To those of you with young children, here's a peek into your future.
After years of hard work and your best efforts (OK, mostly your best efforts) ...
I predict that your adorable bundles of joy will someday wish they could send you this card.
So, take a moment to think about your Mom ... and remember that she was very young when she did those things to you ...
... and what you make them mean is up to you.
Here's a funny clip from SNL in honor of Mother's Day.
In 1977, the Voyager 1 launched into space. Just over a dozen years later, the Voyager 1 spacecraft had traveled farther than any spacecraft/probe/human-made anything had gone before. It was approximately 6 billion kilometers away from earth. At that point, the Voyager 1 was "told" by Carl Sagan to turn around and take one last photo of the Earth ... a pale blue dot.
The resulting photo is impressive precisely because it shows so little in so much.
"Every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there--on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam." – Carl Sagan
Earth is in the far right sunbeam – a little below halfway down the image. This image (and the ability to send it back to earth) was the culmination of years of effort, the advancement of technology, and the dreams of mankind.
The resulting speech from Carl Sagan is still profound, moving, and worth a listen.
Carl Sagan via YouTube
Here's the transcript:
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.
Today, we have people living in space, posting videos from the ISS, and high-resolution images of space and galaxies near and far.
We take for granted the immense phase shift in technology. You have more computing power in your pocket than we first used to go to the moon.
As humans, we're wired to think locally and linearly. We evolved to live our lives in small groups, to fear outsiders, and to stay in a general region until we die. We're not wired to think about the billions and billions of individuals on our planet, or the rate of technological growth - or the minuteness of that all in regard to the expanse of space.
However, today's reality necessitates we think about the world, our impact, and what's now possible for us.
We created better and faster ways to travel, we've created instantaneous communication networks across vast distances, and we've created megacities. Our tribes have gotten much bigger - and with that, our ability to enact massive change has grown as well.
Space was the first bastion of today's innovation, but today we can look toward A.I., medicine, epigenetics, and more.
It's hard to comprehend the scale of the universe and the scale of our potential ... but that's what makes it worth exploring!
Onwards!
When I think about World Leaders (in places like North Korea, Russia, or Syria), I recognize how lucky we are to be able to elect our leaders in fair and free elections.
Unfortunately, that's not an opportunity that we take advantage nearly enough.
America has a two-party system, and we count our votes down district and state lines to decide which candidate will end up with the electoral votes for that state ... but what if abstention was counted as a vote for nobody?
via Philip Kearney
It's an interesting exercise to visualize what our absenteeism in voting looks like ... in the last presidential election, four times as many voted for nobody as for Trump and Hilary (combined!).
For all the people who whine and moan in any Presidency, you'd expect more people would have taken action to support their beliefs.
Now, try to imagine how few people vote in the more minor election cycles.
There are many interesting practical and theoretical discussions to be had about voting - engagement, education, etc. - but looking at this graph certainly puts one of the problems into perspective.
It's easy to point out a problem. It's more productive to propose a solution.
Many individuals feel they don't need to vote because their state uses an "all or none" electoral college approach, or because they feel they already know how their state is going to vote.
In addition, unless you're in a battleground state - it can often feel pointless - whether or not it is.
What do you think it would take to increase turnout?
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.
Are you ready for some Football?
This chart may explain why my foreign friends prefer a different form of "football" ... It shows how many Super Bowl Championships each region has.
The regular season is about to start, and the buzz is building ... but, not all of it is good.
Violence ... drugs ... concussions ... There has been a lot of bad press surrounding the NFL lately.
The Cowboys, alone, have somewhere between 4 to 7 players (depending on appeals) subject to miss games due to league suspensions for misconduct.
The Teflon League: NFL Revenues and Viewership Are Up.
Currently, the NFL is the 11th most important private company in the USA according to Fortune, and has the highest revenue of any sports league worldwide.
via howmuch
While critics contend that something needs to be done about the various issues surrounding the NFL, it's hard to conclude that those issues affect viewership. The NFL currently dominates attendance per game, viewership, and revenue.
In an experience economy, the NFL puts out an extraordinary product.
Long term may prove to be a different story, however. Each year there are less high-school football players and more competition.
I guess we'll see.
Regardless ... "How About Them Cowboys!"
Here Are Some Links For Your Weekly Reading - June 24th, 2018
Here are some of the posts that caught my eye recently. Hope you find something interesting.
Lighter Links
Posted at 08:49 PM in Business, Current Affairs, Gadgets, Healthy Lifestyle, Ideas, Just for Fun, Market Commentary, Personal Development, Science, Television, Trading, Trading Tools, Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0)
Reblog (0)