Should Canada boycott the Beijing Olympics because of China's political and human rights stances?

Indonesia is about 4500 miles from the Arctic Sea & 6250 miles from North Pole. It has as much interest as Brazil has (no interest).

Not right. Life on other planets is a side issue whatever the popular media says. Many people with some idea of the facts regard SETI as pretty much a waste of time.

The Curiosity rover on Mars is mainly about geology. Earlier probes on Mars did look for hints of life but found nothing definite. All planets around other stars are far, far too far away to show anything definite.

The nearest such planet is ~39 or so light years away and is so close to it's star that it is likely to be too hot for life. The vast majority of astronomers are interested in black holes, gamma ray bursts, novae, supernovae and distant galaxies, the expansion of the Universe, distant objects in the frozen reaches of our own solar system and detection of planets around other stars etc. You can choose any two of these as "important".

Dark Matter and Dark Energy - possibly the fate of our universe may be revealed with the outcome of this... Stellar evolution - while already generally understood, knowing what to expect from our sun could determine *our* future... And -I agree - finding life on other planets (or not) could determine Man's future in space - and our approach to it.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.