Space Message

This message was transmitted from Earth into outer space toward four stars each about 60 light-years away. If you start at the top and scan down slowly, you will recognize the pattern and be able to read it:

message_dutil

This message is almost entirely data, with the last line being the only information about us, which soon became out of date.

What makes the last line so telling, and why does it have to be updated continuously, probably forever?

(Thanks to NASA and Yuvan Dutil & Stephane Dumas)

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The Book

A woman walked up to a man behind a counter and handed him a book.

He looked at it and said, “That will be four dollars.”

clerk

She paid the man and then walked out without the book. He saw her leave without it but did not call her back.

How come?