in the Olympics. It reads to me like meaningsless and hateful drivel from someone who hates sports.

Re:Olympics can teach too

[dagelf]

Soo.... are we waiting for an AI to quantify this, or do you think we're up to it all on our own? Inception...... all it takes is the right seed in the right mind. I see the Olympics chiefly as a demonstration of the cutting edge for the common man and as a melting pot and meeting point for different cultures and walks of life, united by tradition - the question is: how do you measure the value in that?

Re:Olympics can teach too

[Crypto Gnome]

Bread and circuses.

Oddly enough The Olympics is not "bread and circuses" in the original sense.

Back in the day when the emperor spoke Latin, the "bread" was (effectively) free (the Roman practice of providing free wheat to Roman citizens).

At The Olympics the "bread" is most excessively not "gratis" by a long shot.

The analogy seems problematic somehow

[93 Escort Wagon]

So, if the golf analogy is correct - the rover was launched from earth and, after that, has not made use of any sort of propulsion technology for steering, course correction, or braking? That IS pretty impressive...

I'm a pretty pathetic golfer, but I bet my scores would improve dramatically if I had a team of people steering the ball after I hit it. Getting it to New Zealand might still be a bit of a reach, though.

(The rover is darn cool, seriously. I'm more interested in it than in most of the Olympic events.)

Re:The analogy seems problematic somehow

[Ichijo]

Your scores would also improve if you didn't have to worry about air currents randomly altering the course of the ball.

Re:The analogy seems problematic somehow

[93 Escort Wagon]

Given the initial trajectory on a fair number of my golf shots, I would argue that air currents randomly altering the course of the ball can only help me.

Re:The analogy seems problematic somehow

[giorgist]

You don't think it's like hitting a golf ball to New Zealand ? I would say, not considering the air resistance ... the idea of launching a golf ball to New Zealand is a walking in the park.

How to Get to Mars

Re:The analogy seems problematic somehow

[Patch86]

Not to mention the fact that because sending things through space is more to do with gravitational billiards than it is to do with simply aiming and firing, it has almost nothing in common with launching something from one point on the Earth's surface to another.

Or the fact that there's no way that a golfer could hit a ball that far, so they might as well have picked any sport ("kicking a football", "throwing a javelin", "firing an arrow").

Or the fact that in golf (and the others) you launch the projectile from a stationary launcher, while in space travel the projectile carries its own propulsion.

Also, golf isn't an Olympic event.

Re:The analogy seems problematic somehow

[Alomex]

But apart from that is just the same.

An olympic golfer in London

[Anonymous Coward]

That would be pretty damn amazing, since the last time golf was featured in the olympics was in 1904. I'm pretty sure they've all been dead for a long time.

I like both, thank you.

[The Wooden Badger]

I reject the premise of the article.

First, as has been said in a couple other posts, being interested in the Mars story and the Olympics are not mutually exclusive. I like space exploration stories, and I like sports. There is no reason to have to pick one over the other unless we are talking career choices. Recreational level interest is a completely different story.

Second, the sports guy in me (exercise physiology degree, and I've coached a college sport) doesn't buy the idea that the accuracy or endurance is more important or impressive in the Mars mission. More impressive endurance based on raw miles is just silly. There wasn't constant acceleration during the whole voyage. Shooting from the hip, I would imagine it was a whole lot more like a lot of initial acceleration and then months of coasting. Similarly the accuracy comparison is almost laughable. Sure, if you just look at the amount of significant digits on what bearing you're hitting a golf ball the comparison is appropriate, but the Mars mission wasn't exactly launched by someone manually adjusting angles with the same amount of fine tuning as someone with sausage fingers playing Angry Birds on an iPhone. Never mind that the Mars mission wasn't likely to have any unexpected external forces altering its trajectory, and it most likely had some means of course correcting in transit.

Beyond those absurdities, it is the standard media treatment of space exploration stories. It's a brief mention of what is happening that leaves more questions about technical details than it answers. Please leave the unnecessary comparison and competition of two noncompeting, unrelated events. Now, if you want to talk about the technological dark ages the NBC executives call home...

The problem with the golf analogy...

[Yaztromo]

...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

Re:The problem with the golf analogy...

[Anonymous Coward]

So, talking of the need to get the details right... is it a British Leyland Mini Cooper, or a BMW?

Re:The problem with the golf analogy...

[tompaulco]

Well, the little detail that makes the scientist in me ignore this story is the one about having to be so darn accurate to hit Mars. To be more accurate, the Mars shot would be like an Olympic golfer teeing off in London and after thousands of tiny course corrections from the golfball's on-board thrusters, hitting a hole-in-one in Auckland, New Zealand.
But, just to make them happy, I also won't watch the Olympics. I mean, they're not even nude. That's not the Olympics.

Wouldn't that be a good story ...

[Anonymous Coward]

We all know, if science _did_ find life somewhere else, all of religion will burst into flames.

I for one, will be looking forward to that !!!

Re:Wouldn't that be a good story ...

[TapeCutter]

Not really, most of the major religions already accept evolution. Religion is not a theory, it's a story, they will fit little green men into the plot like they do everything else, some of the smaller churches like Scientology will be delighted and claim it proves them right.

After last night's coverage on NBC...

[bmo]

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

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

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[93 Escort Wagon]

Speaking as an American who lives reasonably close to Canada - the CBC's Olympic coverage runs circles around NBC's in terms of quality.

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[bmo]

I mentioned in another post that I saw the Nagano Olympics from Canada, specifically while staying in Peterborough, Ontario.

--
BMO

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[Anonymous Coward]

FYI: I'm using get_iplayer and a free UK-based proxy to download the BBC's olympic coverage.

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[sackbut]

I'm missing the CBC coverage as I am visiting the USA. The NBC coverage is poor. It does seem very jingoistic and narrow minded. I like how they have named the 'evening' coverage 'NBC Live' even though it is taped.

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[isorox]

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.

The Olympics didn't have any commercials. If your local broadcaster did, then that's a sad indictment of your broadcasting industry to edit what was a wonderful show, starring Isambard Kingdom Brunel with Britains industrial heritage, and Tim Berners-Lee with the modern digital age.

(Aside from Brunel and Berners-Lee, Boyle included Bean, Bond, Beckham in a brilliant, breathtaking, British, Beijing-busting Bonanza. Beat that Brazil.)

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[Cimexus]

Yeah I thought the Nine Network coverage here in Australia has been terrible and ad-ridden, but I've seen some clips of the NBC stuff and ... just wow. Also the fact that it's not even live, as I understand it? They at least covered the opening ceremony live here, even if it was at 6am on a Saturday morning...

