Words For These Times

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
--Aldous Huxley

AI imagery by Xander Steenbrugge for "Exotic Contents" by Max Cooper

“We can judge our progress by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers, our willingness to embrace what is true rather than what feels good.”
--Carl Sagan

AI imagery by Xander Steenbrugge for "Exotic Contents" by Max Cooper

“Knowing how to think empowers you far beyond those who only know what to think.”
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

Pale Blue Dot

As we enter this new year, I feel a great need for us--as a species--to reflect on the classic words of the great Carl Sagan in his sobering "Pale Blue Dot" passage from his book of the same name...these important words are more relevant now than ever.

http://carlsagan.com/

We Are Stardust

"The atoms of our bodies are traceable to stars that manufactured them in their cores and exploded these enriched ingredients across our galaxy, billions of years ago. For this reason, we are biologically connected to every other living thing in the world. We are chemically connected to all molecules on Earth. And we are atomically connected to all atoms in the universe. We are not figuratively, but literally stardust."
--Neil deGrasse Tyson

"The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff."
--Carl Sagan

"Everything we are and everything in the universe and on Earth originated from stardust, and it continually floats through us even today. It directly connects us to the universe, rebuilding our bodies over and again over our lifetimes."
--Iris Schrijver, author of LIVING WITH THE STARS: HOW THE HUMAN BODY IS CONNECTED TO THE LIFE CYCLES OF THE EARTH, THE PLANETS, AND THE STARS

"We are stardust/ We are golden/ And we've got to get ourselves/ Back to the garden"
--Joni Mitchell

Images produced by Lematworks
https://lematworks.myportfolio.com/

Evolution Really Happened

I am currently watching the new "Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey" with astrophysicist Neil de Grasse Tyson on the National Geographic Channel, a follow up to the original "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" with Carl Sagan. This new version is produced by Seth MacFarlane and Ann Druyan who is Sagan's widow.
Such a worthy show... both of them.

http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/cosmos-a-spacetime-odyssey/
http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/tyson/

BEAUTY: Sculpture--Mihoko Ogaki

Japanese conceptual artist Mihoko Ogaki's series "Milky Ways--Breath" features fibre-reinforced plastic figures of dying or dead people with entire galaxies or even universes inside them. Small holes in the surface of the figure allow star maps to be projected onto the surrounding walls. This simple yet profound image is breathtaking in its scope of meaning. The pieces are rife with the ideas of cycles, transformation, transmogrification, macro and micro, and our connection and place in the reality around us.

http://www.mihoko-ogaki.com/index.html

I am sure I have posted these images before, but here they are again because they are so relevant to the art of Ogaki.

Happy Birthday, Carl!

Today would have been Carl Sagan's 78th birthday.

Happy birthday, Carl. Thank you for your mind, your work, and your legacy.

To Keep In Mind:

New Religion

"A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge."
--Carl Sagan

“The more unintelligent a man is, the less mysterious existence seems to him”
--Arthur Schopenhauer