Battle of Some of The Gods

I'd put money on Elvis in this Battle, just to play the odds. I mean, against Shiva? Really? Not even J The Hammer and Nails C can go up against Shiva. And yet, due solely to his crooning, I think Elvis can Win.

Also Too:

High Adventure Trucking, indeed.

Creator the Destroyer

 The dissolving shell of an exploded star, out there in space far, far away. These expulsions of tremendous amounts of matter forms clouds which, if lucky, grow denser and denser and start spinning and, maybe one day, if it ate all its vegetables, this spinning leads to fusion, and the birth of another star, a heavier star.

A star is fusion. But contained fusion, due to the gravity pressing down on the enormous weight of the star - fusion + gravity = star. If we can re-produce this on glorious Earth, we will create Paradise, with endless and clean power. Star Trek, man.

What is fusion? The opposite of fission - which is the splitting of the atom, releasing energy. Fusion is the fusing of atoms, also releasing energy. Lots. The sunlight that warms your face is from fusion deep within our star, The Sun.

Stars are born from a compression of ginormous gas clouds, ignite a fusion cycle, and then burn through their fuel supply. The bigger stars will create elements all the way up to our old friend Iron (Fe). Iron is truly magic, for, among many other wonders, it spells the end of stars - if a star ever starts fusing Iron, it will die shortly, in a megahuge explosion called a Supernova, the remnants of which will push matter - Iron, Calcium, Gold, etc - throughout the local space.

The Cat's Eye Nebula, a nebula being the aftermath of a Supernova. And in these clouds resides the very material that made us up - literally, the iron in your blood was made in some star long ago that done exploded and showered the surrounding space with debris, some of which was iron, which collected due to gravity, eventually forming a planet, which after some time gave birth to you. The same with Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, etc. Dig it? We are actually star children, and isn't that just a trip?

Here's some more star porn (click pic for big):

Pretty nifty, eh? This is our reality - we came from exploding stars just like these. And every atom in our body will one day return to a great spatial cloud. Isn't this all more wondrous than any mythology yet conceived on Earth?

Calm like a Bomb

There's always been crazy ass Americans. Difference is these days, they've got the keys to the kingdom, and are calling all the shots. Which are crazy. Pray a Perry or FSM help us all a Palin doesn't get elected. It'll be the end of us all.

Nuclear explosion during a good old fashioned Nevada detonation. It's beautiful, in a "UR F'd" kinda way. Powered by nuclear fission, which is quite simply splitting a heavy element into lighter elements. This splitting releases energy, and a chain reaction event releases a metric fuckton of death waves. An explosion like the above probably used only a teaspoonful of matter. You, right now, have the power of many, many nuclear bombs packed inside your body.

Think of it! We are near a day when some crazy hustler Holy Roller could get the codes to launch nuclear weapons. Religion and Science, together at last! It's like a cautionary sci-fi yarn.

Remember: These are the same folks who are rooting on the Rapture. FSM help us all if they can actually push the Big Red Button.

Axis of the Past

Germany is a paradise these days - towers for cars, health care for all, at peace within and without.

Hiroshima Japan - and a lesson for the world in many ways. Where there is life, there is hope, and you can always rebuild.

No Coke - Fuck that Shit

Chicago, July 2011, Navy Pier. Fun place! I took a bunch of awesome shots.

Chicago, 1941. PBR was somehow blended 33 to 1 back then, and, I presume now. Are we not being told of this wondrous process? I've never heard of it before. But then, I'm moving with the Heineken crowd these days.

UNLIMITED POWER (not phallic)

Wardenclyffe Tower, or the Tesla Tower, the first cell phone tower, but much more! Tesla intended it to also transmit wireless power, and think about the implications of that. Unfortunately, unlimited and free power was not in JP Morgan's interests, and soon all the money was gone, the Tower was vandalized, and Tesla's Lab was burnt, as were the majority of his work/notes. Co-incidence! Tesla was the man, a pure genius, but alas, most of his brilliant ideas are lost to us. So beware, future inventors! Inventing an engine that runs on water will make you many enemies. And a few awesome friends. As such:

Another genius, but no Tesla. There are few in our history who can compare.

Tourists and Museums

Museums would be so much better with far fewer tourists, yes? Except yourself, of course. Perhaps this is also true about everything else.

Here's some art found in a museum:

Seeming random sculpture turns to a faithful reproduction in shadow. Now that's art!

I think Plato had it right with the whole "shadow in the cave" analogy. We are bound by our senses as biological animals - this would be the cave - and all we can perceive is what our senses allow us to - in this case, the shadow thrown against the cave wall. We know there's more out there that we don't know about - for instance, that regular matter and energy only makes up 4% of our Universe. 4%! That's nothing, and yet here we sit, no doubt thinking we have it all figured out.

Delusions of a mammalian brain, high on itself. Ain't it grand?

Favorite Button

I like buttons. I'm sure you do too - they do so much. Can you imagine a world without buttons? Dreadful!

"Random" is my favorite button - as in on the oldest of the CD players where "Random" was introduced, along with the multi disc changer, and suddenly a new world of music was born.

