“We can look up at the sky and see the stars and nebulas and other galaxies with a telescope and be excited by the strange, interesting patterns the universe forms.
And we can also look in the other direction, down towards the small, and see new and strange and exciting patterns that are formed by these pieces of the universe that we’re all made out of.”
-Christopher Lutz (Research Scientist, IBM Research)
i like these things
“ I don’t like this expression ‘First World problems.’ It is false and it is condescending. Yes, Nigerians struggle with floods or infant mortality. But these same Nigerians also deal with mundane and seemingly luxurious hassles. Connectivity issues on your BlackBerry, cost of car repair, how to sync your iPad, what brand of noodles to buy: Third World problems. All the silly stuff of life doesn’t disappear just because you’re black and live in a poorer country. People in the richer nations need a more robust sense of the lives being lived in the darker nations. Here’s a First World problem: the inability to see that others are as fully complex and as keen on technology and pleasure as you are.
Teju Cole (via semperes)
(Source: thewhiskeypropagandist, via everydayafrica)
“ The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation.
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you. Neil deGrasse Tyson, during his Reddit AMA (March 01, 2012)
For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday. And along the way, lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you. Neil deGrasse Tyson, during his Reddit AMA (March 01, 2012)
(Source: crookedindifference, via keepingafloat)
Mannequins for sale. In the background are carpenters’ and metal-workers’ workshops, all part of one of many sprawling markets in the Abobo neighborhood of Abidjan, in Ivory Coast. January 12, 2013. Photo by @austin_merrill. #ivorycoast #cotedivoire #abidjan #abobo #market #mannequin #carpenter #africa
Elijah Kanyi is running for parliament in Kenya’s election on Monday. He hopes to represent Mathare, one of Nairobi’s poorest slums, where he was born and raised. At 27, if he wins he will also be Kenya’s youngest MP.
Boys play on the roof of the entrance to a football stadium in Gao - February 20, 2013.
Robin Hood was questioning his decision to steal from the rich and give to the poor. Sure, it helped on the local level, but what was he really doing to promote equality on a national level. Or on a global level?
After thinking for a while, he determined that even though the work he did was very small, there was a ripple effect, so it was still a valuable endeavor. Plus the ladies loved it.
making messes at coffee shops all over town.
instead of using my really limited movie-watching time to go to any of the movies out that I really want to see, I watched WARM BODIES… and I totally liked it.
this is pretty great.I filmed one second every day of 2012
google poetics is hilarious.
This man was driving me across Tehran yesterday, when I learned that he’d lived for 8 years in America— incidentally on the same STREET as me in Georgia.
He first crossed into the United States from Mexico— paying $1,500 to be transported across the border. He wanted to go to University and be a dentist, but learned that the idea of America was much more bountiful than the reality. He worked at a factory job for 8 years, without ever being able to get a drivers license. He wasn’t able to find a foothold in society. After 9/11, he said things got much tougher for Middle Eastern immigrants. “I had a great passion for the American people,” he said. “When 9/11 happened, I had no money, so instead I gave my blood.”
Five years ago he spent a night in jail for driving without a license. He decided he was tired of being nervous all the time, and he went all out for a green card. When he was turned down, he returned to Iran.
His fee for a 45 minute taxi ride across Tehran was only $6. I paid him the rate he’d have received in America, and asked for his photograph. He was the kind of man I most admire. The kind that realizes you get one shot at life, and risks everything to make the best of it. I was sorry it didn’t work out for him.
“It was my destiny,” he said. He didn’t sound like he believed his own words though.
“Are you married?” I asked.
“Yes. I met my wife when I returned to Iran.”
“Well there you go,” I said.
As I prepared to take his photograph, he made one request: “Don’t photograph me with the taxi,” he said, “it’s a low class job.”
“It’s not a low class job,” I said. “It’s the job of people who take huge risks so their children can be lawyers and surgeons.”
(Tehran, Iran)
Chart of the Principal Animals of the World (1831) - William Woodbridge
I want to have this.
Earth is in space, and everything that formed our planet—the elements from distant stars that combined with other elements and found their way to this special crucible that produced life, our life—came from space. Given that, the very question of whether we should go into space seems moot. We are already in space. It surrounds us, provides the energy that ultimately feeds and sustains us, while tantalizing us with its mysteries and fueling our hunger for understanding—understanding our origins, the uniqueness or abundance of life in the universe, and our human destiny.
Buzz Aldrin - The Imperative to Explore
