Like the Weekend?

Thank a Union Member. Through blood, sweat and tears, Unions brought us the weekend, healthcare, pensions and retirement plans, disability insurance, everything that makes the Western, industrial world great.

Rest assured, well and truly proven over the history of humanity, the rich and powerful do not want you to be overly happy or particularly healthy. As long as you do their bidding, as cheaply and with as little fuss as possible, than all is good. Demand your human rights? Have some thugs.

Better yet, use the police as your goonsquad and thug brigade. Let the man being truncheoned pay for his own beating, though taxes. Brilliant!

Alas, we seem eager these days to give back all the rights these folks fought for. And for why? Because of insanity. Thanks Republican Party and supporters!

Hitler Hilarities

I've read it. Don't bother. Boring!

 What kind of parent would dress their kid up as Hitler? Ironic Hipsters, I bet.

Amen!

No idea where this billboard is from, but what do you want to bet it's the South? They know their Jesus! "After hanging on a crucifix for a few hours, I really enjoy the smooth, refreshing taste of Budweiser. If it's good enough for the Son of Gawd, it's good enough for you."

Also too:

Nice Melons

See what I did there?


Science chat's over for the nonce. On with the LULZ.

in America

Look at this! Just cold throwin' out an oversized novelty check for 25 Large. Dayum! Someone's got some very, very deep pockets to just chuck this - I'm talking Paul Bunyan sized pockets here.


But I guess it does serve to confirm the mythical notion of "in America...". For instance, "The streets are paved with gold!". For Gold, here, read: Oversized Novelty Checks. But you get the point, yeah?


Also too: I've long held the dream of being paid solely in oversized novelty checks. When I walked into the bank on payday, people would pay attention, dang nab it! So to see such wanton waste is a bit poignant for me. I hope for you, too.

No Cats, No Steeples

Oh wait, actually: Just the opposite. And just so I'm clear, here:

North Adam Steeplecats RULE!


Also, too: God bless a world where a man can make a million dollars by simply hosting a website where other people intentionally misspell words on a picture. LOLcats indeed.

Redshirt's Lament 1000th Post Jesus Dinosaur Spectacular!

I know we've all been waiting for this glorious day: Friday! Or, actually, my 1000th post. The first 300-500 were crap, but I've been on a roll since then. So, without further ado, here's a series of pictures of Jesus and Dinosaurs. NOTE! There is a different meme (to come) for Raptor Jesus.

 Or, did it?

 You see here Jesus - Master Tactician. Get the Magical Unicorns to focus on each other, then you come screaming in from out of nowhere upon your trusty Saurian steed.

 But as we all can learn from Jesus: Different tools for different jobs. You don't want to roll into a new city on a Tyrannosaurus, at least not the first time.

Or full on, "Hey! Prince of Peace here, riding a vegetarian, yo."

 I ain't very religious, but from my studies, one thing is clear: Jesus loves Dinosaurs. I wonder, though,  where the dinosaurs live in heaven? Mingled amongst everyone else, or do they get their own heaven, like hogs?

 Oh, and also too: It's fun to say "Jesus Penis".

Look upon my works

Feel free to come up with a "Losing his mind" joke. Take your time, and remember: The journey is the destination.

 Do you remember? 4 TOES!!!! I miss Lost a whole bunch, but specifically, talking to others about it. As for me, I still watch Lost almost daily (it's a part of my workout routine) and I've been writing snarky episode reviews... elsewhere. If there is a clamor for these reviews here, let me know. I'd create a new section.

General rule of thumb: No matter how dumb you think something is, somewhere, someone is probably proud of it. Case in point!

 Paul Bunyan, Bangor ME. I looked upon this statue many times as a child in horror/wonder. And then disillusionment, when I learned Mr. Bunyan was in no way a part of any Maine mythology - so why is there such a prominent statue of him then? Good question! Doing my usual 60 seconds of research, I've found Mr. Bunyan statues all over America, but it does appear Bangor's claim to have the largest is accurate. Chock one up for Bangor! Hooray!

 Contractual obligation. Cool Supes statue though - I'm surprised it's not defaced.

Felis Catus riding a male Gallus Gallus Domesticus

Or, in laypeople's terminology: Pussy riding Cock.

But this is a family friendly blog, so take your dirty mind elsewhere, you perv!