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[tompaulco]

Ryan Seacrest probably doesn't even know about the 7/7 memorial. I know I didn't. Remember, Ryan Seacrest is not just from the United States, he's a celebrity in the United States, which means he has almost no knowledge of what happens in the real world.

Re:After last night's coverage on NBC...

[bmo]

I'm going to hold a seance to summon the ghost of Jim McKay to haunt the NBC execs and ask them repeatedly "have you no shame?"

--
BMO

Let's be honest: It's ALL about money.

[Anonymous Coward]

The Olympics are now (more than ever before) just a big sponsorship (as in ultra-capitalist) fuck-fest, period.

Re:Let's be honest: It's ALL about money.

[rubycodez]

no, it is also about patriotic chest thumping and propaganda.

Re:Let's be honest: It's ALL about money.

[k6mfw]

Attending MSL landing event at NASA Ames is much cheaper as in free, http://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/events/2012/ames-curiosity.html

Will the rover get a gold medal?

[kawabago]

Silver? Bronze? All it can do is find life on another planet. And no guarantee the life it finds will taste good!

Re:Will the rover get a gold medal?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, it's *made* of metal... and probably costs more than the Olympics, so...

Re:Will the rover get a gold medal?

[gaelfx]

You've obviously never had a Martian Milkshake.

Look for other sources

[SuperKendall]

I think you can find torrents from other sources.

Also there is an NBC Olympics app that lets you watch live feeds (I think that will mean no commentary).

I am with you in that I DETEST Matt Lauer and all of the same people you have been hearing for years utterly ruining the audio track for the whole Olympics.

Re:Look for other sources

[Macrat]

Also there is an NBC Olympics app that lets you watch live feeds (I think that will mean no commentary).

So you are making recommendations you haven't tried.

Murphy Lander

[Tablizer]

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.

So this is no longer a global forum.

[Anonymous Coward]

Why the fuck would we be "all watching NBC" from every other country outside the US?
The Olympics involves every country, too bad Slashdot doesn't.

Re:So this is no longer a global forum.

[Anonymous Coward]

It never was. Get over it, you metric-using unAmerican!

Everyone in the world (consisting principally of the United States,) knows that the world can be divided into two subsets, those parts that are in or under the authority of the United States of America, and the rest of the world that is not so fortunate.

Like, duh...

Seriously though, anyone who thinks /. hasn't been US centric for most of its history must somehow failed to notice that it's in English, and the majority of the stories, and the comments posted in threads attached to them, (at least the coherent ones,) are in American English. When we talk about how many colors something displays, you'll note it's not "colours". When we use metric on this site, we use kilometers, liters, etc., not kilometres, litres, and the like. It's a US site... and whether or not it also admits of some international thought is dependent mainly on the perspective of WHO is commenting.

Will the Mars lander have an endorsement deal?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's what would make it really interesting. A big Nike "swoosh" on the side, to let any Martians it might meet know what shoes it doesn't wear but gets paid to pretend it does... Then people would start to care again. Set it up with a face book page, or let it "twit" about its travels and its findings... or wherever you do that...

August 3rd, 2012, 8:07PM EST. Just passed an asteroid that reminded me of the Dairy Queen sign. Aren't those Blizzards great?

August 3rd, 2012, 9:05PM EST. Could really go for a Blizzard. If I had one right now, it would stay cold because of the vacuum of space. Geez it's cold... ...and the like. Let the lander complain about its parents (NASA) sending it far away, and how homesick it is for Earth. Have it meet a friendly comet along the way, to share adventures with. I would lose what little respect I have left for NASA, but people would sure dig it!

Come to think of it, why doesn't NASA hold a reality show about a group of people on a fake voyage to Mars, to see if they can live in a tin-can sized space for 17 months... or they could do one where contestants have to build a rocket to go to the moon... a lot of missed opportunities occur when our government refuses to play along with the entertainment culture we have nowadays. Who Wants to Be A Rocket Scientist would draw lots of fans, and who the hell knows, maybe even educate people.

Accuracy?

[Penurious Penguin]

How do you know how much accuracy it takes to shoot a non-existent airborne terrorist from the sky with a roof-top missile? Mars is cool, but considering the extensive array of excellent pubs to choose from, playing with missiles in London is hard to beat. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/11/london-rooftop-missiles-olympics_n_1664653.html

Summer Olympics

[Anonymous Coward]

Aren't the real Olympics anyway. The only real Olympics is the winter games, and eve half of them don't count.

Re:Summer Olympics

[bmo]

The only real game in the Winter Olympics is curling.

--
BMO

Re:Summer Olympics

[tehcyder]

The only real game in the Winter Olympics is curling.

-- BMO

Curling is for people who find bowls too sublte and complicated.

There is no life anywhere else.

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who suggest otherwise is trying to sell you something or wants to spend your tax money.

Going to mars is an absolute waste of resources.

Re:There is no life anywhere else.

[Colonel Korn]

Anyone who suggest otherwise is trying to sell you something or wants to spend your tax money.

Going to mars is an absolute waste of resources.

What resources were lost in this trip to Mars? What would they have gone toward if we hadn't used them for this mission?

Re:There is no life anywhere else.

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone who suggest otherwise is trying to sell you something or wants to spend your tax money.

Going to mars is an absolute waste of resources.

First off we are finally beginning to realise that as a species we get bored very easily. And more importantly because we have extreme trouble being civil to one and other for more than just a few days at a time we need to have common entertainment and goals!

To seek an answer to the two questions;

1. Was there any life on mars at any time?

2. WTF HAPPENED TO THE ECOLOGY (LIFE) ON MARS AND WHEN.

Answering these question can have a huge influence on how we in future choose to treat our most important resource ......THE EARTH YOU ARE STANDING ON RIGHT NOW

AND who the hell knows perhaps there was so called intelligent life on mars 2 billion years ago that really fucked things up causing the planet core to cool too quickly thereby losing the essential planetary magnetic shield thus screwing up the hydrology and atmosphere of mars for good.

  [?php
$var = 'tinfoil_hat';

[tinfoil_hat]
Just perhaps some survived long enough on mars and in space to see the genesis of life here on Earth. If any are still around at all then just perhaps they do not want US to fuck up as badly as they did! And is the reason why we have strange reports of creatures and flying craft that even some sane and stable individuals claim to have witnessed.

