The Sagan Series - End of an Era: The Final Shuttle Launch (by damewse)
“I got frustrated with NASA and made this video. NASA is the most fascinating, adventurous, epic institution ever devised by human beings, and their media sucks. Seriously. None of their brilliant scientists appear to know how to connect with the social media crowd, which is now more important than ever. In fact, NASA is an institution whose funding directly depends on how the public views them.”
See the rest at The Sagan Series.
Two alternate Hubble Space Telescope views, comparing visible and infrared photography: Carina Nebula
I’m really amused by the single arrow to Shakespeare. I don’t know enough about any of the others (yet), and obviously you can’t put everyone who influences everyone else on a single chart.
But oh my god. Shakespeare is basically all the people that lived and wrote before him crammed into several plays and poems.
he really is
Don’t you dare come at me with a fight like that on your hands. You don’t want to see the war circles I am dancing about this right now.
I think I do! Shakes Beard was heavily inspired by those previously. Which isn’t to say he wasn’t original or some bollocks like that. I’m not one of the plagiarist-theory people.
What about alternate author theorist? There seems to be a semi-plausible argument for Francis Bacon as the actual author.
Imma have to jump in here to define and defend my fellow Stratfordian.
Wenchbeast is right. Very few of his tales were original, but there was no such concept as intellectual property in the Jacobean era. Of course you couldn’t take someone else’s work verbatim and print it under your own name, but taking a story and making tweaks here and there was not considered plagiarism. This isn’t to say that Shakespeare lacked imagination or skill of his own, but he borrowed a lot from works he admired. Apparently, among his lost plays was supposed to be a reworking of Cervantes’ Don Quixote. Which would have been totally fucking awesome.
As for the semi-plausible argument for Francis Bacon being Shakespeare, it’s just that: semi-plausible. Other candidates have been Edward de Vere, Christopher Marlowe and even a string of different authors writing under one pen-name. But these are all considered fringe theories. Yes, the question of authorship is kinda legitimate, but to be frank there’s not much to got on at all.
“When my husband died, because he was so famous & known for not being a believer, many people would come up to me — it still sometimes happens — & ask me if Carl changed at the end & converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage & never sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other again. I don’t ever expect to be reunited with Carl. But, the great thing is that when we were together, for nearly twenty years, we lived with a vivid appreciation of how brief & precious life is. We never trivialized the meaning of death by pretending it was anything other than a final parting. Every single moment that we were alive & we were together was miraculous — not miraculous in the sense of inexplicable or supernatural. We knew we were beneficiaries of chance… That pure chance could be so generous & so kind… That we could find each other, as Carl wrote so beautifully in Cosmos, you know, in the vastness of space & the immensity of time… That we could be together for twenty years. That is something which sustains me & it’s much more meaningful…
The way he treated me & the way I treated him, the way we took care of each other & our family, while he lived. That is so much more important than the idea I will see him someday. I don’t think I’ll ever see Carl again. But I saw him. We saw each other. We found each other in the cosmos, and that was wonderful.“
- Ann Druyan, talking about her husband, Carl Sagan
How a real atheist argues.
I do love that extra trollin ad hominem at the end, it makes people rage oh so much.
Is Colonizing Mars an Imperative? USA’s New Space Strategy Points to “Yes”
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“I don’t think the human race will survive the next 1,000 years unless we spread into space.”
-Stephen Hawking
The Obama Administration new mission for NASA puts the focus on developing new space technologies, exploring the solar system with robots, and pushing humans closer to living offworld. All of which will be funded a budget increase to NASA of $6 billion over five years.Under the new strategy, we’d see a revamped NASA program focused on scientific innovation, rather than recreating old experiments. Specifically, as NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said: “We will invent and demonstrate large-scale, new and novel approaches to spaceflight such as in-orbit fuel depots and rendezvous and docking technologies, and closed-loop life support systems so that our future robotic and human exploration missions are both highly capable and more affordable . . . as well as providing $3 billion over five years for robotic exploration precursor missions that will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids.”
(via dailygalaxy)
