Professors Call for ‘Preemptive Strike’ Against Mars

Note: Digital photograph available

Commemorating the anniversary of Orson Welles’ radio broadcast, The War of the Worlds, the hosts of a local science and technology radio show will devote a portion of this week’s program to a spoof calling for a retaliatory strike against the Red Planet for the Oct. 30, 1938, failed Martian "invasion" that began in Grovers Mill, N.J.

Stephen Jacobs, Elouise Oyzon and Rick Scott, information technology professors at Rochester Institute of Technology and hosts of What the Tech? on WXXI-AM (1370), will make the case for a "first strike" against Mars in a segment of their broadcast, 1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 2. The spoof will be part of the show’s overall space-exploration theme this week.

"In the 64 years since the Martian invasion of Grovers Mill, Martians have been covertly assaulting America with abduction and surveillance campaigns targeting U.S. citizens," charges Jacobs, with a twinkle in his eyes. "Moreover, we have considerable evidence that the leaders of this aggressive foreign power have been creating stores of weapons of mass destruction to be used against Earth. We also have evidence of aggressive tendencies dating back to 1866 with John Carter’s visits to the planet, as documented by Edgar Rice Burroughs."

Note: What the Tech? can be heard 1 to 2 p.m. Saturdays on WXXI-AM (1370).