50 Things We Know Now (That We Didn't Know This Time Last Year) 2006 Edition By JEFF HOUCK The Tampa Tribune
Published: Dec 26, 2006
You know how it is.
You go through life thinking you've got your head wrapped around the world and all of its knowable information.
Then one day you read that since 2005, scientists have discovered more than 50 new species of animals and plants on the Southeast Asian island of Borneo. These new members of the List of Animals We Previously Didn't Have a Clue About include a catfish with protruding teeth and suction cups on its belly that help it stick to rocks.
Go back for a second.
A bucktooth, rock-climbing catfish. With suckers.
We'll understand if at this point you wish that your brain were an Etch A Sketch so you could shake it clean and start over.
Even more mind-numbing: Tons of cool new discoveries wash ashore in the media tide each year but fall through the cracks, what with all the coverage of Britney Spears' undies and Tom Cruise's wedding.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, martini in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
"People disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases. This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like flies in amber, like corpses frozen in ice, that which according to the laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved. It is a kind of magic."
While "surfing the net" as all the hip kids with holes and hair in their faces would say, I stumbled across an "online debate" that was nothing more than yet another contribution to the vast chasm of pointless debate (overflowing with logical fallacies) that's so prevalent on the internet these days. One person contributed to this, but concluded his annoying rant with a fantastic quote from Carl Sagan that I'm compelled to share. Just because I liked it, not because it ellicited an emotional experience corollary to any personal issue(s) I might have or had.
In 1991, Voyager 1 sent back an image of Earth from what was at the time the furthest distance from which a snapshot of Earth had been recorded (that might still be the case - it's too late for me to be completely thorough in my research for a journal entry). It's a fairly famous image that shows what looks like an insignificant dot. I hope everyone was smiling or putting on their best "I firmly believe this picture is art because I'm not smiling in it" vacant stare.
Image snapped by Voyager 1. Taken from an article on Space.com.
In his book Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future, Sagan presented the photo and wrote the following:
"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."
Carl Sagan was one of those fantastic individuals that makes me hate myself for not being him/her, even if the film adaptation of "Contact" was BORRRRRRIIIIINNNNNNG. Note - never read the novel.
Tarzan wasn't a ladies' man He'd just come along and scoop 'em up under his arm Like that, quick as a cat in the jungle But Clark Kent, now there was a real gent He would not be caught sittin' around in no Junglescape, dumb as an ape doing nothing
Superman never made any money For saving the world from Solomon Grundy And sometimes I despair the world will never see Another man like him
Hey Bob, Supe had a straight job Even though he could have smashed through any bank In the United States, he had the strength, but he would not Folks said his family were all dead Their planet crumbled but Superman, he forced himself To carry on, forget Krypton, and keep going
Tarzan was king of the jungle and Lord over all the apes But he could hardly string together four words: "I Tarzan, You Jane."
Sometimes when Supe was stopping crimes I'll bet that he was tempted to just quit and turn his back On man, join Tarzan in the forest But he stayed in the city, and kept on changing clothes In dirty old phonebooths till his work was through And nothing to do but go on home
Superman never made any money For saving the world from Solomon Grundy And sometimes I despair the world will never see Another man like him
You know things have taken a turn for the surreal when you come into work and the first thing you hear is that management just had to break up a scuffle between foreign reporters and an employee.
If I were permitted to speak to the media, I know exactly what I would say. Everyone wants to know what kind of people the Amish are, and I have just the thing to tell them.
It has received zero media attention so far, but it is the best and simplest explanation of what the Amish are truly like... two funds have been set up by the Old Order Amish community to accept donations. One is the Nickel Mines Children's Fund. The other is the Roberts Family Fund, for the Children of the Roberts Family.
The Roberts Family is the family of the gunman.
I think that speaks volumes about what kind of people the Amish are.
"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"
Where does the violet tint end and the orange tint begins? Distinctly we see the difference of the colors, but where exactly does the one first blending enter into the other. So with sanity and insanity. ] Herman Melville (1819 - 1891)
The worm drives helically through the wood And does not know the dust left in the bore Once made the table integral and good; And suddenly the crystal hits the floor. Electrons find their paths in subtle ways, A massless eddy in a trail of smoke; The names of lovers, light of other days— Perhaps you will not miss them. That’s the joke. The universe winds down. That’s how it’s made. But memory is everything to lose; Although some of the colors have to fade, Do not believe you’ll get the chance to choose. Regret, by definition, comes too late; Say what you mean. Bear witness. Iterate.
We have this, a place for sharing of beauty allsorts... and yet it has no depiction of it's own.
I hereby submit to you, readers, members, appreciators of life - create or borrow (with appropriate permisisons) an icon that you think fits this community. Send them to bliss.morgan@gmail.com - I will put them in hosted space sometime next week, and make a post of them for all of us to see, and to choose the one that we feel is most fitting.
Roads not yet glistening, rain slight, Broken clouds darken after thinning away. Where they drift, purple cliffs blacken. And beyond — white birds blaze in flight.
Sounds of cold-river rain grown familiar, Autumn sun casts moist shadows. Below Our brushwood gate, out to dry at the village Mill: hulled rice, half-wet and fragrant.
"I don't understand the hatred and fear of gays and bisexuals and lesbians...it's a concept I honestly cannot grasp. To me, it's not who you love...a man, a woman, what have you...it's the fact THAT you love. That is all that truly matters." -Al Pachino
You're not alone. I promise. Even when it feels like you are? You're not.
It's like this. When you're in the middle of feeling horrible about yourself, you're standing right next to a big skyscraper, okay? You're this little person, maybe five to six feet tall, standing right next to a three hundred foot tall building. When you look up? All you see is the building made up of self-hatred and doubts looming over you. On the other side of that building, is how things really are, okay? But you can't see it, because the building's so tall. Other people, who are not experiencing these feelings? Are standing like a football field's length away. They can see you and the building and the other side of the building all at the same time. But even though they tell you what's on the other side of the building, since you can't see it, it doesn't feel real. But those people far away keep trying to convince you of its existence.
All you have to do is listen. I know it's the hardest thing in the world, to actually trust people when they tell you that you're beautiful or you're loved or you're smart or you're talented. But sometimes? They're really telling the truth.
Hi everyone! I've recently joined this community and just thought I'd say hi and show you some pictures that I've taken (warning: they're not very good, I have no photographic training and they were done using a very crappy camera!)These are pictures that I took a few months ago; I loved the delicate lighting and the atmosphere of that day, which is why I took so many (and hence why they are behind a cut - may not be dial-up friendly, sorry!). I've also posted these pictures in my own journal, although I haven't cross-posted because I'm not at that stage of lj familiarity yet!
And thus terminates my half-hearted attempt at being arty-farty :) Don't worry guys; I don't claim that this is art! I just think perhaps the images themselves (especially the rainbows) are kind of uplifting. Thanks x
calm
anxious
thirsty... for life!