Vintage Spaceships Mini Poster

Good ol’ Rory

This proposed budget isn’t extreme. Reagan’s proposed budget in 1981 was extreme. This budget is short-sighted, cruel to the point of being sadistic, stupid to the point of pure philistinism, and shot through with the absolute and fundamentalist religious conviction that the only true functions of government are the ones that involve guns, and that the only true purpose of government is to serve the rich.

Donald Trump’s Budget Is the Ending Conservatives Always Wanted (via azspot)

Where Could Life Exist?

When NASA scientists announced earlier this year that they had found evidence of liquid water on Mars, imaginations ran wild with the possibility that life could exist somewhere other than here on Earth.

Scientists continue to explore the possibility that Mars once looked a lot like Earth — salty oceans, fresh water lakes, and a water cycle to go with it. That’s exciting stuff.

So where else are they looking? What exactly are they looking for?

There are nine places in our universe where scientists say life is a possibility. The locations range from a smoking hot planet like Venus to a moon that orbits Saturn called Enceladus, which looks a lot like a massive, tightly-packed ball of ice.

All of these places show signs that water is, or at least was, a possibility. They also appear to feature some kind of energy that could produce heat.

full resolution

A little brightness to aid your quest towards the weekend.  Those poor S.O.B’s didn’t stand a chance. 

It’s true, our mere existence is a miracle. 

Slideshow of Venus photos from the Soviet Venera 9 orbiter, 1975

“Perhaps Carl Sagan’s life’s work is just now bearing new fruit. He inspired enough of the Earth’s citizens to take our place in space seriously; to know and appreciate the fragility of our world; that we have so far avoided a nuclear weapon war; that we started thinking about the climate of Mars and especially the climate of Venus as compared with the climate of Earth; that his landmark television series is being updated and broadcast in new generations. There are more science websites today than ever in history; more science interest than in the last 30 years. Perhaps this new fruit will help us - dare I say it - change the world. Perhaps we’ve begun a new enlightened era of scientific discovery that will soon include people from everywhere. Although it has taken decades, Carl Sagan may yet save the world as we know it.” – Bill Nye The Science Guy speaking at The Library of Congress during ‘A Celebration of Carl Sagan’ to celebrate the official opening of the Seth MacFarlane Collection of the Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan Archive to the public at the Library of Congress. [x]

me: only deep and meaningful lyrics get to me

rammstein: you’ve got a pussy, i have a dick-ah, so what’s the problem, let’s do it quick

me:

Automatic voter registration is the answer.

“Our job is not to wipe out propensities, but to arrange the stencils, to design society so the best in us is brought out.”

In this archival interview from October 9, 1992, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan talk about their book Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are, an investigation of our human origins. Sagan and Druyan discussed human prejudice and distrust of other cultures in the context of the Cold War and the presidential election of 1992. But many of the conversation’s themes about fear and xenophobia seem just as applicable today.