$var = 'Tinfoil_hat_Extreme';

        [TInfoil_hat_Extreme]

Of course there are some really radical tinfoilers out there that might just say that the illuminati that really control all our minds are in bed with ex-Martians....but I better STFU for know or they might just off me for good and erase all evidence of my SLASHDOT POSTS over the years

                    [Tinfoil_hat_Extreme]

                          [/tinfoil_hat]

Error! 1 will not post correctly as new undeclared unknown inline elements are prohibited!
go smoke some more pot and consider another programming language for your web posts!

Re:There is no life anywhere else.

[Anonymous Coward]

This is the same backwards thinking that had humanity believing

1: That the Earth is flat
2: That the Sun revolves around the Earth, and that we are the center of the universe

The argument that going to Mars is a waste of resources is ridiculous. What else would you propose we do with rockets and electronics? Deliver nuclear weapons to our enemies? Because THAT isn't a waste of resources? What about all the jobs created by trying to get to Mars?

All your statement boils down to is: "I'm bitter because I make use of government funded resources like roads and soon to be healthcare, and they expect me to pay money to them for it."

Marketing matters

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm certain the public would pay attention if there were a heavily promoted, 24 hour live feed of everything that was happening; provided, of course, that all the female NASA techs wear bikinis.

Ah, well no....

[Anonymous Coward]

Understanding our world is critical for our continued survival. The people who don't care certainly do care about having flush toilets, air conditioning, shampoo, medicine, surgery, cars, and cell phones, all of which are direct products of science.

And they should care about environmental science, because it could translate directly to the health of their grandchildren. They should also care about space exploration, because that can translate directly to our survival as a species.

The widespread apathy about science chokes off funding that is needed for research projects. And we need the data. Our species literally can't live without it (for long). So scientific apathy (in others) directly harms me (and others, whether they realize it or not).

Your "different strokes for different folks" attitude is fine. People do have different tastes. But the advancement of scientific knowledge is in a different category: it is simply too important to ignore. And since those who do ignore it wind up implicitly inhibiting it, to the detriment of everyone, they should be shamed for their apathy.

Re:Ah, well no....

[Anrego]

Diplomacy and international politics are also both important for our continued survival. For that matter so is the global economy.

All the science in the world isn't going to help us if we blow ourselves up, or our system of managing resources and man power falls apart. You ask someone who works in either of these areas.. I mean who is really involved.. and they will pretty much parrot _exactly_ what you said, with appropriate fields replaced.

Everyone wants to put their area of interest in a special category. Everyone can make a case that the thing _they_ care about is really the most critical and anyone who doesn't get that just doesn't understand reality.

Re:Ah, well no....

[CycleMan]

Mod Parent Up. I have but one lifetime -- and someone out there wants me to spend it all on learning Esperanto.

The older I get, the more I become aware just how much we collectively know -- and how little of it I will have time to learn, apply, and teach others. Rather than follow along in real-time with the Mars story, I'll wait for the uninformed talking heads to move on to some other story because "Mars is old now." I'll read the intelligent executive summary after the research is completed.

Re:Ah, well no....

[Anonymous Coward]

Please consider donating or otherwise helping human life extension efforts. Do you know how much knowledge and wisdom is flushed down the toilet every day because people die? Do you know how much you could learn with a few extra decades of useful lifespan, as opposed to decades of watching your brain decay?

Re:Ah, well no....

[Anonymous Coward]

I have but one lifetime -- and someone out there wants me to spend it all on learning Esperanto.

You have only a couple of weeks left to live?

Your interrest are not everybody's

[aepervius]

I find no vbalue whatsoever in olympics. In fact I find no value whatsoever in *watching* all sports. I do compete in archery and do a few other sports. But passive looking never held any interrest whatsoever be it local competition or olympics.

"A quick googling shows that about 10960 athletes from 204 countries have come together in competition within one city. If you can't find the value in that, then I feel sorry for you."

And I feel sorry for people which think they can dictate what value others should find into something.

Re:Your interrest are not everybody's

[Anonymous Coward]

Archery?
You COMPETE in archery, so now you feel superior to those who simply *watch*.
i feel sorry for people that voted for OBAMA. Because all you are going to be able to do is WATCH for the next four years You can WATCH this country continue its swirl down the toilet. And you, you jagoff, will still be arguing over bread and circuses with your fellow citizens just like the Romans planned, OBAMA is ready to assume the role of Nero. The time is fucking nigh you obamalovingameobas.

Re:Your interrest are not everybody's

[Barsteward]

And you would have preferred John McCain and Sarah Palin running the country? Shows how much common sense you have....

Not fully correct

[aepervius]

For many discipline (all?) we already have known for a long time the limit of the human body. We don't test for that anymore. What we test nowadays, are two factors : how far can we push materials to get an advantage, and, to a thankfully lesser extent, how far can we push human modification/doping and get away with it without getting caught.

Re:Not fully correct

[girlintraining]

For many discipline (all?) we already have known for a long time the limit of the human body. We don't test for that anymore.

Yeah, because we all know that, unlike every other form of life on this planet, the human being is not subject to the theory of evolution. Or not. In fact, the Olympics is a veritable cornucopia of genetic mutations, and it is well worth our time to learn from these athletes; not just their DNA, but training regiments, diet, environment. Every Olympic event unlocks a little bit more understanding of what it means to be human, scientifically, philosophically, and spiritually.

Re:Not fully correct

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're really reaching with this line of argument. While I have little doubt that having a personal involvement in something on the level of the Olympics can be a life altering "spiritual" experience, the scientific argument really sounds like a load of garbage.

You have athletes participating from around the world undergoing different forms of training, diets, and substances, much of which are not going to be divulged openly to the scientific community due to wanting to maintain a competitive advantage. Trying to argue that this couple week long, multi-billion dollar reality TV show is somehow a worthwhile endeavour for the scientific community because you find out that a select person from one country can run .001mph faster in 1 arbitrary race than he did 4 years ago is sheer nonsense.

Professional sports probably has more scientific relevancy than the Olympics simply due to the regularity of competition, and a much larger pool of athletes being drawn from, but I don't think any sane person would tout science as a justifiable reason for the existence of the NFL and their respective player salaries.

Re:Not fully correct

[sjames]

That depends on the sport. There's not a lot of special equipment in gymnastics, for example. While there have been some doping incidents in the past, they are now monitored so closely that cold medicine can cause a disqualification. In other sports, there is some new research in equipment, but it's either intrinsic to the sport (pole vaulting, archery, rowing) or we'd have to go back to competing naked (shoes, running shorts, etc). to avoid it.

And no, we do not actually have a sufficiently detailed model of the human physiology to know the actual limits.

Re:Not fully correct

[KiloByte]

While there have been some doping incidents in the past, they are now monitored so closely that cold medicine can cause a disqualification.

