Thursday, August 10, 2017

Civilization depends on...

Are you worried about the collapse of civilization? It's worth remembering then, that civilization does not depend on how well the stock market is doing, GDP or your 401K. Civilization does not depend on the latest strategic defense system, or who gets elected

Civilization depends on civility.

So stop worrying and just be civil. The rest will take care of itself. Always has.

Saturday, June 10, 2017

When a small bird sings, the whole world changes.


The next time you find yourself facing an expanse, whether it is a howling sea, a green valley, or a cold night sky, allow yourself to become aware of the envelope of air that you are in. Then try to notice the continuity of the air and the space before you. Breathe.

Really breathe.
As you breathe, visualize the air and the space moving in and out of your lungs. Allow yourself to feel the life that the air and space support in YOU. Every breath, over the course of your whole life, IS your life. Allow yourself to feel this natural exchange of life.  
When you are ready, take a few deep breaths and with one, say your name. You can whisper it, just say it normally or shout it out loud. Keep your eyes open. After you say it, listen and watch. Watch the “you” in your name disperse into the space. Then listen for the space's response. What do you hear? And more importantly, what do you feel? Write it down.
We do this exercise early in our workshops because what you feel is an accurate reflection of your relationship to the cosmos. By doing this exercise occasionally, over time, we can use it as a way of checking in and seeing how your reflection changes. Eventually, you will find great joy in doing this exercise in even the most mundane scenarios and spaces.
In the woods you can imagine the mixing of your breath with that of the squirrels, birds, trees and crickets. In more public spaces, you can also imagine how sharing the air-space of everyone else unites us. This is the reality of an interconnected humanity and an interconnected cosmos.
The learning here is to understand how your body takes in the stuff of the world, reshapes it into you, and returns it changed to the world. In the process the world is changed too. The world imprints on you and you, in turn, imprint that unique thing that you are back into the world. But the two are inseparable. Neither exists without the other. The simple act of breathing is a visceral and vital reminder of the reality of this eternal, cyclical relationship. This is the cycle of being that's always right before your eyes and in the very act of breathing.

Thursday, May 19, 2016

The importance of unstructured play

I was driving down the highway rushing to some adult meeting, somewhere and saw a wooded area and swamp. I felt an attraction to go experience it. When I found it, before I knew it, the swamp had snuck up on me and flipped a familiar but often forgotten switch. 


When I was a kid, I spent a LOT of time in this kind of unstructured exploration, getting drawn in, developing a special relationship with the world. This little swamp experience reminded me. Thanks!

Sunday, March 06, 2016

The Limulus Encounter

Last summer, on the way back in from a surf, I had an amazing encounter with a couple of American horseshoe crabs (Limulus polymephus) doing their thing. 


If you look really closely you can see how the pusher leg works. The last leg has a really cool articulated shape that splays out when the animal pushes it against the sand (like an inside-out umbrella).
The pusher leg with foot closed...
...and open (as when pushing against sand)

I always wondered about why it had that shape and now I see!! In the video you too can see how well the pusher leg works. Awesome, beautiful, and WAY COOOL!

Saturday, January 16, 2016

Extending Kinship




I’ve always sensed a certain incompleteness to the argument that we need to simply think about our children in order to care about and implement environmental change. Caring for our children is certainly a strong and compelling emotion that we can all share. But there is still something fundamentally incomplete about the idea that this can be enough. No, it’s not just about loving our children, it's about feeling love for nature and planet directly. It's is about expanding a similar kind of love we feel for our children to the larger community of living things, and then, by-default, to our children, our pets, our planet and ourselves. This is a fuller expression of gratitude that can transcend the limited seeing of only our children’s well-being as important. Look around, there is a lot of damage done by people striving to take industrious care of their offspring. As far as love is concerned, this might ultimately be an all or nothing proposition.

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

two films showing one thing




We're all in this together.

After watching them separately, it is good to watch them simultaneously.

