The Milky Way’s black hole may spring to life in 2013
Astronomers have spotted a cloud of gas with three times the mass of the Earth on a near-collision course with the Milky Way’s central black hole. [full article]
Orson Welles’ Citizen Kane Oscar up for auction
The Oscar Orson Welles won for Citizen Kane 70 years ago will go up for auction online this month, a Los Angeles auction house announced Monday. [full article]
We all lose when ‘healers’ take everything from the sick
There is a legitimate role for a variety of complementary therapies such as yoga, meditation, mindfulness, a balanced diet and moderate exercise. The problem arises when the generic multivitamin tablet from the chemist morphs into weekly intravenous injections costing $1000 a shot. Or when the notion of cleansing the body of toxins is exploited with sham diets and enemas that land patients in the very hospitals they are determined to avoid. [full article]
Over the years I’ve accumulated heroes; people I look up to and admire both for their work and their conviction to what they believed in and worked for. Foremost of these for me w0uld be Carl Sagan whose visionary belief, not just in science, but in mankind itself, gave voice to the historical achievement of humans as a species and a beautiful, reconnecting position for all of us to take on this planet and amongst the stars.
Today (or rather, yesterday… time zones and relativity and what not aside) marks what would have been his 77th birthday; and his wisdom, insight and love is still missed.