Cold medicine, yes, modern dope, no. If you believe current sport is anything but a contest who has better chemistry teams, I have a bridge to sell to you. Most of the stuff is designed to be similar to regular body chemistry enough to make detection hard and to look innocent enough to avoid disqualification.

Re:Not fully correct

[sjames]

I'm sure it happens, but I'm going to need citations for a blanket statement.

And I'll need to see the deed and title research on that bridge as well.

Re:Not fully correct

[Anonymous Coward]

but training regiments

What strange company you keep.

Re:Not fully correct

[Anonymous Coward]

And no, we do not actually have a sufficiently detailed model of the human physiology to know the actual limits.
f the human physiology to know the actual limits.

...of proofreading ;)

Re:Not fully correct

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think that's true. Training methods have evolved a lot over the past few decades as we learn more about the human body.

Re:Not fully correct

[Anonymous Coward]

If you believe current sport is anything but a contest who has better chemistry teams, I have a bridge to sell to you

They could give you access to the best "chemistry team" and every drug in the world and you would never be competitive in any event. It comes down to a lot more than just "doping" you disgusting neckbeard.

Ohh FFS guys

[Anonymous Coward]

"Area Man Constantly Telling People He Doesn't Watch the Olympics".

And it features a song by Will.I.Am

[Anonymous Coward]

It was mentioned on Graham Norton's show here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMSaiih_ZJY&t=10m26s

This is Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sure a good portion of us are dreaming about Martian colonies as we speak. You probably could have achieved a similar result just by having a one word article that says Mars.

Or better yet, MARS!

Olympics kind of losing it's luster for me...

[erp_consultant]

I remember when I was a kid I used to love watching the Olympics. Then all the doping scandals started, then all the professionals started competing, then they started adding all these stupid new sports...and I lost interest. I mean, beach volleyball in the Olympics? Really? The older I get the less interest I have in jocks of any kind - Olympic or otherwise.

Re:Olympics kind of losing it's luster for me...

[Anonymous Coward]

And with all these stories about the Olympic orgies I'm starting to think they should add cameras to the village so we can all watch that as well.
Just imagine the ratings.

Re:Olympics kind of losing it's luster for me...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's London, of course there are cameras there. Just imagine how many of the contestants (not to mention their trainers and other support people) could be terrorists!

accuracy

[multi io]

It requires better accuracy than an Olympic golfer teeing off in London and hitting a hole-in-one in Auckland, New Zealand.

It probably does not, because the golfer couldn't do midcourse corrections.

Re:accuracy

[Hognoxious]

He could have loads of teammates along its trajectory all armed with massive wafters.

Missed opportunity

[Grayhand]

Strap a skimpy bikini on the rover and they would have had ratings gold!

Re:Missed opportunity

[gaelfx]

I'd only want to see that if the rover was built by Hiroshi Ishiguro.

Caring about science

[djchristensen]

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?

Actually, I think the possibility of discovering life on other planets is exactly what drives a disappointingly large percentage of the population to *not* care about science. Might mess with their whole world view and all that. Some of them haven't fully accepted the round-earth-orbiting-the-sun thing, life eveloving on other planets would just lead to apoplexy.

Re:Caring about science

[93 Escort Wagon]

Actually, I think the possibility of discovering life on other planets is exactly what drives a disappointingly large percentage of the population to *not* care about science. Might mess with their whole world view and all that. Some of them haven't fully accepted the round-earth-orbiting-the-sun thing, life eveloving on other planets would just lead to apoplexy.

If a person believes God created humanity - why would you think they wouldn't believe that same God is capable of creating life on other planets?

Re:Caring about science

[artor3]

I sincerely doubt that anyone thinks that way, excepting of course the caricatures you've built in your own mind.

People don't care so much about discovering life on other planets because the only planets we'll ever reach are the ones in the solar system, and at most those might have a few bacteria on them. You will never live to see contact with so much as an extraterrestrial blade of grass. Nor will I, nor anyone else alive today, nor any of our children or grandchildren. Depressing, maybe, but it's the truth.

People (yes, even the religious ones) used to get excited about the prospect of finding civilizations on other worlds. Then reality kicked in, people realized they were more likely to find bigfoot hiding under their bed, and everyone stopped caring.

Re:Caring about science

[Golden Section]

It is not about a deity being _capable_ of creating life elsewhere. The issue that there are those who think that humans are so special, that no other ET will be found to triumph the ‘glory’ of our species (whatever defines the difference between men and animals). Finding a small bug-like creature off-world wouldn't shock them, but contact with Klaatu would.

Re:Caring about science

[Hognoxious]

The infallible book says that on the seventh day he rested. It doesn't say that next week he was making a start on the Martians & Ganymen. Because if that was the case it would surely have said so, what with it being infallible and everything.

Re:Caring about science

[MtViewGuy]

Actually, if we do find signs of current or past life on Mars, it would be TREMENDOUSLY exciting because it proves what scientists have long suspected: life could evolve on other planets besides Earth. Given what we've seen from the Kepler spacecraft, the number of planets that could potentially sustain life could be much large than originally estimated.

Re:Caring about science

[Anonymous Coward]

Do they each get an alien Jesus too?

Search for life == search for funding

[Anonymous Coward]

I think they made a mistake in ditching the imax camera that would have gone up with curiosity.

This search for life thing is an interesting endeavour however if you listen to NASAs PR it seems to be the *only* selling point.. I don't think their messaging makes much sense.

You could watch both.

[NoSleepDemon]

Just because one cannot run a mile in under five minutes does not mean that one should belittle those that can. The people competing in the Olympics are at the pinnacle of human fitness which takes dedication and skill no less equal to eroding your muscle mass while chowing down on sugary snacks and tapping away at a keyboard. Oh wait. See what I did there in the name of sensationalism?

Have tried....

[SuperKendall]

So you are making recommendations you haven't tried.

No, I have used the app, just not yet with actual live feeds.

The non-live clips from the opening ceremony did NOT have any of the commentary that was there during the broadcast (I watched some of both).

So, it seems pretty likely the other live feeds also come without commentary.

Please ... don't mention the rover

[giorgist]

Please ... don't mention the rover or you might jinx it.

We might all be watching and it will go splat, and so the Olympics my win after all.

In any even, for inspirational reasons Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror

Re:Please ... don't mention the rover

[Cimexus]

Yes every time I see an article saying "the Mars Rover will be landing in a week!" I think to myself "well it will be impacting the surface of Mars in a week in one way or the other ... who knows how fast it will be going at the time though!".

Seriously though the way they are landing this thing is mind-boggling. I honestly don't have my hopes too high that it will work.

