NASA to beam Beatles song to North Star

In space no one can hear you trying out new swear word combinations in an effort to express your feelings about this POS:

NASA on Monday will broadcast the Beatles' song "Across the Universe" across the galaxy to Polaris, the North Star.
This first-ever beaming of a radio song by the space agency directly into deep space is nostalgia-driven. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of the song, the 45th anniversary of NASA's Deep Space Network, which communicates with its distant probes, and the 50th anniversary of NASA.

That must be from The Onion...no living person could possibly have been hard up enough for publicity to actually do it 4rlz. Jesus H Christ on a flying bike. Underwater. With knobs on. Could they? Wait, it's from CNN, the Clown Prince of Infotainment. There's a slim possibility it's true.

The idea came from Martin Lewis, a Los Angeles-based Beatles historian, who then got permission from McCartney, Yoko Ono and the two companies that own the rights to Beatles' music.

#*%!!!!!111eleventy!! There is no word in the English language rude enough for me express my feelings about that sentiment, and don't get me started about the implied need to have permission to narrowcast "intellectual property" into mid-air where no-one is listening. No one is listening! But he got permission from the companies that own the rights! And Yoko Ono! They're all mad! Beam me up instead!

As J. G. Ballard said when the Apollo astronauts put a plaque on the moon saying, "We Came In Peace For All Mankind": "If I were a Martian I'd start running now."

Edit to add: Having been called on this one, I put my reasons for my rant here.