Tiny probe hits small comet.

Universe imperiled.


So I’m hippity-hopping through this Peeps-based, empty-calorie fluffernutter that we’re calling “news” these days, on the way to some rockin’ good times with a pound of Silly Putty and all of the Sunday Funnies I have stacked up and unread around Castle Driftglass (they obviously have a deep, unresolved thing for each other, and major denial issues, so I was gonna let Cathy finally make sweet, sweet love to Mrs. Lockhorns) when, all-in-a-blur, my eyes skidded across the words “Russia”, “Lawsuit” “Astrologer” and “NASA” all within the same brief story.

We I did what you would do; I screamed like a frightened four-year-old and ran away, because those words do NOT belong together, Mister. No. No Sir!

Bad eye touch!

So I began wondering about how smart I had been, eating those pills I had found rolling around on the floor of "the “el” (See, I’m bench-testing this whole “the Universe puts what you need in your path” idea as uncritically as possible, because it seems sorta far-fetched and very much at odds with any concept of free will I’ve ever heard, but hey, I’m broadminded (hence the beautiful, Sapphic encounter I was planning for those two, sad, frustrated cartoon ladies.))

But I’m pretty well mentally-cofferdammed against most kinds of chemically-inspired crazy, so I took out my “Am I Losing My Mind” checklist and ran it down and I’ll be damned if I didn’t profile out as loco, but no more so than any basically sane person living in a mad world, so good for me.

Looked like the “el” tablets were just rogue Ikes and Mikes, or maybe some aglets off of a pair of huge sneakers. Or what was left over after you clean and gut a couple of Swedish Fish.

And it looked like those words really were all co-located within this same story for non-recreational reasons.

Here’s the story, via the Associated Press:

Russian Astrologer Sues NASA Over Comet

Tue Jul 5, 7:51 AM ET

NASA's mission that sent a space probe smashing into a comet raised more than cosmic dust — it also brought a lawsuit from a Russian astrologer.

Marina Bai has sued the U.S. space agency, claiming the Deep Impact probe that punched a crater into the comet Tempel 1 late Sunday "ruins the natural balance of forces in the universe," the newspaper Izvestia reported Tuesday. A Moscow court has postponed hearings on the case until late July, the paper said.

The probe's comet crash sent up a cloud of debris that scientists hope to examine to learn how the solar system was formed.

Bai is seeking damages totaling 8.7 billion rubles ($300 million) — the approximate equivalent of the mission's cost — for her "moral sufferings," Izvestia said, citing her lawyer Alexander Molokhov. She earlier told the paper that the experiment would "deform her horoscope."

NASA representatives in Russia could not immediately be reached for comment.
…

Hmm. Nutty, anti-Science “religion”? Boundless greed? Completely unfazed by publicly saying crazy shit in front of a hundred cameras? And to the best of anyone’s knowledge, has never taken any documented position on abortion?

Is it just me, or does this just scream “Bush Supreme Court Nominee”?