Working the land

It's hard work, but it's honest work. Tilling the land, bringing forth life, harvesting and sharing in the bounty that is God's Green Earth.

Also, here's a picture of weed from the 70's that someone thought was awesome enough to photograph:

Seeds and stems. Wouldn't fly with today's sophisticated pot smoker.

Not a drill

Please note, this is not a NASA security guard.

Just some nerd playing dress up. Isn't it grand fun?

Spirit's Tale

Spirit was sent to Mars with it's twin Opportunity for a 90 day mission. This is the sad story of Spirit...

Opportunity, however, roves on, no doubt terrified, having been left on Mars so long.

NASA Files

Here's my pitch, Hollywood: A group of smart, sexy young NASA scientists drive around the country in their souped up, high tech yet super hip retro van, solving mysteries. There could be a wise cracking robot involved. Big ratings!

Since this is a fictional NASA, you could bust out all kinds of cool technology for different episodes - like super silver giant balloon.

Or a robotic snow tank for the Christmas episode.

Just for example! Shit writes itself, really.

Contact me via this post to discuss terms.

When we dreamt of a better future

Back in the days of American yore, we dreamt of landing men on the Moon, and sending ships to space on a regular schedule - like a space train. The Space Shuttle - conceived of in the 60's, designed and built in the 70's, and surely killed by Reagan in the 80's. Like most of America.

These are pics from the Shuttle launch facility at Vandenburg AFB in California. It was never used for an actual launch, since when the Shuttles were ready for flight, St. Ronnie was President and the strangulation of America had begun in earnest. It takes a big Government to build and operate something so ambitious, so forward looking, and as we all know now, Government is the problem.

Let us lament what could have been, if not for "Conservatives". A future of hope and progress, of equality and science, of fairness and justice for all. A future we here in America will not get another chance at, not in our lifetimes.

But we'll have a few wicked rich folks! Bank on that.

Spacebat we salute you

Back when the US had a manned space program, a bat hitched a ride on one of the last flights. Hidden agenda? Secret mission? Suicidal devotion? Who's to say why bats do things - they are a mystery. But the Internet, of course, came up with some tributes to this brave bat.

Where were you the day that bold bat rocketed up into the sky?

He/She's with Laika, and all the other animals  - like space chimps - we shot into space and now orbit the Earth, forever.

Excelsior, our animal ambassadors!

Don't shed too many tears though, for these courageous animals knew what they were signing up for, and gladly accepted the risks. I mean, who doesn't want to go to space?

Pluto or Possibly (Likely) Bust

These are the Hubble gifs of the best shots we have of Pluto to date. Pluto, the demoted planet. But don't be sad!

Mankind has sent one of its precious crafts to the non-planet. New Horizons is the latest and perhaps the last deep space probe mankind has launched - since we are currently regressing, yay!

It will find rock and ice, how exciting. By the time it finds the next scientific discovery, some other Kuiper Belt object of ice and rock, we'll be in a Republican Theocracy and worshiping Ronald Reagan and the latest Republican Emperor.  We'll all agree this is the natural order of things.

Be sad - we're about to regress, zeig yay!

Begin the Begin

This was the picture in my first ever post on this olde blog, so many (4.5) years ago. I post it again because it fits the theme, it's awesome, and as a symbol of the new year.

Opportunity spotted this almost pure iron/nickel meteorite near its landing spot, and so dubbed "Heat Shield Rock" by NASA wags. Lame. But the meteorite itself is incredible - consider that iron meteorites are far, far rarer than stony meteorites, for the simple reason that an iron meteorite only comes from one place: The core of a differentiated planet. This planet of course was destroyed, a small piece of its core sits on the surface of Mars, right beside Opportunity. The odds!

Longtime fellow redshirts might recall that I have a bit of a love affair with Iron - the chemical substance. Fe 26, yo. It is only created in one place - a star. Either in the core of a huge star and as that happens, the star soon explodes, spreading the Iron hither and yon. In that explosion even more Iron is created. And every bit of Iron you know of - including the Iron in your blood (think about that, man) - came from an exploding star. This Iron now scattered to the four corners coalesced with clouds of hydrogen and helium and other gases, which if lucky began spinning fast enough to create a new star, with new planets - all of which will have Iron cores. Iron lies at the root of all creation, and destruction.

For it's true! Stars happily chug along creating all the elements up to Iron, glowing and casting their life giving light across space, and onto many, many exoplanets and exomoons, but then as soon as a star produces Iron in its core, it's doomed. So Iron is the end of the fusion line, and literally poison to stars. And yet, on the other side of the scale, all the higher number Elements - like gold, silver, plutonium, uranium, etc - all decay, over time, to Iron, and in so doing cease being radioactive. In fact, a definition of "radioactive": anything higher than Iron on the Periodic Table. This decay will take trillions of years, but eventually there will be a time when all higher elements have decayed to Iron, and lo, that will truly be the Iron Age.

