Day Brightener – Regardless How We Each Might Feel About Him – Here Is The Wisdom Of Carl Sagan

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“Religion deals with history, with poetry, with great literature, with ethics, with morals, including the morality of treating compassionately the least fortunate among us. All of these are things that I endorse wholeheartedly. Where religion gets into trouble is in those cases that it pretends to know something about science.

The science in the Bible, for example, was acquired by the Jews from the Babylonians during the Babylonian captivity of 600 BC. That was the best science on the planet then. But we’ve learned something since then. Roman Catholicism, Reform Judaism, most of the mainstream Protestant denominations have no difficulty with the idea that humans have evolved from other creatures, that the Earth is 4.6 billion years old, the Big Bang. They don’t have any trouble with that. The trouble comes with people who are Biblical literalists who believe that the Bible is dictated by the Creator of the Universe to an unerring stenographer and has no metaphor or allegory in it.”

Carl Sagan “The Science in the Bible” (Charlie Rose Interview)


Some people, at least, are disturbed about the idea that there might be life elsewhere; even simple forms of life. And the idea that there might be civilizations more advanced than ourselves elsewhere upsets a lot of people. I’m not a psychologist but I have spoken to a lot of people on the subject, and I think that there is a sense of “let’s keep the idea of where we are in the universe tidy.” It gets very complicated if you imagine that we’re only one kind of life where there are millions of other kinds, some of them much more advanced than us. That is precisely a mind expanding experience, and some people are not interested in having their minds expanded.
I think it also bumps into people’s religious prejudices. The sophisticated representatives of all the major religions have stated that there’s no test of faith involved, that it expands the range of God’s activities if he made life on other planets and all that. But still I think there is a kind of fundamentalist malaise about the idea of life elsewhere.”
Carl Sagan (Rolling Stone Interview 1973)
We are set irrevocably, I believe, on a path that will take us to the stars unless in some monstrous capitulation to stupidity and greed, we destroy ourselves first. And out there in the depths of space, it seems very likely that, sooner or later, we will find other intelligent beings. Some of them will be less advanced than we; some, probably most, will be more. Will all the spacefaring beings, I wonder, be creatures whose births are painful? The beings more advanced than we will have capabilities far beyond our understanding. In some very real sense they will appear to us as godlike. There will be a great deal of growing up required of the infant human species. Perhaps our descendants in those remote times will look back on us, on the long and wandering journey the human race will have taken from its dimly remembered origins on the distant planet Earth, and recollect our personal and collective histories, our romance with science and religion, with clarity and understanding and love.”
Carl Sagan ; Broca’s Brain : Reflections on the Romance of Science
As a boy Kepler had been captured by a vision of cosmic splendor, a harmony of the worlds which he sought so tirelessly all his life. Harmony in this world eluded him. His three laws of planetary motion represent, we now know, a real harmony of the worlds, but to Kepler they were only incidental to his quest for a cosmic system based on the Perfect Solids, a system which, it turns out, existed only in his mind. Yet from his work, we have found that scientific laws pervade all of nature, that the same rules apply on Earth as in the skies, that we can find a resonance, a harmony, between the way we think and the way the world works.
When he found that his long cherished beliefs did not agree with the most precise observations, he accepted the uncomfortable facts, he preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions. That is the heart of science.”
Carl Sagan ; Cosmos “The Heart of Science”
We’ve tended in our cosmologies to make things familiar. Despite all our best efforts, we’ve not been very inventive. In the West, Heaven is placid and fluffy, and Hell is like the inside of a volcano. In many stories, both realms are governed by dominance hierarchies headed by gods or devils. Monotheists talked about the king of kings. In every culture we imagined something like our own political system running the Universe. Few found the similarity suspicious.
Then science came along and taught us that we are not the measure of all things, that there are wonders unimagined, that the Universe is not obliged to conform to what we consider comfortable or plausible. We have learned something about the idiosyncratic nature of our common sense. Science has carried human self -consciousness to a higher level.”
Carl Sagan ; Pale Blue Dot ; A Vision of the Human Future in Space
“The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival. I believe our future depends powerfully on how well we understand this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.”
Carl Sagan ; Cosmos
“Human history goes back only a few thousand years. Many people believed that the world was not much older than human history. And there was no sense of evolution, no sense of vast vistas of time. And then the geological and paleontological evidence began to accumulate, making it very difficult to see how the geological forms and the fossils of now-extinct plants and animals could have come into being, unless the Earth were enormously older than the few thousand years that had been projected. That is a battle still being fought.
In the United States, for example, there are people who are called “creationists,” the more radical of whom insist that the Earth is less than ten thousand years old. The shorter the age of the Earth, the greater the relative role of humans in the history of the Earth is. If the Earth is, as we certainly know it to be, 4,500 million years old and the human species at most a few million years old, probably less than that, then we have been here for only an instant of geological time, for less than one one-thousandth of the history of the Earth, and therefore in time, as in space, we have been demoted from the central to an incidental aspect.
And then evolution itself was still a further disquieting discovery, because at least it had been hoped that humans were separate from the rest of the natural world, that we had been specifically put here in a way different from petunias, let’s say. And yet Darwin’s historic work showed that we were very likely related in an evolutionary sense with all the other beasts and vegetables on the planet. And there remain many people who are enormously offended by this idea.”
Carl Sagan ; The Varieties of Scientific Experience

