May 31, 2006

Starlight A few paragraphs that define a simple joy. Yeah, yeah, I got it from MeFi
posted by petebest 18 years ago
  • Or, you know, you could just be a brain in a vat, and there is no star, no light, or anything you perceive as 'external reality'. Just sayin'.
  • I like how, with just my humble hand, I can block the energy a star is spewing all over the universe and prevent it from toasting my skin. Of course, it is much more pleasurable if I let it just do it, for a short amount of time. MMmmhh...
  • Purty.
  • Somehow, that article sort of rubbed me the wrong way -- perhaps it's because of the implication that the author was the only person to think of these things, when every high school philosopher/scientist has considered these things, found them fascinating and more than a little daunting, and then moved on to the next existential consideration. Yes, it's pretty cool, and yes, most people don't go to the effort of calculating the numbers involved, but the idea that these musings are in any way "something that no one has ever thought before" is not only a bit of a stretch, but nearly the inverse is true.
  • What chimaera said. Aww hell, I can't believe I'm linking to a Deepak Chopra book, but I read about the very same topic in said book over ten years ago. Aah, the photons of distant stars bouncing upon the retina... *inhales* *exhales* *feels connected to the universe*
  • I don't think he necessarily meant he was the first human evar to think of this. He was just the first he knew of to write it down. And I think it's pretty keen, myself.
  • I like the way starlight makes bears.
  • Anaother chimaera agree-with-er here, also due to the fact that this writing comes damned close to plagiarizing my own, personal, take-another-hit-from-the-bong-and-grok-this favorite: using the current scientific method for counting stars, we can now know that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on the earth. Don't recall who I stole that from (maybe Sagan?) but it's mine now.
  • I like the way starlight makes bears. That is one of the most beautiful sentences. Ever. Thanks for the one line poem Bees.
  • Twinkle-licious!
  • Pretty sure it was Sagan, RTD
  • Ah, that damn pot smoker, always with his 'grains of sand...'
  • Of course you can take this in decidedly unpoetical directions. Like for instance, how many particles of the food I ate end up wafting to my nostrils to be perceived as odor many hours later? SEE? Where's your Shakespeare now, man? ... The light you see is just the stars farting. ... Star Fart is the name of my next band. I got dibs.
  • Interestingly the blue thread was chock-full of similar and-yet-much-more-mean commentary. And yet there it is. Free for the taking. If you want, this weekend the Star Fart cover band, Astral Squeee, is playing at McTokeys. I think it's like Ladie's night or something.