|
09/16/99
Latinos Give Hollywood the Brown
Eye
08/30/99
Vicente Fernandez
to open mariachi-themed casino in Las Vegas
08/16/99
NASA, US military give world
the finger over deadly probe
05/18/99
Native American Group Decries
Irony of Deploying
Apache Helicopters in War Against Ethnic Cleansing
07/25/99
Scientists
discover white male hate gene, others blame God.
04/27/99
Is Former CA Governor
Pete Wilson wreaking havoc in Kosovo?
03/25/99
Famed Mexican Porn Star
Feted in DF
03/22/99
Tijuana No! to release
children's album
03/16/99
Gregory Nava Signs New Line
Deal: Set to Direct El Norte Sequel
Back to Top
Home |
- 08/16/99
NASA, US military give world the
finger over deadly probe*
by Victor Payan
Pocho Damned Dirty Ape
"F**k you!" NASA tells the world regarding the possibility that
the plutonium-laden Cassini space probe, due for a flyby of our planet
on August 17 and 18, may re-enter the Earth's atmoshphere, permanently
poisoning the global environment and potentially causing cancer in billions.
The flyby will bring the probe, which is fueled by 72 pounds of highly
radioactive plutonium, within 500 miles of the earth, roughly the distance
from San Diego to San Francisco. This is the largest amount of the substance,
the most toxic material known to science, ever created for one mission.
In addition, the plutonium on the Cassini probe is 280 times more radioactive
than that used in bombs.
"If the probe re-enters the earth's atmosphere," says environmental
activist A. "Paco" Lipsnau-Estevez, "the probe will burn
up and a rain of deadly plutonium will streak across the sky, turning into
vapor and poisoning the very air that is breathed by all animal and plant
life on the planet. This will be a golden shower of Biblical proportions.
And this means potential birth defects and cancer for future generations.
How many people would be affected? To quote the late Carl Sagan, it would
be in the neighborhood of 'billions and billions and billions.'"
Anti-nuclear protestors have long fought against the use of plutonium on
space missions. Protests against Cassini have been occuring since its before
1997 launch, but they have been largely ignored by the press, which preferred
to talk about such issues of global importance as Kenneth Starr's morning
coffee, President Clinton's penis and the Furby craze.
"The concerns of the protestors are really overblown," says NASA
spokesman Dr. Milton Zaias. "Plutonium has a half life of 250,000
years. So saying the earth will be permanently poisoned is a bit of an
exaggeration. And even if the probe destroys life on the planet as we know
it, we have received really cool pictures of Venus from this mission. And
if the probe passes safely, we will soon have really cool pictures of Saturn.
Isn't that worth the risk?"
Critics also maintain that the push to use nuclear technology for space
missions rather than safer and more reliable solar energy is coming from
the military, who are working on plans to place lasers in space in order
to train them against target populations on the Earth.*
U.S. Army General Havoc K. Boom had a harsh word for critics, "Our
country has a long history of exposing people to high levels of radiation
without their knowledge or consent, whether it's military personnel, civilian
populations, or nuclear plant workers such as those in Peducah. So now
we risk doing the same thing to everyone on the earth. What's the problem?
There's no problem. NASA said it plainly, and I'll say it again f**k you!
People don't care. We do what we want. We get bigger budgets...this is
what we do. F**k you!"
Actor and activist Martin Sheen cancelled a Cassini-related press conference
last Tuesday after he was arrested during a protest marking the 54th anniversary
of the nuclear attacks against Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which occurred at
the end of World War II.
One plan which is being considered to avert global catastrophe is to crash
the probe into the moon. Thus, NASA would celebrate the 30th anniversary
of walking on the moon by smashing a deadly radioactive payload into it
at a speed of 43,000 miles per hour. Another "trajectory correction
maneuver" involves sending Bruce Willis, Steve Buscemi and the rock
group Aerosmith into space to destroy the probe by hand.
Ominously, the Cassini probe is due to pass the earth during the same period
that the astrologer Nostradamus predicted a deadly terror would come from
the sky.
"See, this is exactly the point," says Lipsnau-Estevez. "NASA
scientists think they are so clever and so wonderful and that they have
thought through every possible scenario. Well why, then, didn't they foresee
that the flyby would occur at exactly the time of Nostradamus' harrowing
prediction? If they can't figure that out, how can we trust them to understand
a system as complicated as space?"
Meanwhile, chimpanzees in zoos throughout the world have been reportedly
covering their eyes, ears and mouths in an eerie "see no evil, hear
no evil, speak no evil" stance.
-
- Charlton Heston was unavailable for comment.
© 1999 Victor Payan
* This is true. Please learn more about the dangers of Cassini and proposed
future nuclear- powered space missions at the following websites. Save
our planet and fight the nuclearization, militarization and exploitation
of space. Pochos of the world unite!
http://www.nonviolence.org./noflyby
http://www.cassinidayvigil.com/index.htm
http://viewzone.com/cassini.html
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/nltrs/index.htm
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/caslinks.htm
http://www.peoplesvideo.org/cassini.htm
http://www.rain.org/~openmind/kaku1.htm
|