Spoiler Alert!

I've not read the book, nor seen the movie. But I gather there's a dog involved, and said dog goes from pup to old age. And dies, according to this spoiler - I sure hope not!

Do dog deaths upset you more than people deaths, fictionally speaking? I mean, often, the people had it coming - how many action films have you watched and witnessed hundreds of people's deaths with barely a shrug, or even, a thrill? Yeah! Dogs, on the other hand, are almost always innocent, and every dog death in fiction is tragic and heartbreaking. A weird imbalance, yes?

Extinction Event, We Are

The Polar Bear is not long for this world as is - the species will have to adapt, or die. Thus the future we have wrought for the Polar Bear and so many more life forms upon this sweet Earth.

We - Humanity - are a cancer upon this planet, digging and blasting and poisoning and so much more... it's true to: There's a biological extinction event going on right now, with species dying off by the thousands all the time, all because of us.

We are The Destroyers, and woe be upon all other animals in our path.

okcupid redux summer spacemix

Again with the blessings of modernity - any other time in human history, and this guy is a Nerd-Kabob.

Also, OKCUPID is an awfully fantastic place for sad/awesome photos. There's no end to the amusement to be had. Case in point:

It's a dating site. Would you date either of these men? Are you prepared to pretend to be interested in bananas?

R U prepared for such a culinary space exploration? Moon waffles, man.


Or, if you are interested so far: The lengths humans will go to try and connect with another. It is a puzzle, is it not? Or not?

Not Redshirts

One might say - might! - that by willingly going in to an obviously doomed situation it is your own fault for the doom that falls upon you, even if you really had nothing to do with it, even if your intents were as pure as a cat's purr...... Or, any situation that can reasonably be foreseen. Another example: In a "bad part of town", you leave your wallet on the car seat with the windows rolled down and hundred dollar bills hanging out. Do you deserve to get it stolen?

Thusly, falling in love with a Redshirt is just asking for heartbreak, since we all should know what happens to Redshirts. But! In the grand scheme of it, are we not all Redshirts? Mortal, fools, fated to be used, doomed to a certain end? So why bother falling in love if it will end - Darwin guarantees it! - in tragic loss?

You know the answer.

Now, onto the show. WARNING! ADULT CONTENT BELOW THE FOLD (speaking of guarantees)!

Futile

This was Gunter Borg's best bet for getting some action, but alas, Cmdr. Bridesmaid wasn't into nanoprobes.

You know it's Love when

You're willing to take the shirt off your pregnant belly for an Olan Mills soft focus shot. That's commitment, man. True Love, and I'm sure everything worked out great for these kids, and their new kid.

A Mid Life Nerd Crisis

The Chrysler Turbine Car, 55 of which were manufactured in Detroit in 1963. The car could run on almost any fuel, including, as I have just learned, tequila. Read here. As you'll also read in the Wiki, the car was shown at the awesome 1964 World's Fair.

My theory, based on nothing but my own speculation with no research: The CTC was the direct inspiration for this most awesome of cars:

Now, of course, the Batmobile (1966) is waaaaaay cooler. But you can see the resemblance in the rear, in the fins, and of course the gas turbine engine.

If'n I were one of them rich as Croesus Dot.Com UberNerds I'd take a stab at buying the Batmobile right about now, or at least building a replica. Then I'd be happy, for sure. Cuz everyone knows once you have the coolest car, you win. Game over, man.

If I also owned the "Han Frozen in Carbonite" sculpture I could truly proclaim myself KING OF THE NERDS.

But of course, that wouldn't be enough, would it? There'd always be some other ironic yet awesome collectible out there to obtain, or stop someone else from obtaining, because that's all this life really is, right? A neverending game? You'll never know the rules or the score or even the team colors, but you'll play all the same. What choice do you have? It's that or "Price is Right" Loser Music as you exit, stage left. And we shan't have that, amirite?

A Confederacy of Morans

It's real. I know it doesn't look real, but it is. If you dare, let the horror soak in - these were the men running/ruining our Empire. Morans. Ideologues. Partisan Wingnuts. But it's always the same, yeah? The History of the World, in a nutshell: Due to favorable circumstances/good luck, some smart individuals make a series of decisions that allow their endeavours to succeed. This success breeds more success, and with this success comes power. Power breeds more power until a critical point is reached and the Enterprise expands greatly, and flourishes. But power draws in the greedy and degenerate, and soon they worm their way into the Enterprise, rotting it from the inside. This process continues as Power always becomes its own end, and the initial reasons for the Enterprise are forgotten. Add in some unfavorable circumstances/bad luck, and these Inheritors of the Empire can no longer make wise decisions, and thus the center falls apart, and the Enterprise starts to collapse. Maybe it can recover, maybe pieces of it mutate into other things, but that's it. The end. All of our human works seem to follow this pattern.

