Jan 26 2010
Hey young thinkers, see all those bright dots in the night sky? Connect them and see what you can create! The beauty of this activity is that there is no right answer. Of course, your creations will likely reflect ideas your culture has planted in your mind. And perhaps the applause you anticipate for creations that “make sense” to your social group.
Still. There is no wrong answer. Which means there is no right answer.
[photo thanks to NASA]
Jan 22 2010
Saturday and Sunday: There they are, orbiting the work week. Or maybe rather than being satellite-like days, the weekend couplet of waking hours feels like home. During the week we commute to the moon of a work schedule.
Ahhh. To be home. Home. The familiar.
But spend too much at home and that moon looks kinda interesting.
[photo thanks to NASA]
Jan 20 2010
Thanks to NASA we can enjoy this artsy Martian photo. (A photo of Mars vs. by a Martian.) Can we call it “art” if no hand sculpted it?
The above beauty was generated by the winds on Mars pushing the nearly liquid-like sand around. Look for it in a gallery near you. Or maybe not.
Jan 18 2010
The above NASA photo, Eclipse over the Temple of Poseidon, strikes me as awesome.
Could that “awe” be described as a religious experience? Some might take the linguistic liberty to do so. I wouldn’t.
Sure, in the case of my awe and in that of “religious” experiences there is an element of feeling slack-jawed. In one case, however, the beauty and wonder leads to thoughts of Gawd and other supernatural notions. In my own case they lead to thoughts of what we know of planets and ancient civilizations and . . . .
Equipped with science, my awe is undiminished. You might say it is further fortified and enriched with reliable information. And the awe of the “religious” experience?
Jan 15 2010
In the above Polaroid [thanks NASA!] we see a closer crescent-sliver of our Moon and a distant sliver of the planet Venus. In other words, the faces of these two bodies have a nose pointing toward the Sun. And those faces are kissed straight-on by light. But because our perspective is from slightly behind, we see merely a crescent ear. Or something.
Jan 13 2010
Don’t tell anyone, but Earth, our very own uniplex habitat, is at this very moment being explored by semi-alien life forms.
Oh, sure, the life forms look familiar. But don’t let that fool you. Though they walk and talk among us, they have minds different from our own!
Wait a minute. What about you . . . . Are you an alien? Would I recognize as familiar the contents of your mind and the full spectrum of your habits?
Although we are both human, and thus have a degree of shared humanity — what about that unshared part? Should I fear it and declare it alien?
Maybe it would be better to educate myself by learning about you and others. Better for me. And the world.
On that theme, I recommend checking out the Humanist Symposium #48: A Winter Wonderland. Perhaps I will meet you there. Don’t be put off by my strange ways, however. I’m pretty much just like you. But different.
[photo thanks to NASA]
Jan 11 2010
Perhaps since that mythical Day One, humans have been pattern-seeking animals. In the reverse-inkblot night sky (an abstract pattern of light within darkness) we see not a meaningless arrangement of points — in terms of human life — but outlines of the gods.
Why is Day One a mythical thing? Just as the line between life and non-life is a smear of shades of gray, the delineation between human and not-quite-human is likewise gray.
[photo thanks to NASA]
Jan 07 2010
How primitive is our understanding of the cosmos? It’s relative. But not completely so.
How can we honestly gauge intellectual progress? In the least, by the technology (which relies upon predictive power) our current understanding produces. At best? That’s a topic for a more in-depth post.
[photo thanks to NASA]
Jan 05 2010
That’s no ball of fire, no meteor burning its way through the Earth’s relatively coarse atmosphere. On the contrary, it’s a ball of ice. And that ball has a name: Halley’s Comet (or more astronomically correct, comet Halley). Cool. In both ways.
[photo thanks to NASA]
Dec 31 2009
The above NASA photo is of Mars. Specifically, layered hills with sand “sculpted” by wind. Wind on Mars?!
My eyes are drawn to the photo, as if my sight had legs and could explore it. Speaking of which, in a few moments I will be pulling on boots and a coat to venture out into the snow. I will take along my camera and snap my own photos of more transient wind-blown formations. Amidst that “art” I will happily explore.
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