It is Sunday, October 25 and there are only 61 days until Christmas.  I know!  Where does the time go?  Time to go shopping for guar gum, polysorbate 80 and the other ingredients needed to make your fruit cake last forever since no one eats it.  Today we remember the birthdays of Johann Strauss, Minnie Pearl and Anne Tyler.  On this day in 1760 King George III ascended the British throne, in 1870 postcards were first used in the US and in 1962 American author John Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize in literature.  In Taiwan it is Restoration Day, in the Virgin Islands it is Thanksgiving Day and in the US it is Mother-in-Law’s Day.

One of the things I have been wondering about lately is the big deal they have been making about finding water on Mars.  I am not sure why I should care or how the find affects me.  I know that it will not reduce my water bill or sewage bill in any way.  I am pretty sure that it will not change the way things are done here on earth.  The only thing that might happen is that our state taxes may go up because our governor will want to build a steel wall to protect the planet from storm surges.  

Maybe I have the wrong attitude about this.  When I heard they were sending a rocket to Mars I asked “Why?”  When everyone was getting excited about being able to see Mars, I asked “Why?”  Now there is a big to-do over discovering that there may have been water at some time and I ask “So what?”  There may have been water in the basement of my old house at some time, too, but so what.  We spent millions of dollars to send a rocket up there to look at a planet that cannot support life (except for Matt Damon), that would take way too long to get to if it could and that may have had some kind of water at some point.  To make things more exciting, the water may have been salt water, so we would not even be able to use it, if it still exists.  We couldn’t find something better to do with that money than fly to Mars?

According to the Jetsons, we are supposed to have flying cars.  If the GE pavilion at the New York World’s Fair in 1964 was to be believed, we were supposed to harness the power of electricity and the sun to have a bevy of conveniences and advances in everyday life.  I will say that the microwave oven has made it easier and quicker to make popcorn and to reheat leftovers.  I will also say that the crock pot has made cooking easier because it can happen while you are doing other things.  But generally speaking, we are still doing things the way we used to.  Granted, the appliances are fancier and take more time to figure out, but a stove is still just a stove and an oven still has to pre-heat before it can be used.

We now have electric cars and we don’t have to worry about having a six hundred mile extension cord so that we can drive around in one.  We are developing cars that can see around us and brake for us so that we don’t run into the car ahead of us (although I think paying attention would be a good idea), but we still have not developed the flying cars and the cars that can drive themselves just by having us key in our destination … but I digress

As I asked earlier, couldn’t we come up with a better way to spend millions and millions of dollars rather than fly to Mars?  I admit that I watch a fair amount of TV.  One of the things I have noticed is that there are new drugs coming out every day and these drugs are for all sorts of afflictions.  As a side note, have you noticed that they are generally for people with moderate to severe whatever.  What do people do who have mild to moderate problems?  Do they just leave the affliction alone until it crosses the line and becomes moderate to severe so that they can take advantage of the drugs that are available?  Sorry, digressing again.  What I am wondering is if we saved the money we spent on going to Mars, could we have helped the pharmaceutical companies develop a drug that wouldn’t cause us six different types of harm, including cancer and suicidal thoughts, while curing toenail fungus?

Here is another thought for those funds.  Let’s update the computer systems used by the government so that they cannot be hacked as easily as they are now.  Maybe if the government upgraded from the Commodore 64’s and the Apple Macintoshes, they could install better software to protect their systems.  Perhaps if they paid better salaries (which they could afford by not going to Mars) they could hire qualified individuals to monitor the systems and prevent incursions.  I am reasonably confident that we could find a number of ways to better use those funds.

I am not opposed to discovering new and different things.  I am in favor of discovery.  I am opposed to doing things like going to Mars.  There is no real value to the trip, we really didn’t gain a whole lot from the effort and I am not sure what the value really is for what we did learn.  They claim that there is evidence that there was water.  Great!  Now what?  Is there a way to prove beyond doubt that there was water?  Is there a way to collect that water and bring it back to earth?  Is there a way to use that water once we have it?  Is it safe to bring it back here?  

They say that water is a sign that there might have been some form of life.  It appears that both the water and the form of life have gone away.  That should tell us something – stay away from Mars.  Or, maybe there is life, but when they saw us coming they turned off their faucets and went and hid in their basements.

This week our fact tells us that scientists have calculated by the Bible and other theological writings, that the temperature of hell is 718^o C or 1324.4^o F.  I am not sure how they could have done that or why.  Realistically, the only ones who would know are the ones who are there and they can’t tell us because, well, they are dead and gone.  I wonder if they have water there.