TWO MEN WHO MADE THE WORLD BETTER. CAN YOU NAME THEM?

The person on the left is 1921 Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, perhaps the world's most renown physicist, meeting Charlie Chaplin, the world's greatest silent movie comic artist. 

These two men changed the world for the better in their own manor and style. 

It was said that Charlie Chaplin was the only person in Hollywood that Einstein wanted to meet. In 1931 at the premier of Chaplin's new film, CityLights (trailer here), the two geniuses met for the first time.

It was the Nobel Prize committee that shared this exchange in their conversation:

Einstein: "What I most admire about your art is your universality. You don't say a word yet the world understands you."

Chaplin: "True, but your glory is even greater! The whole world admires you, even though they don't understand a word of what you say." 

It's simple. Science and comedy do actually make our incredible world go 'round. The science to better understand the improbabilities of life and the comedy to better deal with it all.

A lesson of life as we know it:

Today, in the cutest voice, my young daughter asked me to start recycling. I smiled and asked, "Why?"

"So you can help me save the planet," she told me.

And why do you want to save the planet?

"Because," she explained "that's where I keep all my stuff."

Thanks to Marc and Angel Hack Life website

ARE YOU LISTENING PEOPLE OF EARTH?

Birth, Death and Acts of God are the certainties of life. All the rest is up to us.

Charles Darwin

The scary part: That leaves living, dying and coping to define who we are and how wise, respected and valued we are to others as we co-exist through the rest of our lives. How will we cope? The danger signs:

"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge. It is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science." Charles Darwin

In other words, the less we know, the more sure we know it all.  The more we know, the less sure we have all the answers, recognize the need to keep learning and have the capacity and desire to do so.


Birth is easy. We don't even remember. And death... to my knowledge, no one has ever made it out alive, so que sera, sera. (What will be, will be.)

"The dumbest are those who know it all." Malcolm Forbes

It is the 'Acts of God' (or nature if you prefer)... they define us. Think global warming. Ignore it if you aren't smart enough to read the signs, but our last 20 years have been, year after year, the warmest in all known history. The ice caps are melting and our poisons fill the air. At this time there are more than 8 billion people on earth. Just 200 years ago, we were only 1billion. We are projected to be 11 billion by 2100. You get the idea. Humans and increased technology extract their progress on the back of global litter and it is unwise to ignore. Call it global warming or not, the end result, without change, is upon us.

"It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows." Epictetus (Greek stoic philosopher, 50 AD - 135 AD)

Pandemics have been a part of us since the beginning of time and they will continue as we fight our way to understanding the wise responses necessary to survive them. We haven't faired all that well.  There have been more than 5,000 United States covid-19 deaths just during the days of the RNA convention, for example--more than twice the number of casualties as at the Twin Towers-- and over 180,000 deaths to date and growing. We lead the world by a big number in that department. We are lucky technology is rapidly developing the knowledge and capability to advance medically, but we will be tested again and again.

"Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance." Confucius

Hurricanes and tornados are growing more frequent and stronger. Forest fires are eating our lunch as conditions for their spread are more favorable for these 'Acts of God' every year. Will the wisdom of our leaders and the mass of humanity learn survival as our world spins faster under our feet? Old time comedian Groucho Marx was prophetic in his outrageous way: "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.""

"Humility will teach you knowledge, arrogance will teach you ignorance. If you think you know it all, you have learned nothing." Thibuat (eminent Sanskrit scholar and noted philosophy professor, 1905)

We have found cures for many diseases that kill us, thank goodness, but that is a never-ending demand. Illness chases us as we learn to live with handicaps of body and brain.

Albert Einstein

"Any fool can know. The point is, to understand." Einstein, who also said "The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

Then there are bad hair days and liars and haters and fixers and bribe takers and cheaters and con artists even before we include the biases of race and religion and political divisiveness, the poor and underprivileged, the rich who we empower so good can  'trickle down' and the underserved who catch far too little, the unbalance of wealth to opportunity (the top 10 percent richest own 84 percent of all stock) and the shrinking middle class, the homeless and uninsured, unable to help themselves, despite their efforts. to any great degree.

The humanity caveat: I have never doubted the overwhelming good of humankind that is universally seen and experienced. I believe it with all my heart.  But bad actors have far too great an influence, and a tacit immunity, for bad outcomes.

Are we the kind of smart this world so desperately needs or do we follow those who already know it all? The choices are always ours if we pay attention.

Hypothetical questions...

You know... like "How much wood can a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood?" Or better yet, "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

The obvious answer to the angels question: it doesn't matter... if angels are smart enough to dance on the head of a pin instead of the other end, that's good enough for me.

Best hypothetical question yet: "Who would win a fight between MacGyver and Chuck Norris? (Obviously, Chuck Norris because: There used to be a street named Chuck Norris but they had to change it since nobody crosses Chuck Norris... or, Chuck Norris has a grizzly bear rug in his den. The bear isn't dead, it is just afraid to move... or, Chuck Norris has been dead 20 years. Death just hasn't had the courage to tell him... or, Chuck Norris counted to infinity--twice!)

But sometimes... like I'm about to tell you, questions that sound hypothetical aren't at all. I'm currently listening to Bill Bryson's *A Short History of Nearly Everything (which I bought at Seattle's Half-Price Books, incidentally... for two bucks!) and it really is amazing. I previously bought this as a book--twice... and couldn't get through it as a read--too many names and too much data-- but as a listener in short or long drive snippets in the car, it really is a highly recommended way to go for this one. (Bet you can't find it like I did for $2 though.)

Example of a hypothetical question that isn't: How many atoms can hide behind a single human hair?  Factual answer: A half-million atoms, lined width-wise 'shoulder-to-shoulder,' could easily hide behind a human hair.

How about this one: If Mt. St. Helens erupted (as it did in1980) and the side of the caldera blew out, how much mud and ash would it release down the mountain in the first few minutes?  The now known answer: enough, rushing downward at 150 miles per hour, to bury all of Manhattan to a depth of 400 feet!

Or: Where is the biggest known volcano in the world now located? We didn't know this one until about 20 years ago. Hint: Completely within its caldera is 200,000 acre Yellowstone National Park. More awsome than that... it remains today an active volcano! Oh, don't worry... it has only erupted three known times in the past 180 centuries... usually on 60,000 year intervals. The first eruption was 240 times bigger than Mt. St. Helens and it would have spewed enough mud, ash and lava to cover New York state to a depth of 600 feet. The last one occured... oh, oh... 60,000 years ago.

Actually, Bryson's book covers all of the sciences so it includes piddling little stuff like... the universe as we know it, with its billions of solar systems like our Milky Way, is 13.5 million light years across and it is growing rapidly as we breathe. Now contrast that info with the size of 500,000 atoms 'shoulder-to-shoulder ' and you have a scale of impressive proportions.

The book covers so much of the physical world's sciences and discoveries... with so many names and relationships... that it could blow your mind if you are of a mind to be blown. Caution, however... it is not for dummies... like the guy who was stuck in a low end job in the Swiss Patent Office and was turned down several times in his request for a one-step up promotion until "... he mastered machine technology." That hapless individual was named Albert Einstein who played a most impressive role in a good chunk of what Bryson talks about.

It is a good listen and you will come away with lots of very interesting cocktail talk tidbits to impress your friends and family until they get sick of you... like: Chuck Norris heard Einstein's Theory of Relativity and ruled it irrelevant.