Look at that, you son of a bitch.

[Fire Walk With Me]

“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’” — Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchell

[ceile]

1. Brilliant! K&R

[leveymg]

2. I can think of many politicians I would like to send to the moon, or further. ;-)

[Fire Walk With Me]

4. ...

[Angry Dragon]

6. Into the sun perhaps

[leveymg]

10. Excellent Floyd track:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jqn-KAFX58k

[Blue_Tires]

15. +1

[sarge43]

21. Nah, airlock 'em. n/t

[hootinholler]

8. Do we have to send air with them? n/t

[leveymg]

12. Self contained solid skull propulsion systems

[Cetacea]

3. K&R (nt)

[myrna minx]

5. K&R n/t

[patrice]

7. We really are one thing, no matter how many mindtrips we generate, no matter how much

froth we whip up on our personal and collective "tides", someday somehow you always have to come back to the body, your own and your other body, Earth. Hopefully more of us will come back to those facts a little sooner than we have shown a tendency for in the past, at the last minute, in the face of "death".

[pinto]

9. Kick

:kick:

[Bozita]

11. Good stuff! ... Recommended

[meegbear]

13. ...

[Fire Walk With Me]

17. ...

:rofl:

[RT Atlanta]

14. Pale Blue Dot

Great words from Edgar Mitchell above.

Sharing the words below from Carl Sagan speaking about this photograph, later labeled the "Pale Blue Dot"



From WikiPedia:

In the book, Sagan related his thoughts on a deeper meaning of the photograph:<2><4><14>

Sagan points out that "all of human history has happened on that tiny pixel, which is our only home" (speech at Cornell University, October 13th 1994, shown here inside a blue circle).“ From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it's different. Look again at that dot. That's here, that's home, that's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, 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 "superstar," every "supreme leader," 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 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. 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.

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.

The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. 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. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.

[sabrina 1]

19. So true, what he said!

Shakespeare too was thinking along the lines of how insignificant all our hysterics are in the scheme of things.

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing." Macbeth Quote (Act V, Scene V).

[Whisp]

34. lots of walking shadows full of sound and fury here.

:rofl:

!!!!obama's a corporate whore!! *spittle splash. He's going to kkkkkkill my gramma!!!*(&&^^QWHAT!??? He's Worser than Bush, omg!!!! Let's primary!!!! MPRIMAAAARRYYYY! PRIMARY the lazy don0thing son of a bitch fake!!! *knuckles bleeding on keyboard. I'll do it!!!$%%9(&, I can be a better CIC than himmmmmmMMmm!!^%+

[Taverner]

25. Yes. Absolutely. 100%. All the way.

Sagan was a prophet

[barbtries]

36. that was beautiful.

actually made me misty-eyed. if only we could all read, feel, and understand this. this little planet of ours has so much potential to support all of the life upon it. greed. greed will be the end of us, that is my true belief.

[Agony]

16. ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’ THAT bears repeating!

simple, isn't it...

[patrice]

18. I know more than a few sons-of-bitches who would reply, "So?" What does one say next?

I'd like to see your ideas on that.

Not a "trap", I'm really asking.

[ehrnst]

32. I'd say, perhaps you need a little more time out here to really understand what it is

You're screwing up.

[awoke_in_2003]

49. "What does one say next?"...

nothing- just pull their air hose :)

[Bryn]

20. Love it! Thanks for the post and beautiful picture

will share it on my facebook

[GliderGuider]

22. K&R - especially for the water pic in your sig.

I wonder how many people get that one?

[Uncle Joe]

23. Self-delete due to technical error. n/t

[Uncle Joe]

24. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, Fire Walk With Me.

[Urban Prairie]

26. Pfftt..its all about THEM, despite what they might stump for, and use as their platforms and planks

Gotta have a healthy dose of inbred or acquired narcissism to be a successful politician, which of course also means that their potentially short(er) term in office is obviously of far greater importance and concern to them, than the long term after being voted out, term limits expired, or much better still, retired from office, and how far and how much of contents of the "can" of fiscal, social, ecological and environmental responsibility may be successfully kicked down the proverbial road so that their eventual successors will have to deal with as much of the brunt of the ugly consequences of inaction or that which was swept under the government rug, as is humanly possible.

[SammyWinstonJack]

51. This!

:thumbsup:

[hamsterjill]

27. Very profound!

And brilliant, to say the least! Seems many of the Astronauts have been greatly humbled and enlightened by their time in space.

[LuckyLib]

28. Beautiful. Our crazy idjits in Washington could benefit from a gaze from that perspective.

And if they don't "get it"?? Leave them on the moon.

[kentuck]

29. I like that!

I had never read that quote before.

