I was always intrigued by the processes involved in the origin of life. The morphogenesis of the embryo; how the chemicals that control and change the behavior of identical group of cells to develop them into complex human organs? I had read many articles about it and they all were very explanatory but none as beautifully presented as the “The Secret Life of Chaos” series on BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pv1c3
In this documentary, Professor Jim Al-Khalili sets out to uncover one of the great mysteries of science – how does a universe that starts off as dust end up with intelligent life? How does order emerge from disorder?
And the best thing is that one doesn’t need to be a scientist to understand it. The natural world is full of awe-inspiring examples of the way nature transforms simplicity into complexity. From trees to clouds to humans – after watching this film you’ll never be able to look at the world in the same way again.
I thought it would be a good idea, just after Saturn, to have them take one last glance homeward. From Saturn, the Earth would appear too small for Voyager to make out any detail. Our planet would be just a point of light, a lonely pixel hardly distinguishable from the other points of light Voyager would see: nearby planets, far off suns. But precisely because of the obscurity of our world thus revealed, such a picture might be worth having.
It had been well understood by the scientists and philosophers of classical antiquity that the Earth was a mere point in a vast, encompassing cosmos—but no one had ever seen it as such. Here was our first chance, and perhaps also our last for decades to come.
So, here they are: a mosaic of squares laid down on top of the planets in a background smattering of more distant stars. Because of the reflection of sunlight off the spacecraft, the Earth seems to be sitting in a beam of light, as if there were some special significance to this small world; but it’s just an accident of geometry and optics. There is no sign of humans in this picture: not our reworking of the Earth’s surface; not our machines; not ourselves. From this vantage point, our obsession with nationalisms is nowhere in evidence. We are too small. On the scale of worlds, humans are inconsequential: a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal.
Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you’ve ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings; thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines; every hunter and forager; every hero and coward; every creator and destroyer of civilizations; every king and peasant, every young couple in love; every mother and father; hopeful child; inventor and explorer; every teacher of morals; every corrupt politician; every supreme leader; every superstar; every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.
Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings; how eager they are to kill one another; how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.
Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we’ve ever known.
By far the strangest and the most yummiest recipe I have came across on the internet is the one for “The Bacon Cheese Pizza Burger”. However, couple of days back picture of something called “Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles” started floating on the internet. I don’t know its source but here is the image.
Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles
I am searching the internet for the recipe of Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles. If you have any information about method of its preparation please post a link or any tips in the comments.
Here is a video from IBN Live.com channel from YouTube. Where Mr. Rajdeep Sardesai (A True Maharashtrian) interviewing Shiv Sena President Uddhav Thackeray.
I am a Maharashtrian and it is seriously upsetting that politicians like these clam to represent us.
No other Maharashtrian whom I know on a personal level promotes or supports such hate and violence.
You want to make things better for maharastrian? Then educate them, train them with special skills from operating a computer to carpentry or masonry something that will help them improve their slandered of living.
As of now these politicians who claim to represent Mumbai and Maharastrians are only feeding the minds of this illiterate mob with hate and violence against fellow countrymen and mankind.
It about time they change their strategy to empower the common man.
“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”
I can relate to this. I believe it is our attitude towards all the failures, achievements and our life in general that keeps us going. Thing go wrong and many a times they go horribly wrong; all we have to do is keep standing and plan our move to get something good out of the failures or at least a lesson that can make us a little wiser. In the end all that is left from our worst experiences is something good that makes us stronger.
I came across this YouTube video meant for ‘Public service’ and ‘Social Awareness’ couple of days back on FaceBookand liked it; because I have witnessed such incidences in my community and friends.
Below is a beautiful comment friend posted for this Video.
I believe that we will witness such cases with almost all our friends. Indian society is based on family values rather than the concept of indivdual and individuality. I can safely predict that almost all of our common friends will buckle under family pressure. (It’s unfortunate that most of them will end up in arrange marriages in first place 😛
What bothers me is the underlying truth behind this video. It reflects the major part of our society in a very succinct way. I just hate it when guys end up marrying under pressure to someone else just because his mom/dad didn’t approve of their union.
I think arrange marriages are social evils which need to be eradicated like sati or witch burning…. Read More
1. Propagates the concept of caste, sub-caste.
2. Propagates the concept of pure breed, pure blood etc. You know what happens when people start taking these things seriously.
4. One of the most important decisions of your life is taken by somebody else. And yes, parents don’t know you. Its called generation gap. When a guy says Mom knows best, slap that dude. Mom doesn’t know shit.
5. When there is no arrange marriage to fall back upon, guys have to find there own gals. In the love game, girls have superior cards.
6. And the one that hurts the most; beautiful gals ending up with total dumbasses because the guys family is well to do. Nothing burns more than this 😛
I came across this amazing lines on someone’s notes on FB, thought I should share them on my blog. I don’t know the exact source from Woody Allen’s work; so if you know where has he mentioned the following in his writings do leave a comment.
In my next life I want to .. ~~ Woody Allen
In my next life I want to live my life backwards.
You start out dead and get that out of the way.
Then you wake up in an old people’s home feeling better every day.
You get kicked out for being too healthy, go collect your pension, and then when
you start work, you get a gold watch and a party on your first day.
You work for 40 years until you’re young enough to enjoy your retirement.
You party, drink alcohol, and are generally promiscuous, then you are ready for high school.
You then go to primary school, you become a kid, you play.
You have no responsibilities, you become a baby until you are born.
And then you spend your last 9 months floating in luxurious spa-like conditions with central heating and room service on tap, larger quarters every day and then Voila….
Hrishikesh Sarvankar's Personal Blog 