I like the "Back" button too. But also high on the list is the BIG RED BUTTON. You know shit's goin' down when you hit the BRB.  Like an attack by a power-gloved smug 80's cool kid:

Many kids could not handle the massive electrical charges. You needed to be super cool to don the glove. Speaking of historical toys:

Made in America baby! My Uncle had one of these back in the day, and he had a kitten named Bobby Kenevel that loved to chase it, smashing headfirst into the hallway wall over and over and over. The kitten didn't last long. Daredevils seldom do.

Except maybe in Robot Donut Land, where everything, always, turns out awesome.

Just a Game

Technology, that is. Those that can create it - which is almost always modifying some previous technology - are always playing a game, called "Challenge". The game consists of a puzzle that enters the person's mind, and is solved, eventually. The nature of this puzzle varies per individual. We're all playing, just some make big things of it - inventions! Stuff that changes the world. Not the Seiko Wrist Computer, though, sadly. An idea ahead of its time. But bravo to the Seiko team for dreaming. Speaking of, imagine how much you could get for this at eSotheby's:

One of the first, if not the first, computers created by Wozniak and Jobs, and this poor sap named Ronald Wayne - look him up, and shed a tear on his behalf. Wozniak did all the work, by the by. But not this:

iPad esque, in retrospect. This is another of my favorite genres - the future, from the past. Like 60's sci-fi movies. Or trippy French paintings from the year 1899:

Not a bad way to read a book: Just grind it up and transmit it over the neuralgram. Also:

Bonjour, baby! But seriously, good idea in principle. And it is the fruit of these games we all play, but some play very well, that leads us on as species, since it is our Technology which separates us from the other animals. Many though - right now! - are working on AI, as a game, of course (or a degree, or money, or what have you), and they're getting better and better by the year. I PREDICT: True AI will be a reality within 20 years, and then we will have some real questions/problems on our hands.

It's iconic by now, which is cool. And inevitable - the only question is: How will you respond? That's always the question, by the way. How you answer is your life: Our game.

Game Over Man (Ugly Kids)

The Flatface kids lose again at imitation brand Missile Command. I always found the game deeply disturbing, for, no matter how hard you tried, you inevitably lost, and your city was destroyed. Your pixelated families, dead. Your digital dog, vaporized. Everything, over. Game over, man. But in real life, you don't get to play another quarter. Man.

Hudson: That's it man, game over man, game over! What the fuck are we gonna do now? What are we gonna do?
Burke: Maybe we could build a fire, sing a couple of songs, huh? Why don't we try that? 

An apt summary of current events.

Boys and Girls

Fact: Boys get better toys. What 50's Lad wouldn't want to play with an atomic energy lab?

See if you can spot the subtle sexism in this toy. I mean, "technician"? Compared to:

Excelsior, America! Or, rather, the America back then. Nowadays, fancy science learnin' ain't welcome.

Wasn't meant to be a playbook

I encourage you to read 1984 again, or for the first time if you never have before. It's scarily prescient. Consider Fox News - just about everything they say and do are ripped from the pages of this Orwellian classic. "Fair and Balanced". "We Report. You Decide". Dissonance all day, every day. Pure Doublethink.

And we're caught in the gyre, a small percentage of lunatics and lizards representing an even smaller percentage of wealthy and powerful hold America hostage, and thereby directly threatening the world. Witness the evil deeds of the Murdoch empire in England and behold what has been going on in America for some time: Tycoons shaking the very pillars of democracy in the name of their own Profits.  They've successfully taken all the pointers helpfully laid out by Orwell and directly applied them to our Real World, with fantastic results.

Orwell would no doubt roll in his grave, were he not most likely dust and ashes by now.

As will we all, some day. So, might as well enjoy the ride, no matter how insane.

Glories of a Forgotten Past

Behold the glories of pulp sci-fi, from Germany! There once were days, children, when semi-popular magazines published short stories from all sorts of genres. What else was there to do but read? There was no wondrous intertubes, and if you were lucky enough to have TV, there were like 4 channels, tops. Can you imagine the boredom?! Radio could be fun, but are you going to hear about freaky alien jazz planets? Doubt it. And so you read, and because people read, people wrote, all over the place. So, with that, here's some of the finest European literature of the 60's:

Uh, is the Brother a space port? A mechanical monster? You decide.

Here's some futuristic French aliens performing space mime experiments of some sort.

Perhaps this dude? Lettin' it all hang out like he don't care. Speaking of:

Legolas and Gimli - best of friends!

Not Trek, Nor Solo

Ah, sweet, foreign,knockoff. Is there no end to the laughs you bring?

Let me answer that for you: No, there is not. Not if you still have a spark of life.

Also, Galaxy 666 sounds awesome. I bet it's rockin'.

Space Vikings

These cool DIY dudes in Denmark got together and said to themselves, collectively, "Why don't we build a Submarine?". So they did, as you see above. A cute little one! But big enough...

Here's the same sub, in service to this same gang of Danish dudes who are now working on a rocket to take a Dane into space. Space, the Final Frontier.

Pretty shot. Here's their web site: Copenhagen Suborbitals. This is a very promising, though profound, movement. I mean, really, a DIY gang putting a man into Space? It's crazy! And awesome. Their launch failed on their first attempt last year, but they gave it another go recently, and success! Unmanned first launch:

Where we go from here - a rocket in every driveway? Widespread missile attacks? Who knows. But it will be exciting regardless. Inevitably, though, over the Millennia, there is only one way for this to evolve:

 Guard your Space treasures well, future folk.