Big numbers are hard to comprehend. I just read this short way to put big numbers in perspective:
It takes only 11 1/2 days for one million seconds to pass.
Nearly 32 years for one billion seconds…
And nearly 32,000 years for one trillion seconds to pass us by.
Phil over at Bad Astronomy Blog has a good post explaining just why space exploration is so important, in case anyone has forgotten exactly what we gain from it.
He also recently put NASA's budget into perspective: (emphasis mine)
A lot of people think NASA is a waste of time and money, and maybe this is why; they have a grossly overinflated idea of how much NASA spends. When NASA loses a $150 million probe, that’s a lot of real money, but hardly a drop in the bucket compared to what we spend as a nation (and remember, we spend $11 million per hour in Iraq).
Alright, I'm diabetic, I've covered that before. How often do I whine about how much it's changed my life or how much it hurts or how it alienates me? I don't. That's because all it is to me is an inconvenience. A chore. Some people brush their teeth after eating, I take a shot. Yes, I had to get over my fear of needles, but beyond that it's just a (slightly expensive) inconvenience.
I read some diabetes oriented websites and blogs to stay up on new treatments and such. It seems that the entire "community" of diabetics are a bunch of whiners who love to feel sorry for themselves. Specifically, Amy at diabetesmine.com and her readers. She's written a ton on the fancy wireless pump she uses that is so convenient. She knows how to ratio her insulin based on how many carbs she eats, and yet every chance she gets she complains about what a struggle it is and how thanksgiving is so troublesome because of all the danger foods.
GET OVER IT.
If I have a granola bar with 24g of carbs, I dose 1 unit of insulin.
If I have sweet & sour chicken with white rice, a total of 200g carbs, I dose 10 units. You see, my ratio is 1:20, so no matter what I eat I'm taking a shot, so what's the difference?
And I really don't think I'm "missing something." My A1c test scores have been 5.0 for a year. And just so you know, that's a better score than most normal people have.
Sorry, I just had to rant about all these people trying to tell me my life is ruined over such a trivial thing.
“Freedom is not a concept in which people can do anything they want, be anything they can be. Freedom is about authority. Freedom is about the willingness of every single human being to cede to lawful authority a great deal of discretion about what you do.” - Rudy Giuliani
Want a good republican candidate? Ron Paul.