- Posts tagged Universe
- Explore Universe on posterous
Nature is Not Just Everywhere, it's Everything
Lion Theory and the Meaning of Life
What does it all mean? Why are we here? And better yet, which half-witted blogger should I turn to for the answers?
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Bottoms Up!
The world can big pile of confusing sometimes.
Psychic Alien Ghosts from the Planet Heaven
Decisions in Dorkland
Ah, how severe a thing is choice. How final, how absolute. If we are judged by our actions rather than our intentions then choice is literally the mechanism by which we are defined.
The Scale of the Universe
I've posted this before on Facebook, and I'm not sure anyone was interested, but I can say with unambiguous certitude that they really frickin' should be.
Excuse the crappy illustration, but these scales are more or less accurate. When you look at the difference between the range of sizes we feel comfortable defining versus those we can't even comprehend... well, it should boggle the mind.
Something about posting it on Posterous messed up the flash movie a little, but it still works. Take some time and play; and really consider nature's utter and complete awesomeness.
Cosmos Carl and the Apple's Adventures in Flatland
As some may have deduced, I've been way into Carl Sagan of late.
He was always someone I'd heard of, with 'billions and billions' being the one quote I could attribute to him, despite the fact that he never actually said it.
But I didn't know Sagan. I couldn't pick him out of a lineup, nor had I ever actually heard his voice, although I had heard poor impressions of it often enough.
But I've certainly heard a bunch of it now. Sagan became an interest of mine through Steven Novella, a well known podcaster and Yale Neurologist, as well as being a bit of an intellectual hero of mine. He discussed Sagan at length on his weekly show, the Skeptic's Guide to the Universe.
Novella and his co-hosts couldn't say enough about Sagan and 'Cosmos', the 80s PBS series for which he was most famous. It had obviously inspired an appreciation of science and skepticism in the younger versions of all of them.
One day I finally went hunting, and behold, Cosmos was available for the getting. Once downloaded I tore into the episodes, and over three days watched the entire 13-hour series.
Carl Sagan had extremely rare gifts. In Cosmos he demonstrates his ability to inspire with science, or more accurately, with his own endless appreciation of it. He manages to do what so few working scientists can, in that he communicates, using poetry instead of statistics, the truly awesome scope of the truths that science unearths.
And the voice! He absolutely must be the inspiration for Hugo Weaving' portrayal of Agent Smith in 'The Matrix'.
I could just listen to it for hours. Monotone but quirky, Sagan almost sounds like a disguised alien who learned perfect english in an effort to fit in to our society, but could never get the casual tone right. But he's also the alien that when he realized this, was confident enough not to give a shit.
Sagan smoked pot and wrote a mean book, and was the coolest mega-dork I've ever seen.
This is one of my favourite clips from the show, so I thought I'd share.