Tuesday, October 08, 2013

Amazing Creature

Well, I guess I am still awed by nature... and a bit odd, by nature

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

A Big History Holiday Credo

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I just happen to find this passage of Marcus Aurelius in MEDITATIONS Translated by Staniforth, (1964) where he talks about a kinship response to the understanding of wholeness;
No matter whether the universe is a confusion of atoms or a natural growth, let my first conviction be that I am part of a Whole which is under Nature's governance; and my second, that a bond of kinship exists between myself and all other similar parts. If I bear these two thoughts in mind, then in the first place, being a part, I shall not feel aggrieved by any dispensation assigned to me from the Whole; since nothing which is beneficial for any whole can ever be harmful to a part, and in this case there is nothing contained in this Whole which is not beneficial to itself. (The same, indeed, could be said of every natural organism; but the nature of the universe has the further distinction that there is no cause outside itself which could ever compel it to produce anything harmful to itself.)
In the remembrance, then, that I am a part of such a Whole, I shall cheerfully accept whatever may be my lot. In the second place, inasmuch as there is this bond of kinship between myself and my fellow-parts, I shall do nothing that might injure their common welfare, but keep those kindred parts always purposefully in view, directing every impulse towards their good and away from anything that runs counter to it
Sounds like a Big History Holiday credo to me. 

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Our Goldilocks Moment


We live in the very special moment when our story is entering our story. This is the type of circular scenario I frequently use to try and explain the profound cultural significance of Big History. When I do, it is usually met with a blank stare. So I’ve been trying to come up with a new way of conveying what I mean.
We all know the old English fairy tale Goldilocks and the Three Bears.  Goldilocks comes upon the forest home of a family of bears who are out for a walk while their porridge cools. Assured that no one is home, Goldilocks tries out their chairs (breaks one), samples their porridge, and tests each bed until she finds the ‘just right’ size, temperature, and softness. She ends up falling asleep in the smallest bed and the climax of the tale is reached when the bears come home. Wee Bear finds the little girl in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed, – and here she is!" Awoken and startled, Goldilocks jumps from the window, and runs into the woods, never to be seen again.
The Goldilocks story is the namesake of an important concept in complexity theory and Big History known as the Goldilocks Principle. In Big History and the Future of Humanity, Fred Spier, makes good use of the idea that complexity only emerges under certain ‘just right’ circumstances (aka boundary conditions). But I propose a different use of the Goldilocks idea; as a metaphor that describes our current predicament/opportunity.
To make my point, the story would be modified just slightly. Imagine the plot twist if Goldilocks decided to do a little light reading before falling asleep. And what if the book she happened to grab off the nightstand was the story she was in? It's a moment captured on Goldi's face below.
"The Goldilocks Moment"
© Rich Blundell 2012 - original artwork commissioned to Jason May
This is what I mean when I say that “we live in the moment when the story is entering the story.” Big History is our story and this is our Goldilocks moment. Yeah, we were young, we experimented, we even broke a chair or two. But now, as the bears come up the path, the story is in our hands, what plot twist can we write...?

Translation: HEY SLEEPYHEAD, PICK UP THE DAMN BOOK!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Three clearly connected & beautiful things



Plastic bag scene from "American Beauty"

Cosmic evolution, humanity, and mundane beauty are all part of the same story. The challenge and question is how to connect and communicate them in personally meaningful ways...
Thanks Jack!

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

A scientist's Christmas

Last night I was walking through Harvard Square and noticed these awesome Christmas lights hanging above the street:

Here is a spiral galaxy, complete with blue "star-forming regions"

Here, a neutron star with its "cometary knots"

Ok, so maybe the cometary knots take a bit of imagination. But actually I see a lot more than that.

In those twinkling lights I see purely rational, purely natural reasons to love thy enemy, to do onto others, cherish life, teach peace, and practice compassion - you know, all those Christmassy ideas.

When I look up and see these lights I get a warm, fuzzy feeling... Because to me, these secular decorations are the expression of a community with something grander and more beautiful to celebrate than bronze-age myths. They recognize and respect our origins as tied to cosmic events much longer ago and further away than some immaculate conception of any single human here on earth. Most people walk through the square totally unaware that these decorations celebrate the whole of humanity's emergence as an evolving cosmos. We are all divine here and now.

