The Pale Blue Dot, By Carl Sagan.

Narration by Carl Sagan:

The spacecraft was a long way from home.

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.

The pale blue dot.

Gentleman Bandit at Leopold cafe

Greg Smith

• 1977- In a 3 month spree, armed with an imitation pistol, he netted $32,650 AUD from 24 armed robberies
• He was known as the “Building Society Bandit” and the “Gentleman Bandit”, because he had chosen to rob only institutions with adequate insurance, he would wear a 3-piece suit, and he always said “please” and “thank you” to the people he robbed.
• 1978- He was sentenced to 19 years imprisonment for a series of armed robberies of building-society branches, credit unions and shops, committed with a toy pistol while addicted to heroin.
• 1980 – escaped from Victoria’s maximum security prison in broad daylight to become one of Australia’s most wanted men. Tortured while in solitary confinement.
• After briefly going to New Zealand, he lived in Mumbai, where he became involved with the local mafia, and lived there for 10 years.
• In Mumbai, was thrown into Arthur Road jail and tortured there as well, by being tied up, hung upside down and beaten with sticks.
• He was released from the jail some time later due to bribes paid by a senior member of the Indian mafia. Roberts ended up working for the mafia, smuggling drugs and passports.
• Some say he also went to war in Afghanistan to fight with the mujahedin.
• 1990 – captured in Frankfurt after being caught smuggling heroin into the country.
• Extradited to Australia and served a further six years in prison, two of which were spent in solitary confinement. He escaped prison again during that time, but then he relented and smuggled himself back into jail. His intention was to serve the rest of his sentence to give himself the chance to be reunited with his family.
• In prison he began writing a novel. The manuscript was destroyed by prison wardens, twice, while he was writing it.
• After leaving prison, he was able to finally finish and publish his novel. The book’s name comes from the name his best friend’s mother gave him, which means “Man of Peace,” or “Man of God’s Peace.”

Thanks to Vinod, Jemin and the clumsy waiter at Gokul; we came across the Author of “Shantaram.”  –  Gregory David Roberts at Leopold cafe

Update:

Some Videos I came across

Bacon Cheeseburger Turtles

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.

Update: More Tempting Food Delights

• The Doughnut Burgers
• The Bacon Cheese Pizza Burger

Impact of Attitude on Life ~~ Charles R. Swindoll

Came across this quote from Charles R. Swindoll while surfing the internet.

“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.