the author isn't altogether certain that there is any such thing as exaggeration. our brains permit us to utilize such a wee fraction of their resources that, in a sense, everything we experience is a reduction. we employ drugs, yogic techniques and poetics--and a thousand more clumsy methods--in an effort just to bring things back up to normal.
Scratch off the appetizers and entrees that are most like dishes you’ve seen in many other restaurants, because they represent this one at its most dutiful, conservative and profit-minded. The chef’s heart isn’t in them.
Scratch off the dishes that look the most aggressively fanciful. The chef’s vanity — possibly too much of it — spawned these.
Then scratch off anything that mentions truffle oil.
Choose among the remaining dishes.
NEIL DeGRASSE TYSON: And now a birthday greeting from me to NASA.
Happy birthday, NASA! Did you know we're the same age? In the first week of October, 1958, you were born by an act of Congress, while I was born of my mother in the East Bronx.
I was three when your first astronaut orbited the Earth. I was 10 when you landed on the Moon. And I was 14 when you stopped going to the Moon altogether.
I was happy for you and for America. But the thrill of the journey, so vibrant in others, felt out of my reach. I knew that my skin color was much too dark for you to picture me as part of this epic adventure.
Of course, I shouldn't blame you for society's woes. Your conduct was a symptom of America's habits, not a cause. But I want you to know that I became an astrophysicist in spite of your achievements in space rather than because of them.
You've come a long way, though. Today, you look much more like America, from your senior-level managers to your most decorated astronauts. And when you're at your best, nothing on Earth inspires the dreams of a nation the way you do. All in the greatest quest there ever was, the search for our place in the universe.
NASA, as we both enjoy our 50th trip around the Sun, I look forward to seeing you back on the Moon. But don't stop there. Mars beckons, as do destinations beyond.
And that is my cosmic perspective.
"One of the traditional methods of imposing statism or socialism on a people, has been by way of medicine. It's very easy to disguise a medical program as a humanitarian project — most people are a little reluctant to oppose anything that suggests medical care for people who possibly can't afford it. Now, the American people, if you put it to them about socialized medicine and gave them a chance to choose, would unhesitatingly vote against it."