“If I thought the supreme coordinator of the universe had a special interest in making me and my brothers and sisters, that would give me a special significance. It would make me feel good, and also make me think that maybe I didn’t have to take care of myself; someone much more powerful would do so. It’s a tempting idea, but we have to be very careful not to impose our hopes and desires on the cosmos, but instead, in the scientific tradition and with the most open mind possible, see what the cosmos is saying to us.”
Carl Sagan “The Cosmos” (Rolling Stone Interview 1980)
We are ignorant about the complex mutual dependencies of the beings on earth, and what the sequential consequences will be if we wipe out some especially vulnerable microbes on which larger organisms depend. We are tugging at a planetwide biological tapestry and do not know whether one thread only will come out in our hands, or whether the whole tapestry will unravel before us.
-Carl Sagan, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium (1997)
The laws of physics suffice, without supernatural intervention.
-Carl Sagan, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millenium (1997)

Carl Sagan on artificial intelligence (1975)
“When we characterize ants and geese as only robots, we are also in danger of losing sight of the possibilities in robotics and artificial intelligence over the next few decades.
Already there are robots that read sheet music and play it on a keyboard; robots that translate between very different languages; robots that learn from their own experiences, codifying rules never taught to them by their programmers.
Some chess-playing robots can defeat all but a handful of human chess masters. Their moves surprise their programmers. Their games are routinely analyzed by experts, who speculate about what the robot’s ‘strategy,’ ‘goals,’ and ‘intentions’ must have been.”
– Carl Sagan, In Praise of Robots
Nearly all our problems are made by humans and can be solved by humans. No social convention, no political system, no economic hypothesis, no religious dogma is more important.
-Carl Sagan, Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium (1997)

Day Brightener – Julie Andrews And Her Favorite Things At An AARP Event

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To commemorate her birthday, actress/vocalist, Julie Andrews made a special appearance at Manhattan’s Radio City Music Hall for the benefit of the AARP. 

 

One of the musical numbers she performed was ‘My Favorite Things’ from her legendary movie, ‘The Sound Of Music’. 

 

Here are the lyrics she used – If you sing it, it’s especially hysterical!!

Botox and nose drops and needles for knitting,
Walkers and handrails and new dental fittings,
Bundles of magazines tied up in string,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Cadillacs and cataracts, hearing aids and glasses,
Polident and Fixodent and false teeth in glasses,
Pacemakers, golf carts and porches with swings,
These are a few of my favorite things.

When the pipes leak, When the bones creak,
When the knees go bad,
I simply remember my favorite things,
And then I don’t feel so bad.

Hot tea and crumpets and corn pads for bunions,
No spicy hot food or food cooked with onions,
Bathrobes and heating pads and hot meals they bring,
These are a few of my favorite things.

