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