It’s That Time Of Year

Frequently I encounter non Native folks who tell me they think reservations are some form of reparatoins to Natives from the US government. I even had someone close to me tell me they thought reservations were places to “reserve” our cultures.

Where I’m from (South Dakota) reservations were concentration camps where they sent us to die after they stole and colonized all of the land every US citizen occupies. In the early SD Rez days our ppl had to get permission from district agents (white settler men) to get food, fix our homes, or even leave our community to travel to another community on our Rez to visit relatives. We couldn’t hunt cuz they killed millions of our buffalo. If we didn’t get permission from the white settler agent we couldn’t eat, fix our homes or visit relatives because we would be violating US law & could be arrested. Also our cultures & ceremonies were illegal under US law until the Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978.

So plz educate the ppl you love and care abt because everyone in the USA is living in an illegal settler colony, Indigenous ppl survived their genocide & we’re her to say these settlers never gave af abt us & never will.

~ @FrankWaln

parents making sex jokes

Even in Death, Carl Sagan never ceases to inspire.

Carl Sagan on human exploration of space:

Human beings are a curious, inquisitive, exploratory species.

I think that has been the secret of our success as a species.

We now have reached a point in human history, when all the Earth is explored; there are no new places to explore on the Earth.

At just this moment, these spacecraft permit us, in a halting, tentative, preliminary way, to leave the Earth and examine our surroundings in space.

An enterprise which I believe is in the truest human tradition of exploration and discovery.

We are at an epochal moment. Our machines, and eventually ourselves, are going out into space. I believe that the history of our species will never again be the same.

We have committed ourselves to space, and I do not think we are about to turn back.

Artefacts from the Earth are spinning out into the cosmos. I believe the time will come when most human cultures will be engaged in an activity we might describe as a dandelion going to seed.

From his 1977 CHRISTMAS LECTURES, animated for our 2015 advent calendar.

I’m only a sophomore and I’ve changed my major about 6 times.

INTP college problem #1:

Wanting to major in literally everything, and then doubting yourself as soon as you make your mind up.

Librarian Life

10% shelving.

10% ‘helping’ kids colour in pictures.

50% talking to OAPs about the weather.

20% sniffing every single new book like there’s crack between the pages.

10% reading secretly in a corner.

Solar System: 10 Things to Know This Week

Week of March 5: Great Shots Inspiring views of our solar system and beyond

1-Mars-By-Numbers

“The first TV image of Mars, hand colored strip-by-strip, from Mariner 4 in 1965. The completed image was framed and presented to JPL director, William H. Pickering. Truly a labor of love for science!” -Kristen Erickson, NASA Science Engagement and Partnerships Director

2-Night Life

“There are so many stories to this image. It is a global image, but relates to an individual in one glance. There are stories on social, economic, population, energy, pollution, human migration, technology meets science, enable global information, etc., that we can all communicate with similar interests under one image.” -Winnie Humberson, NASA Earth Science Outreach Manager

3-Pale Blue Dot

“Whenever I see this picture, I wonder…if another species saw this blue dot what would they say and would they want to discover what goes on there…which is both good and bad. However, it would not make a difference within the eternity of space—we’re so insignificant…in essence just dust in the galactic wind—one day gone forever.”

-Dwayne Brown, NASA Senior Communications Official

4-Grand Central

“I observed the Galactic Center with several X-ray telescopes before Chandra, including the Einstein Observatory and ROSAT. But the Chandra image looks nothing like those earlier images, and it reminded me how complex the universe really is. Also I love the colors.” -Paul Hertz, Director, NASA Astrophysics Division

5-Far Side Photobomb

“This image from the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite captured a unique view of the Moon as it moved in front of the sunlit side of Earth in 2015. It shows a view of the farside of the Moon, which faces the Sun, that is never directly visible to us here on Earth. I found this perspective profoundly moving and only through our satellite views could this have been shared.” -Michael Freilich, Director NASA Earth Science Division

6-”Shocking, Exciting and Wonderful”

“Pluto was so unlike anything I could imagine based on my knowledge of the Solar System. It showed me how much about the outer solar system we didn’t know. Truly shocking, exciting and wonderful all at the same time.” -Jim Green, Director, NASA Planetary Science Division

7-Slices of the Sun

“This is an awesome image of the Sun through the Solar Dynamic Observatory’s many filters. It is one of my favorites.” - Peg Luce, Director, NASA Heliophysics Division (Acting)

8-Pluto’s Cold, Cold Heart

“This high-resolution, false color image of Pluto is my favorite. The New Horizons flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015 capped humanity’s initial reconnaissance of every major body in the solar system. To think that all of this happened within our lifetime! It’s a reminder of how privileged we are to be alive and working at NASA during this historic era of space exploration.” - Laurie Cantillo, NASA Planetary Science Public Affairs Officer

9-Family Portrait

“The Solar System family portrait, because it is a symbol what NASA exploration is really about: Seeing our world in a new and bigger way.” - Thomas H. Zurbuchen, Associate Administrator, NASA Science Mission Directorate

10-Share Your Favorite Space Shots

Tag @NASASolarSystem on your favorite social media platform with a link to your favorite image and few words about why it makes your heart thump.

Check out the full version of this article HERE.

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com.   

I should’ve posted this yesterday, whoops. 17/3/2016 || Day 1/100 of productivity I finished my final exams for Winter Quarter on Wednesday; I’m officially on spring break, but that doesn’t mean I can’t be productive. I did some reading and planning for Monday’s UW Math Day planetarium show. Also, I finally organized my desk!

“the millenium falcon would wipe out the enterprise in seconds” lmao the enterprise is just an innocent science class floating thru space…. all they wanna do is look at some rocks… kiss an alien…. find some space plants….. why would you fight that its not a battleship theyre just nerds…… leave them olone