[date Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 11:45 AM]
PN:
FFT (food for thought) – the Pale Blue Dot:
February 13, 2010 was the twentieth anniversary of the famous “pale blue dot” photo – Earth as seen from Voyager 1 while on the edge of our solar system (approximately 3,762,136,324 miles from home). Sagan’s words are always worth remembering:
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
An exquisite statement of perspective for all sentient beings, yes? And maybe some progressives / Liberals too. Not sure about Greenies and “the sky is falling!” people.
Despite the clarity and humbling impact of Mr. Sagan’s words, what about the weekend? The Fodder’s Day weekend was excellent for little David Drover. It was a two day celebration for me. I was privileged to BBQ for my daughters and new grandson on Saturday, and Sunday was a Vernon FD “walkabout”. A twofer!
On Sunday while attending the various “manly” celebrations about town (Show and Shine, drags and static displays at the airport) I met a man who has the same disease that Levere used to have –
For those (most of ya) unfamiliar with the marvel captured via digital image, it is a Sears / Puch 175cc twin cylinder two stroke motorcycle. Len was the first in our crowd to upgrade to a “real” motorcycle; most of us had scooters at the time. Len was here a couple of weeks ago, and the subject of his Sears / Puch came up. Talk about synchronosity and serendipity, and co-inkydink! Here are a couple more pictures – mostly for Len to drool over –
Len was the only person I’ve ever known to own one of these little “gems”….. until I met this fellow on Sunday! Note the pricing in the Sears flyer / catalog page he is holding –
He also has a Puch 250 GP racer. His is the only running example in North America, and one of two runners in the world. I suppose that means something to someone…. It had very advanced technology for the day – inverted shocks (to keep unsprung weight down), a form of “supercharging” (cylinder “doubling” voodoo), large drum brakes, and a nifty little air pump (on the frame downtube). In it’s day it took down the Nortons at the Isle of Mann. Here’s a picture of it –
Another of his bikes was a Honda 90. Jimmy B. had one, Harry Lane had one, and Ben S. had a 90 Super Sport if I remember (kinda foggy mountain break-down between the ears). You old fellas can correct me, if you will. I remember riding these monster machines back then – what power, what handling, what thrills! Here’s a photo –
There were cars in every form of object worship – hot rods, concours quality, stock, rat rods, oddities, junk (that’s most of the GM stuff) – just about anything you could want to see. Even a ’57 Chev….
There were antique machines, aircraft, motorcycles, go-karts. Lots of curiosities for a gear head like me.
I’m always amazed by two things that are so evident in collectors:
- their enthusiasm and depth of knowledge about their collectibles
- how happy and satisfied they seem to be with their hobby / obsession / money pit
I wonder how the wack-jobs in the Taliban celebrated Father’s Day? Stone a woman to death? Suicide bomb the dreaded Zionist Entity®? Prattle endlessly in their chicken-choking gibberish sounding language about “death to the Great Satan”? Stare into the void their solipsistic thinking has created?
Who cares! F**k them all, and not the nice way…. And I’ve got just the product to do that very thing – LYEPNW – Low-Yield Earth-Penetrating Nuclear Weapons, or “Mini – Nukes” as they are affectionately known. Take a look-see:
http://www.fas.org/programs/ssp/nukes/new_nuclear_weapons/loyieldearthpenwpnrpt.html
Now that would be a marvelous Father’s Day gift…..
Here’s a game you will hate / love. This game will put an end to the myth that women can “multitask” and men are linear doers. See if you can get past level two:
http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/multitask
I found a treasure trove of frustration with this game. Want more? Try “Multitask 2” here:
http://www.onemorelevel.com/game/multitask_2
Waiting for Godot…. and whistling in the dark.
D de D of V