The Assignment:

1 . Well, it finally happened. There your were, out doing your imitation as a Mall rat, searching for the perfect pair of Nike Air Bag Shoes that would allow you to slam dunk the competition when a computer malfunction at Ma Bell accidentally triggered the end of the world. There wasn't much time available so you had to act fast. While you were noticing the world ending just outside the Mall, you also noticed that you were standing in a Music Store. Off in the corner of the store was a small black box with a big sign that read

This Box is the only Thing that will survive the End of the World

Unfortunately, you are too large to crawl in the box. However, you notice that the box is exactly the correct size to comfortably hold some CD (us old geezers used to call these Albums). Suddenly, you remember Astronomy 123 (bad memories are always the last thing to flash before your eyes) and feel the urge to leave something behind that will represent humanity, in case it is accidentally discovered by some advanced civilization.

What one CD would you choose to leave behind? Make your choice both on the cover art and the contents of the CD. Explain why you made this choice. Extra credit will be given for a URL that would point to the Cover Art itself.

P.S. Note that the following artists are forbidden from being considered since,hopefully, they represent an aberration: David Lee Roth, the Bangles, Poison, Richard Marx, Aerosmith, Tone Loc, Green Day, Def Leppard, Motley Crue, Michael Bolton, The Red Hot Chile Peppers, and Alice in Chains.

Also, you can't use my top three:

• Argus

• A Momentary Lapse of Reason

• Crime of the Century
  Alternative A
  Alternative B
  

Here is a preface:

"As the century turned, Africa began to emerge from a Dark Age stretching as far back as life on earth, into all the years that lay ahead - years of Renaissance, Enlightenment, Industry, and, if you will, Anxiety. It is fitting that Grogan made his symbolic trek (across Africa - 1891-92) as a survey for a railroad, the means through which foreign capital, the paraphernalia of technology, and foreigners themselves would enter. But because an incision is also a wound, the railroad was also the means through which the old life suppurated and poured out of Africa. This, then, is the tragic paradox of the white man's encroachment. The deeper he went into Africa, the faster the life flowed out of it, off the plains and out of the bush and into the cities, vanishing in acres of trophies and hides and carcasses. The coming of the white man, who imposed his steel tracks, his brains and his will, on the great continent was attended by glory and courage, ennobled by sacrifice, enriched by science and medicine and law. But it marked the beginning of the end in a land where nature herself had always been sovereign: at once sickness and cure, crime and punishment, beginning and end. Not the least of the signs of decay and dying was the gradual, remorseless end of the wild Game."

--From the End of the Game by Peter Beard

Here is the Poll, 14 questions in all

Answer Yes or No to the Following:

Man is innately (innate means culturally invariant):

Territorial
Competitive
Greedy
Arrogant
Benevolent
Prejudiced
Selfish
Moral/Ethical
Promiscuous
Lazy
Man is the most intelligent species on the Earth
Technology will solve all of our environmental problems

A. Nuclear War
B. Aids
C. Environmentally induced Cancers
D. Starvation
E. Toxic Waste Poisoning
F. Ethnic Wars

As a space archeologist, your assignment is to randomly cruise through these web pages here and, from these pages, write a small report for your government about what defined the former "intelligent" civilization on this planet. Identify common themes and elements from these web pages and paint a rough sketch of humanity, if you can!