I wonder if this what the so-called culture warriors are worried about? That people like me will see these non-religious displays and...well and what? Are these lights, these cosmic ideas, the "War on Christmas too?"

I see them as an acknowledgment that our natural heritage extends the story and values of Christmas with an additional 14 billion years of meaning. Christmas and all that, is embedded within this cosmos too. This gives Christmas meaning that even its namesake could appreciate given the knowledge of today.

These decorations tell a story that still allows a sacred covenant - a covenant with mystery. A scientist's Christmas has humility and dignity both. It is humble enough to admit that our knowledge of the sacred will always be incomplete, without the need to declare "war" on anything but ignorance. There is plenty of mystery to celebrate and plenty of ignorance to fear - Merry Christmas.


Reposted for Christmas

Thursday, December 20, 2007

What Carl Sagan gave us


11th anniversary of
Carl Sagan's death post

Whether you know it or not, everyday you use what Aristotle, Hypatia, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Einstein, etc. gave us. They gave us knowledge.

Carl Sagan stood on the shoulders of these giants of science and saw further. He gave us much more than knowledge, coalescing their science into one inescapable result; love. Do you use it everyday?

Sagan’s legacy is a love unadulterated by dogma, superstition, authority, and fear. It is literally Universal; accessible to anyone who opens their eyes, heart, and mind.

If you think of the relentless advance of science as a “great human demotion,” please, think again. Through science, Sagan courageously revealed an overlooked but wonderful paradox of humility. One that turns the "demotion" upside down. By taking us out of the center of the universe, Sagan put us back in - for truer reasons. He showed that our value is intrinsic to the universe, and that our story, is the universe’s story.

Sagan lit the way to a love rooted in truth, even if some of those truths hurt at first (which is the reason some find it difficult to accept). But the reward for courage is a new way to love ourselves, our lot in life, our planet, our place in space and time, and perhaps most importantly, each other. Sagan showed us that love does not come from outside this universe, it comes from within - from within the youniverse.

As the battle between religion and science rages on, why isn't it clear that love without knowledge is lame, and that knowledge without love is dangerous? Alone they are equally meaningless. It's such a shame that science and love are divorced in the minds of most. As a scientist, I know how gushy and sentimental this sounds. So let me try to express it in a way you critical thinkers are accustomed to:
Knowledge is power.
Love of knowledge.
To know the power of love.
I’m not sure if this is a formally valid syllogism. But no matter your stripe, that’s what Carl Sagan gave all of us; truthful, transcendent, pure, poetic, powerful, love. I'd say he gave more, but how could anyone give more than that?

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Another Andromeda moment

I have a moment to report. Unlike the bitter-sweet last time, this Andromeda moment is purely sweet.

As you might know, I’m in the process of establishing a community-class astronomical observatory down in the Caribbean. It is to be an observatory to enhance an existing eco-camp program for kids, and get the island public involved in amateur astronomy. So while I’m stateside, I’ve been doing a lot of research, visiting planetariums, observatories, astronomy classes, etc. Tonight I went to Boston University Observatory’s public viewing night. It’s held every Wednesday, clear skies permitting, and I go there just to get a sense for how a public program works. Folks head up to the roof of the science center, where a volunteer astronomer runs three 8” reflector telescopes. On this clear and very cold night, there was a chatty crowd of about 25 people. The volunteer was busy.

Long Exposure Photo: Andrea Baird, BU Parent magazine

One of the scopes was aimed at the Andromeda Galaxy. Through an 8” scope, Andromeda appears like a faint milky sphere. To someone unaware of what they are looking at, it’s decidedly unimpressive. It looks something like this.

After I had taken a peak at Andromeda, I stepped aside just to take in the scene; people huddled around on the cold steel catwalk, the skyline of Boston as backdrop. While I was standing there beside the scope, two women and 4 kids stepped up to have a look. First up was the littlest one. In the darkness, and all bundled up in a snowsuit, scarf, hat, and mittens, I couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl. All I could tell was that this kid wanted to see! As the child climbed up the little white plastic step stool, I could tell neither he or his mom knew where to put their eye. I stepped in to help.

