Cool facts and articles

[Plutonic Panda]

The Earth seen from Mars

[Plutonic Panda]

Think I might have posted this before, but I'll post it again. Very cool to see this.

[Plutonic Panda]

Underground Refrigerator

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This is beautiful and amazing!

[Prunepicker]

Underground Refrigerator

I'd hate to wake up and go to kitchen for a snack and find out the hard way
that I forgot to close the door to the fridge.

[MadMonk]

The Earth seen from Mars

Reminds me of Carl Sagan's reflections on a picture of Earth from Voyager 1.

From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Consider again 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.

Pale Blue Dot

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[HangryHippo]

Unbelievable.

[Plutonic Panda]

Sure is amazing how much we take for granted. Was at a car wash today washing some of my father's rental cars and thought, I'm using water to wash off a price a metal and using tons of it when people in Somalia are having to walk up to 10 miles a day just to try and get a gallon of clean water and we'll use that to flush our toilets multiple times a day... people here get mad over having to wait in traffic or missing their TV show.... When you want something, just be thankful for you already have. Not saying don't try and get better things, just be appreciative of our life style here in America, a lifestyle that the majority of the world will probably never get to experience.

[Dustin]

$20,000 robot does Gangnam Style

[Dustin]

Chaohusaurus Fossil Shows Oldest Live Reptile Birth | Paleontology | Sci-News.com

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[Prunepicker]

Hey, one of my newest likes is the Taco Lingua at the Dolar Taco Truck at
SW 44th and S. May Avenue.

Lingua means tongue. It's incredible! Seriously.

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[RadicalModerate]

And here is the most interesting part of that observation, at least to me: Neither the grains of sand nor the stars would be aware that those atoms existed if it weren't for the peculiar arrangement of the atoms comprising our brains. (I didn't invent that idea. It's a mix of Teilhard de Chardin and Carl Sagan c/o my college astrophysics prof (Kim Malville) back in about '72. There are no "new" thoughts . . . We are all compilers.)

P.S.: Loved seeing the word "Metacognition" pop up in the post immediately above. =)

[Plutonic Panda]

And here is the most interesting part of that observation, at least to me: Neither the grains of sand nor the stars would be aware that those atoms existed if it weren't for the peculiar arrangement of the atoms comprising our brains. (I didn't invent that idea. It's a mix of Teilhard de Chardin and Carl Sagan c/o my college astrophysics prof (Kim Malville) back in about '72. There are no "new" thoughts . . . We are all compilers.)

P.S.: Loved seeing the word "Metacognition" pop up in the post immediately above. =)

I have never heard of this particular collection of atoms. I did a quick search and I must say, what a brilliant guy!

[RadicalModerate]

Here's a related thought: Since no two arrangements of atoms comprising brains, or the sensory organs that supply the brain with information, are exactly alike, there are as many different "universes" as there are observers (people). The views of the universe may be the almost the same in most ways, but there are billions of subtle differences. This is why I like to say that "Perception is Reality" is The Big Lie of All Time. Perception is only Perception. It is not "Reality" (with a capital R =). One could substitute the word "Truth" here, although I absolutely believe there is an objective Truth behind our perception of the "cosmos".

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[Prunepicker]

I just found this on Stumble Upon. I'm not saying they are real. But it's a
lot of fun.

45 Unusual Items Confiscated by U.S. Customs and Postal Service

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[HangryHippo]

HAHAHA, nice find.

[Plutonic Panda]