<rec>

[lamp_shade]

30. Thanks. I just posted the pic and quote to my facebook.

[pokerfan]

31. Really puts things in perspective

If you have the bandwidth, be sure to watch in 720-HD.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17jymDn0W6U (6:31)

The Known Universe takes viewers from the Himalayas through our atmosphere and the inky black of space to the afterglow of the Big Bang. Every star, planet, and quasar seen in the film is possible because of the world's most complete four-dimensional map of the universe, the Digital Universe Atlas that is maintained and updated by astrophysicists at the American Museum of Natural History. The new film, created by the Museum, is part of an exhibition, Visions of the Cosmos: From the Milky Ocean to an Evolving Universe, at the Rubin Museum of Art in Manhattan through May 2010.

[Buns_of_Fire]

33. It would re-energize the space program, and we could do it for half-price...

...especially when you factor in the cost savings in not bothering to bring them back again.

[OneGrassRoot]

35. Beautiful! :) n/t

[joeybee12]

37. That is great...thanks...I'd never heard of that before...knr

[TransitJohn]

38. Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free

Dizzy with eternity.
Paint it with a skin of sky, brush in some clouds and sea
Call it home for you and me.
A peaceful place or so it looks from space
A closer look reveals the human race.
Full of hope, full of grace, is the human face.
But afraid, we may lay our home to waste.
There's a fear down here we can't forget hasn't got a name just yet
Always awake, always around singing ashes to ashes all fall down.
Now watch as the ball revolves and the nighttime calls
And again the hunt begins and again the bloodwind calls
By and by again, the morning sun will rise
But the darkness never goes from some men's eyes.
It strolls the sidewalks and it rolls the streets
Stalking turf, dividing up meat.
Nightmare spook, piece of heat, you and me, you and me.
Click, flashblade in ghetto night. Rudies looking for a fight.
Rat cat alley roll them bones. Need that cash to feed that jones
And the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.
Commissars and pin-striped bosses role the dice
Any way they fall guess who gets to pay the price.
Money green or proletarian gray, selling guns instead of food today.
So the kids they dance, they shake their bones
While the politicians throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.
Heartless powers try to tell us what to think
If the spirit's sleeping, then the flesh is ink.
History's page, it is thusly carved in stone
The future's here, we are it, we are on our own.
If the game is lost then we're all the same
No one left to place or take the blame.
We will leave this place an empty stone
Or this shinning ball of blue we can call our home
So the kids they dance, they shake their bones
While the politicians are throwing stones
Singing ashes, ashes all fall down.
Shipping powders back and forth
Singing "black goes south while white comes north"
And the whole world full of petty wars
Singing "I got mine and you got yours."
And the current fashions set the pace.
Lose your step, fall out of grace.
And the radical he rant and rage, Singing "someone got to turn the page"
And the rich man in his summer home,
Singing "Just leave well enough alone"
But his pants are down, his cover's blown
And the politicians are throwing stones
So the kids they dance they shake their bones
Cause its all too clear we're on our own
Picture a bright blue ball just spinning, spinning free
It's dizzying, the possibilities. Ashes, Ashes all fall down.

[bartholomeus]

39. lots of beautiful quotes on below page :)

http://www.spacequotations.com/earth.html

I particularly like this one, it always brings tears to my eyes:

It suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth. I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn't feel like a giant. I felt very, very small.

— Neil Armstrong

(source: http://www.spacequotations.com/earth.html)

[av8rdave]

41. Great quotes...I was especially struck by the words of Jim Irwin

He said almost exactly that to me when I had the privilege of meeting him many years ago.

[bartholomeus]

42. Yeah beautiful stuff :)

How about this one:

If somebody'd said before the flight, "Are you going to get carried away looking at the earth from the moon?" I would have say, "No, no way." But yet when I first looked back at the earth, standing on the moon, I cried.

— Alan Shepard

[Fire Walk With Me]

52. Lovely. Welcome to DU, if you're new!

:toast::hi:

[Sienna86]

40. Perfect

Thanks for the quote.

[spanone]

43. k&r...

[FedUp_Queer]

44. In this day of teabaggers and hate-mongers, this shows and awesomeness that is truly unparallelled

[malaise]

45. Magnificent

Rec

[janet118]

46. From a distance . . .

From a distance the world looks blue and green
And the snow-capped mountains white
From a distance the ocean meets the stream
And the eagle takes to flight

From a distance there is harmony
And it echoes through the land
It's the voice of hope, it's the voice of peace
It's the voice of every man

From a distance we all have enough
And no one is in need
There are no guns, no bombs, no diseases
No hungry mouths to feed

- From a Distance written by Julie Gold]

Too bad the people in charge are myopic and greedy. Hey, oligarchs . . . If you destroy the Earth, good luck eating money?

[Hubert Flottz]

47. Not even Jabo can make a marble as beautiful.

The distance and the clouds hide the greed and haterd.

[FirstLight]

48. instant global consciousness...

more than just politicians, we need an infusion of this for ALL

Wake up and see that you/I/we/us are part of a BALANCE and dance with our planet, fellow species, and this is our only home.

Sometimes I wonder if we will ever collectively wake up...

[florida08]

50. yes the larger picture reveals the senselessness

I'm afraid humility is lost in the race to the bottom in the small rearview window. But this is awe inspiring to us ants.