Reverend Tyson Goes Hard

It's been a while, I know.  But I simply could not let this one pass by.



What I would love is for all of you to watch all of this.  But if not, at least give a bit of attention to what Dr. Tyson says around 38:23.  It's the same message that was the thesis of his Senate testimony a few weeks ago.  I feel it's the most important message regarding the state of our economy I've heard since 2000.

I had this argument with someone a couple of weeks ago.  An iPhone, as useful as it is, is NOT true innovation.  And without true innovation, we have no reason to complain.



peace.

Reverend Tyson Takes It to the Hill

A few days ago Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson testified before Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation committee. Here is the testimony and q&a in its entirety.

For some reason, I can't stop thinking that Dr. Tyson should be sitting not in the testimony seat but rather as a member of the committee itself. I hope the people in Congress have the enthusiasm and foresight to take some real action based on the Dr.'s remarks. This stuff is d*mn important.

peace.

A Whole New World

How do they have a picture of it so fast!? No one has ever been there!

So NASA's discovered a planet in the habitable zone of another star. Cool. The next thing they need to discover is how to get there. I'm trying to visit some Vulcans.

peace.

Red Rover

A few days ago NASA launched its most complex and ambitious Mars rover, nicknamed Curiosity. Here is wonderful, albeit nerdy, animation of how the mission might go.

For more information regarding Curiosity's design and mission, see here.

You know, I dig this. I'm all about sending rovers and probes to other bodies in the solar system. However, the last generation of space exploration included the mission to put a man on the moon. If we aren't working towards that same goal in respects to Mars, then what is NASA for? Like Dr. Tyson says, "We don't name schools after robots."

Personally, I hope Curiosity saves Spirit. That would be cool.

peace.

Two Things That Are Black: Holes and Dynamite

I'm leaning back in my chair tonight.

I just found a fantastic website called NASA's Imagine the Universe. Earlier today I was having a conversation with someone about what happens to time inside a black hole. Looking into it more I stumbled across this site:

http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/index.html

Not only are there theories and ideas on the properties of black holes, but questions about the search for dark matter and dark energy, traveling at the speed of light, and the physics of stars and galaxies. So I'm going to spend some time soaking some of this up tonight.

Meanwhile, I'll be watching the end of this brilliant piece of cinematic excellence:

Perhaps soon I'll get into this movie with more detail. But for now I will simply say this has to be one of the most hilarious, smart, and well made Black American movies I have ever seen. Scott Sanders, the director, is like Spike Lee with a sense of humor. And Michael Jai White is nothing short of outstanding and outstandingly funny. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking it out.

peace.

Tiny Wonderful

Tonight I was all prepared to go on a tirade about a silly bumper sticker I saw today. You may have seen it. It reads:

If you're reading this, thank a teacher. If you're reading this in English, thank a soldier.

Hmmm... Shouldn't I be thanking a slave owner...? (That'll be another post!)

However, before I could step onto my soapbox I happened upon the facebook profile picture of one of my high school homies, Johnne Smith. This is it:

The picture is called "The Pale Blue Dot." It's a photograph taken of Earth by the Voyager 1 spacecraft from a distance of 4 billion miles away, on the edge of the solar system. Earth is the TINY dot in the yellowish-orange streak of light in the top of the photo; a bit to the right of center. That's right. That's us. ALL of us.

The photo was taken by NASA at the request of astrophysicist, cosmologist, and author Carl Sagan. Subsequently, Sagan used the photo as his inspiration to write his 1994 book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. I have yet to read it (It's on the list, right after Slaughterhouse-Five and The Autobiography of Malcolm X.) but from what I've been able to gather, the book contextualizes our place in the universe and offers insight into how to protect and preserve our home.

Here an excerpt:

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

peace.