There are a number of other pictures, including the famous ‘Earth Rise’ (which my parents have always had a print of in their hallway), that do a wonderful job of inverting our sense of importance. But this picture of Saturn has a particular splendour that sets it apart.
So, that’s Earth. A pale blue dot. It’s home. And it’s all we’ve got. But isn’t it remarkable too that science has given us the ability to not only get pictures such as this, but understand how the solar system formed.
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.
A touch melancholy for a Friday? Maybe to some. But personally, I take enormous inspiration from the story behind pictures like this, and it leaves me wanting to find out, and understand, more.
I’m currently reading Richard Dawkins’ latest book, The God Delusion, and whilst I know that Dawkins isn’t to everybody’s taste, he certainly is to mine, and I’d suggest that even if you dislike his strident views, they are still views that cannot be dismissed lightly (or at all if you seek a naturalistic explanation for our existence). It is exceptionally well argued, and I’m thoroughly enjoying the book, and I’m only half way through.
Anyway, one of the examples I’ve just read about was that of the Cargo Cult’s (see also h2g2 on the subject), which sprang up in the late 19th century through to, and during, the second world war, as bemused natives of small pacific islands were awe struck by the seeming magic of the visiting peoples ability to magic produce out of air (Arthur C. Clarke’s 3rd law springs to mind (”Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic“). The natives in some cases went as far as building air strips, coconut based radios, and talking in strange voices, all seemingly in a hope to bring about the air-drops that occurred when the visitors had done so.
It’s a startling example of how a religion of sorts can be built on the basis of poor understanding, and a need for answers. Once established, and even reinforced by the ongoing activities of their visitors, the idea became pervasive to the islands. A marvellous example of the spread of a particular meme, and repeated many times over, entirely independently.
I quite enjoy watching The Daily Show on More 4 when I manage to catch it. It’s excellent satire, to the point and frequently hilarious. Whilst I know we have plenty of great satire in this country, there’s nothing on a daily basis here, much less that comes close to this.
So, in an embedded multimedia “first” for leyton.org, here’s a classic excerpt from the show, via youtube, that’s doing the rounds right now, and I hope folk might enjoy. Broadband required most likely.
There’s a bit of a storm brewing up here in Glasgow that’s now hitting the national headlines, and it all just goes to highlight some of the deep-seated bigotry that still exists (and there was me thinking we might have a nice liberal society…). The story, in a nutshell, is that a few firefighters in Glasgow refused to hand out fire safety leaflets at a Gay Pride march earlier this year. They’ve been disciplined, but today the catholic archbishop of Glasgow, a Mr Conti, publicly supported them.
Here’s what’s so very very wrong with this picture, and Mr Conti’s backing of the firefighters: Firefighters are public servants, and one of the core duties they have to perform is fire prevention. A key part of that is getting out and increasing awareness of the risks. Unfortunately, some firefighters chose to let their personal feelings get in the way (hiding behind a supposed fear of “taunts and jokes”, when these men presumably deal with things most of the rest of us wouldn’t consider in their emergency callouts), and consequently refuse to serve a section of the community they are supposed to be helping. Take it to its (silly) extreme, and you could well have firefighters choosing to not service particular emergency calls due to some bias, preference or opinion on their part. It really is the thin end of a long, nasty and ugly wedge. For all their protestations, the emergency part of their duties is just one part of it, and they cannot and should not distinguish between which parts of their job they do.
Whilst I don’t see that Mr Conti has an opinion any more significant or worthy of respect than anybody else on this hunk of rock, he seems to be highly regarded by some folk (for reasons I can’t fathom if this is what we have to go on). I think the firefighters in question got off very lightly, the issue is showing every sign of refusing to disappear as it should (with duly disciplined staff). Indeed, attempts were made to try and “move on” only yesterday, until Mr Conti stepped in. But I fear that his public and forthright, not to say badly misguided backing of them, will now make this a touch-stone issue for future problems here. This would only further mask that this is a case of bigotry on the part of a small number of people who seem to think they can pick and choose how they perform a core public service, and hide behind a fig-leaf called religion.
It seems that the campaign to extend opening hours on Sundays has had a setback in England and Wales. Hugely ironic that a Scottish MP took the decision (another example of the West-Lothian question that I’m sure will be (ab)used by the Tories) – Here in Scotland we have genuine 24 hour opening, and Sundays seem pretty much the same as other days as far as shop opening hours are concerned.
I think this whole restriction of who can work, or open, what on what particular day is a bit anachronistic to say the least. We have legislation in place to ensure that people are entitled to particular amounts of holiday and free time, and there are plenty of people who know nothing different than working on weekends when it’s necessary. Any sort of care organisation, service organisation, expects to work on any day of the week, or year, demanded – As a family we got quite used to my mum working on christmas day. Actually, we sort of embrace it now, and pitch in to help out so (we hope) she finishes earlier, although I don’t think that ever happened
The campaigners, a religious pressure group under the covers, seek to “protect” relationships, businesses, and “ways of life”. All well and good, but why by their standards? Sunday is only really a christian day of rest after all. Not much good if your holy day is Friday. People still have choice too, and can – and should – state and consider their sensitivities when considering job options. There really are plenty of alternatives in a high-employment economy, even for low-skill roles or part-time work, plus longer opening hours would actually create more jobs, which is rarely considered a bad thing, so why here?
