Sunday, September 22, 2002
Our Place in the Universe
As a very amateur astronomer it's often humbling staring up at the night sky and contemplating where this planet sits in the enormity of space. On any given night, take a step out the front door and have a look around. All the stars you can see are 1/1000 of 1% of all the stars in our Milky Way galaxy. There are billions of star in our galaxy as there are billions of galaxies in the universe. I read this interesting comparison of a bathroom tissue universe in Sky News. A standard roll of toilet paper is just over 400 sheets. If you let one sheet represent the distance from the earth to the moon, the entire roll is the distance from the earth to our sun. The nearest star to our own is called Proxima, too faint to be seen from earth without a telescope, it's 4.22 light years from here. Let that one sheet now represent 1/100 of a light year with the sun a dot at the beginning of the very first sheet. Pluto would be 5mm along the first sheet, 5mm!!!! The farthest man made object is Voyager 2 which you may have read about in the papers recently, it would be 12mm along and will be at the end of the first sheet in 2181. Proxima, again the nearest star to our own, is at the very end of the roll. That's the nearest star to us, from billions in our galaxy, from billions of billions in the universe. Think about that the next time your otherwise pre-occupied in the bathroom LOL. Anyone who thinks this whole thing was made by some otherwise imaginary being as an experiment with humans at the crux of it, is seriously deluded. As Dennis Miller says that's just my opinion but I could be wrong.
As a very amateur astronomer it's often humbling staring up at the night sky and contemplating where this planet sits in the enormity of space. On any given night, take a step out the front door and have a look around. All the stars you can see are 1/1000 of 1% of all the stars in our Milky Way galaxy. There are billions of star in our galaxy as there are billions of galaxies in the universe. I read this interesting comparison of a bathroom tissue universe in Sky News. A standard roll of toilet paper is just over 400 sheets. If you let one sheet represent the distance from the earth to the moon, the entire roll is the distance from the earth to our sun. The nearest star to our own is called Proxima, too faint to be seen from earth without a telescope, it's 4.22 light years from here. Let that one sheet now represent 1/100 of a light year with the sun a dot at the beginning of the very first sheet. Pluto would be 5mm along the first sheet, 5mm!!!! The farthest man made object is Voyager 2 which you may have read about in the papers recently, it would be 12mm along and will be at the end of the first sheet in 2181. Proxima, again the nearest star to our own, is at the very end of the roll. That's the nearest star to us, from billions in our galaxy, from billions of billions in the universe. Think about that the next time your otherwise pre-occupied in the bathroom LOL. Anyone who thinks this whole thing was made by some otherwise imaginary being as an experiment with humans at the crux of it, is seriously deluded. As Dennis Miller says that's just my opinion but I could be wrong.
Wednesday, September 11, 2002
September 11th
They say that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. The only caveat to that is muslim extremists are by no means fighting for freedom as we understand the concept. If anything they would be fighting for their religious beliefs for which we pose a threat. Our very ideals of what constitutes a free and democratic society are at odds with the muslim religion and hence many goverments as I stated in the last entry below.
Ah hell, I can't get into some of that today. My thoughts are jumbled at best and I'd like to take this time to not only remember those that died on 9/11 but all those who die unjustly for quasi-religious causes. I wanted to update a previous entry here on a girl in Edmonton who fought for her religious beliefs and refused the blood transfusions she needed to stay alive. Her Dad split from the church and fought to keep her alive and force her to take them. She died in a city clinic last week, her Dad was kept away and not allowed to see her. I find this so very sad and I think it exemplifies the harm we can do with the religious indoctrination of our children. I'll go so far as to draw a complete parallel to the muslim extremists who brought down the buildings with planes and continue to thrive throughout the world.
They say that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter. The only caveat to that is muslim extremists are by no means fighting for freedom as we understand the concept. If anything they would be fighting for their religious beliefs for which we pose a threat. Our very ideals of what constitutes a free and democratic society are at odds with the muslim religion and hence many goverments as I stated in the last entry below.
Ah hell, I can't get into some of that today. My thoughts are jumbled at best and I'd like to take this time to not only remember those that died on 9/11 but all those who die unjustly for quasi-religious causes. I wanted to update a previous entry here on a girl in Edmonton who fought for her religious beliefs and refused the blood transfusions she needed to stay alive. Her Dad split from the church and fought to keep her alive and force her to take them. She died in a city clinic last week, her Dad was kept away and not allowed to see her. I find this so very sad and I think it exemplifies the harm we can do with the religious indoctrination of our children. I'll go so far as to draw a complete parallel to the muslim extremists who brought down the buildings with planes and continue to thrive throughout the world.
Friday, September 06, 2002
The Anniversary
September 11th approaches and it seems to me that the onslaught of media coverage that will undoubtingly happen is just so, well, inappropriate. I get the feeling it'll be a national holiday in the U.S. within the next few years and it's already been given a name. I'm not positive but I think Patriot Day is it. It also seems inappropriate to wrap yourself in the flag as a supposed way of remembrance to me as well. That all being said I'm at a loss as how best to mark the passing of what is obviously an important date, place and time in our lives. One thing I think is very important is to continue to discuss the issues surrounding it to not only better understand the world at large but also to understand ourselves. With that in mind I think these are some important issues:
1. Has the Muslim world, and indeed Muslims in our own communites, made any headway to either admiting what was done was wrong or to stand up and say hey, let's fix this extremism in our own religion? I for one am sick and tired of reading and hearing about how they feel misunderstood and prejudiced against. You want some sympathy, take a stand for Allah's sake.
2. Religion is a powerful force and not only when it's politicized. The dangers are completely self evident to me and yet there are many groups, and to me this is including the U.S. Government, that fail to see this. It's one thing to believe in god, attend church, and absorb yourself in whatever myth helps you to make sense of the world. It's quite another to force that upon the entire country and believe it's our righteousness against theirs.
3. Do we believe, or have we ever believed, that one has a right to a) freedom of religion and b) individual rights? How about the respect of other cultures when they so obviously disagree with our own viewpoints of what's right and what's wrong?
September 11th approaches and it seems to me that the onslaught of media coverage that will undoubtingly happen is just so, well, inappropriate. I get the feeling it'll be a national holiday in the U.S. within the next few years and it's already been given a name. I'm not positive but I think Patriot Day is it. It also seems inappropriate to wrap yourself in the flag as a supposed way of remembrance to me as well. That all being said I'm at a loss as how best to mark the passing of what is obviously an important date, place and time in our lives. One thing I think is very important is to continue to discuss the issues surrounding it to not only better understand the world at large but also to understand ourselves. With that in mind I think these are some important issues:
1. Has the Muslim world, and indeed Muslims in our own communites, made any headway to either admiting what was done was wrong or to stand up and say hey, let's fix this extremism in our own religion? I for one am sick and tired of reading and hearing about how they feel misunderstood and prejudiced against. You want some sympathy, take a stand for Allah's sake.
2. Religion is a powerful force and not only when it's politicized. The dangers are completely self evident to me and yet there are many groups, and to me this is including the U.S. Government, that fail to see this. It's one thing to believe in god, attend church, and absorb yourself in whatever myth helps you to make sense of the world. It's quite another to force that upon the entire country and believe it's our righteousness against theirs.
3. Do we believe, or have we ever believed, that one has a right to a) freedom of religion and b) individual rights? How about the respect of other cultures when they so obviously disagree with our own viewpoints of what's right and what's wrong?