Less than 12 parsecs

So, if you're a true nerd, you no doubt are aware of the long running controversy regarding Han Solo's claim to have done the Kessel Run in 12 parsecs. If you're a normal person, or even someone with just a "touch of nerd", you probably have no idea what I'm talking about. But this post is not for you, cool dude!


First, there's the whole debate about measuring things in parsecs. A parsec is a unit of spatial measurement (1 Parsec =3.08568025 x 10 to the 16th meters), not time, so how does the phrase "Made the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs" even make sense?


Glad you asked! When we get to distances in space, things are so big that our normal units of spatial measure become unwieldy - too many numbers! So other, far bigger units are used. You've heard of a "light year", right? For example, its about 4 light years from our Sun to the nearest star. But think about what this term actually is saying - the distance light travels in one year. So, in essence, it's a measurement of time, not space. But Space and Time are the same, according to general relativity (spacetime!), and thus, a light year.


A parsec has nothing to do with any of that, but I thought it would be fun to mention. In the Star Wars universe, they travel faster than light by a sci fi term called "hyperspace", which is just like "warp" in Star Trek.  Each involves an actual folding of space. And so, Han's boast of making the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs implies it's usually longer (like 18 parsecs), but due to his daring, he took a shorter, more dangerous route. In Star Wars, they have "Hyperspace Lanes" that most ships travel, in order to avoid dangers like black holes or massive stars. And thus, Han's claim is founded in Star Wars logic.


And now you know. Go forth, and spread this knowledge.


Also too:

Oh yeah! Your hyperspace throttle is jammed into the deflector array. That's gonna cost ya.

Smoke 'em if you got 'em

An amusing sub-category of "Funny Animal Pictures" is the topic of "Animals Smoking". It's usually monkey related, but lookee here at these bold crows. Caaaa- HACK!- aaaw!

Also:

Smoking sure looks cool, right? This l'il guy sure seems to think so - though it's possible this is an undeclared Photoshop. Judge for yourself.

Impressions of Lost Longings

O! What longings lurk beneath the mask of evil - what could have been if this, or if that..... an imagined innocence as the last redoubt of a soul beyond torment....


Wait a second. It's just a whiny douchebag behind that mask. Never mind.

High Art

I don't know where this came from, or even how to explain it, other than I assume it's from the 1970's, and then everything makes sense. Enjoy!


Also, too:

 

The white armor will have to be replaced

Another day, another dollar.

First mission of the day...

 With a success! Believe me, the odds against this are huge. Must be a trap.

 And a relaxing evening spent at the park, with a job well done.



Have a good weekend!

Ask and ye shall receive

Example #23 in the lesson "If it can be thought of, it's already been done".

The Point

I realize all this science stuff ain't everyone's cup o' tea. "Boring!" You might say. "Bring on the pics of monkeys riding in kangaroo pouches", others might proclaim. And I agree with you all! To a point. This blog, however, is big, and all encompassing. There's really no limit to my interests - pray I don't bog down in financial derivative chat!

But, my point through this last series of posts is to really lay out a vision on Perspective. You'll note that Perspective is one of the main themes of this blog. It determines everything, since we are bound in a series of systems which by default sets certain perspectives on us - our senses. For example, we are evolved to see in a small sliver of the radioactive spectrum - what we call "visible light". But that's just the way it worked out. If things had gone differently, perhaps we could also see in infrared, or ultraviolet, or in radio waves. And if that were the case, you, me, and everything we humans have built would be dramatically different. Probably no humans, for example.

So, through these last series of posts, I have gone from the smallest of the small - the quark, and the theoretical particles that might make up quarks, and the theoretical strings that might make up these particles; through protons, atoms, molecules, chemical compounds, higher and higher up the chain of existence, of complexity, to life itself; and then onto the general environment we find ourselves - citizens of Sol, our Star, re-giver of all the energy we see around us. 

Then we moved on past our star to the galaxy of stars we live in, and the wonders/terrors present in neutron stars and black holes, and finally onto the idea of the Multiverse, or even a Multiverse of Multiverses, scales of existence beyond our ken, and our Barbie.

And through it all, I keep highlighting the idea of "phase changes", for the simple reason that there is no binary, no on/off switch for anything, but rather, everything exists in a continuing spectrum of existence, crossing dimensions, spacetime, cellular boundaries, you name it. Remember: E=MC2, and thus there is no dividing line between energy and matter, but simply phase transitions between different states of existence - like ice turning to water, turning to steam, turning back to water, turning back to ice, and so on. No energy is ever lost, nor created - just transformed.