It all just boils down to one group of campaigners and an overly touchy-feely government trying to bring back a by-gone age that nobody, in an increasingly secular country, really wants. Shop workers deserve – as every similar worker surely does – the protection of a union, but they really shouldn’t be singled out for special treatment on what days they can and can’t work, when it hasn’t applied to the vast majority of people in all trades and professions, for a long time.
The sooner the rest of the UK does as Scotland does, and ditches the distinction in one part of the economy between one day, and every other day, the better for all concerned.
Yes, you read that right. 2006 census. Ok, I missed the word ‘Test’ out. But it’s a census of sorts.
We recently received a form here in Scotland titled “2006 Census Test” (more about it here). We’re in one of the ‘lucky’ areas to be selected to fill out a census form for the 23rd April, which is to be used to help plan for and conduct the next formal census in 2011.
Hopefully the results from the form will ensure that the next census is much smoother than the 2001 one, which was criticised for many reasons, not least that it was slow, but also that it was frequently completed by the ‘head’ of the household, and masked over various responses.
One of the big differences in the 2001 census’ in Scotland, from the rest of the country, was how questions about religion were asked. In England, it simply asked “What is your religion?”, which resulted (as explained here by the NSS, in confused responses). Here in Scotland, there were two questions: Religion during up-bringing, and current religion. This enables a better picture of religious views, and changes therein, to be more accurately charted and understood – The statistics make for fascinating reading.
They’re experimenting with some different questions up here too. A couple of schools in Glasgow were given the opportunity to phrase questions on feeling safe at night (Which Frances felt would be better phrased, at least from her perspective, as ‘do you feel relatively safe’, as she – and I suspect most women – rarely feels entirely safe going out at night), and on family eating habits.
Whilst the census is an excellent opportunity to explore the changing shape and behaviour of our country, hopefully they won’t go overboard with too many ‘trivial’ questions and undermine the completion rates of the census. But here’s hoping the census test will better ensure that the 2011 census is considered a success across the country.
So this whole faith schools thing hit a bit of a head for me recently, when the BHA sent out details of an “e-mail your MP” letter (see here) that I decided to follow up on.
I’ve a Scottish MP, it’s an English & Welsh bill. I received his generic response yesterday, but he’s busy supporting it, whilst sitting on the fence in his letter. Precisely because, I suspect, he’s aware the West Lothian question is an issue here, and the Government is in need of every vote…
Dance, Monkeys, Dance – a marvellous web-presentation that really hit the mark today. A Douglas Adams feel to the entire thing. Just what I needed to compliment the gorgeous weather here in Glasgow today.
Freedom of expression, and freedom of speech, are important rights that seem to be under sustained attack by various groups (see here, for example). Some groups seem to be actively seeking out offence, and parading their supposed insult as a justification to further restrict liberties, whilst at the same time using the selfsame rights and liberties to ensure their opinions are heard when it is convenient or expedient for them to do so.
I am not saying people should have a right to deliberately and gratuitously say what they want without retort. Criticism and open debate on matters are important in an open democracy, and with rights come responsibilities; a right to speak doesn’t imply a right to be heard. Yet it is in my view becoming increasingly important that we stand up and defend our historic and hard-won rights, notably to freedom of speech, expression and privacy, in this increasingly edgy – and intolerant – climate.
A mailing list I’m on drew my attention to a phone interview on Radio 5 last night by Stephen Nolan, with Philip Pullman (author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, my review here). What follows is probably one of the most unbelievably rude treatments I’ve heard of a well respected author by somebody who seemed intent on foisting viewpoints on Pullman that he didn’t share or state.
I’ve long stopped listening to music radio for just this reason. Whilst Radio 5 isn’t music radio as such, it’s this sort of mindless blathering on the part of the DJ that I can’t stand, striving to fill silence with something. It’s all so much worse on talk-radio, where it’s merely the size of the DJ’s ego that can fill the gap. In this case, throw in a religiously biased axe to grind, and you’re ready for blood-boiling (in me at least).
The subject was on the teaching of the secular/atheist/humanist perspective in Religious Education classes. Thankfully, the other interviewee (Graham Taylor) did a good job of backing Pullman’s case of taking the religion out of school altogether. I’ve been sent an MP3 of the interview, which I’m hosting for the benefit of the secular mailing list I’m on. Make sure you’ve a sound constitution and an ice-bag nearby to calm yourself if you’re anything like me. (listen to it here). The Stephen Nolan Wikipedia page says it all. “somewhat in the style of Jeremy Clarkson“. Yikes.
If you prefer a DJ-less music experience, and like supporting independent musicians, check out Indie Feed. I’ve just purchased a couple of tracks from the Techno Squirrels (Best. Band. Name. Ever.) on iTunes, and certainly now fear the day I have to go back to listening to pundits with inflated egos wasting valuable music-playing time with opinionated, argumentative and outrightly rude crap, like this guy.
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