Dinner and a Movie [Today's News Poem (Sonnet), May 5, 2010]

Dinner and a Movie [Today's News Poem (Sonnet), May 5, 2010]

Amok in orbit, chatter bounces back
From whence it came. A galaxy of trash
On television—spewing meme attack—
Receives the signal-nonsense: systems crash,
Reflecting tins of din for dogs and cats...
A mother's giving birth behind a drape...
A starving baby needs your cash—you're fat
Besides... the first ten callers may escape
To Maui... Save yourself to save the world
They say. Who needs the bother? Save your cash
Instead and pray that Ancient Ones unfurled
Their solar sails to take you under lash,
Instead of glass on plate—or worse, just raw—
While teevee shows display. They'll watch with awe.

“Galaxy 15 could threaten nearby satellites because its communications package is stuck on and it may start interfering with its neighbors by siphoning off their signals. It's the first time such an event has ever occurred, and it sent Orbital Sciences, the satellite's builder, on a dash to figure out how to stop the satellite-run-amok.”
– Clara Moskowitz, 6:05 p.m. PT, Tues., May 4, 2010
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36919374/ns/technology_and_science-space/

“Hawking’s logic on aliens is, for him, unusually simple. The universe, he points out, has 100 billion galaxies, each containing hundreds of millions of stars. In such a big place, Earth is unlikely to be the only planet where life has evolved... “We only have to look at ourselves to see how intelligent life might develop into something we wouldn’t want to meet. I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.””
– Jonathan Leake, The Times Online, April 25, 2010
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/science/space/article7107207.ece

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Human Amongst the Androids [Today's News Poem, March 8, 2010]

Human Amongst the Androids [Today's News Poem, March 8, 2010]

“Some witnesses said villagers were caught in fishing nets and animal traps as they tried to escape and were then hacked to death. Mud huts were also set on fire. ”
–, BBC; 21:47 GMT, Monday, 8 March 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8555018.stm

“Google dominates online search, and is apparently eager to extend its reach to the other main screen in most homes.”
--Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired, March 8, 2010
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/google-dish-reportedly-test-android-based-satellite-television/

Psychotic beast, now obsolete
And rare enough (despite its threat)
To wander free amidst the feet
Of working beings; as if a pet—

Amongst the cubicles of gray;
Beneath a lightbulb sun of white;
Above the dirt of black decay:
In oubliettes, the glass bends light—

Psychotic beast, a rarity
Inside the gears of stone and flesh:
Do wild desires give verity
To self, though greed might tear the mesh

Of self-restraint we prize so much?
And as a beast can you admire
A thing you cannot feel, nor touch?
At six you set your home on fire

And threw your father's phone inside
To burn. You said you hoped you'd die
Before you let some bells decide
For you to go; to laugh or cry,

To sit and type, or tuck babes in.
You said you'd rather die than work
Like ants. You said we lived in sin.
Remember? Said we're robot clerks

With ISPs for synapse links?
You said these things, we don't forget
(We are a hive, a world that thinks):
We live—we thrive, you lost that bet.

And now we'll scratch beneath your chin,
And pour a dish of cream for you
Before the work of endless win
Consumes us (it is never through).



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