Much hotter

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer the Mons Veneris

No golf in the Olympics

[Anonymous Coward]

There is no golf in the Olympics.

No science in sport?

[slashmojo]

It's not like there's any science involved in any sports and sporting events these days right? Oh wait..

Almost Anything

[Anonymous Coward]

is more interesting than the summer olympics

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META: Weak story concept

[tgeller]

This is the weakest story concept I've ever seen on Slashdot.

I see press release pitches like this constantly: The Olympics are exciting! And you know what else is exciting? Canon dot-matrix printers! Our newest model...."

Oly-what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, why whould I watch a hyper-commercialized, boring sports event, when there are mars rovers and Red Bull-sponsored extreme sports events on another channel (here in Austria, we have an own Red Bull Channel called ServusTV)? :D

Typical

[JockTroll]

Usual loserboy nerd attitude, only because you have the attention span of a demented goldfish and the intelligence of a dead cockroack it doesn't mean the rest of the world has to be that way. I can easily follow both events, and more. If you can't multitask, it's your problem. Or is there another reason, loserboy? You mad at the Games, aren't you? All the world, looking at and admiring those ATHLETES, oh the horror, the horror! This event reminds you of your place in the order of the things, right down in the gutter. You despise athletic prowess, discipline and sportmanship because you are, simply, incapable of that. You pretend to scoff at feats of physical competition and exhalt "intellectual pursuits" even though you're no better at the latter than you are at the former. Face it, REAL scientists enjoy sports like everybody else, it's YOU loserboys who are out of touch with reality and hide behind an intellectual "superiority" that is simply a pretension. We Real People will watch and enjoy the Olympics, and follow the Phoenix mission with great interest. Too bad you won't be able to and you'll spend the summer sulking in your basements playing WoW while the rest of the world has fun. Burns a lot, doesn't it loserboys?

Pretty simple, really,,

[Anonymous Coward]

If the plebs were allowed to idolize the worlds intellectual heroes they might start to practice this dangerous activity called 'thinking'. It might even become more popular to question the wisdom of our politicians and media! So instead we have these huge commercialized orgies of worshipping the strongest, fastest, most beautiful people etc, which has the exact opposite effect.

Mars One

[kasper_souren]

"A manned mission to Mars will attract attention from hundreds of millions of people around the world. The three week period surrounding the launch, and the three week period surrounding the landing on Mars, will attract global media attention comparable to (or more likely, significantly exceeding that of) the Olympic Games." http://mars-one.com/en/faq-en/23-faq-feasability/257-what-is-the-business-model

Still no official stance on the issue.

[psergiu]

We tried and failed to contact K'Brell, official speaker for the Council of Elders thus, for the moment we have no news of this new alleged attempt of the filthy eartlings to attack our planet with their diabollical mechanical devices.

Women's Beach Volleyball

[stevegee58]

I'm sorry, it's just not as fascinating as Women's Beach Volleyball.

Why are we even still focusing on Mars ?

[Anon8---)]

Isn't it too small to sustain an atmosphere anyway ? Even if we were able to create one, wouldn't it be blown away with the next solar winds ?

Re: floating your boat

[Anonymous Coward]

What ever floats your boat. I'd rather see a fit lady in them though.

Limbo and sex

[Anonymous Coward]

Still not even added as demonstration sports. Count me disappointed.

sports stars

[Hadlock]

Nonesene, it's largely driven by fashion.

Tell me how many straight males you know who subscribe to Vogue. Women care about what other women are wearing, but it's for social purposes, not reproductive.
 
The number of anorexic 'heroin chic' Kate Moss types in the world are very few and far between, people have to pick and choose from the gene pool of reality, not whatever you're seeing on TV.

Re:sports stars

[drinkypoo]

Nonesene, it's largely driven by fashion.

Tell me how many straight males you know who subscribe to Vogue.

He can't think and you can't reason. The mode right now is to be unhealthily skinny. The mode in the past has been to be chunkier, mostly because it proved you could afford to eat well. If we have another full-fledged depression (and I think we're heading there at full power, as opposed to full steam ahead... progress!) then you'll see it happen again.

Re:sports stars

[IrquiM]

Actually - Kate Moss is a bad example. She's one of the few that can do the 'anorectic' look without looking too unhealthy.

Re:sports stars

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the chunky look of the Rembrandt-like female was the healthy standard because fat people would actually live longer, on average, than skinny people, due mainly to illnesses. Skinny people that got sick and wouldn't eat would die in a few days, while fat people could withstand the whiplash of a hard disease (the flu or any other common disease). In our current modern world, people now die of cardiovascular diseases, not of tuberculosis, and a healthy body in our current standard is a leaner body (less prone to artery clots).

Now, if you go to the extreme of anorexia, this becomes unhealthy too. However, beach volleyballers aren't skinny (anorexic) at all. They are fairly strong and lean.

Please specify your units correctly

[itsdapead]

a nuclear-powered, MINI-Cooper-sized super rover will land on Mars.

Is that an English Mini Cooper or a German Mini Cooper?

You'd think NASA would be more careful with their metric-vs-traditional units after the last Mars landing cock-up!

Comparing the incomparable

[Attila the Bun]

It requires better accuracy than an Olympic golfer teeing off in London and hitting a hole-in-one in Auckland, New Zealand.

Not it didn't. A car can arrive exactly at its destination after hundreds of miles, but not because it set out with incredibly precise steering. Rockets, like cars, but unlike golf balls, can steer.

And that's not the only difference between sport and space-science.

WHY DO WE KEEP CATCHING BURGLARS???

[jon3k]

WHEN THERE ARE MURDERERS LOSE?

This story is a ridiculous logical fallacy.

Huffington Post science writer?

[gelfling]

Let me guess, it's the GOP and/or Israel's fault.

BOTH! Streaming, DVR, Newspapers, & Websites

[Anonymous Coward]

Because streaming, DVRs, Newspapers, Websites exist means that we don't need to choose 1 over the other.

I've been to olympic trials in my sport (not good enough to be even close to going), so I appreciete the effort and commitment that sports require. Sports taught me many things that aren't learned elsewhere in life or school. I'm still interested in following a few sports, but not the mainstream ones. Football, soccer, basketball, and baseball aren't very interesting to me.

I worked as a rocket scientist contractor for NASA-JSC writing software that fired RCS jets on space vehicles - yes, that is plural, vehicleS - and inside the FCRs of MCCs around the world. I haven't lost my interest though my career has changed.

