Shreyans Kothari

A Pale Blue Dot.

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:26:26 -0800

“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.” - Carl Sagan

The truth about career paths… via fortunewatch

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:31:45 -0800

The truth about career paths…

via fortunewatch

pbh3: There’s a Calvin in every child. I miss being a kid.

Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:57:30 -0800

pbh3:

There’s a Calvin in every child.

I miss being a kid.

Definitely should not have come across this while studying for...

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 01:46:03 -0700

Definitely should not have come across this while studying for my midterm!

It’s a shame that I have to miss the Owl City concert...

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 20:44:07 -0700

It’s a shame that I have to miss the Owl City concert tomorrow night.

Oh well, at least studying for Slavic literature will keep me entertained.

I'm so glad my seed doesn't get salted and baked for seasonal snacking.

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:08:02 -0700

lifeofbk:

That must be an awkward situation for pumpkins.

"The secret impresses no one. The trick you use it for is everything."

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 01:42:58 -0700

““The secret impresses no one.
The trick you use it for is everything.””

- The Prestige. Can’t believe I hadn’t watched it till now.

Seen on the streets of Berkeley.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:55:39 -0700

Seen on the streets of Berkeley.

Hello world.

Wed, 14 Oct 2009 02:47:06 -0700

I am back.

On another note, this could be the most uninteresting post of all time. Way to come back with a bang, right?