Iron is literally - and figuratively - the balance point of creation, of our very reality. Everything we know of is made up from Elements (which in turn are made up of combinations of electrons, neutrons, and protons, which in turn are made up of combinations of quarks, which in turn, current theory posits but has not proven, are made up of combinations of preons, and I'm sure there's some other turn to be discovered in the future), and Iron sits in supreme harmony among them, destroyer and creator, ultimately, of all.

Yay, Iron!

Also, kudos to you Opportunity - you rule. But let's also pour one out for Spirit:

NASA lied to the rovers, of course, the cold hearted bastids.

Bonus Spirit pic, snapped 3/8/04:

Earth, as seen from Mars by Spirit. I'm on "Team Spirit" in case you couldn't tell. Opportunity's awesome and all, but too obsessed with being cool and down with the "in crowd". Spirit would talk to goths, for example. Also understands mortality, as any good redshirt should.

And so with that, I begin again. As we all do, every day. But some days more so than others.

Mars Curious?

Curiosity's descent to the Martian surface. Note the mountain chain below in fine detail. Curiosity's landing was described by the crack NASA PR guys as "7 minutes of terror", and for once they were close to accurate. Hitting the Martian atmosphere at incredible speeds, plowing through the first and hottest layer heat shield only, then POOF, mega parachute:

But given the thin atmosphere of Mars, even a giant parachute only does so much, thus, onto the rocket engine/sky crane:

And you think we're not living in the future? Look at this futuristic shit! Robotic rocket platform slowly lowers the Mini Cooper sized Curiosity gently to the Martian ground, then cuts the cables and bugs out, crashing as far away as possible. Check out the aftermath:

That's at least like 2000$ in littering fees. Probably far more. Keep Mars clean! Curiosity is watching.

O hai! Curiosity here, checking stuff out on Mars. Whatchya doin'? Oh, just surfing the Internet? Cool, well, I got things to do. Ciao.

Seriously, this is a self portrait of Curiosity, and despite reading an explanation, I still am not sure how it's done. Apparently the giveaway is by the front wheel. You tell me.  While you figure that out, here's one of Curiosity's first production level shots:

Click for epic. Just another day on the Martian beach. At this point we have two functional rovers on Mars - the August landed Curiosity, and the incredible Opportunity, which landed on Mars on January 25, 2004 for a 90 day mission of exploration, yet is still operating today. It's also incredible twin, Spirit, ceased operations on March 22, 2010. RIP, Spirit.  Spirit joins Phoenix, several Vikings, and some weird Russian probes as silent testimonials to Earth's achievements. Perhaps one day all these plucky bots will become museum sites or statues, at least. Right? Once mankind has colonized Mars and there's three boobed ladies in seedy bars and this dude's hiding in a cavern?

Start the reactor, Quaid.

Of Many Suns

An artist's representation of Gliese 667Cc, a lovely planet thought to be one of the first that resides in the so called "Goldilock's Zone", that is, the area not too close and not too far from a star where water could generally remain liquid. Which, we think today, is necessary for life. I suspect we'll find this is not so limiting in the future, but that's for then.

For now - perhaps one of the coolest Exoplanets discovered to date, orbiting a small red dwarf star which in turn orbits a pair of much larger stars who are orbiting each other. Fun fact to know and share: It's estimated that about 60% of all stars are at least binaries - stars orbiting stars. Our sun is a minority in this regard.

Here's another artist's interpretation of Gliese 667Cc:

Nice, right? Only 22 Light Years away. Or, that is, they've got The Simpsons on reruns now too. But just when everyone was all fired up about GL667Cc, up and comes PH1, or Kepler-64B:

It's a big Gas Giant 5000LY away so kinda boring in that regard, but not in this - it orbits a pair of stars. One planet orbiting two stars. These two stars are in turn orbited by another pair, like this:

Confusing as heck! And night time would be a thing of rarity. Good for beach going though! Except for the Gas Giant thing. But you know.

Another cool first with PH1 was it was discovered by "amateurs" using publicly accessible data from the Kepler Space Telescope. The best space telescope, by the way. Yeah, Hubble, you heard me.

Soviet Strong

A few things: As long as there is scarcity of resources, Communism cannot work in the large scale. If there were no scarcity of resources (AKA Star Trek's "replicator" which takes elements then fabricates items on command - take heed of the development of the 3d printer. It's the beginning of the replicator), then pure Communism is a must. Everyone's equal in the scheme of things, there's no money, everyone's happy and their children are nurtured and healthy, education for all, entertainment for all, science for all: The Soviet future, one in which every single person is a sovietnik. Look it up. And enjoy these pictures.

I've got a ton of Soviet propaganda art on the old HD "Cloud" because I find it stunningly beautiful. The style of it. Gorgeous and inspiring and awesome now that the USSR is no longer an immanent threat to end the world.

