This is a tumblelog, kinda like a blog but with short-form, mixed-media posts with stuff I like. Scroll down a bit to start reading, or a bit more to read more about me.
I sincerely do not understand why space exploration and travel is not a higher priority of humanity.
Is it not obvious that we’ve invested so much into acquiring knowledge and developing ourselves as a race, but nearly literally placed all of our eggs into the only basket available to us? Is it not also obvious that there are things in this universe that can have profound effects on our planet earth outside of our control?
All of our petty squabbles, and wars, and arms races, and differences over religion, politics, economics, marriage, and whatever the fuck else we want to argue about are moot if the ground we stand on as individuals and as a race disappeared from under us.
Why are we so shortsighted to not realize that for the sake of the survival of our race, of our knowledge, of the memories of our existence, we need to figure out how to get off this planet and populate the universe? Or do we just not care?
In semi-related news, private space company SpaceX has delayed launch of its spacecraft heading to the ISS until May 19. Crossing my fingers that this launch, originally scheduled for the past February, works out.
Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.
— Steve Jobs, Stanford Graduation Commencement Speech 2005
I’ve got no need for open roads ‘Cause all I own fits on my back I see the world from rusted trains And always know I won’t be back
‘Cause all my life is wrapped up in today No past or future here If I find my name’s no good I just fall out of line
But I miss you But there’s comin’ home There’s no comin’ home With a name like mine I still think of you But everyone knows Yeah everyone knows If you can, let it go
I seen more places than I can name And over time they all start to look the same But it ain’t that truth we chase No, it’s the promise of a better place
But all this time, I been chasin’ down a lie And I know it for what it is But it beats the alternatives So I’ll take the lie
I still miss you There’s no goin’ home There’s no goin’ home With a name like mine I still dream of you But everyone knows Yeah everyone knows If you can, let it go
Soldiers: don’t give yourselves to brutes, men who despise you and enslave you, who regiment your lives, tell you what to do, what to think and what to feel, who drill you, diet you, treat you as cattle, as cannon fodder.
Don’t give yourselves to these unnatural men, machine men, with machine minds and machine hearts. You are not machines. You are not cattle. You are men. You have the love of humanity in your hearts. You don’t hate, only the unloved hate. Only the unloved and the unnatural. Soldiers: don’t fight for slavery, fight for liberty.
In the seventeenth chapter of Saint Luke it is written: “The kingdom of God is within man” Not one man, nor a group of men, but in all men; in you, the people.
You the people have the power, the power to create machines, the power to create happiness. You the people have the power to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then in the name of democracy let’s use that power, let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world, a decent world that will give men a chance to work, that will give you the future and old age and security. By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power, but they lie. They do not fulfil their promise, they never will. Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people. Now let us fight to fulfil that promise. Let us fight to free the world, to do away with national barriers, do away with greed, with hate and intolerance. Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men’s happiness.
Soldiers! In the name of democracy, let us all unite!
