Quote 13 Jan 309 notes
The administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn’t on the horizon…. Even though the United States doesn’t have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we’ve got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we’re building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun.
— 

Paul Shawcross, chief of the Office of Management and Budget’s Science and Space Branch, responding to a petition encouraging the United States to build a Death Star.

Another reason listed for opposing the Death Star construction?

“Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?”

This White House is the best White House.

(via squashed)

the best white house? the one that kills first responders after drone strikes? so all they have to do is make a nerd reference to win your support? wow…

Photo 20 Dec 402 notes jtotheizzoe: Sagan, Eternal We lost Carl Sagan 16 years ago today. He has touched people’s lives, in life and in death, in ways that are difficult to put in to words. He was not only a wonderful teacher, but also someone who lit the fires of curiosity in those who learned from him. In that way, we have each been able to light our way to new knowledge, on paths of our own design. If I am a teacher of any measure, in any form, it is because of people like Carl Sagan. Remember him with this beautiful animated rendition of his finest ode to the cosmos, Pale Blue Dot: I’ll leave this open for replies, a tribute wall to Carl Sagan. I’d love to hear your thoughts and remembrances. If Carl was here today, what would you say to him?

jtotheizzoe:

Sagan, Eternal

We lost Carl Sagan 16 years ago today. He has touched people’s lives, in life and in death, in ways that are difficult to put in to words. He was not only a wonderful teacher, but also someone who lit the fires of curiosity in those who learned from him. In that way, we have each been able to light our way to new knowledge, on paths of our own design.

If I am a teacher of any measure, in any form, it is because of people like Carl Sagan.

Remember him with this beautiful animated rendition of his finest ode to the cosmos, Pale Blue Dot:

I’ll leave this open for replies, a tribute wall to Carl Sagan. I’d love to hear your thoughts and remembrances. If Carl was here today, what would you say to him?

via It's Okay To Be Smart.
Photo 9 Nov 6,710 notes cosmosscience: Have you ever heard of the amazing and inspirational Carl Sagan? Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science communicator. Why inspirational? Well, there are many intelligent beings in the world but not all of them are capable of communicating and appealing to the people like Carl Sagan did. Carl Sagan did this through his books and various media (The Cosmos being especially popular).  Why bring him up now? Well, today, along with many other humans, Carl Sagan was born 78 years ago on November 9th 1934. So happy Carl Sagan Day!  “For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” - Carl Sagan. “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe”. - Carl Sagan. I recommend all of you to listen to this video by Symphony of Science “A glorious dawn ft. Stephen Hawking”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc Picture source:  http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2010/12/20/carl-sagan-passed-14-years-ago-today-his-legacy-endures/

cosmosscience:

Have you ever heard of the amazing and inspirational Carl Sagan?

Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author and science communicator. Why inspirational? Well, there are many intelligent beings in the world but not all of them are capable of communicating and appealing to the people like Carl Sagan did. Carl Sagan did this through his books and various media (The Cosmos being especially popular). 

Why bring him up now?

Well, today, along with many other humans, Carl Sagan was born 78 years ago on November 9th 1934. So happy Carl Sagan Day! 

“For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.” - Carl Sagan.

“If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the Universe”. - Carl Sagan.

I recommend all of you to listen to this video by Symphony of Science “A glorious dawn ft. Stephen Hawking”: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSgiXGELjbc

Picture source: 

http://blogs.agu.org/wildwildscience/2010/12/20/carl-sagan-passed-14-years-ago-today-his-legacy-endures/

via CWL.
Photo 3 Oct 2,523 notes jtotheizzoe: the-star-stuff: “I don’t want to believe, I want to know” —Carl Sagan A fine message to start the day.

jtotheizzoe:

the-star-stuff:

“I don’t want to believe, I want to know” —Carl Sagan

A fine message to start the day.

via It's Okay To Be Smart.
Video 23 Sep 545 notes

the-star-stuff:

Electron microscope photographs of Pop-Tarts and Oreos resemble tasty alien landscapes

Artist Caren Alpert zooms in on a variety of foodstuffs, from fruits and vegetables to the most processed of processed foods, photographing them under an electron microscope and exposing their hidden landscapes.

1. Banana Skin, 210x Magnification

2. Blueberry, 19x Magnification

3. Oreo, 15x Magnification

4. Red Licorice, 20x Magnification

5. Pop Tart, 450x Magnification

Her full gallery contains fascinating looks at shrimp tails, pineapple leaves, raisins, fortune cookies, and more.

via .
Quote 18 Sep 482 notes
In less than ten thousand years, domestication has increased the weight of wool grown by sheep from less than one kilogram of rough hairs to ten or twenty kilograms of uniform, fine down; or the volume of milk given by cattle during a lactation period from a few hundred to a million cubic centimeters. If artificial selection can make such major changes in so short a period of time, what must natural selection, working over billions of years, be capable of? The answer is all the beauty and diversity of the biological world. Evolution is a fact, not a theory.
— Carl Sagan (via scinerds)
Quote 20 Aug 599 notes

[Space exploration] is in financial trouble. Yet by many standards, such missions are inexpensive. Mariner Jupiter/Saturn costs about the same as the American aircraft shot down in Vietnam in the week in which I am writing these words (Christmas 1972). The Viking mission itself costs about a fortnight of the Vietnam war.

I find these comparisons particularly poignant: life versus death, hope versus fear. Space exploration and the highly mechanized destruction of people use similar technology and manufacturers, and similar human qualities of organization and daring. Can we not make the transition from automated aerospace killing to automated aerospace exploration of the solar system in which we live?

— 

Carl Sagan

His thoughts on discovery versus destruction, from the same 1971 panel on Mars exploration that gave us Ray Bradbury’s romantic ode to Darwin and exploration.

How appropriate this is today. It puts our priorities squarely in view, like a mirror to the soul of mankind. Do we like what we see?

(via Brain Pickings)

Quote 7 Aug 1,429 notes
Maybe we’re on Mars because of the magnificent science that can be done there - the gates of the wonder world are opening in our time. Maybe we’re on Mars because we have to be, because there’s a deep nomadic impulse built into us by the evolutionary process, we come after all, from hunter gatherers, and for 99.9% of our tenure on Earth we’ve been wanderers. And, the next place to wander to, is Mars. But whatever the reason you’re on Mars is, I’m glad you’re there. And I wish I was with you.
— 

Carl Sagan

A message to future Martian settlers, appropriate today as we have wandered there, yet again. Hear the full beautiful message at the link.

(via melodicnotes)

Photo 19 Jul 114 notes jtotheizzoe: This is what you get when you outsource the space program.

jtotheizzoe:

This is what you get when you outsource the space program.

via It's Okay To Be Smart.
Photo 10 Jul 1,971 notes jtotheizzoe: Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla! Here’s some Tesla posts to keep you occupied. I hear Tesla’s birthday party was awesome, except Edison stole all his cake.

jtotheizzoe:

Happy Birthday Nikola Tesla!

Here’s some Tesla posts to keep you occupied.

I hear Tesla’s birthday party was awesome, except Edison stole all his cake.

via It's Okay To Be Smart.

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