This is the reality we find ourselves, trapped really. Except we have one thing that nothing else on Earth has: Minds that can reach outside our bodies, outside our senses, and transport ourselves to completely different realities. Einstein was daydreaming on a bus when he came up with his first major breakthrough, and all of his major breakthroughs happened quite quickly in the "miracle year" of 1905.  In that one year, Einstein re-wrote our entire Universe, and moved us from creatures largely determined by our senses, to creatures that now can look past our noses and perceive the true wonders of existence - like the Multiverse, for example. Yes, Einstein built on all the work from his predecessors, and he would not have been able to accomplish what he did without them, but his revelations were truly revolutionary. He in fact took us to another level of reality - a reality beyond our senses.


And that's where we are today, cautiously wading out into an unknown ocean that often seems counterintuitive - for example, time moves at different rates depending on your speed. Weird, huh? And now that we've entered this new reality, the revelations are unfolding with greater and greater speed - it's been said, for instance, that the past 20 years have been the golden age of astronomy, such as with the discovery of exoplanets, black holes, infant galaxies, etc. 


And it continues. For example, a current theory posits that everything you know, our very Universe and everything within it, is a hologram from a higher dimension. It could be true! And perhaps we'll find out soon enough.


Regardless, the vistas that are now revealed to us are so breathtaking, so enormously vast and mind boggling, that I approach it all with the sense of the mystic: These great mysteries can be understood, but it requires one to give one's self over to the idea that everything you think you know is not the full story. In fact, it's just the surface, and beneath that surface, wonders await. Wonders that make the miracles of the Bible seem as card tricks. It's your job to dig, and keep digging, always.


And this is where I am driving all of this: The merging of science and wonder, of knowledge and faith. Faith IS important, it's just almost always misused, corrupted, or otherwise an excuse to refute knowledge. But faith and knowledge are not incompatible. I approach the Universe with Faith, since for sure, I'll never understand more than an iota of it; but! I have faith there is a System, and that system CAN be understood. Eventually....


I also am inspired by how often scientific revelations accord with Buddhist philosophy. When I first heard the phrase "Form is emptiness, emptiness form", I took it from the nihilistic perspective - nothing matters, man!


But now I see precisely what it means: We are - Literally! - empty. Atoms are 98% emptiness. We never touch anything, ever (what we think of as touch, as solid, is really the electromagnetic fields of the atoms which compose us). The galaxy is vastly empty, yet filled with everything. But underneath everything is something else, and underneath that is something else, and so on - all the way down, all the way up. Again, nothing you know in this world is as it seems - it is in fact far more miraculous than anything we could ever dream of.


And yet, still, we suffer with our petty hates and biases, bogged down by our various ignorances, ignoring the miracle which is our very existence. It's sad.


But there's always hope. Through Preachin' the Word, of course, no matter how difficult it can be to get the point across.


And finally, I find all this stuff sexy as hell. These fine ladies no doubt agree:

Peace out, y'all. 

Hot Dog!

A delicacy in the Koreas, or so the Internet has led me to believe. Looks tasty!

A Legend is Born

Say hello to Kanellos, the Greek Protest Dog (there's your search terms). The Internet has not completely settled on a name for this awesome guy, but I'm going with Kanellos.

Witness just a small slice of his heroic adventures:

This guy is near and dear to my heart as I was in Athens a few days before these protests (December 2008), right in these neighborhoods, and I made friends with lots of the dogs (and cats) that were roaming around the street - they were everywhere. It was shocking at first to see dogs hanging out on top of the Acropolis, for example, but I quickly warmed to the guys. They were all very friendly, for the obvious begging reasons. I also assumed many of these dogs and cats had owners, they were just free to roam around wherever they wanted.

Anyways, Kanellos shows up in tons of photos of these protests, leading the charge in some cases. It's easy to understand from a dog behavior perspective: He's begging from the protesters, who are nice to him; the cops are easily identifiable and are mean to him AND the people he thinks of as his pack. Thus, he becomes an active agent in the protests, protecting his pack (source of food, kindness).

Or, perhaps he's just an anarchist dog:

Sometimes a rock is just for bludgeoning

BUT! Even if this might be a tad too phallic, it's the Shat, man, in Kirk form. Still he-manly - he'll beat you down with that phallic rock, and you'll have no choice but to choke on it. Man.

 ACTING!