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20090831

Pop quiz, hotshot

What is the difference, if any, between these different forms of electro-magnetic energy?

Answers by noon tomorrow.

20090826

Bubbles

Ultimately, this is what everything is: A bubble, which briefly comes to bubbly life, then pops off into the great bubble beyond. Transitory and temporary, illusions of solidity, matter is energy, after all. Think about it. Or not.

20090825

Spy pic from ComiCon


Click for big, if you're into over-analyzing a blurry, fuzzy promo shot. Of Lost, Season 6 - my most anticipated TV show ever!

Technically a spoiler, I suppose, but I am as anti-spoiler as anyone, and I'm fine with this. So you should be too!

If you do waste your time looking at this, I report back from the Intertubeyweb: It appears all sorts of dead characters are in this poster - Shannon, Boone, etc. Additionally, the dead characters all appear light, while the living characters - Hurley, Jack, etc - are in dark. Hmmm. Also, and most significant, I think, is Locke in the center, turned away and looking in the opposite direction from everyone else. Also in light. Hmmm.

My speculation for how Lost will end, and it is only speculation: Locke and Jack will become the new avatars of whatever forces currently manifest via Jacob and the Man in Black; Jack will become Jacob, Locke the MIB, and they will remain on the island for a looooong time, until their replacments come.

Cuz that's thing about Black and White, Yin and Yang: No side ever wins. They just fluctuate back and forth, and go on, and on, and on.

20090821

Pictorial representation of a portion of today's American political scene


To wit: All the problems created by Bush are now Obama's problems. Ironically -- or, I would say ironically if the Repuglican party were capable of irony anymore (they're not) - the very same Repuglicans who took part in many of these Bush debacles are now on the front lines of the "hate anything Obama does" camp.

A neat trick if you can get away with it: Create a clusterfuck, and then blame someone else for not fixing it immediately. Your modern Repuglican party people!

20090820

Anticipation

Anticipation is quite a powerful sensation -- you're no doubt experiencing it right now looking at this pic. Unaware, perhaps -- your mind is playing out the scene above, and you - your brain - is almost literally seeing all these eager commuters hitting the blacktop. As such, your body can respond to these anticipated events.

Anticipation is obviously an evolutionary advantage if used correctly - foreseeing future events, and thus a possibility of changing that future. For example:

You're driving. You see the car ahead of you edging slightly to the left side of the lane. You pass on the left and as you do, you see the driver talking on a mobile. You now anticipate this person not paying attention to you and also moving into the left lane. As such, you pre-emptively move into the even further left line, knowing it to be empty from a previous glance, moments before the other car does indeed move into the lane.

Magic? Not at all -- based on a series of visual cues and combined with recollection of similar events in the past, your brain calculates out future scenarios, and that's a possibly deadly one. The better you get at reading the informational cues and recalling past lessons, the more powerful your anticipation becomes.

It then becomes possible to envision that given enough data cues and other, similar scenarios, one could entirely anticipate all of the future. Unlikely though, of course.

Largest Organism in the world?

Is a fungus? Not this fungus (this one is especial), but a type of fungus that grows in symbiosis with northern latitude trees; there is a specimen in Oregon which measures some 2200 acres -- that's quite large, and makes a blue whale look like a tiny fish.

Fungi are quite fascinating, don't you know?

20090818

"Spent the day boating..."

Whenever you see or hear the phrase "Spent the day boating...", you can be assured -- with 93% certainty - what they mean is "Spent the day drinking and acting crazy on a boat.".

There's a reason America's lakes are a noted killing ground. See: Crystal Lake

20090813

Less than 1%

I would never use the word "miracle" lightly, and I would certainly never use it in the religious sense. Rather, I think the word can apply when something happens that is so against the odds, so improbable, that the fact of it occurring is a "miracle".

In this light, we are miracles - everyone of us. In fact, every iota of life on this planet, from microbe to blue whale, is a miracle. Because it is so very, very improbable.

Consider, for us to be here, right now, in this way: First, the Big Bang (or whatever) had to have happened precisely as it happened. Any derivation would cause massive changes over time. This is the first miracle.

Then, over the millenia, the various interactions of energy and matter had to happen exactly as they happened, or once again, large changes would have developed over time and none of us would be here.

Then, a star somewhere near by either had to so supernovae, or expand in such a way as to seed our area of space time with the various elements -- especially the heavier elements - that would later congeal into our sun and solar system.

Then of course our sun had to form, and in this process, of course, everything had to happen in the way it did, or we would not be here -- consider, if the Earth were just a bit further from the sun, liquid water might be a rarity, and life may have never taken hold.

