A thought for a Sunday

Prohibit the taking of omens, and do away with superstitious doubts. Then, until death itself comes, no calamity need be feared.

Sun Tzu - The Art of War - 6th century BCE Grow into these trousers... >>

The Most Astounding Fact

I realise that I've not been active round here for a while. Sorry to the world and thanks to NobblySan for the nudge.

What is the most astounding fact about the Universe? A deep question which has tied up philosophers, theologians and scientists for millennia. The astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson was asked this in an interview for TIME Magazine in 2008 (I think).

I would have said 'the direction of the arrow of time'. But thinking of the reverse: atoms and molecules converging through the soil to produce a corpse which is then animated as you, to exist for an undefined period gradually getting younger until doctors or midwives push you inside another person who then has inverse copulation...

Well it's no more strange then what we do by living 'forwards'. You'd be used to it because that's how it was. How would you tell the difference? I prefer it our way though.

DeGrasse Tyson chooses a different fact:

The Most Astounding Fact (Neil deGrasse Tyson)


We are stardust indeed.

Woodstock ~ Joni Mitchell
Grow into these trousers... >>