As I repositioned the step stool, I began telling this kid about the Andromeda Galaxy; that it was a lot like our home galaxy, the Milky Way, and that it was the biggest thing we humans could see from earth. I told him how far away it was and showed him where to put his eye.

That’s when the moment happened.

As he pulled his scarf aside, and leaned forward to look through the eyepiece, a faint white light flooded though the lens and onto his face. Time stopped and the chatter fell silent as I realized that this ancient light had traversed two and a half million years of cold vacuous void, only to land on the warm, wide-eyed, rosy-cheeked, snotty-nosed face of this tiny child. I could feel a lump in my throat as everything I know about the cosmic story - from the big bang, nucleosynthesis, evolution, and the dawn of consciousness - distilled down to this one precious moment. It was clear and vivid. Here was the universe looking at itself in a two-way mirror. Kid and cosmos, saw each other and I heard them say in unison - wow!

I don't know where the kid might take this experience. I like to think he'll develop an appreciation for a universe that's vastly bigger, but at the same time intimately connected with himself. But I do know this; that Andromeda moment confirms that I’m on the right path.

We look at the stars with such awe and reverence. But, don’t you think that if they could, they would, be looking at us instead? But of course they don’t, they cant, and that is precisely my point.

Monday, October 22, 2007

When different paths cross


For as long as I can remember, I've had this nagging suspicion, or maybe it's a fear, that I might be... different.

It happens quite often that I find myself in the blissful grip of some leaf, or pebble, critter, phrase, or idea. I look around wondering why this mundane little nibble of nature isn't the celebrated center of everyone's attention.

It's just plain true. Being so awed by nature all the time, makes one a bit odd by nature some of the time. But now that I've come to terms with my disorder, the only thing left to worry about is being misunderstood and alone.

So when I stumble upon a kindred naturalist traveler, I feel compelled to call them out - sort of as a way of saying, see! I'm not crazy! or at least I'm not alone in being so.

Chet Raymo’s website www.ScienceMusings.com is exemplary.


Science Musings is like no other site I can find on the Internet. It is difficult to even describe. To try, I brainstormed the following list of descriptors:

nature, literature, philosophy, naturalism, secular values, religion, science, romance, narrative, meaning, empiricism, art, love, language, spirituality, and environmentalism.

The terrain of Raymo’s world spans a vast intellectual landscape. But he’s inspired. His science musings succeed in synthesizing a broad spectrum of thought eloquently under the single umbrella of scientific worldview. In Raymo’s reality, only rigorous empirical science could possibly serve as the driving force for such flowing poetic reverence.

The author’s stated purpose of the blog is to cultivate the Noosphere.
“By cementing virtual relationships around the globe we make it less likely that we will kill each other over real or perceived differences. By celebrating the universality of science, we diminish differences rooted in accidents of place or time.”
Whatever his reasons, Chet Raymo is a man who has listened closely to what nature and culture have to say. His observations are woven into words that allow us to share in a simple blissful wisdom.

What the site forfeits in flash, it makes for up in intellectual inspiration. A master essayist, Raymo moulds something he’s read, observed, or experienced, into much more than mere entertaining or provocative narrative. Knowledge without perspective is meaningless, and meaning is what we need more than ever. He understands that science, rigorously practiced and thoughtfully communicated, can guide us toward personal moral epiphanies.

Science Musings realizes the most fulfilling version of science – that is, science as worldview. I am also most impressed because it upholds my personal belief that, in addition to providing valid knowledge, science must also endeavor to inspire. Without an iota of compromise in scientific integrity, Raymo shows science educators a whole new horizon to set sail for. I see his dogma-free philosophy and public platform as a model to strive for. Science Musings offers a pragmatic and spiritually satisfying worldview. If there is to be a human future, our understanding of the world will probably need to look something like Raymo's.

Saturday, August 18, 2007

Where does all the roadkill go?

No, not carry-on beetle.

Where does all the roadkill go?


Now I don’t expect you to instantly fall in love with the carrion beetle… (well, why not actually - oh right, their "disgusting!").  but it’s not like I’m asking you to go around putting them in your mouth - that would be downright disgusting. But I am asking you just to stop for a moment and appreciate yet another overlooked but eloquent example of nature in action. I mean do you know how fascinating these creatures really are? Do you even know they exist?

