"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were.  But without it, we go nowhere."  -Carl Sagan

WILLY WONKA-PURE IMAGINATION  *******Remember Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory?  It was one of my favorite movies growing up and I introduced it to my boys and they love it too!  What child doesn't love a movie about candy and imagination???  You really can't go far in life without using your imagination.  Although  Martin Luther King Jr. and Walt Disney are two entirely different men, look where their imaginations took them and the world? Where will yours take you?

MAROON 5-PURE IMAGINATION  *******This is Maroon 5's version of Pure Imagination.  The guitar riff towards the end is NASTY!*******

WORD OF THE DAY

PALLIATE

(transitive verb)
[PAL-ee-ayt']

2. to lessen the severity of; to mitigate: "The programs did little to palliate the widespread suffering."

HOW TO RELIEVE LOWER BACK PAIN (TECHNIQUE)  *******I don't know about you guys, but I have an old back injury from the military that makes me feel like a 90-year-old when I get out of bed, sit or stand too long.  This technique does work and I can't believe I haven't done it in so long.  If you have back problems too, try this and you'll soon feel the difference!*******

SONG OF THE DAY

COLBY O'DONIS FEAT. AKON-WHAT YOU GOT  *******This is a hot song to dance to.  How many of us know girls like this?  Message!*******

Según la rotación de la tierra, si el meteorito hubiera impactado 4 horas más tarde, se hubiera cargado San Petersburgo, la capital de Rusia en ese momento. Carl Sagan, que siempre abogó por el desarme nuclear, argumentaba que si este evento hubiera ocurrido durante la Guerra Fría, Rusia probablemente hubiera comenzado a lanzar bombas a lo Estados Unidos a las pocas horas de conocerse el suceso, y probablemente tuviera razón.

Otro dato que me gusta de esta historia es que no se encontró nunca un cráter en la zona, sino que simplemente había una región entera de tundra carbonizada. La gente de la zona comprensiblemente creían que el mundo iba a acabarse (preguntaron al cura de la zona cómo prepararse), y hay evidencias que se produjeron lluvias ácidas en los días siguientes al impacto, que alcanzó un 5.0 en al escala de Richter.

Sobran las palabras.

This interview came on the heals of the decision of the then Republic Congress of the United States to abolish its Office of Technology Assessment -- a committee of non-partisan scientific experts who would advise our lawmakers on matters of science that affect our lives.  Science is propelling us into a future of which we know nothing because of the relative ineptitude of the American public and its leaders in matters of science.  And who is making our decisions for us on matters of science and technology except people who have a superstitious perspective about science -- who have an erroneous picture of science as a field, and who will not test the limits of a set of vague rules based on irrational nonsense?

There is no excuse for our people not to have at least a basic understanding of science -- to share in the vision and perspectives of the same -- through gifted writers such as the late Dr. Sagan and the presently renowned science writer, Dr. Richard Dawkins, the Charles Simonyi Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University.  These men give us an invaluable endowment -- the opportunity to understand science and to share in the thrill of discovery with them. The awe and wonderment of scientific discovery far surpasses the onanism of mind offered by religion.

"Science is more than a body of knowledge.  It's a way of thinking --a way of skeptically interrogating the universe, with a fine understanding of human fallibility.  If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those that tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan -- political or religious -- who comes ambling along. "  - Carl Sagan (interview with Charlie Rose, May 1996)

Dr. Sagan notes we will pour over the financial pages in our newspapers or the sports news, which require a skill of understanding that takes asserted effort to acquire.  He puzzles why we would not make the same effort to understand science, which in his estimation is not more difficult.

In this interview, Dr. Sagan calls to our attention that science is about how things really are -- not what makes us feel good.  How selfish we've become as a species that we want for ourselves only what feels good -- a buffet of nostrum that promises immediate gratification.  We seek truths that are easy to swallow -- almost predigested, if you will, from the competing authors of gimcrackery.  How lazy we've become to open our eyes only momentarily, if you will, to absorb just enough light to see that it's daylight and then go back to sleep in our folly of indolence.  We are becoming the veritable moles of the underground of human ignorance, ready in our hunger for our immediate needs to be met, to consume the first thing that rolls down the hole.

