]]> http://benevender.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/113/feed/ 0 benevender http://benevender.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/donations-accepted/ http://benevender.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/donations-accepted/#comments Mon, 20 Dec 2010 01:01:16 +0000 benevender http://benevender.wordpress.com/?p=111 ]]>

]]> http://benevender.wordpress.com/2010/12/19/donations-accepted/feed/ 0 benevender http://benevender.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/the-world-would-be-better-if-everyone-watched-this-video-pale-blue-dot-gizmodo/ http://benevender.wordpress.com/2010/04/12/the-world-would-be-better-if-everyone-watched-this-video-pale-blue-dot-gizmodo/#comments Mon, 12 Apr 2010 16:47:19 +0000 benevender http://benevender.wordpress.com/?p=109 ]]> The Pale Blue Dot

The spacecraft was a long way from home.

I thought it would be a good idea, just after Saturn, to have them take one last glance homeward. From Saturn, the Earth would appear too small for Voyager to make out any detail. Our planet would be just a point of light, a lonely pixel hardly distinguishable from the other points of light Voyager would see: nearby planets, far off suns. But precisely because of the obscurity of our world thus revealed, such a picture might be worth having.

It had been well understood by the scientists and philosophers of classical antiquity that the Earth was a mere point in a vast, encompassing cosmos—but no one had ever seen it as such. Here was our first chance, and perhaps also our last for decades to come.

So, here they are: a mosaic of squares laid down on top of the planets in a background smattering of more distant stars. Because of the reflection of sunlight off the spacecraft, the Earth seems to be sitting in a beam of light, as if there were some special significance to this small world; but it’s just an accident of geometry and optics. There is no sign of humans in this picture: not our reworking of the Earth’s surface; not our machines; not ourselves. From this vantage point, our obsession with nationalisms is nowhere in evidence. We are too small. On the scale of worlds, humans are inconsequential: a thin film of life on an obscure and solitary lump of rock and metal.

Consider again that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you’ve ever heard of, every human being who ever was lived out their lives. The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings; thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines; every hunter and forager; every hero and coward; every creator and destroyer of civilizations; every king and peasant, every young couple in love; every mother and father; hopeful child; inventor and explorer; every teacher of morals; every corrupt politician; every supreme leader; every superstar; every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there—on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena.

Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings; how eager they are to kill one another; how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. It underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the only home we’ve ever known.

The pale blue dot.

Excerpt from Carl Sagan via Gizmodo: http://gizmodo.com/5513783/the-world-would-be-better-if-everyone-watched-this-video

The World Would Be Better If Everyone Watched This Video – Pale blue dot – Gizmodo.

We Are Here: The Pale Blue Dot from dmahr on Vimeo.

The worry I have is that he will be a one term President.  That is absolutely the worng course of action for our country.  We need President Obama for his two terms and to segway into another two terms of democrats.  Ok maybe we don’t need that later but it would be nice.  Regardless, President Obama is of great intelligence and demeanor that does not come but once every so often.  Unfortunately the greatness of his person is a failure of a President.  Case in point: Jimmy Carter.  Now, don’t start jumping on President Carter because most people think he failed the economy and distroyed the democratic run to lead into the horrible Trickle-down policies of Reagan.  No, I have a different view of Carter that sets him at a higher standard.

It is well-known to economists, and almost common sensicial, that the economy corrolates to the Presidental term.  Meaning, the Presidents utilize the economy through their policies to make sure that when it comes time for re-election the unemployment is low, the inflatio is low and things are good.  Now this is harder than it seems.  mainly because the economy is like a wave.  Any policy you enact for benefit will be witnessed at first but almost always will have a reciprocal  reaction that will cause harm later down the line.  A very simple way of showing this:  When the dolar is strong against other currency, we travel because it is cheaper to go to the other countries finally, while it is strong it starts to get weaker because we are no longer spending here.  But at the same time it is getting weaker, foreigners are traveling here because it is finally getting cheaper for them to travel abroad which causes our dollar to get stronger and so we continue a nice cycle, if it was only that easy, but simple.  This can be applied to most of the policies enacted by the Presidents, the inital response is good but will eventually turn bad and then you do the same thing and it is good again! And everyone is happy!

Example: Our dear Friend Ronald Reagan.  President Reagan took over the “bad” Economy from Carter with Unemployment at 7.5%.  Two years into office it finally dropped from 10.8%.  He couldn’t wait too long or he would have failed our country, but pundits claim Carter did so bad with the economy that it took those two years for Reagan to gain control of the economy and then turn it around with his trickle down polcies.  The result: The economy was doing well when it was time for re-election!  Reagan’s advisors knew that the drop in unemployment would not last very long as their trickle down policies do not sustain drops like democratics(Clinton! dropped form 7.3 to 4.3 when he left).  After re-election, the wave started again.

So what happened to Carter? Did he really fail the economy?  No, he simply started fixing the economy right in office.  What did this do?  The unemployment drop halted and started back up once it was time for re-election.  No one remebers more than a few months before and because he was all about fixing the economy for the sake of fixing the economy, he lost the re-election.  Although he did have other issues: Hostages, this is a simple take to explain another issue, not debate the moralness of Carter, Nobel Peace Prize.

Which brings me to Obama.  Bush left Office with an unemployment rate of 7.6%.  WHich pretty much doomed McCain, as most voters corralated Bush’s economics to all republicans.  Which is why McCain tried so hard to seperate out Bush.  I argue that that is also why Clinton lost.  Watching the process, CLinton looked so similar in tactics to McCain, so the voters also corralated Clinton to those policies.  CLinton looked too much like Republicans.  Regardless, Obama inherited an unemployment rate of 7.6% and at six months in, Republicans were saying the “honeymoon” is over and it is time for the changes.  Well wait, we waited two years for your guy Reagan.  At seven months in, the unemployment actually dropped!  Which is great but begs the simple questionof the whole piece: IS that too quick for him to be re-elected.  History would say maybe.  After two years of office Clinton, dropped the unemployment from 7.3 to 7.0 and then down to 4.3.  So it is possible.  BUT, if Obama is not careful, we might see the unemployment rise once again once it is time for re-election.  We have already been seeing the hate that is generated against Obama in such short amounts of time.  Reagan got two years Obama got six months.  He is on a very short leash for some reason.

Needless to say, Obama is taking on the economy with a full head of steam for the sake of fixing the economy similar to Carter.  Reagan used the economy to his advantage.  Obama may be of higher moral standards but that does not make him a President that can win a second term.  I hope for the best and that we dow re-elect him but I worry more and more wach day as I watch these “tea Parties” when they are enven the ones with Tax increase, and all the hate at the town-hall health care meetings.  President Obama is the epitome of a President and a great man.  Just be careful.

To read more: An emphirical study of Politico-economic interaction in the United States, Frey and Schneider

Political Business Cysles,  Snowdon and Vane