|
Icarus Rising: Why the Discovery of Water on Mars Is Great Turning Point in Human History An excerpt:
And that brings us to Tuesday's news: a family murdered in the South; hundreds killed in a bombing in Iraq; the latest updates on the Kobe and Martha trials; Bernie Ebbers does the perp walk; The Passion of the Christ is boffo box office; Barry Bonds may have bought steroids, � oh, and they found evidence of water on Mars. All riveting stuff, just like the news every day. But it was that last one that drew me up straight in my office chair. Did I just hear the doors of history creak open again? Or am I just too sensitized about this stuff? Certainly the newscasters didn't think it that big of a deal. They covered the NASA press conference for a couple of minutes, then quickly cut to Super Tuesday coverage and Peyton Manning's new Colts contract. And, in terms of its impact on our lives today, next week or even next year, Martian water seems mighty low on the personal priority list. And yet, could this be our Mus�e des Beaux Arts moment? Are we the ploughman so focused (in his case literally, in ours figuratively) on the rear end of horse, that we ignore the gods at work around us? |
