Messier objects

My old friend Marty Rees has surfaced again, this time courtesy of the Torygraph. He is still banging on about the possibilities of extra-terrestrial life. This time he says it might be staring you in the face.

Here is a picture of old Mart.

What do you think?

In order to explain why we have never met anyone called Neville from one of the planets in Cassiopeia, Martin suggests that Neville may have evolved in a form that does not conform to our laws of mathematics, or our technology. He says “… it could be there as aspects of reality that are beyond the capacity of our brains.” As one who finds the laws of physics beyond the capacity of my brain, or at least beyond the boundaries of common sense, I find this a little disconcerting. Is the man seriously suggesting that the human intellect is limited, and it may not be possible for us ever to truly understand existence? God, in an interview on another page of the Torygraph which I seem to have mislaid, said of Reesy “What a dumbass.”

Mr Rees is not done yet: ‘He told Prospect magazine that improved telescopes made the chance of finding extra-terrestrial life “better than ever”.’

He has not considered the possibility that such nosiness will do little apart from piss off our neighbours. I cannot be the only one whose pursuit of knowledge with the aid of a telescope has caused my neighbours to display ire. Even dear Pam, who leaves her curtains open and cavorts in the most inappropriate manner, has set the dogs on me and my binoculars more than once.

A further speculator referred to in the same article is called Frank Drake. If he had wanted to be taken seriously, he should not have taken the name of a famous pirate and slave-trader, in my view.

Frank says that the switch from analogue to digital TV broadcasting means that we are transmitting less to the cosmos. He is obviously not thinking clearly. There is nothing likely to encourage visitors more than their wanting to know whether Ena Sharples finally managed to marry Albert Tatlock, is there?

I will attempt to save a recording of the splendid Lions v Chiefs match from last weekend for them, together with the collected writings of Padre East, and, if I ever managed to afford a powerful zoom lens, those photographs of Pam.