Ello' Lovies!
So I'm becoming more and more efficient at using my new droid camera, I've been practicing
And some more good news, I'm almost done with Carl Sagan's book Billions and Billions. I love it so far, and plan on re reading Contact and getting some more of his work. It astounds me how by just simplifying an idea in thought's process it can lead to epiphanies never expected. That thought for me was how big a billion is. For one reason or another throughout life I understood that a billion was, well a whole metric shit ton, but when you think that a billion so much. If you started counting, at this very moment, and counted in second intervals, (like kids, one one thousand, two hippopotamus, three etc.) it would take the majority of your lifetime to reach one billion. Now think, there are six billion people on this planet, and that number is growing exponentially.
When you realize, in the grand scheme of things, how little we are, and how little our reality is, it's kind of startling to realize that forty thousand children die a day due to preventable diseases and starvation. Now imagine the billions and trillions of dollars we spend on war, and imagine it being used to combat illiteracy, aids, cancer, starvation, we can accomplish so much.
"If we are content in a world with 60,000 nuclear weapons, we are betting our lives on the proposition that no present or future leaders, military or civilian - of The United States, The Soviet Union, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and whatever other nuclear powers there will be - will ever stray from the strictest standards of prudence. We are gambling our sanity and sobriety even in times of great personal and national crisis- all of them, for times to come. I say this is asking too much of us. Because we make mistakes. We kill our own." - Carl Sagan Billions and Billions
For the comedy version, which is actually tragically correct, see video below... Fucking Kangaroos...
"To my mind, this raises the key question: whether the fundamental unit of identification will expand to embrace the planet and the species, or weather we will destroy ourselves first. I'm afraid it's going to be very close." - Carl Sagan
I hear, "It's much more complicated than that." and "We can't just not have Nukes." Well, first off, it couldn't just be us, it would have to be everyone with the ability to fire and create nukes. It makes me shudder to think that people wouldn't give up their ability to kill millions, if not billions of people. Hitler and Stalin are proof, if any is needed, that corrupt and murderous individuals can be in positions of great power. With the amazing and awesome power of the nuclear devices we have now, and our ability to create more, I don't like that possibility. One decision can lead to thousands of death, and perhaps, under the right circumstances, the death of every single one of us.
No human being should have that power. No one. No human being should have that right, out of compassion and understanding for the importance of every other human life. Still, I don't think the people behind that big red button of destruction would agree with me.
It maddens me that people who have no idea who I am, who you are, who your wife, husband, brother, sister, parents, cousin, lover are, have the decision to end those lives. Treaties are being signed, and we have made progress in this matter, and the United States has often boasted that no nuclear weapons are pointed at any US city. It takes fifteen to twenty minutes to triangulate on a target, and both the United States and Russia retain thousands of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. That is why this is still an immediate danger for all people on the planet. The United States which has many more nukes that the majority of other countries has yet to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention. Every country needs to, and the US needs to realize we can't bully anyone into doing it and keep all of our ammunition ready. For the good of all people, and the good of all our grandchildren.
"The sky calls to us, if we do not destroy ourselves, we will, someday, venture to the stars." - Carl Sagan
So I'm becoming more and more efficient at using my new droid camera, I've been practicing
And some more good news, I'm almost done with Carl Sagan's book Billions and Billions. I love it so far, and plan on re reading Contact and getting some more of his work. It astounds me how by just simplifying an idea in thought's process it can lead to epiphanies never expected. That thought for me was how big a billion is. For one reason or another throughout life I understood that a billion was, well a whole metric shit ton, but when you think that a billion so much. If you started counting, at this very moment, and counted in second intervals, (like kids, one one thousand, two hippopotamus, three etc.) it would take the majority of your lifetime to reach one billion. Now think, there are six billion people on this planet, and that number is growing exponentially.
When you realize, in the grand scheme of things, how little we are, and how little our reality is, it's kind of startling to realize that forty thousand children die a day due to preventable diseases and starvation. Now imagine the billions and trillions of dollars we spend on war, and imagine it being used to combat illiteracy, aids, cancer, starvation, we can accomplish so much.
"If we are content in a world with 60,000 nuclear weapons, we are betting our lives on the proposition that no present or future leaders, military or civilian - of The United States, The Soviet Union, Britain, France, China, Israel, India, Pakistan, South Africa, and whatever other nuclear powers there will be - will ever stray from the strictest standards of prudence. We are gambling our sanity and sobriety even in times of great personal and national crisis- all of them, for times to come. I say this is asking too much of us. Because we make mistakes. We kill our own." - Carl Sagan Billions and Billions
For the comedy version, which is actually tragically correct, see video below... Fucking Kangaroos...
"To my mind, this raises the key question: whether the fundamental unit of identification will expand to embrace the planet and the species, or weather we will destroy ourselves first. I'm afraid it's going to be very close." - Carl Sagan
I hear, "It's much more complicated than that." and "We can't just not have Nukes." Well, first off, it couldn't just be us, it would have to be everyone with the ability to fire and create nukes. It makes me shudder to think that people wouldn't give up their ability to kill millions, if not billions of people. Hitler and Stalin are proof, if any is needed, that corrupt and murderous individuals can be in positions of great power. With the amazing and awesome power of the nuclear devices we have now, and our ability to create more, I don't like that possibility. One decision can lead to thousands of death, and perhaps, under the right circumstances, the death of every single one of us.
No human being should have that power. No one. No human being should have that right, out of compassion and understanding for the importance of every other human life. Still, I don't think the people behind that big red button of destruction would agree with me.
It maddens me that people who have no idea who I am, who you are, who your wife, husband, brother, sister, parents, cousin, lover are, have the decision to end those lives. Treaties are being signed, and we have made progress in this matter, and the United States has often boasted that no nuclear weapons are pointed at any US city. It takes fifteen to twenty minutes to triangulate on a target, and both the United States and Russia retain thousands of nuclear weapons and delivery systems. That is why this is still an immediate danger for all people on the planet. The United States which has many more nukes that the majority of other countries has yet to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention. Every country needs to, and the US needs to realize we can't bully anyone into doing it and keep all of our ammunition ready. For the good of all people, and the good of all our grandchildren.
"The sky calls to us, if we do not destroy ourselves, we will, someday, venture to the stars." - Carl Sagan
VIEW 26 of 26 COMMENTS
raffertie:
wow i remember seeing that video a long time ago and thinking this same thing.
nickstone:
I feel fine... I need this kind of energy so much 