The Sun, Occupy, Big Brother, and Everything

I’ve been researching the life cycle of the sun lately and I’ve found out a few interesting things.

The sun is gradually warming.  That means that in about a billion years, it will be so hot that water will no longer exist in a liquid state on earth and life as we know it will come to an end.

Also, when the sun becomes a red giant, in about five billion years, it will expand to a volume so vast, that it will grow far beyond earth’s current orbit.

This is all a seriously long way off, but in the mean time, here are some deliciously disconcerting facts about the sun all lifted from that old unreliable reliable Wikipedia:

The sun’s output has dropped 0.02% at visible wavelengths and 6% at extreme ultraviolet wavelengths.

Over the last two decades, the solar wind speed has dropped by 3%, its temperature by 13%, and its density by 20%

The sun’s magnetic field is at less than half the strength it was twenty-two years ago.

So.  Life is short.  All life is short.  What are you going to do?  What gives life meaning? Is it found on the weekend, say, in a bowl of ice cream?  Is it in a good meal with the ones you love?  Is it in giving a perfect stranger a seat on BART?

Life is full of choices.

Some are nice:

Some are difficult:

boingboing.net/2011/11/20/ucdeyetwitness.html

And some are just down right weird:

gu.com/p/2akd8/tw

Me, I’m just trying to decrease the shadows.  For a handful of people.  Maybe more.


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