The Sun Redux (Comic #157)

It was so interesting thinking about my Things comic during Launch Pad. The Things are so curious, so willing to open and vulnerable to the things they do not know. They've been interested in the cosmos from the very first panel... I laughed out loud when I realized it. From The Sun, to the Sun.

Thank you to everyone who has been voting for mini-comic. It makes me so happy! It's gratifying to see that every comic has received one vote (plus we have a write in!) and nifty to see what the crowd favorites are. I think I'll leave the voting open until Monday, in case there are some contemplative sorts or anyone wants to build votes for a particular page. To vote CLICK HERE!

6: Why - 3 votes
7: Belief - 3
14: Spoons - 1
29: Worries - 2
32: Bad - 2
41: Small - 3
47: Thinking - 2
77: Missing You - 1
83: Beginner’s Mind - 3
85: Try - 4
87: After the Convention (assuming I can get the layout to work) - 3
100: Practice - 3
103: Lifestyle Advice from a Small Pink Bunny, part 2 - 1
115: Evidence  -2
141: Lifestyle advice from a small pink bunny – batman - 5
147: Good enough? - 6
156: Geek girl geek boy - 1

Extra super duper secret cookie content (ie I added it after the other updates):

I had They Might Be Giants stuck in my head all Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop week.

TMBG wrote a song about the sun (correction, they did a cover of a song, see comments <3 geek friends who prevent me from spreading incorrect information), but they made some factual errors that reinforced erroneous concepts, so being They Might Be Giants they rewrote it and performed both versions when I saw them play live in 2009 (from "The Sun is a mass of incandescent gas a regular nuclear furnace," to the same boppy song containing the words, "The Sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma a regular nuclear furnace").

Being They Might Be Giants and full of win I've discovered they've just released a new song about the sun where they explicitly talk about how they got things wrong too. I love it (and wow, what amazing timing)! People get scared of getting things wrong, as if that will make them wrong as a human, rather than a person engaged in joyous discovery. Science is so full of getting stuff wrong and figuring stuff out, one needs to be fearless and joyful so you can keep learning. Finding out you are wrong can be a  delightful expansion and an opportunity for ooooh!

They Might Be Giants original song (Nickelodeon version!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zbgul1NpEA8

Their new song with cute animations:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLkGSV9WDMA

 

Today we stared at the sun, but we did not go blind.

It was a good day.

2 thoughts on “The Sun Redux (Comic #157)

  1. Actually, “Why Does the Sun Shine?” (aka “the Sun is a mass of incandescent gas”) is from a 1959-60 Tom Glazer album of children’s songs. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Glazer#Children.27s_songs TMBG also covered his “What Is a Shooting Star?” (with lyrics, “a shooting star is not a star, is not a star at all”), I think on the same album where they did the answer song “Why Does the Sun Really Shine?” (aka “the Sun is a miasma of incandescent plasma”).

    1. Cool! And now I learn even more. Thanks Andria.

Comments are closed.