Knowledge is sometimes useful

Here is your interesting fact for the day. The starting point for outer space is roughly 65 miles so if you just drove your car vertically for an hour you would technically be an astronaut. Makes the whole process of getting there seem rather quaint and easy. The distance isn’t nearly as astronomical as one might think.

I am glad that we spent the time and effort to repair the Hubble (a rather amazing machine that has been in space for 19 years now and bad lenses be damned that shows how good of a design it was.) I am less pleased that we are still wasting our time on the International Space Station, which is just a complete boondoggle and this is coming from a NASA geek. There is just nothing good coming from the project except a lot of wasted money. No interesting science and nothing that really stirs people’s souls. Sure, there have been some wonderful pictures taken and the story of the astronauts on the station during the Columbia disaster (who were then stranded in space for an indefinite amount of time) is amazing but no one really knows about it. All of this makes me wish we were spending the money on the space program more wisely. Hell, I even wish that we would spend less of it. Just give me my rovers and space probes.

Your slightly less than interesting fun fact for the day: Nearly ten million people tuned in to watch Jon and Kate Plus 8 on Monday. You could use that information as a basis for a thesis on the status of our society. Because, let’s face it, that is a pretty good indication of the number of people who would willingly tune in to watch a car wreck. (Actually, I could look at the Nascar ratings to determine that figure but stay with me.) No one was watching that show to see a number of adorable children running around celebrating their birthday. We all wanted to watch their marriage implode and hopefully catch some footage of plates being thrown.

The thing is the more you read about the whole situation the more you realize just how fake everything is. The house, the trips, the products used, the conversations are all essentially planned in advance by the producers. It is roughly as real as professional wrestling. That makes it kind of sickening when you realize that there are small children involved. Even worse is the fact that Jon and Kate make such a big deal about how horrible it is that the press is following them and treating them as if they are celebrities. Well, when you whore out your children in front of national television cameras you have to accept a loss of privacy. It is a strange new facet of fame. People who are famous for solely being famous are now increasingly upset when they get attention outside of their carefully crafted image. The falsely famous can not stand real fame. It is rather fascinating.

Coming tomorrow: The Scripps National Spelling Bee live blog! Nations of origins! Alternative pronunciations! Making fun of home schooled kids! It’s my favorite night of the year. Don’t miss it.

Wednesday Night Music Club: We all need more Paul Westerberg in our lives.

Paul Westerberg MTV Music