Starz Light blog

Starz Light is a recently started blog I recommend.

In answer to the December 20 post there about online names and identities, I would have preferred to use for my blog the name Emilio by which I have been known for 62 years, but it was already taken, which accounts for my use of its Latin version �milius. See my post of September 9, 2002 for an explanation of the name.

Regarding online person� there are some articles I find interesting at Psychology of Cyberspace and its associated links, including one article named Identity Management in Cyberspace which seems to be exactly along the lines of what Starz is talking about.

I�ve thought and am still thinking about a name and a description for my blog that accurately reflect me and my blog, are witty, pithy and meaty, and induce a strong desire to visit and read on everyone who sees them. But by the time I think of something apt my blog will be listed in too many places and it will be too much of a hassle to change...

Space exploration is a matter of great interest for me too, and I have wondered many times why enthusiasm for it seems to have diminished so much in the US and indeed everywhere. Let us compare what happened after Neil Armstrong got to the Moon with what happened when Columbus got to America (not that I believe for a moment that Columbus was the first human being who traveled to America from another continent, or even from Europe): after Columbus a process started that led to what America (North and South) is today (not that it wouldn�t have been better for the Earth and especially for American Indians or Native Americans [I find advantages and disadvantages in both denominations, but I am told many persons of those ethnicities prefer the first; anyway, this is a subject for another discussion] if that process hadn�t taken place), but after Armstrong got to the Moon there were just a couple of trips or so and then nothing for thirty years.

I know unstaffed (NOT "unmanned", please) vehicles have been sent to other places, but everybody (including those who claim that unstaffed vehicles are more efficient, etc.) knows it's not the same.

One possible explanation for the lack of space travel is that somebody told somebody in a very convincing manner "You human beings are dirty, irrational, cruel and violent, and make messes everywhere you go. You have ALREADY made an incredible mess of the area of space near your planet, which is strewn with your garbage. You're simply not ready to venture further into space � privately we doubt you will ever be � and you better not even try, because we simply won't let you".

The idea of non-Earth beings appearing on the scene and curbing human arrogance � probably the only thing that ever might � fills me with glee. "Guess what, girls and boys: we are not the crown of creation, the most important beings in the universe. In fact much of the universe thinks of our planet � IF it thinks of our planet at all � as a remote drop of mud, and perhaps not even "nice" mud, as in a garden, but... and of us as the somewhat disgusting bugs and bacteria that populate the mud. Perhaps it would behoove us to show a little more humility, and some respect for other species, including the bugs that populate "our" mud..."

Who knows? Perhaps there is some light at the end of the tunnel, and it is not the headlamp of an oncoming train.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Starz! May you write for many years in good health and happiness, and may your readers and you enjoy fruitful and interesting dialogues!