Back pain, confused brains and no need for sinnin’,
Thin bones and fractures and hair that is thinnin’,
And we won’t mention our short shrunken frames,
When we remember our favorite things.

When the joints ache, When the hips break,
When the eyes grow dim,
Then I remember the great life I’ve had,
And then I don’t feel so bad.

 

Day Brightener – A.A.A.D.D. – Know The Symptoms!

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Thank GOD there’s a name for this disorder! 

Age-Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.  

This is how it manifests:

I decide to water my garden. As I turn on the hose in the driveway, I look over at my car and decide it needs washing.

As I start toward the garage, I notice mail on the porch table thatI brought up from the mail box earlier.

I decide to go through the mail before I wash the car.

I lay my car keys on the table,  Put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, And notice that the can is full.

So I decide to put the bills back On the table and take out the garbage first…

But then I think, Since I’m going to be near the mailbox anyway When I take out the garbage, I may as well pay the bills first.

I take my cheque book off the table and see that there is only one cheque left. My extra cheques are in my desk in the study, So I go inside the house to my desk where I find the can of Diet Coke I’d been drinking.

I’m going to look for my cheques, But first I need to push the Diet Coke aside So that I don’t accidentally knock it over.

The Diet Coke is getting warm, And I decide to put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold.

As I head toward the kitchen with the Diet Coke, A vase of flowers on the counter Catches my eye – they need water.

I put the Diet Coke on the counter and Discover my reading glasses that I’ve been searching for all morning. I decide I better put them back on my desk, But first I’m going to water the flowers.

I set the glasses back down on the counter,  Fill a container with water and suddenly spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table.

I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I’ll be looking for the remote, But I won’t remember that it’s on the kitchen table, So I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs,

But first I’ll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, 
But quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, Get some towels and wipe up the spill.

Then, I head down the hall trying to Remember what I was planning to do.

At the end of the day:
The car isn’t washed,
The bills aren’t paid,
There is a warm can of
Diet Coke sitting on the counter,

The flowers don’t have enough water,
There is still only 1 cheque in my cheque book,
I can’t find the remote,
I can’t find my glasses,
And I don’t remember what I did with the car keys. 

Then, when I try to figure out why nothing got done today,  I’m really baffled because I know I was busy all day, And I’m really tired.

I realize this is a serious problem, And I’ll try to get some help for it, but first I’ll check my e-mail…

Do me a favour. Forward this message to everyone you know, Because I don’t remember who I’ve sent it to.

Don’t laugh – if this isn’t you yet, your day is coming!

P.S.  I don’t remember who sent it to me, so if it was you, I’m sorry.

Bonus Day Brightener – Let‘s Look At The Immensity Of The Universe

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Voyager 1 will travel this far in 1 million years — let that sink in.
Voyager 1 is the furthest human made object in existence and it is currently screaming through the void at 38,000 miles per hour (61,155 kilometers per hour).
Launched in 1977, the spacecraft has already crossed the heliopause, the boundary where the sun’s solar wind meets the interstellar medium. It is now more than 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) away from Earth. To put that in perspective, a radio signal traveling at the speed of light takes over 22 hours to reach us from the craft. While it seems like Voyager has traveled an impossible distance, it has barely scratched the surface of the cosmos. In about 300 years, it will reach the inner edge of the Oort Cloud, a vast shell of icy objects surrounding our solar system. It will take another 30,000 years just to fly out the other side.
The red line on a galactic map representing Voyager’s path over the next 1 million years is surprisingly short. Even at its incredible speed, space is so vast that the craft remains a slow mover on a cosmic scale. In about 40,000 years, Voyager 1 will pass within 1.6 light years (9.4 trillion miles or 15 trillion kilometers) of the star AC plus 79 3888 in the constellation Camelopardalis. After that, it will continue to drift through the Milky Way for millions, perhaps billions, of years. Because the vacuum of interstellar space is so empty, the chances of Voyager hitting an asteroid or a planet are nearly zero. It is effectively immortal, destined to outlast the very civilization that built it.
Inside the craft sits the Golden Record, a copper phonograph record containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. It is a message in a bottle cast into the cosmic ocean. Even when its plutonium power source finally dies in the coming years, silencing its instruments forever, the craft will remain a silent monument to human curiosity. We are a species that dared to reach into the dark, leaving a permanent mark on the galaxy that will endure long after our own sun begins its final transformation.

