two headlines

Item: Stephen Hawking says that under high energy levels, the Higgs Boson could collapse space and time. Specifically, a catastrophic vacuum decay would occur with a bubble of the true vacuum expanding at the speed of light. It would, however, take a particle accelerator larger than earth. He goes on to say such a particle accelerator is "unlikely to be funded in the present economic climate." So there's that. Sleep well.

Item: We are on the verge of a sixth mass extinction. A new study found that the modern rate of extinction across all species is 1,000 times greater than it was before humans began altering our environment, and thousands of times greater than new species can be created. It's not just the loss of so many species; it's the loss of critical ecosystem functioning in which animals play a central role. Sleep well.

Two items. Two random bottom-page news articles, a couple of paragraphs each that I read while I took a quick lunch break. I have no great insight to offer on either of these. Rather, I am simply astounded that they both exist. Step, for a minute, away from your daily grind and just think of the implications of both of these. We have the capability of destroying the earth (we knew that, but still.) We have the potential knowledge of how to, if not yet the capability of, destroying the universe. And yet, the other headlines I saw today revolved around killing people in the middle east and football players abusing spouses. There is probably a larger point to be made somewhere here.

Today I got up and sent my kids to school and went to work and came home. Soon I will make dinner. I live in a world where the two above headlines exist, even if they are buried at the bottom of the final page. I treat all of this as normal, as if normal were actually a thing. I sleep and shit and sing off-key in the shower. I will continue to do all of these and many more things. My world, for the most part, never stops.

But every now and then, for maybe just a second or two, it screeches to a halt, completely frozen. For those couple of seconds I am amazed at the implications, even if I can't fully understand them. Amazed at the power that actually *is* in our hands that we, in general, are completely unaware of. Amazed at what we've done. Awed and frightened.

Sleep well.