Why can we not be like the body of science -- prepared and ready to celebrate the sometimes startling truths that emerge?  Is it anyone's wonder that since the publishing of The Bible, for instance, nothing new or startling has happened by way of godly manifestations from the sky??  Yet from the teachings of this ancient volume we are taught to wait for rescue.  Aren't at least some of us frequently amused with the dates that come and go, set by self-appointed prophets, for an event when people of faith and goodness will be swept out of their clothes and shoes into the sky?  Still others who profess to understand the nature of the Mayan calendar, predict the proverbial end of the world in the year 2012.  How much time will we waste waiting?  For what, my fellow human beings, are we waiting?  How many years will go by before humanity will drop its notions of immorality about stem cell research, for instance, when cures for some of the most insidious diseases that plague mankind are just around the corner?  When will we begin to question these fettering notions of religion?  Is it not immoral, at least in a fundamental ethical sense, to sit and wait for someone with some authority and eloquence to lead us into an age of reason, when with a little education and knowledge and an opening of minds we could be participants?  It seems we would stand by, instead, and tremble as religion and pseudoscience rallies its forces to take us into another dark age.

We are in a position in this day and age to demand the most rigorous evidence for the claims made by competing economic, political and religious doctrines.  Why should we not?  If proponents of these rival doctrines profess truth and propose solutions to important questions, should we not be able to ask why or how?  If we can go to our supermarkets and choose from different products -- if we can demand that disclosure be made by the manufacturers of these products about their safety and efficacy -- why can we not demand the same as intelligent consumers of knowledge?  Certainly the earth does not shake beneath us if we change brands of breakfast cereal because another offers more fiber.  Why should the sky open and rain down terror upon us if we challenge the beliefs of our fellow human beings or the doctrines of their forefathers?  Why should these sacred cows not come under the same rigorous examination, when science offers the immediate possibility of solutions that could enhance our very survival and ability to adapt to change?

In another, earlier interview of Dr. Sagan, he talked about the perspective space exploration has given us.  He excitedly related the discoveries of facts made by the landing of an exploratory craft on the surface of Mars, which by the pictures we've examined doesn't look any different than Utah or Arizona.  We see that there was once biological life on this planet, but it seems now, by whatever natural means, it has no atmosphere to protect its surface.  Is it any wonder he is anxious about the proliferation of nuclear weapons that, if deployed by any number of nations, could evaporate our delicate, life-sustaining atmosphere in short order?  Is it any wonder he expresses concern that if we don't take better care of our planet, our children and their children may not be able to continue to live and grow?  We see evidence of, by what we know of our remote exploration of the planet Venus, what greenhouse gas has done to its surface -- whose temperature exceeds 900 degrees Fahrenheit. Although we know Mercury's and Venus' relative position to the sun doesn't allow for an atmosphere like ours, do we not see these are models of our future if we ignore the possibility that our continued rape of our planet's resources will result in a similar world?

Carl Sagan died a few months after this interview, December 20, 1996, at the age of 62.  He harbored no delusions about having another life after this one.  In his May 1996 interview with Charlie Rose he spoke with fondness about the wonder and complexity he sees in this life and how very rare and precious is our time.  Shall we live our lives waiting?  Or shall we educate ourselves -- challenge our old notions -- become responsible citizens of this planet for one another?  Rather than quibble about ancient notions of the supernatural, shall we not become better neighbors and participate in the excitement and possibility of a future that will allow us to adapt, change and flourish as a species?

If any true morality can come from this perspective, it is the notion that we have a responsibility to one another and to our future to learn and to dismiss our whims that there is a reprisal for questioning.  This is a metaphorical rose we can place on the grave of Dr. Sagan.  Can we not at least do him this honor?

"Finding the occasional straw of truth awash in a great ocean of confusion and bamboozle requires intelligence, vigilance, dedication and courage.  But if we don't practice these tough habits of thought, we cannot hope to solve the truly serious problems that face us -- and we risk becoming a nation of suckers, up for grabs by the next charlatan who comes along."  -- Carl Sagan - The Fine Art of Baloney Detection

remain curious -- never stop wondering