Day Brightener – Happy Friday The 13th Facts And Superstitions

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It’s Friday the 13th! Another “unlucky” day is upon us, which means fears and anxiety are bubbling, but there’s no need to fret. A Friday (the 13th) is better than Monday, right?

Here’s some spooky Friday the 13th superstitions, origin stories and more to keep you on your toes today.

Why is Friday the 13th considered unlucky? Here’s Friday the 13th origin, history

The exact origin of how Friday the 13th became associated with bad luck is a bit, well, murky, with several ancient beliefs. For one, it could be associated with an 1834 article published in a French magazine where the author spoke of a Sicilian count who killed his daughter on Friday the 13th, according to Britannica. In it, the author wrote, “It is always Fridays and the number 13 that bring bad luck!”

There are also biblical connections to the day. In the Bible, Judas, who is believed to have betrayed Jesus, was the 13th guest at the Last Supper. The next day, Good Friday, Jesus was crucified. Friday is also associated with bad luck, which was believed to be the day Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit, the day Cain murdered Abel, the day the Temple of Solomon was destroyed and the day the Great Flood began.

Here’s some Friday the 13th superstitions, myths, facts, more

Don’t let this list get you spooked, as it’s all in good fun, but here are some superstitions and myths that have brewed over the years:

  • Walking under a ladder: This superstition comes from the belief that a ladder forms a triangle with the wall and that by stepping through it, evil may befall you.
  • Breaking a mirror: Breaking a mirror is said to bring seven years of bad luck.
  • Black cats: The black cat is associated with witches and bad omens, and it is considered bad luck if one crosses your path on Friday the 13th. Of course, we all know the furry feline is adorable no matter their color and cats were even considered sacred by Egyptians.
  • Spilling salt: The superstition is that if you spill salt, tossing it over your left shoulder with your right hand will counteract any evil spirits.
  • Bad luck comes in “3s”: Several theories behind the belief that when something bad happens, then another, you will always wait for the third “shoe to drop,” so to say.
  • Knock on wood, or touch wood: This is a popular one; you say you “never get sick” or you’re “car has never broken down” and boom: you immediately search for wood to give it a few taps. It is believed this originated with the Druids, who believed divinity involved nature and the trees were their gods, according to the Farmers’ Almanac.
  • Opening an umbrella indoors: There are several beliefs as to why this will bring bad luck, but some suggest opening one inside away from direct sunlight was offensive to the Sun god, whom many worshipped.
  • Crossing your fingers: Another popular one that stems from the belief bad luck is trapped at the point where the two fingers meet when we cross our fingers. By crossing them, we prevent bad luck from escaping.
  • Where is Friday the 13th good luck?
  • In Italy, the number 17 — not the number 13 — is considered unlucky because the Roman number XVII reminds Italians of the Latin phrase “I have lived,” meaning “My life is over,” according to ThoughtCo.
  • Other cultures may have viewed the number 13 as lucky, including the ancient Egyptians, the Mayans and the Chinese, who believe the numbers 1 and 3 symbolize positivity.
  • What is the fear of Friday the 13th called?
  • Fear of Friday the 13th can cause some people anxiety and fear, a term psychologist Donald Dossey called paraskevidekatriaphobia — derived from the Greek words Paraskevi (Friday), triskaideka (thirteen) and phobos (fears), according to Britannica. It sometimes is called friggatriskaidekaphobia, which combines Frigg (the Norse goddess for whom Friday is named) and triskaidekaphobia (fear of the number 13).
  • When is the next Friday the 13th in 2026?
  • Friday the 13th occurs at least once a year and sometimes up to three times a year. It only happened once in 2025 but there will be three Friday the 13ths in 2026. The next Friday the 13th will be March 13, 2026.
  • Thanks to Lori Comstock is a New Jersey-based journalist with the Mid-Atlantic Connect Team.