After finding a carcass, like a small mammal or bird, groups of Carrion Beetles will fight over it. In a demonstration of civility, males only fight other males, and females only other females. To the victorious pair go the spoils. But to keep it from actually spoiling, the beetles first remove all the fur and skin and then form the flesh into a ball. Then they cover the “meatball” with anti-fungal oral and anal secretions to keep it from rotting.

And this is just the foreplay.

Then they bury it in a cozy fur-lined “crypt” from within which, the happy couple engorge themselves on meat and then mate. After that, the female will lay her eggs in the soil surrounding the crypt.

After a few days the larvae hatch and fall into the crypt, now called a brood den, and the parents begin to regurgitate a meaty pate for the larvae eat.

During this phase, the parents can somehow assess how many offspring the meatball can sustain and if necessary, they’ll cull the brood - commit infanticide - to reduce the number of mouths to feed.

After a few days of family feasting and infanticide fun, the remaining larvae migrate into the soil and pupate. They transform from small white larvae to fully formed adult beetles, and the cycle begins again.

When a large carcass becomes available, such as a deer, several pairs of beetles may cooperate to bury the whole thing and then raise their broods communally.

Oh right, the beetle species featured in the video is Nicrophorus vespilloides (I think). But believe it or not, there is an endangered species called the American Burying beetle Nicophorus fabricius. Inidentally, the endangered species was first described by Johanne Christian Fabricius (who also described the Black Widow Spider Lactodectres mactans).

It's just a little wonder of nature right under our noses (or at least under dead mice on the side of the road).
 Awed by nature and a little odd-by-nature
 Another New Series In-development with Animal Planet

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Grevy's Zebra: Extinction in Black & White

Here is a bit of what I've been up to. This video podcast for kids (and the young-at-heart) is gleaned from some of the Zebra and Samburu footage.

Sunday, July 08, 2007

Five chicks

I apologize for the long lapse in posts. My courses this summer are extremely time consuming (nothing fun about fundamentals of educational research). You may blame my instructors. I did have just a moment to film an Eastern Phoebe nest underneath the cabin. 
 
Gorgeous little bird and very protective of her nest.

Friday, May 11, 2007

New take on a snake

On a hike today I came upon a Garter snake. This usually means I'm crashing through the bushes after it, wrangling it into my hands, and wrapping myself up with it in order to get a "closer" look (for example, see the MeTube cellphone video in sidebar).

But today, maybe because the day was so hot, and the trail steep, and I so winded, I decided to take a different approach. I laid down on the ground and just watched her (not sure how to sex a snake but anything that conjures up a garter has got to be female for me). After a few moments, when I'd calmed down a bit, she let me get REALLY close. At one point my face was maybe 2-inches from hers and I could stare deep into those big beautiful brown eyes. This was a meeting on her terms not mine, a kinder gentler sort of appreciation.

Then, I began to notice things I had never seen before. I watched her scales stretch and her body inflate with each breath. I saw exquisite green and blue patterns on her head and that gorgeous fire-red tongue, flickering with a forked black tip! She was not that big, maybe three feet, not poisonous, not even rare, but she was AWESOME.

Ten minutes later and I swear I could sense a personality in there.

So I decided to play a little game with her. I dove my hand slowly into the leaf litter and surfaced a finger beside her. She sensed it immediately and would even follow it with a frantically flicking tongue. I found that if I moved it slowly and tantalizingly, I could just walk that fine line between her predatory instincts and curiosity. That's right a snake, who would have thought a snake could be curious!

When she had had enough, I swear she stopped, looked me in the eye, coiled up, and took a swipe at my face. It was so fast, and took me by such surprise, that she almost got me in the nose. I screamed like a little girl, it was perfect. By this time I was dripping with sweat and covered with black-flies. But it didn't matter, I had just had one of those little epiphanies I'm always squawking about.

I really wish I could share the experience with you. Next time I hike, I'll bring my video camera along and maybe I'll find her again.