If You Find The Earth Boring...

There’s a nice feature on the art of Ruth Awasa over at the blog MondoBlogo.  Check it out!

With a bunch of Dick Clark (we’ll miss you) links resurfacing, this little gem came my way.  See everybody boogie to Beefheart in ‘66! [youtube XFfKWfJ8Tc8 600 400]

Six Martian sunrises, as seen by the HiRISE orbiter.  Digitally processed photos sent through space.  Good Morning!

“Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it.” - Bertold Brecht “There is no God higher than truth.” - Mahatma Gandhi “After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” - Aldous Huxley “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrowmindedness.” - Mark Twain “Sex without love is as hollow and ridiculous as love without sex.” - Hunter S. Thompson “The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposing ideas in mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function. One should, for example, be able to see that things are hopeless yet be determined to make them otherwise.” - F. Scott Fitzgerald “Every morning I awake torn between a desire to save the world and an inclination to savor it. This makes it hard to plan the day. But if we forget to savor the world, what possible reason do we have for saving it? In a way, the savoring must come first.” - E.B. White “We must never forget that art is not a form of propaganda; it is a form of truth.” - John F. Kennedy “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” -Mahatma Gandhi “Philosophy is to science as pornography is to sex - it is cheaper, easier, and some people seem, bafflingly, to prefer it.” - Steve Jones “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” - Albert Einstein “Take the risk of thinking for yourself, much more happiness, truth, beauty, and wisdom will come to you that way.” - Christopher Hitchens “Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.” - Vaclav Havel “Just living is not enough”, said the butterfly. “One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.” - Hans Christian Anderson “I was born very far from where I’m meant to be. So I’m on my way home.” - Bob Dylan “The reason people find it so hard to the happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be.” - Marcel Pagnol “Almost nobody dances sober, unless they happen to be insane.” - H.P. Lovecraft “You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” - Mae West “A writer is someone for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.” - Thomas Mann “We often feel paralyzed by choice and make no choice, but the thing is, no choice is a choice.  If you’re not doing something about it, you’re doing something about it.” - Chris Guillebeau “We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” - Joseph Campbell “The problem, often not discovered until late in life, is that when you look for things in life like love, meaning, motivation, it implies they are sitting behind a tree or under a rock. The most successful people in life recognize, that in life they create their own love, they manufacture their own meaning, they generate their own motivation. For me, I am driven by two main philosophies, know more today about the world than I knew yesterday, and lessen the suffering of others. You’d be surprised how far that gets you.” - Neil deGrasse Tyson “Confidence is what you have before you understand the problem.” - Woody Allen “Freedom is what you do with what’s been done to you.” - Jean-Paul Sartre “For every complex problem there is an answer which is clear, simple, and wrong.” - H.L. Mencken “So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.” - Ray Bradbury “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” - E.E. Cummings “It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.” - Richard Feynman “Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simple not giving the kiss the attention it deserves.”  - Albert Einstein “If you’re only skeptical, then no new ideas make it through to you. You never can learn anything. You become a crotchety misanthrope convinced that nonsense is ruling the world.” – Carl Sagan “Cynicism masquerades as wisdom, but it is the farthest thing from it.  Because cynics don’t learn anything.  Because cynicism is a self-imposed blindness, a rejection of the world because we are afraid it will hurt us or disappoint us.  Cynics always say no.  But saying yes begins things.  Saying yes is how things grow.  Saying yes leads to knowledge.” - Stephen Colbert “The more I think it over, the more I feel that there is nothing more truly artistic than to love people.” - Vincent Van Gogh “Anyone who wants to be remembered is doomed not to be remembered.” - Gore Vidal “During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.” - George Orwell “_Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” -_ John Adams “I want a woman who can sit me down, shut me up, tell me ten things I don’t already know, and make me laugh.  I don’t care what you look like, just turn me on.  And if you can do that, I will follow you on bloody stumps through the snow.  I will nibble your mukluks with my own teeth.  I will do your windows.  I will care about your feelings.  Just have something in there.” - Henry Rollins ‎”If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” – Desmond Tutu “The right to search for truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” - Albert Einstein

I love overhearing people’s conversations that take place in public.  The following overheard conversation is about as close to verbatim as can be.  I just typed this out as two older women are sitting at the table next to me at my local coffee shop: Older Woman #1:  “This last weekend my granddaughter and I watched a movie about a guy named Napoleon.” Older Woman #2:  “Oh, I do like documentaries.  Sometimes I watch them on the public television station.  I haven’t seen any movies about Napoleon Bonaparte.  Was this one any good?” Older Woman #1: “I don’t think it was a very realistic documentary.  This Napoleon Bonaparte lived in North Dakota.” Older Woman #2: “I’m pretty sure Napoleon Bonaparte lived in France.  I’m interested if the reason he invaded other countries was because he was overcompensating for being really short.” Older Woman #1: “I think this Napoleon Bonaparte was really tall and had lots of red hair.” Older Woman #2: “That doesn’t sound like Napoleon Bonaparte to me, but what do I know.  The movie must have at least talked about the relationship of Napoleon and Josephine?” Older Woman #1: “I don’t really remember anyone named Josephine.  I just think the movie was about the relationship of Napoleon Bonaparte and some guy named Pedro.” Older Woman #2: “Napoleon and a guy named Pedro?  That’s funny, I don’t think Napoleon Bonaparte was a homosexual.  I thought he was married to a woman named Josephine.  What kind of trash is your granddaughter making you watch?  Did she stop going to church?” Older Woman #1: “I don’t think this movie was about homosexual people, but it had something to do with explosives.” Older Woman #2: “Explosives?  You need to make sure your granddaughter goes to church!”