A story of love, risk, tragedy, ingenuity and… Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan is an absolute legend. I’m truly fascinated about his life, his work, his books…. Cosmos.

When I heard that Neil deGrasse Tyson was working on a project that will bring Sagan’s epic Cosmos television series back to life some time in 2014, I was over the moon. Just today I found this beautiful short film by video artist Penny Lane, which tells a simple story of risk, love, tragedy, man’s ingenuity and Carl Sagan off course.

It’s really humbling to imagine that two single gold discs which are due to exit our solar system, may possibly be the only record of our existence here on Earth that will be available to anyone or anything else out there in the infinity of space, should the sun eventually vaporise us, or we destroy ourselves first.

A natural but reluctant progression…

Found this on Facebook and couldn’t resist sharing…

And just for fun…

And just in case you think the GIF implies that man evolved from chimps – it does not. Man and chimp shared a common ancestor dating back around 7 million years ago.

What’s that I see?

The pink, purple and white blooms are poking their way through the roadside vegetation once again. Cosmos!

On the South African highveld this only means one thing. Winter is coming. Glorious, beautiful winter. I’m in ecstacy already!

Hurry up and piss off, extended-Summer! And please take your fucking mosquitoes with you…

Carl Sagan…and the meaning of life

I don’t know why I got up this morning thinking about Carl Sagan. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that I went to bed last night thinking about the meaning of life.

If you’ve not heard of Carl Sagan (or not read something he wrote, which is a real sin in my books), you’re either quite young or not scientifically inclined, or both. I’d hate to think that you haven’t heard of or about him, because you’re disinterested. Besides being one of my favorite authors, Carl Sagan was one of the greatest scientists that ever lived; but was probably more famous for his hit television series, Cosmos. Ah! Some of you, do now remember.

Anyway, back to this morning: I was thinking what a damn shame it is that Carl is no longer around; what with all the fantastic experiments being undertaken in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. I’m sure Carl inspired many (if not all) of the physicists working on the LHC project, and he would surely have been the happiest man alive if he could have been a part of that group of scientists, trying to decipher the secrets of the universe.

I can only imagine how he would have described the CERN experiments and the findings in that inimitable literary style, that has inspired so many people around the world. If you have read any of Carl’s books, you would know what I’m talking about; that ability to induce a feeling of absolute wonderment about the natural world in a reader, is something special. What a find; a scientist who could explain science to the layperson, in such simple and awe-inspiring terms.

And… oh yeah! About the meaning of life? There is none. Life has no meaning other than that, which you create for yourself…

Photo #13: Winter of my contentment

Pink Cosmos

I spotted the first cosmos yesterday morning on my way to work. They seem to spring up overnight here on the South African Highveld, lining our roadsides with a beautiful yet tangled display of whites, pinks and purples, poking out from the last bits of green and emerging brown grass.

Today I made a point of getting some photographs and these are some of them.

It’s a clear sign that winter is about to start; the season I love the most. I can already feel the slight chill in the air every morning. I can’t wait for the end to this simmering heat that’s been plaguing us recently.

Cosmos by the roadside

Am I the only person who loves winter so much?