The Australian | 13 August 2009
By James Jeffry
PITY the poor inhabitants of Gliese 581d; some day in 20 years’ time, the planet – which was discovered in 2007 and is theoretically inhabitable (a bit like Los Angeles) – is going to be hit by a tsunami of spam.
Our pollies have been among eager earthlings who’ve signed up at HelloFromEarth.net to have a message beamed at the planet.
Science Minister Kim Carr did his bit to set the tone with this sentiment: “Hello from Australia on the planet we call Earth. These messages express our people’s dreams for the future. We want to share these dreams with you.”
But Carr’s opposition counterpart Eric Abetz was clearly on a different page when he wrote his cosmic missive: “The Coalition dreams that by the time you receive this message in 2029 Australia will be free of Labor debt. Sadly we’re not holding our breath!”
Perhaps it was the perky little exclamation mark that did it, but Abetz received this reply: “Your interstellar message was deemed inappropriate by the moderators and has been rejected and will not appear on the Hello From Earth site nor be transmitted.”
Still, as long as someone remembers to let the aliens know Dannii Minogue has stopped using Botox.
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