Asteroid Mission...and Ultrarunning

I guess I'm a space junky.  Things astronomy make me perk up and take notice.

Thus it was that in my regular perusal of the Rude Pundit blog some days ago, I found this gem.  As I always do, I hasten to point out that reading the Rude Pundit is a secret vice, as he is foul-mouthed and uses crude sexual comments to make his points.

But you know, I almost always agree with those points.  So here we go, from the Rude Pundit's post of 16 Nov 2012, complete with the original rudeness intact:

Electing Obama Might Save Us From Asteroid Collision Doom:
So here's an issue that didn't get much play during the endless election cycle: Which candidate would save the earth from the dust and fire-filled doom of an asteroid collision? Science writer Ian O'Neill, a name that couldn't be more Irish if it whacked you in the nuts with a shilelagh, thinks that the United States chose the path of doom-aversion by re-electing Barack Obama.

See, one little-discussed project that President Obama supports is a manned flight to an asteroid. Yes, yes, just like in Armaggedon, but probably with significantly less Liv Tyler. O'Neill thinks that Republicans would have just concentrated on going to the moon again, like, you know, Newt Gingrich talked about. The asteroid mission won't happen until 2025, at least. But Obama is backing it because no one wants to get a face full of asteroid rock....
 

Oh, by the way, former conservative demigod, now regular ol' House member Paul Ryan voted against NASA's funding the last two times it came up. And his great and grand budget cut the agency even further, despite paying lip service to outrage over Obama's move away from doing a moon landing rerun and the end of the space shuttle program.

It turns out we didn't just dodge a bullet by sending the GOP tools back to the woodshed, but we might end up dodging an earth-destroying space rock.
 

The promised link to Ultrarunning?  Just that talking about asteroids and spacey stuff reminds me that it's high time for a night run.  At this time of year, on a good night the air is crystal clear and frosty, the roads or trails are still, and you'd swear you could reach out and touch the stars.

There's goodness in doing something nobody else does.  The recharging effect of being alone with the stars is incalculable.  But you just can't explain the magic and mystery of a night run to anyone who doesn't do it.  So it's our secret.