My long weekend ends tonight, with me anything but refreshed and rested. What's euphemistically termed "cellular debris" is the main culprit at the moment, but I suspect all my jaunts into Manhattan (where I hardly find myself with any regularity any more) the past four days, combined with a general lack of sleep, might be to blame as well. As mentioned previously, Cat got a whole bunch of good reading out of Free Comic Book Day and has been turned onto at least four new artists whose work he will now seek out; and yesterday we met Doc and Lili at the Rose Center, where I took lots of photos. I'll repro the thumbnails below but you should check out the whole thing in slideshow mode to see them full size:
To the right is Mia, whom we met on the bus Saturday, actually, going down to FCBD. She was as adorable as she looks here. As I only took one shot on Saturday I thought I'd lump this in with the rest. I mean, look at that face!
On the left, one of a few neighborhood photos I took. This was taking whilst waiting for the bus in front of the College of Mount Saint Vincent, which has some exquisite landscaping.
There's a little parklet surrounding the Rose Center, and on one of the paths lies this monument (on the right) to American Nobel Prize winners. I was hoping to see Betsy's husband's name on it, but they only go up to 2003 and Frank won in 2004.
At left, the tulips planted right outside the Rose Center's entrance were lovely. The tree pollen around is enough to give you quite the headache, but I think it's worth it for all this too-fleeting beauty. The weather could have been a tad warmer, but it was pleasant enough to sit outside waiting for Doc and Lili and not even need my heavy jacket. Of course, I did wear a sweatshirt...
I loved both these signs, particularly devoid of context. The one on the left says "Space Center Restrooms" and on the right it reads "Down to Big Bang." And so it was!
At the lobby entrance. Cat's on the left with his videocamera, Doc is on the right with his digital camera, and of course I'm facing them taking this shot. We're such photo geeks... (Lili, the relatively sensible one among us, is not pictured.)
Check it out, the big space at the bottom of the center had a replica of a Mars rover! Even shinier in person. I wish I could order one from Amazon...
Okay, just two more from the inside of the Center, because I want you to go to the page to see the full-sized shots and I wanted to make a point:
I love how they've now qualified the terminology they use (at left) by calling reality the "observable universe." It speaks to science's willingness to admit that "everything you know is wrong" every once in awhile, and to humans' ability to reconsider previously-held beliefs when challenged.
Lastly, on the right, a single hair-width represents the past 30,000 years of human existence and endeavor on this planet, compared with the history of the observable universe. One thing the Rose Center is definitely into exploring is the idea of a sense of scale, and a sense of humans' relative importance in the scheme of all things. How we're hardly the center of the observable universe, but at the same time we strive to be the creators of our own universes within, that of our minds' potential.
And I couldn't help but feel sorry for all those kids from Dominionist and other fundamentalist households, the ones who believe in all their blind faith that all of creation can't possibly be more than a few thousand years old, not that they have any proof because faith takes the place of proof and reason and thinking. Going to places like this, seeing all these awe-inspiring examples of how important and insignificant humans are all at the same time, well, it just makes me feel like I'm closer to the wonder of God than if I sat in a pew each weekend staring at a book of metaphors and parables. I still don't get why so many of these thoughtless folk insist that religion and science can't coexist. (But then, I never had a problem with the idea that "yom" - the Hebrew word for "day" - can't also mean "eon," meaning that our observable universe was created in the space of six eons, each eon lasting... what's the current estimate? A few billion years? Works for me.
Which reminds me, Christie Keith has some great thoughts on the tyranny of "balance" as well as on false equivalency, of how the Dominionists (and Republicans) like "to use your credibility to enhance theirs, they win even if they lose." Highly recommended.
To the right is Mia, whom we met on the bus Saturday, actually, going down to FCBD. She was as adorable as she looks here. As I only took one shot on Saturday I thought I'd lump this in with the rest. I mean, look at that face!On the left, one of a few neighborhood photos I took. This was taking whilst waiting for the bus in front of the College of Mount Saint Vincent, which has some exquisite landscaping.There's a little parklet surrounding the Rose Center, and on one of the paths lies this monument (on the right) to American Nobel Prize winners. I was hoping to see Betsy's husband's name on it, but they only go up to 2003 and Frank won in 2004.At left, the tulips planted right outside the Rose Center's entrance were lovely. The tree pollen around is enough to give you quite the headache, but I think it's worth it for all this too-fleeting beauty. The weather could have been a tad warmer, but it was pleasant enough to sit outside waiting for Doc and Lili and not even need my heavy jacket. Of course, I did wear a sweatshirt...I loved both these signs, particularly devoid of context. The one on the left says "Space Center Restrooms" and on the right it reads "Down to Big Bang." And so it was!At the lobby entrance. Cat's on the left with his videocamera, Doc is on the right with his digital camera, and of course I'm facing them taking this shot. We're such photo geeks... (Lili, the relatively sensible one among us, is not pictured.)Check it out, the big space at the bottom of the center had a replica of a Mars rover! Even shinier in person. I wish I could order one from Amazon...Okay, just two more from the inside of the Center, because I want you to go to the page to see the full-sized shots and I wanted to make a point:
I love how they've now qualified the terminology they use (at left) by calling reality the "observable universe." It speaks to science's willingness to admit that "everything you know is wrong" every once in awhile, and to humans' ability to reconsider previously-held beliefs when challenged.Lastly, on the right, a single hair-width represents the past 30,000 years of human existence and endeavor on this planet, compared with the history of the observable universe. One thing the Rose Center is definitely into exploring is the idea of a sense of scale, and a sense of humans' relative importance in the scheme of all things. How we're hardly the center of the observable universe, but at the same time we strive to be the creators of our own universes within, that of our minds' potential.And I couldn't help but feel sorry for all those kids from Dominionist and other fundamentalist households, the ones who believe in all their blind faith that all of creation can't possibly be more than a few thousand years old, not that they have any proof because faith takes the place of proof and reason and thinking. Going to places like this, seeing all these awe-inspiring examples of how important and insignificant humans are all at the same time, well, it just makes me feel like I'm closer to the wonder of God than if I sat in a pew each weekend staring at a book of metaphors and parables. I still don't get why so many of these thoughtless folk insist that religion and science can't coexist. (But then, I never had a problem with the idea that "yom" - the Hebrew word for "day" - can't also mean "eon," meaning that our observable universe was created in the space of six eons, each eon lasting... what's the current estimate? A few billion years? Works for me.
Which reminds me, Christie Keith has some great thoughts on the tyranny of "balance" as well as on false equivalency, of how the Dominionists (and Republicans) like "to use your credibility to enhance theirs, they win even if they lose." Highly recommended.
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