This might be one of Galactus's heralds. Make no mistake: It was the Cold War that created NASA and got man on the moon in ten freaking years  - which is simply incredible. A staggering accomplishment that shall echo in history for as long as we have it. Since the fall of the USSR records reveal what many suspected of the Soviet space program: more duct tape and spit than fearsome space conqueroring machine. They had some smart folks (also some NAZI's just like the USA) and the power of the state behind them, and the Soviet space program accomplished great things - first satellite in space; first animal in space; first man in space; first woman in space. Remarkable stuff, but as soon as NASA was funded and the space race began in earnest, the Soviets could not keep up. Not enough bucks, you see. The crippling affects of the past 30 years had caught up to them. And so it was the space race that truly began the fall of the USSR and its empire. Yay, space! Because in truth the USSR was mostly awful, though with many positives. But still mostly awful and worth fighting. Yay, also, America!

Also too:

At last! It's time someone actually took the fight to the KKK and any other race based hate organization. In a tolerant society you've got to tolerate almost everyone, be they religious, atheist, man, woman, black, red, yellow, white, gay, straight, lame, hipster, uptight, etc. But the one person we as a society cannot tolerate is the intolerant. Those who would seek to limit the rights of others, for whatever reason. They are the enemies of tolerance and must be opposed wherever they rear their hoary heads, for they are poison upon the body Tolerance and if given enough sway can end it. So, tolerance for all! Except for the intolerant, who must be opposed vociferously and actively.

Ergo, go Black Panther! Fuck the CSA.

Next (Giant) Steps

You remember Lagrange Points, right? Spots of gravity around the orbit of Earth and the Sun where things are relatively still and balanced - you could just hang out at any L# spot above and be cool, but especially cool, as you see, is L4 and L5, for there lay the Trojan Asteroids orbiting about Earth and the Sun cool as could be, stationary. There for the taking.

And that's where our future lies: With the Asteroids. Some are pure metal, worth billions upon billions and billions of dollars in today's funny money.  The industrial potential of such asteroids is beyond compare - mine them in space, build huge structures in space, and so on:

From the asteroids we can build huge space machines that could do all kinds of crazy things:

Eventually we'll make spaceships of asteroids - why not? Big shield of rock with all your futuristic shit all snug as a bug inside the iron walls. The spinning of the ship will simulate perfect Earth gravity, leading to:

Living large in the Lagrange, y'all...

This is where we will survive as a species - in space, living in humongous space spheres spinning through the Black... do you think we can survive like that? I do, if we have enough ships - say a million, all sent out in different directions in space. Humans would conquer the galaxy!  And is not that the point? To spread?

We can spread as a species off this planet and into space. Isn't it our obligation to do so?

Pioneer, our immortality

Say hello to the piece of art - the poem, the story, the epic of us - that will last the longest of any piece of art. In fact, it's likely to last far longer than humanity itself. The Pioneer Plaque, conceived and implemented by Carl Sagan and Frank Drake (of the famous Drake Equation:

It looks wicked complicated, doesn't it? But it's not really - look it up. This is not the place for equations!).

Anyways, look:

The plaque is made of solid gold, and was mounted on the inside of Pioneer's legs, in order to protect it from the solar wind and space dust. For reals - it's abrasive! Anything is, really, over millions of years.

There's the story, by the way. Designed to relay as much information about humanity and Earth as possible in such a small space. Also to note - the size of the spacecraft on the right is proportional to the size of the naked humans.

Imagine! Can you imagine NASA trying to send an image of naked people to space today? Ah, how we've progressed. Anywho:

Mr. Sagan with the actual plaque, in front of Boston City Hall, beautiful monstrosity that it is. I used to smoke cigarettes to the way back right there, and I've previously posted this picture:

This wondrous display of FREEDOM! takes place on the right of City Hall above, and that's the Old State Building at the end of this corridor, which, hilariously, was the scene of the BOSTON MASSACRE, featuring the wonderfully named Crispus Attucks - the first "martyr" of the Revolution. Ironic, right?

Anyways, now that I type this all up - nicely, I think :) - I realize I might have done a similar post many, many years ago. And while I certainly strive not to repeat any pictures, ever, unless for effect, in this case, what the heck! Behold the glory that is dialectic free association. Man.

The Shape of Things

This is the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, a picture taken over 7 days of a spot in the sky smaller than your pinky. Every object here is a galaxy, some over 11 billion light years away. Since it takes light a certain distance to travel to your eye (or the telescope), whatever you see is in the past. 11 billion light years means 11 billion years ago. Here:

And here's a similar graph for the awesome WMAP satellite:

As you can see, the CMBR pic in the previous post is from very early on in the Universe - before stars, before light could spread freely. The Dark Ages was the era of heavy, swirling clouds of gas so thick light could not escape, and blackness was upon everything. But one day a star was born and the darkness was broken.

With every ray of light, with every act, with every Big Bang, you can think of the existence of this thing as a cone, with a past, present, and future. Witness:

The cones are light, past and future; the red arrow moving through it is an electron, or a star, or you, anything that exists. Since there is one cone we are all contained within - the Big Bang. And we are but red lines squiggling along, all doing the best we can.