For me, the Olympics don't need to be followed 100%, heck, I only have OTA TV coverage and in the USA, without a cable subscription, the coverage is fairly limited to the finals-only in the 2 sports that I care about - Diving and Gymnastics. I'm trying to avoid knowing about outcomes until after I watch the coverage on prime-time NBC. For example, I don't know if M.Phelps has any more medals or not yet. Perhaps tonight I'll see the swims from yesterday.

For me, it really isn't about the medals, it is about an individual effort, grouped into a team effort, grouped into an effort for all humans. The country team groupings are less important - almost offensive to me. An excellent effort from any athelete is just that - excellent. I don't care if they are from the USA, UK, Russia, China, Nigeria, Spain, India ... wherever. Congratulations to everyone that made it to London.

When the MSL is landing, I'll be tied to a TV and tablet watching. It will definitely trump all other activities. There are many hundreds of people directly involved with that mission. We will never know most of them. We will see 5-20 on TV that night, but there are probably many thousands monitoring the mission around the country, unseen. Congratulations to them. Wishing everyone success.

Going to Mars is difficult. There have been 17 failures related to exploring Mars. Success is not a given.

Duh...

[Lumpy]

I am and a lot of my friends are as well. The Olympics is no longer what it is supposed to be, and in face hasn't bee cince the 70's. Almost everyon I know does not care at all about the Olympics.

problem is they dont care about the mars lander either, they care about the new season of "americas got talent", and "dancing with the stars".. the general US population thinks that science is worthless and uninteresting. This is a very very sad thing.

Re:Duh...

[ErikZ]

Of course they don't care about the Mars lander. How in the world do you expect people to relate to that?

Put a person on Mars, they'll be able to relate and care.

tiered competition

[nten]

My coworkers and I have been talking about the idea of additional competition tiers with more relaxed rules since the winter olympics. The first tier would simply be what already goes on, but unabashedly so. Blood doping, hormone related chemicals, but also we might see some gene therapy in the not so distant future. The remaining tiers would allow non-organic implants with various rules on the power supplies (human-powered, batteries and sub-kwh, and no holds barred "we are the borg" tier). What gave me the idea is a coworker whose heart was damaged by a virus. He had an assist installed to keep his heart going until they found a replacement, but he had been fairly healthy and active and he kept running with the assist in. Eventually his heart started recovering and the doctors realized he wouldn't need a transplant after all, but towards the end there he said he felt like the energizer bunny on his runs, he just couldn't get tired. When they eventually took it out, he said the relative fatigue was crushing. If a simple heart assist pump could make that big a difference in a marathon, imagine what else we could come up with! Billions of dollars of corporate ad money funding advances that make people better at sport, but probably can heal some things too.

Re:tiered competition

[jpvlsmv]

Yep, do it like auto racing.

There's "street legal" (nothing by-prescription), "stock" (allow some drugs, more or less like today), "top fuel" (Any drugs are allowed), "supermodified" (passive non-drug improvements are allowed. If Tommy Johns surgery makes you a better pitcher, go for it. Want to stretch the webbing between your fingers to swim faster, fine), and "funnycar" (Look, I've cut off my legs and replaced them with carbon-fiber springs. I can run a 2-second 40.)

--Joe

So?

[PopeRatzo]

You don't have to convince me.

I was more interested in the dry toast I had for breakfast than this orgy of corporate excess they call the "Olympics".

There's nothing going on in London but product placement and exploitation. This is the first Olympics in which I have absolutely no interest. There is nothing in these games about human achievement or "sport" that has not been crushed under a blanket of ad revenue and messed up priorities.

Even the athletes just make me sad for how badly they are being used.

Re:So?

[eriks]

The 1996 games was the last one where I had any real interest. The crass commercialism (which has only gotten worse since then) completely turned me off. Then in 2002 when it became 100% clear that the IOC was corrupt to the core, and that the host city selection process basically goes to the biggest bribe, that pretty well cinched it. Especially since Salt Lake City was still allowed to host the games after the revelation, and that the official investigation essentially turned up nothing. I had some hope the Athens games would restore some semblance of the original premise of the Olympics, though unfortunately, it didn't. It's sad because an organization like the Olympics can provide a channel for cultural exchange as well as camaraderie in a world that seems to be increasingly insular, even as we are surrounded by technological marvels in communication. Apparently, however, the only real exchange on the global stage that happens on a mass-scale anymore involves capital, not human endeavor and culture. The irony being that if human culture withers away, and the human spirit is reduced to marketing slogans, our capital (and our very existence) probably won't last very long.

Re:So?

[tompaulco]

1984 was the last time I watched the Olympics.

Response

[sidingforall]

This post is funny but very informative too. I hope you continue posting more articles like this. Houston Siding

Fuck 'em.

[TrentTheThief]

Leave them behind when the rest of us get the chance to leave this mudball.

Depends on what is easy

[Snaller]

"Go back a few centuries and fat chicks were teh hotness."

It usually depends on what is "easy" - when food was expensive and harder to get, being fat meant you were rich and special. Today the cheapest food is the most unhealthy crap that makes you fat.

Just like once most people were outside working in the fields etc, and they all got suntanned - so the in thing was to be as pale as possible. That showed you were rich and powerful, because you could stay inside and didn't have to work.
Today most people have to work inside, in their small offices and thus are very pale. So being tanned means you have time to be outside.

History shows how odd these humans are

Re:Depends on what is easy

[Immerman]

What's so odd about it? Deer, antelope, etc. show off by wasting energy doing dramatic vertical leaps when the herd is running from predators and such wasted energy can least be afforded. Peacocks grow that huge decorative tail that makes them a much easier catch. A big feature in the mating game has always been screaming "Hey! Look at me! I've got surplus to burn!", the implication being that your children will likely inherit related advantages and/or you will be better able to provide for/defend them, as relevant for the species.

The really odd thing is expecting behavior to be rational - the fruits of rationality tend to be shared by the tribe and, for the most part, don't disproportionally favor the rational individuals the way strength/speed/etc does, so how would their genes become dominant in the population?

Re:Depends on what is easy

[Anonymous Coward]

> "Today the cheapest food is the most unhealthy crap that makes you fat."

It's not the quality of the food it's the quantity of it consumed that makes one fat. There are plenty of people eating prime rib and lobster and caviar who are obese.

Re:Depends on what is easy

[Vlado]

Actually antelopes jumping high have at least two extremely good reasons for doing so:
1. Showing that they are fit and energetic, thus making it clear to potential predators that they will be a hard catch. Or at least significantly harder, than an older specimen that is not as agile.
2. If actually chased those jumps can literally save its butt at a crucial moment.

