iClothes

So, I guess this was a thing?

Ah, the 1980's. In retrospect, not that far removed from the late 60's/early 70's, thus, the weird fashions. Hippie sensibility fused with Mall culture.

Who the hell would wear computer clothes in the 80's? No one, I assume, except these models and a few fat proto-nerds. I'd rock a "Wang" T-Shirt, though, I suppose.

Be pretty Hipster to wear some of these Apple clothes today, walking into an Apple store, rocking the Genius Bar.

Lessons from St. Ronaldus

I just finished the book Nixonland and highly recommend. Kinda scary. But relevant to our times, for we are living in the reality of the true Revolution of the 1960's, and that was the Conservative (Wingnut) Revolution. The Triumph of the John Birch Brigade. Three men were in large part responsible for this Revolution - Goldwater, who was rightly considered the loon he was; Nixon, of course, who was a grab bag of resentments and hypocrisy, and good old St. Ronnie, who coulda run for President in 1968 and probably won. What Reagan gave us was the victory of the actor.

 An actor with little knowledge of the issues but with a good sense on how to move a crowd. An entertainer's skill transferred to politics. The politician as actor, the actor as politician - none of it real, all a facade, an empty chalice in which the Agenda (plot) is poured within. And so today, we have the Republican Party, devoted to the legacy of The Great Man Reagan, giving us

Sarah Palin, defender of Big Gulps and

chewing tobacco. Yay, chaw! Freedom to be fat and get mouth cancer then go die and in the street cuz you ain't takin' no OBAMERCARE! Yeehaw, America!

The Know Nothings are here, and proud of it.

Let us bask in their good natured humor and civic spirit! Cheers!

Have a drink with the Turtle. He'll filibuster his portion of the tab.

If you recall, humor was Reagan's main charm. And he was good at it, relatively. Today's Repukes? Not so much. Do you know of any truly funny right wingers? And for that, again, we should feel blessed with good fortune.

Batfreud

All the heroes were involved in the war effort (WW2 only - the other wars, not so much), but as a nerd, I'd like to raise a quibble: If you've got Superman, Batman, and Robin on your side, instead of having them raise and harvest Victory Gardens you instead used them to, oh, I don't know. Kill Hitler? But alas! There are no real heroes. Just drawings, or words, or characters on a screen.

From the original Batman serial film series - 1949, yo! Batman and Robin. The baggy leotards are intimidating, yes? But still, 1949! These 15 short stories ran before the featured movie of the day.

It's interesting to note through art the changing of society's standards. All the tough guys from the early days of movies and tv look like [arnold]little girly men[/arnold]. No definition! Do they even lift?

When you're "Adam West" smooth, maybe you don't need to be jacked.

Your car needs to be, however. Gee whiz tools define the character.

And now consider the Batman mythos as underlined here - created in 1939, WW2 propaganda campaigns, and already with a film series in 1949. A popular TV series in the 60's. Also a wacky movie. Movies in the 80's - 10's. And so many, many comics. A myth is born before our eyes, and enters the Jungian collective - we all "get it", right? Rich playboy with tragic background fights evil using cool toys? It's an expression of our desire for fairness in a closed, controlled system that is not fair, in which we are mostly powerless. A modern hero, for modern times.

Batman also might be a symbol for revenge, but I leave that for you to judge, and also what it says about humanity if true.

Asteroid sweet home

IF - that's the BIG IF, by the way - we manage to actually start mining asteroids in space, a logical leap would be to use the asteroids themselves as bases. Consider Ida, below. You could use Ida as the base, and mine Dactyl. Why not? You're already digging, you've got raw materials, water, air, energy, and perhaps most importantly of all, the interior of an asteroid would provide perfect shielding against radiation - something we have little hope of stopping with our current or even near technology.

It would start small, of course, with the space miners themselves living in some burrowed out cave, but with time, and effort, and the fabulous gazillions of dollars space mining will create, things will get bigger.

And groovier.

Check out future space plow, and the old asteroid fishing hole. But bigger still - really, the scale would only be limited by available asteroids. And not just for habitats, but for space ships:

And why not? Once you're in space, mass doesn't matter so much, and there's no aerodynamics to worry about. Thus:

To the future!

Born too soon

Alas! Poor space frog, with dreams of voyages to the stars in his eyes. Not for you, sad frog. Maybe in a hundred or a couple hundred years. Maybe a thousand. Possibly never. Even though you can easily dream of it, even though we could make it happen if we collectively got together and went for it, even though it should have been your destiny from 1969, alas! Not to be for you.

Stuck with probes, hooray.

An example of an internet meme, by the by, in case you don't already know. Here's how to make an internet meme: 1. Find a picture. 2. Type something over it. 3. Spread hither and yon and hope the seed takes in the cybersoil.

But for true, we are limited by our technology, by our collective achievements, to a degree. Consider the so called Ionian School. From here circa 630BCE - 420BCE,

From the Wiki, also from whence I got the map, in Spanish, for some reason. I like it better this way - more exotic. But that's Turkey, y'all, and SCIENCE was basically born right here, during this time period. Mayhaps it was also invented elsewhere, but we have no records. Here, we have a record - the Scientific Inquiry well and truly got started here and continued through humanity, to today. Word up, Delos!

