MER team in mass hibernation

Or so it seems.

Don't you think it is a bit odd that nothing newsworthy has emanated from
MER HQ at JPL for well over two months? This troubles me. Wasn't
effective public outreach considered a noble and necessary goal of
public-money-burning enterprises ("PMBE's") not that long ago.
Scientists/engineers may sit haughtily in their ivory towers, seldom
deigning to dispense their wisdom upon the unwashed masses (who fork out
without complaint for said tower-dwellers big fat salaries) for a while,
but then people get annoyed from all the wondering about why hundreds of
millions of their rather hard-earned dollars are pouring into the
equivalent of a private sandbox for the peter pan elite who get to push
the buttons then plan their next photo-op with Matt Golombek.

Or, the great unwashed simply forget about space exploration and tell
their local congressman to spend money on spider habitat conservation
instead. You know, age old saws are trotted out such as "how many school
lunches can 750 Million buy"? Or, "How 'bout that ballooning public
debt"?

No news is definitely bad news when you are on the taxpayer's dime.

Tell the MER team you would like to have more regular updates -- heck
Cassini is still months from Saturn and we are hearing weekly from those
guys and have been for quite a while! Let's hear from the new, more open
NASA!

Mark