Tag: Video

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What Is the Most Astounding Fact about the Universe? – Neil deGrasse Tyson

What Is the Most Astounding Fact about the Universe - Neil de Grasse Tyson

The most astounding fact [about the universe] is the knowledge that the atoms that comprise life on Earth, the atoms that make up the human body, are traceable to the crucibles that cooked light elements into heavy elements in their core under extreme temperatures and pressures.

These stars, the high mass ones among them, went unstable in their later years. They collapsed and then exploded, scattering their enriched guts across the galaxy—guts made of carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and all the fundamental ingredients of life itself.

These ingredients become part of gas clouds that condense, collapse, form the next generation of solar systems, stars with orbiting planets, and those planets now have the ingredients for life itself, so that when I look up at the night sky and I know that yes, we are part of this universe, we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts is that the universe is in us.

When I reflect on that fact, I look up, many people feel small because they’re small and the Universe is big, but I feel big, because my atoms came from those stars.

There’s a level of connectivity. That’s really what you want in life. You want to feel connected. You want to feel relevant. You want to feel like you are a participant in the goings on of activities and events around you. That’s precisely what we are just by being alive.

— Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson

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David Bowden – The Inner Net [Poem]

David Bowden - The Inner Net [Poem]

David Bowden - The Inner Net [Poem]

The Inner Net – David Bowden

Woven into each and everyone of us there is

an inner net

We connect

To each other

Thread to Thread

Cell to Cell

Heart to Heart

When formed correctly the net forms community

            And we catch boat loads of life

We all yearn to be hewn[1] in this collection

            For it is the human connection

            It’s the reason why we have eyes, tongues, and lips

            So we can be intertwined together as we see, speak and kiss

            It’s the reason why we have right and left hands

            So when my right reaches your left

            Pinkies, rings, middles, pointers, and thumbs interconnect

            In the loom of the human thread

But we have become disconnected

  By nations and nationalities

            Language and legalities

            Wars and quarantines

            Prejudices and bigotry [2]

The net of humanity

Has been severed severely

As we cut ourselves off

In the pursuit of individuality

And in the midst of this shrinking world sensation

Many are placing the blame on

Technology

As we burrow into browsers

Unplug by plugging in for hours

Miss blue skies while working in the cloud

Laugh out loud without laughing out loud

Humanity seems to be disconnecting

            At the one point in history when it is the most connected

But just as to the good we are not entirely compliant [3]

            Nor entirely resistant

Neither is this tool entirely consistent

For the problems of our world used to be too big and too distant

            To connect to and know of its widespread existence

            But now our world is too small and too close for us not to make a difference

We can now connect

            Crowds around a cause

            The ignorant to knowledge

            The isolated to college

            Orphans to their fathers

            Donors to non-profits

            And injustices to those who can stop it

We can now see

            Our newborn nephew

            A revolution breakthrough

            The troops as they withdrew

            Uncensored world news

            And what is and isn’t untrue

We can now hear

            Cries from Thailand

            Shouts from Somalia

            And can shove our arms, elbow-deep,

            Through our screens, reach out,

            And touch them

But so often

            We use this tool to ignore them

            And the rest of those humans

            For just as fire can be used for warmth or destruction

            We misuse url’s, firewalling off the world with distractions

We search daily, but find nothing

Add friends, but lose community

Look for love but get pornography

Try to discover ourselves, but lose our identity

And though this entity is filled with both

            Healing and brokenness

Guilt and innocence

Some of what’s Godly

And some of what’s Devilish

That does not detract from its significance

When it comes down to it

The true nature of this new age unit

Is in how we use it

Woven into each and everyone of us there is an inner net

And I pray we may stitch our world back together

As we knit, patch, and connect

[1] hewn: shaped

[2] bigotry: intolerence

[3] compliant: obeying

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The Science of Happiness – An Experiment in Gratitude

The Science of Happiness - An Experiment in Gratitude

The Science of Happiness - An Experiment in Gratitude

Psychologists have scientifically proven that one of the greatest contributing factors to overall happiness in your life is how much gratitude you show.

In this experiment put on by Soul Pancake, subjects who wrote a letter of gratitude, thinking of someone that influenced them the most, saw a rise in happiness of 2-4%.

However, for subjects who picked up the phone and personally expressed their gratitude to the person that influenced them the most in their life, there were happiness increases of 4-19%, showing that expressing your gratitude will make you a happier person.

This happiness experiment in gratitude is based on the following study:

Martin E. P. Seligman, Tracy A. Steen & Christopher Peterson, “Positive Psychology Progress: Empirical Validation of Interventions.”