August 6, 2012

Sixty seven years ago the world lived Hell on Earth.

Yesterday, here in Chicago, I stayed up late watching the landing of Curiosity. I am very touched.

Also yesterday, a racist killed his fellow brothers and sisters, and was shot down by  police.

Today I was told, I am going to teach an Introductory Astronomy class, at Waubonsee Community College.

What a day!

History in the making.

There are only predictions of things to come. Today professor James Hansen of NASA and Columbia University, released the results of his studies. He predicts trouble in the near future. Climate Change is real. I have almost no certainties. I know at least two things for sure:  there is something instead of nothing, and  I think, therefore I am.

Plutonium is a thread in the story I write here.

Professor David Deutsch, states that knowledge is objective. This means that when we know, we change reality. Plutonium 239 has a lifetime of twenty four thousand and one hundred years. If that isotope was at the surface of the Earth, when formed, it is gone by now, because our  planet was formed more than four thousand million years ago. The plutonium in the Curiosity rover is man made, and will be on the surface of Mars, all these thousands of years. Humankind has changed the surface of Mars for all this time to come. Any plutonium 239 there, has decayed by now also. Curiosity is the only object in Mars with plutonium 239. The rover will last less, because it has moving parts, and other complex mechanisms, which will break before then. This change was produced by human knowledge and human action. Curiosity's mission is to find life in Mars.

This very same substance killed hundreds of thousands of people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

This is a historic day, because we know how to do good, and how to do evil. If we choose to do good, I expect Americans, mainly young Americans, to get inspired by the inclusive character of institutions here. Last night in Curiosity's Control Room, I saw women, and men, young and old, Asians, blacks, and whites; all working together towards a common goal.

They told me that anybody can show up for my class, young, old, veterans, etc.

This is America, and I am proud to be an American.

Mr. Page was killed in Oak Creeck, Wisconsin. There are laws in this country, you cannot act with racist hate.

I registered for an Artificial Intelligence online class, at the University of California, Berkeley. It starts in September, and ends in November.

This is a great country. Let us make it better, so this day could be a Historic Day.