Okay, these letters are better than these.

Between the Earth and the Moon are about 240,000 miles of empty space, as this image shows [via Metafilter]. Imagine the Apollo astronauts on their four-day journey to the moon, encountering along the way absolutely nothing.

This page puts it in perspective, using pixels as an analogy.

There’s so much empty space out there — not accounting for dark matter, of course — and it makes me wonder whether our species will ever encounter another intelligent life form in the universe — even if that intelligent life exists.

Imagine you’re the only person on planet Earth. Or at least you think you are. Unbeknownst to you, there is another person on Earth, but you’re in Kansas and the other person is in Sydney, Australia. You have no car or horse, no way of getting around really quickly. What are the chances that you and this other person will ever meet? Even if there are a couple of other people out there — say, one in Moscow and one in New Delhi — it’s still not likely you’ll ever become aware of each other. You could live your entire lifespan and never realize there are others out there.

Maybe one day, if you’re supremely lucky (but it’s incredibly unlikely), you’ll find a message in a bottle that has washed up on shore from halfway around the world. But it will be in a language you can’t read — heck, who knows if it will even be writing — and anyway, you will have no idea how long ago the sender threw it into the ocean or if the sender still exists.

What if it’s even worse — what if you’re the only person on Earth and this other person lives on the moon?

Even if there is intelligent life out there — not just life, but intelligent life — it’s unlikely we’ll ever encounter it.

We are, for all intents and purposes, alone in the universe. We are a cushy oasis in a vast nothingness.

We are all we’ve got.

Matt and I have been watching True Blood. A few weeks ago we devoured the first season in about a week and a half, and then we started watching season two, and now we’re all caught up. Last night we watched the most recent episode.

Spoiler below.

I don’t think anything on the show has grossed me out as much as the Hunter’s Soufflé. (Well, okay, the way vampires die in Bon Temps is much grosser than in Sunnydale.) There’s Michelle Forbes, slicing up the heart with a sharp knife! Ick! I nearly couldn’t watch. And then later, Tara and Eggs walk in the door, and you know what’s going to happen, but you really hope it doesn’t. But then, yes, she brings out the soufflé. Oh god, no, no, no! And then, yep.

Ugh!

I think the second season of True Blood is missing some of the Southern gothic that made the first season so addictive. And Sunday’s episode was the first time in weeks that Sookie and Jason (mmm… Jason Stackhouse) have had a scene together. Sookie and Tara haven’t seen each other in a long time either. I miss watching the relationships between these humans.

But the show is still wildly entertaining.