Pen Addiction

A Science Icon Died 17 Years Ago. In His Last Interview, He Made A Warning That Gives Me Goosebumps.

His dark prediction about the future has become our present.

Jefferson:  It wasn't enough to enshrine some rights in the constitution and the bill of rights, the people had to be educated and they had to practice their skepticism in their education otherwise we don't run the government- the government runs us.

We live in an age based on science and technology with formidable technological powers.

If we don't understand it, by we I mean the general public, if it's something that "oh I'm not good at, that I don't know anything about it", then who is making all the decisions about science and technology that are going to determine what kind of future our children live in?  Just some members of congress, but there's no more than a handful members of congress with any background in science at all.

Waiting for the Pope2

Carl Sagan, Stephen Hawking and Arthur C. Clarke - God, The Universe and Everything Else (1988) [52:10]

Bummed I missed the first episode of the new Cosmos, but I'll catch it on Sunday!

A couple of clips from this excellent video, an hour well spent...   Big questions and Curiosity Science, Politics, and Skepticism Creativity

miracle of life

miracle of life

The animation on this video is truly amazing, made me think of my “What Are the Odds” post.  #perspective

#empathy #perspective

A friend of mine posted this on FB today:

"When confronted with someone whose “normal” is not our “normal,” we are forced to confront the most frightening prospect of all: that there is no such thing as “normal.” Just the accidental cultural moment we happened to be born into, a cultural happenstance that never existed before, and will never exist again.

We resist difference because it requires we acknowledge that the culture we grew up with as “normal” is just a momentary accident. It requires we accept that the world we were born into will never be the same as the world we die in. The longer we live, the more we become interlopers, even in our home towns. But, if we’d let it happen, also, the more we will learn.

...someday, someone will look back and think, “Those were the days! That was what was normal!” And that person will be wrong. And that person will be right."

(which, side note, led me here and here, but that’s a story for another occasion)  

While another friend of mine emailed me today and talked about having to unfriend someone on FB today because of racist comments on a friend’s timeline related to what’s going on in politics today...

In some respects, I think that tools like Virtual Reality could be a real help in teaching people to learn to acquire a less judgeful and more peaceful mindset-- take a look at this article: The Virtual Reality Renaissance: How Learning in VR Will Inspire Action Like Never Before

...  of course, technology is never the panacea, VR could be a great tool in the arsenal of the one thing if anything would help solve this problem--- education...  

Education has the power to change the world...  that is truly one of my core beliefs...

I’m encouraged by organizations like following as well as articles that I’ve tagged  #empathy on delicious

StartEmpathy.org

 ActionSprout.io

 RootsofEmpathy.org

So while it's very telling that the largest factor of predictors for Trump is education- or lack of education that is-  there’s still the hope that rationality will win out...  

And if all else fails there’s:

How to move to Canada – Google search spikes after Donald Trump Super Tuesday success

Why You Should Care How I Learn: Eric Smalls at TEDxStanford

Eric Smalls is a sophomore at Stanford studying computer science. In 2012, President Barack Obama featured Smalls in a campaign video about the importance of...

#Democracy

NSA reform falters as House passes gutted USA Freedom Act So-called reform measure still grants NSA broad access to phone metadata.

You cannot have a democracy without a right to privacy, where is the outrage?

Related TED talk: Lawrence Lessig: We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim

Instagram

After holding out for so long, a friend of mine finally convinced me to get on Instagram.... So after giving it a try I thought I would post (on Flickr!) about the experience so far.... Read more over at Flickr

Announcing the Web We Want

"Millions of people together have made the Web great. So, during the Web’s 25th birthday year in 2014, millions of people can secure the Web’s future. We mu

It's official, I'm finally a published author!!!