What the fuck is up with all the ashes that get flung into space these days? It seems like every day I hear about another sci-fi author or astronaut who is having their ashes scattered out in the final frontier. Most recently, Star Trek’s Scottish Ernest Borgnine, a.k.a. Scotty a.k.a. Jimmy Doohan.
C’mon, people! The ship that’s taking him into space is going there specifically to cast the ashes of 200+ people into the great beyond. That’s 200+ heaps of ash that are just going to hang out there in space. Cluttering up our galaxy. Yeah, yeah, there may be a lot of space to go around, but that’s not the point. If this continues, Earth is going to have a ring around it to match Saturn’s. Only, instead of cool ice crystals, it will be made up of dead Scotties and shit. Who wants that? The first alien race we meet will think we’re the Milky Way’s white-trash planet. Great. That’s the way to get a good spot on the Pan-Galactic Senate…
April 5th, 2007 at 6:48 am
Ashes are replacing the ozone layer… Al Gore has a movie in the works on this very topic
April 5th, 2007 at 8:38 am
Dude, drop the space ash hate. Rocket scientists gotta eat.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:12 am
I, for one, welcome our new burned up, space dwelling overloads.
April 5th, 2007 at 9:30 am
While we’re at it, I think we should just chuck all dead people into orbit – not–cremated. Then we’d have a ring of bodies around the Earth. That, my friends, would scare any Alien shitless. “We can’t take over their world, they are so vicious that they have a ring of their fallen enemies in orbit around their planet!”
It would be seen as something like heads on pikes on a castle wall. So, that would be okay, I guess.
April 5th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
See, there is a parallel here in this post and my Fantastic Four post (wherein I made reference to bukkake in the comments). In email, you said, [...] “Why can’t people be satisfied with good old-fashioned porn? Why come up with more and more disgusting things to do?” Well, that’s my same sentiment when it comes to funerals. I mean wtf? Launching his ashes into space? How frivolous! Where’s the dignity in that? I mean WTF? It’s not as if he were an ACTUAL astronaut! He played a fictional character. Must be something cosmic about ashes this week, hopefully by now you’ve heard of the brou-ha-ha over Keith Richards’ comments regarding (allegedly) snorting his father’s ashes.
Um?
Ew?
April 5th, 2007 at 7:07 pm
I may be missing the entire point of your post, but this part concerns me most:
“The ship that’s taking him into space is going there specifically to cast the ashes of 200+ people into the great beyond.”
And here’s where I get up on my soap box. Why the fuck are we spending money to send DEAD PEOPLE into space when we have people living on the street, families with no healthcare coverage, a crime rate through the roof, a war going on in another country for which our troops are ill equipped, a military hospital that is so full those not requiring 24 hour care are living in absolute squallor and a pretty sketchy national budget? Can we possibly think of any other ways to waste money? Anyone? Anyone?
OK, I’m done. Thanks.
April 5th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
In the article I linked to, it clears all that up. Meaning, it’s a private spaceship, and each dead person’s family paid a good deal of money to get them up there. So, your rage, while appreciated, should be directed towards Bush or some other douchebag like that.
As for the post of my post, it’s this: Don’t junk up my space with dead people.
April 5th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
I understand it’s privately funded. Really, I do. But a privately funded waste. And waste makes me angry.
Sorry…I pretty much get stuck on one thing and have a hard time letting go. Maybe anger management courses?
April 5th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
Nah. Just focus the anger on people who deserve it. And yeah, I agree about the waste. There are so many people who have way too much money. If only they could help the ones who have way too little….
April 5th, 2007 at 8:26 pm
Like me for instance.
April 6th, 2007 at 9:03 am
I may be the only be the only pro Scotty ashes in space voice in this forum, but let me say that while he was only an actor, he most likely inspired more people to become astronauts, engineers, scientists etc. than most actors. I consider him an inspiration for me becoming an engineer and avid scotch drinker (jk on the later). Granted I don’t work on a starship, but it’d be a lot cooler if I did
.
And as for the whole people dying in the streets angle, in western civilization there is an urge to get ahead and achieve great things that supercedes the urge to solve all our problems. I’m not saying it’s right, but I believe it’s true. That’s why we put a man on the moon before we achieved world peace or ended world hunger.
April 6th, 2007 at 9:08 am
He inspired me to get fat. For which I am, in no way, thankful.
April 6th, 2007 at 10:17 am
BTW, this space ash thing was the product of a Scottish-Canadian summit whose aim was to settle if his remains be interred in James Doohan’s homeland of Canada or in the FICTIONAL Montgomery Scott’s homeland of Scotland. It’s detante, people.