Anyways, they came up with the concept of the atom, yet had ZERO way of observing the atom, due to the general technological level of humanity. Even a supergenius savant could do nothing about it. And thus the mind, the person is limited by when he/she was born. You, me, today, we sit on the brink of a radical redefinition of humanity, and we'll probably miss it.

Born too soon, but aren't we all, always?

Music to

I have no idea what such music might sound like, and now I don't want to know. I'll fancy a world of the Night Pastor and his Seven Friends cooing and making... bread noises? Such strange imaginings. And to lure? Is the Good Pastor capturing these pigeons? For what nefarious and/or sonorous purpose, one wonders?

Speaking of nefarious,

It's a real thing, apparently. Look!

Surely, no internet wag went to the trouble of printing a CD label? More proof:

You start the CD the same moment the Windows 98 setup screen loads. Fucking mind blowing!

In the Shadow of Nam

Vietnam put a real dent in the American War Machine, and this, coupled with Civil Rights, was the crisis of the 60's/70's, which translated into the snap back of the Wingnuts, with St. Ronnie leading the charge.

Starting with the LIBERATION of Grenada, bringing FREEDOM to this important nation. Baby war steps, really. Vietnam took the piss out of US, then throw in the OPEC embargo and the Iranian hostage situation, and America was ready for some Olde Tyme Isolationism. But St. Ronnie made sure that didn't happen with an unprecedented peace time military build up. Leading to

The LIBERATION of Panama, bringing FREEDOM to this important nation. A bigger engagement than Grenada, and a near flawless victory. Big boy steps! So, why the hell not?

The LIBERATION of Kuwait, bringing FREEDOM to this important nation. America got the neighborhood all together and everyone took care of that mean old So Damn Insane (Saddam Hussein). Another near flawless victory, and this one on a yet much bigger scale still. Looks like Vietnam Syndrome is cured! But still, like a teenager, tentative forays into the adult world

Serbia Bosnia Kosovo Yugoslavia and all that - Jeebers! What a confusing assortment of insignificant nations LIBERATED by the USA, as usual. LIBERATOR of the world, don't you know. W will prove it to you, for you see, we're cured of Vietnam Syndrome! War on!

Iraq 2 was not near as fun as Iraq 1, for most. A few had a grand old time, however. The Generals and the Money Men. Here's David Patraeus, stuck in a metaphorical sand trap, in no way signifying W.'s war.

Oh yeah Afghanistan too, I almost forget. Did we all not? I mean, everyone was for this war, but then Iraq happened and everyone was all about that and we all forgot about poor old Afghanistan. And it's true - poor, old, Afghanistan, once an actual nation, now ground to dust. And since Obama, of course, all our soldiers have turned gay

Thanks, Obama. And we're pulling out, again. EGADS! Come end of 2013 America will not be engaged in any wars! What ever shall we do?!

Action!

There's also a booming business in "private" security up to and including mercenary armies for rich people. Yay! Wait till drones become even more widespread - rich guys with robotic armies will be grand. Till then:

Friendly neighborhood police officers, protecting local business. As they should - it's part of the job. Is this?

Every society is different to differing degrees, and so too the reactions to authority. As in The Authority. The protest as a form of political expression is mostly gone in America. Another victim of the 60's. But it's alive and well in Europe and South America. I don't condone violence, but in some countries, at some times, the pressures are so great, the corruption and oppression so great, that violence is only inevitable. It doesn't have to be this way - though I sometimes wonder if protesting is a collegiate sport in France.

Anyway, here's a bunch of cool protest pictures with snappy captions.

Bravery unto foolishness.

Changing hearts and minds through nonviolent protest.

Kids are always so sweet at protests - and it's educational!

Throwing rocks is proven to bring people together. Try it out sometime - just start hucking rocks at shit. Friends will follow.

Bring Kanellos. Every protest is better with a dog.

Art is PROTEST. Art IS expression. ART is freedom.

The Man can use art, too. You know those ink bombs they put in money stolen from the bank? Abstract Expressionism.

The Man can look fabulous!

And never forget, protestors of the world, that the police, SWAT, Guard, Army, and all the rest are folks just like you and me. Most everyone likes cats, right? Let's focus on what connects us, rather than divides us.

Grandparents! Everyone loves grandparents.

The Same Sun

Back when America dreamed big. Conquer the sky and the stars was all - once that proved irrelevant, you'll note, the funds towards Space dried right up. Politics at play, alas - everyone hates politics, and yet, it goes on. Odd!

The shuttle is on the left, the ISS on the right. The big yellow thing in the background is the Sun, our star and protector of Life. That star - that concentration of fusion bound by gravity - pours forth all the Power we'll ever need, whether it's rays on the solar panels of the ISS or the orange sunset from the mountains on planet Earth, the sun is all we need and all we'll ever get. So enjoy.

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!