“What appears to be tiny specks in space are actually galaxies — billions of years old,” according to NPR.
“We’re looking back more than 13 billion years,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson explained during the event at the White House, according to the Washington Post. “Light travels at 186,000 miles per second, and that light that you are seeing from one of those little specks, has been traveling for over 13 billion years.”
The image captures just a tiny portion of the universe. “If you held a grain of sand on the tip of your finger at arms length, that is the part of the universe you are seeing — just one little speck of the universe,” Nelson said, according to NPR.
Washington Post science writer Joel Achenbach described it as “a hornet’s nest of brilliant but enigmatic objects in many colors. A smattering of stars have parked themselves in the foreground, but everything else is a galaxy — a vast agglomeration of stars, rendered into a small splash of light by the immense distances involved.”
Invariably those who criticize services such as OnlyFans are considered “prudes” or worse. And discussions of hypocrisy may ensue, given that large numbers of men and women access pornography at least occasionally. “Sex work” professions are among the oldest professions out there, some point out. But the question is not the existence of pornography, but the ethics and wisdom of legal and cultural frameworks that have made it destigmatized, instantly available, ubiquitous (present, appearing, or found everywhere.), and even celebrated in some circles.
The villains of OxyContin aren’t those who became addicted, but those that pushed it, knowing the dangers.
“Who, cares,” some might counter, “it’s their body and their choice.” But this flies in the face of increasingly overwhelming evidence that our culture of ubiquitous pornography is profoundly damaging in a number of respects, not just to the creators and their inherent worth and dignity, but to those who consume it. It is not a coincidence that as the market for simulated sex expands, the thing itself declines. Every U.S. state now has below replacement fertility. Sexual intercourse in general is down considerably. Many factors may be at play here, but unfettered access to prurient (having or encouraging an excessive interest in sexual matters.)content certainly doesn’t contribute to stable and lasting relationships.
Further, some online porn platforms promote endlessly bizarre forms of kink that warp the sexual scripts young people mimic. One can’t help but wonder whether this too is one factor in the growing sexual fluidity reported by so many of today’s youths. A recent and comprehensive Gallup Poll showed that while just 1.3% of those born before 1946 identify as LGBT, rising to 2.0% among baby boomers and 3.8% among Gen X, it soared to 9.1% among millennials and a staggering 15.9% among Gen Z (not even including the 5%-8% who declined to state a sexual preference). While some would argue that this is a positive result, allowing those in younger generations to embrace their own sexual identity, dismissing the idea that social contagion may play some part — including the sexual scripts learned via an endless array of pornography — ignores an important variable worthy of investigation. Certainly the long-term effects on family formation of this explosion in nontraditional sexual identification are likely to be profound.
