On Sunday, February 2, 2003, at 11:07 PM, John Kelsey wrote:
The last laugh may be from the lawsuits. Yahoo reports "hundreds" of people reporting sickness, blah blah, from contact with the debris. Almost certainly all either bullshit or sympathetic magic, but the obvious result of the news outlets widely reporting "the space debris may make you very sick!"A real journalist would just roll his eyes and say "Look, folks, NASA wants these pieces to be aid in reconstructing the accident. There are no traces of liquid propellants and deadly chemicals on these pieces. And they certainly didn't stay hot for long. NASA is trying to get us to feed you jive so you'll be properly frightened and won't touch them.?"I recall a guy on NPR saying something like this, a bit more politely. Something like "The pieces surely aren't going to be dangerous, but moving them is going to mess up the investigation of the crash." Which presumably is what everyone with any technical background and common sense was thinking when they heard the original warning, right?
Some fraction actually think they are sick, some fraction hope to share in a possible payout of billions by a backed-into-a-corner space agency, and some very, very tiny fraction may have actually touched some component which made them slightly ill.
Dumb fucks, all.
--Tim May
"The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." --John Stuart Mill