I'm not sure what the deal is with a peacock, but antelopes' behavior helps its survival. It doesn't hinder it.

Re:Depends on what is easy

[Anonymous Coward]

(funny... we advertise the UNCOMMON, right? So a few-centuries-back paintings... fat was UNCOMMON, see? It is a fine line between recording the uncommon [interesting] and cotidianeity [most of it]). But anyway, just admit that for huge chunks of the population your near magic may well go back to the realm of stories and mysteries and better concentrate in how hard can that other guy hit me... djb

True, but....

[Anonymous Coward]

Nor should it be overestimated. Which do you think we too often do?

Based on what exactly?

[Anonymous Coward]

On what do you base this? Sounds like bullshit to me.

Maybe...

[Anonymous Coward]

"...a nuclear-powered, MINI-Cooper-sized super rover will land on Mars."

Maybe.

With the history of Mars exploration, I give this one a fifty-fifty chance of making only one discovery... The newly-formed Curiosity Crater.

Cult of Celebrity

[Chelloveck]

Although I agree with the headline, I disagree with the article. The article says we should be interested in space missions because of the toil, hard work, and sacrifice of the people involved, even for robotic missions. That it's a cryin' shame that NASA doesn't put out highly-produced specials detailing the lives of these driven men and women.

Bullshit.

That's the worst part of any sporting event televised in the US. They spend all this time on the "human interest" angle that they never get around to showing us the action. I don't care that so-and-so spent 10 years working out 23 hours a day and eating nothing but Wheaties, or that his dedication to his craft cost him his marriage, his truck, and his dog. My wife is a sports nut, and she DVRs the events just so she can skip that crap. For the Olympics she goes out of her way to find foreign coverage so she can see events which don't have a big-name American athlete competing.

Okay, somebody out there must like the human interest stuff. Maybe that would be a way to make science appealing to the masses, to the people who watch all those wretched reality shows and follow the celebrity gossip. But do we really need yet another cult of celebrity?

I already am

[Anonymous Coward]

I am more interested in Mars than the Olympic games. I'm not really interested in Mars, though.

I do.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not only do I care far more about Mars than I do the Olympics, I care more about interpretive dance used to promote recycling more than I care about the Olympics. Hell, I care more about ants passing gas than I do the Olympics.

What the OP gets wrong...

[Anonymous Coward]

"...It requires better accuracy than an Olympic golfer teeing off in London and hitting a hole-in-one in Auckland, New Zealand...."

Actually, it requires better accuracy than an Olympic golfer teeing off in London and hitting a hole-in-one in Auckland, New Zealand, assuming that the ball has no drag for most of its flight, and is capable of being guided minutely and accurately at all stages. Also, that the hole in New Zealand is pulling the ball towards it with an ever-increasing force, and there is nothing in the way between London and New Zealand..."

There, made that more accurate for you...

You made a lot of errors, see inside

[Anonymous Coward]

There are biblical records of Noah's flood and Moses (not as bad) though. So there ARE records. There's also "blanks" in history, especially before the time of China and India's records which are, afaik, the OLDEST on the planet (nearly 4000 plus years or so).

THERE IS AN ASTEROID BELT BETWEEN MARS AND JUPITER (they suspect it was a destroyed planet in fact).

As far as a geologic record, strata of mud or even icefields in the arctic plus antarctic show changes, HUGE ones (beneath the antarctic iceshelf, there is evidence of massive plantlife, on the scale of jungles in fact).

Re:You made a lot of errors, see inside

[khallow]

There are biblical records of Noah's flood and Moses (not as bad) though.

No date and the extent of the flood is obviously grossly exaggerated, assuming it actually represents a true event and isn't just a complete myth.

As far as a geologic record, strata of mud or even icefields in the arctic plus antarctic show changes, HUGE ones (beneath the antarctic iceshelf, there is evidence of massive plantlife, on the scale of jungles in fact).

Not in the past few thousand years. That ice has been there for hundreds of thousands to millions of years.

THERE IS AN ASTEROID BELT BETWEEN MARS AND JUPITER (they suspect it was a destroyed planet in fact).

There wouldn't be by the theory of Nibiru.

But

[Anonymous Coward]

There's no mention of Mars rovers in "panem et circenses".

Ah, but the records DO exist nevertheless

[Anonymous Coward]

Doesn't matter as to ABSOLUTE accuracy, the records exist, point-blank. Tree ring growth patterns, & yes, ice + mud DO show changes and pretty radical ones - the one that amazed me most is the fact that beneath the antarctic ice shelf, there is evidence of huge jungles (and IF you listened to Moore, he said Niburu's passing is not as "bad" every time, it's the 3rd to 4th pass of Niburu/PlanetX that is usually the most terrible). On Niburu & the asteroid belt, it's quite possible that the planets it 'drags' with it as well as trailing debris (like comets & asteroids) could have smashed into that theoretical planet, creating said asteroid belt. In any event, it was good speaking to you, since I take it you're a "naysayer skeptic" (which is what I was looking for, counterpoints + counterviews, because once more - I do NOT want to go through what the conspiracy theory folks are postulating anymore than anyone else sane would). Thanks for your views and time spent - it is appreciated.

Re:Ah, but the records DO exist nevertheless

[khallow]

You claimed to want evidence that the Nibiru scenario was false. I gave you ample evidence. Now it appears that you didn't want such evidence in the first place. I'm not surprised.

No, I just countered your points

[Anonymous Coward]

I wasn't very thorough either, there's a lot more that Moore + others enumerated in many videos + other sources that are reputable (moreso in fact like NASA & other scientific figures).

I just stated that I would like counterpoints is all, because like anyone else normal? I don't want what they postulate/theorize! No way...

(Their data/evidences are based on some pretty fairly solid evidences from many fields + figures in them, as well as things I largely omitted - Including prophecies like the Hopi Indians, Biblical Revelations & other chapter/verses, The IChing, Mother Shipton, Nostradamus + more).

That's all.

Again - thanks for your time & efforts, they were appreciated (and listened to).

Re:No, I just countered your points

[khallow]

I wasn't very thorough either, there's a lot more that Moore + others enumerated in many videos + other sources that are reputable (moreso in fact like NASA & other scientific figures).

So what if there's a lot of videos as opposed to a few? Where the evidence? To the contrary, even a cursory look at actual evidence and actual scenarios (like how does a near pass from another planet cause global flooding and how it doesn't kick your planet out of the Solar System in the process?) indicates that the proposed theory just doesn't make sense.

So fine I gave you a "counterpoint".

Let's not forget the key problem. You're missing a planet. No matter how you spread it, the rest is just an empty story without that planet.

