Unabashed

You know, when I said the planets must be lining up because of all the weird I’ve been seeing, I didn’t know they really were. Interestingly, in this article the author claims that planetary alignments “are nothing more than the visible clockwork mechanism of our natural skies,” and that the myths associated with those movements are all erroneous. Well, number one, a myth is by definition erroneous, or at least a myth is an imagination, invented idea or story or concept. Number two, the author fails to consider all the weird that occurs when the planets line up just so. It’s like saying the full moon has no impact on people, and yet, ask any ER nurse or doctor and they’ll tell you that on full moon nights the ER fills up quicker and fuller than usual, and usually with a healthy dose of weird. I’m not saying it’s not a myth, but in my mind it’s a dangerous thing to dismiss anything too quickly, and I think there are still inexplicable things in this vast Universe we live in. In fact, I think it’s downright simple to presume that everyone who believes there is significance in such celestial drama are wrong, when you have no proof of that yourself.

But it is a nice blog (even though it is way too heavy on the advertising), and the author did point out that the planets were all aligning for our entertainments. So go read Universe Today (just pull the RSS feed like I do and you don’t have to bother with the irritating mass of adspace).

Photograph by Richard McCoy.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: full, legend, lined up, lining up, Mars, moon, myth, order, regulus, Saturn, universe

NASA pic culled from Brent_Zupp:

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Earth, Mars, moon

Wow. Even though you’ve probably seen this a hundred times already, this is one of those pics that I have no choice but to post and link. This is space porn at its finest. From NASA and the Mars Rover:

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Mars, Rover, Sunset

Photo by shesnuckinfuts. The pic comes with a quote from Sir Arthur that I’m in total agreement with:

“How inappropriate to call this planet Earth when it is clearly Ocean.”
~ Arthur C. Clarke 

My wife once observed that if there were Martians, and if we ever were to meet them, that they would call our planet “Water.”

Also, Arthur C. Clarke formulated the three laws of prediction:

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

On a side note you may find interesting, do a Flickr search for “Arthur Clarke” and you’ll see some amazing images (including the one at the top of this post). None of the man himself, but a lot of phenomenal photography using A.C.C. quotes in their descriptions.

Goodbye, Arthur, you brilliant man. Tell Carl Sagan I said hello.

written by Matt Mitchell \\ tags: Arthur C. Clarke, Carl Sagan, Earth, Mars, Sir Arthur, three laws of prediction