It was a sunny, though cold, Sunday in Chicago as we sit underneath a high pressure system and await a warming trend from the south midweek. One of my favorite things to do on such a day is to read or watch television while sitting in the sun on my chaise lounge chair in the front living room. The southern exposure gets sun light most of the day and it's warmth as well.
Today I was reading National Geographic Adventure, a magazine my parents receive in addition to their regular Nat Geo subscription. Early on in the publication was a short blurb about a French artist. If you had to guess what blurb I would NOT read, it would be this one. However, this blurb was slightly different in that it was a blurb and not a story and that the artist doesn't really strike me as much of an artist. More....a dude with an idea. But who am I to say what is art?
Anyway, the Frenchman, Jean-Marc Philippe (which sounds like three first names to me) has decided to shoot up into orbit around the earth a titanium sphere carrying a message from anyone who cares to write one. Enough disks will be sent up in the sphere to hold a message from all 6 billion people on the planet. The orbiter then reenter the atmosphere and come back to earth in 50 millennia (that's 50,000 years). I liked the idea better when I first read it and thought it said 50 years. That would be cool. But 50,000 years?? Significantly less cool. If your children and grand children could read the message, that's much better in my book than someone so many generations removed.....roughly 1,667 generations. Yikes.
Still, if you'd like to write a message, here's the link!
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2 comments:
I'll pass. Think about 50 thousand years. That's five times longer than the entire period of civilization.
C'mon ESDNM, Neanderthal Man was in Turkey and the first humans were coming to North America. People will still be around!!
It would be better if it were only 50 years though wouldn't it? Maybe 100.
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