And this is why space gets no attention

[Immerman]

Obviously the space program is badly in need of some PR help. Here we've got what promises to be one of the most dramatic off-planet landings ever attempted(sans humans), and they schedule it to happen when it's competing for attention with a worldwide sports event that was scheduled decades ahead of time. Yeah, I know there's a limited launch window, but I'm willing to bet they could have adjusted the timing by a few weeks one way or the other.

And they wonder why space doesn't capture people's imagination anymore. Can you imagine if they'd scheduled the moon landing in the middle of the Superbowl? Sure, the geeks would still all tune in, but I'm betting the widespread sense of awe and collective accomplishment would have suffered considerably.

Where's the evidence? WTF??

[Anonymous Coward]

I just cited quite a bit (from books and historical figures even) that I never even initially covered. Didn't you read my post you just replied to? What about the US Navy Map I noted initially also - you've avoided that completely as have others! Not good enough?? Please. What about NASA people in those videos or others of note??? On the planets passing one another, don't you realize that gravitational attraction between heavenly bodies DOES create forces that affect both???? On "there really is no planet", then why is GOOGLE SKY hiding the spots in the videos at the coordinates noted in those videos with a SQUARE BLACK SPOT????? That reeks of something wrong in and of itself, bigtime.

Re:Where's the evidence? WTF??

[khallow]

On "there really is no planet", then why is GOOGLE SKY hiding the spots in the videos at the coordinates noted in those videos with a SQUARE BLACK SPOT?????

So that's where Nibiru is? Then find it. Infrared observation is a bit difficult on Earth, but it'd not out of the league of amateur astronomy.

Re:Where's the evidence? WTF??

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know - however, it reeks of hiding SOMETHING. The IRAS satellite (iirc, that's its name or tech used) is one specifically used for infrared by the way, and iirc, they used it to spot SOMETHING in the direction of constellation LEO (iirc) and that's allegedly where Niburu/Planet X will "swing upwards" to us from our south pole (perhaps this is also WHY the US Government have erected a base there and in quite the hurry years ago no less) at a 33 degree angle. This is all in those videos, and yes, from reputable folks from NASA, scientists and others (above and beyond all else I cited). Above all else here: You don't seem to understand that I do *NOT* want to happen but then again, I don't want to be totally unprepared if it does. By having skeptic at this website, which is loaded with them on many levels and sciences plus more, pick away at this as you have, it helps me realize things a bit more is all. Keep that in mind. Thanks for your time.

Re:Where's the evidence? WTF??

[jpvlsmv]

On "there really is no planet", then why is GOOGLE SKY hiding the spots in the videos at the coordinates noted in those videos with a SQUARE BLACK SPOT????? That reeks of something wrong in and of itself, bigtime.

OMG, YOU"RE RITE!!! There's these huge BLACK regions all over the place! Google must be covering up hundreds of thousands of planets. Or maybe that's where the UFOs are.

Or maybe it's just that there's a lot of empty space out there.

--Joe

Re:Where's the evidence? WTF??

[Anonymous Coward]

Grow and search GOOGLE "Google Sky" and "hiding" and "leo" ala http://www.google.com/search?sclient=psy-ab&hl=en&site=&source=hp&q=%22Google+Sky%22+and+%22hiding%22+and+%22leo%22&btnG=Search&gbv=1&sei=-88ZUPSqPMb86gHruYAQ

Mars Super Rover

[Anonymous Coward]

I really hope NASA have sorted out the differences between inches and millimetres this time...

Is it true that BMO stands for this?

[Anonymous Coward]

Biggest Mentalcase Online? Take yer meds BMO, or your shock treatments, please! You need them and please, spare us your bullshit commentary. No mind trolling loons like you need not apply as to posting here.

That's right folks!

[Anonymous Coward]

You heard it from Biggest Mentalcase Online! Take yer meds BMO, or your shock treatments, please! You need them and please, spare us your bullshit commentary. No mind trolling loons like you need not apply as to posting here.

Who cares what

[Anonymous Coward]

Biggest Mentalcase Online thinks or says? Take yer meds BMO, or your shock treatments, please! You need them and please, spare us your bullshit commentary. No mind trolling loons like you need not apply as to posting here.

Spare us the profanity and take your meds

[Anonymous Coward]

Biggest Mentalcase Online: Take yer meds BMO, or your shock treatments, please! You need them and please, spare us your bullshit commentary. No mind trolling loons like you need not apply as to posting here. Nobody cares what a nutjob like you thinks or says, understand? Good!

The gods have decreed ....

[OldHawk777]

The gods have decreed that humanity is doomed to extinction here on earth.

"THE END IS NEAR"

%~P

First you have to stop other people from breeding

[PeterWone]

Mind you, longevity would go well with a space culture. Rabid breeding is a function of culture. Escaping to space and preventing those cultures from leaving the planet would be a good way to do it. Imagine what the United States would be like if they hadn't filled it up with everyone else's riffraff and it continued to be peopled and run by wealthy scientists and engineers, as it was in the beginning.

I'm more interested in ...

[porky_pig_jr]

that nasty cut on my upper lip I've made this morning while shaving. Thanks for your attention to that matter.

Mars is the future...

[SuperDre]

What olympics? there is nothing left of the real spirit of the olympics.. The olympics was meant for amateurs, but it's hard to pick any amateur these days, most athletes are real professionals which get paid a lot of money (look at tennis with some people who played on the last wimbledon (which is for professionals, not amateurs), look at the american basketball team (NBA is a professional league))..
We should put the money that's spend on the Olympics into space research as that's where the money and future is, without proper and decent space research we will be extinct in the not so far away future..

LGM

[tehcyder]

They need to find some little green men to get people interested. Surely it can't be beyond the wit of the people who faked the moon landings to mock up a few dummy ET corpses for them to "find" on Mars?

Michelle Jenneke

[DarthVain]

I know Michelle Jenneke made the games vastly more interesting for me.

Ooooh!! Ooooh!! Can I jump on ur bandwagon??

[Anonymous Coward]

You just sound so irreverent and kool!! I wanna be an irrelevant kook, too!!

Why the Nuclear Biological Chemical stuff?

[RockDoctor]

Next week, while we're all watching NBC, a nuclear-powered, MINI-Cooper-sized super rover will land on Mars.

I know quite well enough about the Mars rover - the drivers-to-be have been blogging and tweeting excitedly about it for months.

But why are you having to put on NBC suits? Have you had some chemical leak or something? Does that mean the Mars rovers will be our final remaining legacy?

Seance to summon a ghost, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

You truly are the Biggest Mentalcase Online!