Day 628

Friday, October 3, 2014

I watched two documentaries today:


Still coming off my Cosmos high, this series of six 30-minute lectures by Neil deGrasse Tyson explains some of the physics behind the way the universe works.  It's amazing.  Tyson takes abstract, difficult concepts and makes them understandable.  For the first time, I feel I have a better understand of quantum mechanics, thanks to these lectures.  I also love how he shows how science, the scientific method and the power of observation dispels mysteries that, left unexplained, tend to fall under the category of God's unknowable hand.  With the Hubble photos and our greater understanding of the cosmos just in the past decade, we're writing a new Genesis that is as inexplicable and phenomenal as anything we've ever known.  More and more, we see to be part of a universe that may have millions upon millions of other earths just like ours, with life forms as varied and complicated as our own.  Do they also have DNA?  Are they carbon-based?  Are their intelligent life forms out there that make us the equivalent of monkeys or dogs?  Based on the numbers, life beyond our own planet looks not only probable, but almost certain.  We just need to find the evidence to support this.  Hopefully, soon, we'll confront our next "the world is round and revolves around the sun" eureka moment.

The next documentary I saw was



How interesting that his mother was a raging alcoholic.  No wonder I so admire and enjoy this fellow adult child.  I found this documentary fascinating.  To be honest, I've read very little Gore Vidal.  That really needs to change.  He nailed it about politics and people in high office, including Obama.  The system corrupts in the end.  I wish I had his and Christopher Hitchens's brainpower.

No comments:

Post a Comment