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The story is a little bit down from the top of the page. I'd just post the text of the story here along with the URL, but given our host's concern over coypright violations that probably isn't such a good idea. Scroll down to April 20th to view the story.
The gist is that a Russian astrologer is suing NASA to call off the Deep Impact mission (which, if you're not already familiar with it, is a plan to blow crater into the side of a comet so that we can see what's inside). She's also seeking moral damages equal to the cost of the mission, claiming that "The actions of NASA infringe upon [her] system of spiritual and life values, in particular on the values of every element of creation, upon the unacceptability of barbarically interfering with the natural life of the universe, and the violation of the natural balance of the Universe”.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Passed that one around the office, Noemon... (lots of people here like to follow space news).
I wonder how much of our government dollars will have to go toward defending our "space vandalism" (as they call it in the article) if they let her pursue this case?
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Now I want us to start strip-mining Mars, just to further upset astrologists and their believers!
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Rocks have the same rights as human beings huh? Does she weep for the gravel imprisoned in the foundation of her home?
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She is a bit odd, Noemon. I think she would live with no shelter if she could do it close enough to the school. She is famous for quotes like, "Ecological Feminism has a lot of street cred in Germany and Korea."
quote: Does she weep for the gravel imprisoned in the foundation of her home?
Curse you, I was going to say that. As a geotechnical engineer, it was my perogative to make quips relative to foundations.
Posts: 4625 | Registered: Jul 2002
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Unless she's been reading "So you want to be a Wizard" series where everything is one form of life or another (including abstract concepts of a "nation" having a certain amount of sentience) Rocks are innaminant objects to be crushed and mixed with water to become my concret!
Posts: 1567 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I dated a girl in high school who, when I threw a rock into a lake, asked me how I knew that that rock *wanted* to be under water. Talk about a different world view, eh?
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Reminds me of Varley's "Tinpan Alley", with a sidelighting milieu-portrait about human+symbiont solarsails having an aesthetic"war": one faction painting the Rings of Saturn red, and the other removing the paint.
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I'll admit that when I read about the Deep Impact mission some time ago, my second thought (my first thought was "cool!") was "wouldn't it be interesting if comets were actually space probes designed by some alien intelligence to "patrol" particular areas of space, collecting data of some sort, and our bashing into one of them caused that intelligence to get irritated with us." Of course, this was a "that'd be kind of an interesting premise for a story" thought rather than an "I consider this a serious possibility" thought, but still.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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Here's what I always wondered. If she believes rocks have the same rights as human beings, why doesn't that apply to plants? She eats plants, doesn't that make her a murderer by her worldview? So does she find a way to believe plants have a different set of rights, or does she just recognize that she is a murderer?
She hasn't starved to death, so it must be one of the two.
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"Here's what I always wondered. If she believes rocks have the same rights as human beings, why doesn't that apply to plants?"
I doubt she could seriously believe this. If she did, using metal of any kind -- or graphite pencils, or cosmetics, or whatever -- would be heartbreaking for her. So she doesn't, but likes to pretend that she does.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Noemon -- have you read Marooned in Realtime by Vernor Vinge? While not a major story element, there is some space probe/space ship/comet confusion and obfuscation in it.
Posts: 751 | Registered: Apr 2005
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This is right out of Red Mars. Anne Clairborne would have agreed. But international law is very inspecific about such things. I really don't think the case has a leg to stand on.
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Now that I've read. It was long enough ago that I don't remember a thing about it, but I know I've read it--in fact I was just looking at its spine last night when I was looking for something to read myself to sleep with.
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