Then, the Earth needs to get hit by another planet -- this collision created the moon, and the moon is absolutely critical to all life on earth.

I could go on and on, but only now are we here on Earth, with the first shoots of life emerging. But a-ha! There have been multiple mass extinctions on Earth so far (off the top of my head, 6 or 7), and during these extinctions, over 99% of all life on the planet was wiped out. And this happened multiple times.

Think about it -- every iota of life that exists right now is a descendant of the lucky few lifeforms who have managed to survive these mass extinctions. And not just one, but many.

This is just the big picture of course, as there are an infinite amount of other variables that could change the whole equation.

But I hope my point is clear: To merely exist, to live, is a miracle. If only we could remember this.

20090811

Under the Sea

Look it up yourself: 31 15'15.53N 24 15'30.53W

I don't know what it is. You can probably guess what the Internets think it is...

20090810

Don't blame me....


Trust me, no one's blaming you. They're laughing. At you. And possibly, thanking you for making it so easy to identify morans.

Also, such a blatant rip off


20090809

More in accurate signage


A wonderfully expressive sign that accurately captures pretty much all the fun, and danger, of alcohol.

That's one way...

Technically, accurate.

20090808

Here's where the fun begins

I believe we have reached, or are very near, "a moment". This picture accurately represents our current situation. Stay safe!

20090807

RIP Baby Hawk

Now, me and my truck had nothing to do this, although my death dealing truck was about 30 feet away -- but it was parked and played no role in the following tale!

Anywho, there are many hawks in the area outside my infernal office park -- both rather drab brown ones, and brighter Red Tails, as above. This is a male, and I believe a male was the culprit in the following crime:

Heard a screeching -- looked up to a light post to see one hawk charging another. That hawk flies to another light pole, followed by the screeching hawk, who again charges him. What I assume is the male flies off again to the original light pole, where I can see there is something on the top (I assumed it was food at first). The screeching hawk follows, and attacks again. The male flies off into the nearby woods, and what I assume is the female spreads her wings over the item on top of the light post - and then I see something fall. The screeching is going on the whole time. She flies off into the woods. I then run over to this lightpole (wary of hawk attack of course) to inspect what fell to the ground. Bummer -- a little tiny baby hawk. Dead. RIP little one.

I left quickly, what I assume is the mother returned to the light post, still screeching, as I left. And she continued to screech for the next five minutes, and longer for all know. It was all quite sad, but alas, nature, red in tooth and claw.

It is shocking to us, of course, but this behavior -- males killing babies -- seems quite common in the animal world. It's all about the genes, and it is brutal situations like the one above that should cause you to ask yourself: Who is really in charge of your life? You, or your genes?

I suspect most if not all people would say themselves. I would say, I'm not so sure about that. Consider for a moment the role sex plays in our life, and that is clearly a genetic imperative, and voila! You have the majority of our lives clearly ruled by genetic impulses. Are you so sure it's not your entire life?

20090805

Wingnuts

I have obtained a wealth of Wingnut Teabaggin' pictures. If my fancy strikes, I might post many of them, as part of the project all Americans of good faith (not the religious sense) should be engaging in -- pushing back these thugs. These right wing wackos who are essentially a homegrown insurgency. They are dangerous -- in both the physical sense (shootings -- and there's been several already this year), and political sense. These people are a threat to our country.

So know them. They might even be in your families. Push back on incorrect facts -- it probably will not change any minds, but we have to try. For the children, dontchyaknow?

20090804

Crazy McCain Lady

As Jon Stewart wondered last night, does this crazy lady show up at every tea bagging protest? She's the one with her birth certificate in a baggy, or demanding the Government get their hands off her Medicare, or screeching about "Muslins".

It's interesting/important to note: These same freakshows who are now storming town halls are the same freaks who showed up at those hilarious tea bagging rallies, and the same freaks who populated McCain Palin rallies last year (which got heated).

Whatever they're complaining about is not the point - the point is, they can't handle a black man as President. That's it. And he's a Democrat. It's blasphemy, and the South won't have it.

Also, with the latest polling on Birther stats (hint: It's a Southern phenomena), it's ever more clear that the Repuglican party is nothing more than a Southern regional party, who's time is short, given demographic trends.

And when they do finally collapase under their absurdities, I hope I am ready to dance the Yub-Nub.

20090803

Why not, continued

Here's fun sport: Think up some absurd image - for example, a monkey riding a dog - type into the Google machine, for images, and see what comes up. Make sure "Safe Search" is off though -- it detracts from the excitement.

20090801

Why not?


The questions "why" and "why not" are perhaps the two most powerful concepts known to humanity. For they allow... everything. Anything. As above.