But still - to see our degeneracy so clearly as this memo. Breathtaking, in its rather shocking stupidity.

But that's what the American Empire has been driven into - a culture that now seems to emphasize ignorance and superstition over facts, partisan patriotism over civic duty, greed over the common welfare, yadda yadda, Aptly summed, here:

 America: Fuck Yeah!

We Are Defined by What We Kill

Hey Beauford! What say me and Jimmy Bob pose on this here giant hill of buffalo skulls and you snap one of them new fangled flash pictures?

Have you heard about this? Read about this? The wanton killing of buffalo in the American west in the late 1800's? Vacation train rides you could take where you'd just be poppin' off out the window, cold killin' buffalo for kicks. Fun for the whole family! And for why? No good reason really, just cause the buffalo were there, so easy for the killin' - they were practically asking for it.

Now, compare that mindset, just some 100 years old, with a comparable attitude today - for example, there are many re-population efforts of buffalo going on across the west. 

Progress! Right? It seems undeniable, and this is but one example. For it's true: You are defined by what you kill, and each and everyone of us MUST kill in order to live - this is in fact a definition of life, in my opinion: To kill. For fuel, of course, but killing is killing. Everything alive kills, and so the question is: Do you have a choice in this?

Yes, we humans clearly do. And so we have all kinds of weird diets, as expressions of our humanity. It's quite wonderful, I think, and presages even greater progress in the future.

And this is but one area of progress. We are becoming environmentally aware; equality is a real fact, and a growing reality across the world; racism and bigotry are battled across the globe. I could go on, but I hope you see, despite the seeming insanity of American politics and how that shapes the entire Earth, we are all - collectively! - making great progress in advancing a progressive attitude for all humanity. Respecting each other and the world we inhabit, this is our collective future. Not the distrust and rapaciousness of the past.

There will be setbacks, and those that refuse to go along. Some of these people/groups are quite powerful and will do everything they can to thwart our common success, but they are few, and ever dwindling, and if we can avoid a destruction event, the forces of progress will simply overwhelm such conservative roadblocks.

The future is ours! So remain strong in the face of the Insanity and Lies launched by the rear guard Morans of the American Right. Their time is over, and we are but witnessing the death throes.

And yes, we can define ourselves by killing regressive attitudes, like slavery, cannibalism, ritual mutilations, etc. 

What's heartening is this energy of progress is relatively new, born from the hippies, I would think. And never forget one of the first effective symbols of this new awareness:

 Please don't litter. Seriously. You'll make this dude cry. You don't want to do that, do you?

Haute Dogs

Anything for a pun. Really - I sometimes work for days in order to get to a certain picture. Crazy like that! I believe (it's been a while since I got this one) this is an actual dog restaurant in - where else? - NEW YORK CITY! I like the concept on many levels: 1. Dog is man's best friend. Don't they deserve a night out? 2. Supply and demand - if someone wants to pay for it, why not? 3. Add to the list of "thing's I'll remember fondly/ruefully after the apocalypse". Covered in soot, eating pine cones, I'll think to myself "self, remember when we were so grand as to have dog diners?"


Good times (for now)!

When we lost the clowns

I don't remember a time when clowns were not considered scary, but scary in a "oh, you're terrified of clowns too?!" kinda way, you know? Like we're all suffering this fear of clowns in secret, all pretending to find them funny, still hiring them for our children's birthday parties, knowing full well we're terrifying them too.

But maybe it's just my secret shame. A GIS search for "scary clown" has no shortage of results. Now, I assume way back in the yonder, clowns were genuinely considered "fun". What changed? I suspect a large part of it is this guy:

John Wayne Gacy - the original killer clown. Quite a scary individual, and he might be the source for all this fear, for the loss of the clowns. Others jumped on the bandwagon - prime among them in my mind Stephen King's "Pennywise". And then once a meme enters the common consciousness, it takes off and lives a life of its own, such that we could all hold the idea and have no idea where it came from.  This is an autographed John Wayne Gacy picture, apparently.

Will there be a Clown Messiah, to redeem them all?

 I doubt it.

Also too:

All that said, I do recommend the movie "Shakes the Clown", but that's only because it's uber-ironic.

Save Yourself

I first saw this funny little saying in this comic above, some time ago, which is really effective I think in its simplicity. Not sure about the text at the bottom, though I get the joke. But in searching for this picture on the WWW, I discovered this:

Same joke, better art, yet, not as funny.


It's an interesting case study in design. 

Also, too, the "Secret of Heroes": Either heroically dumb or heroically suicidal, or some of each. Otherwise, how could you ever risk your own life to save someone else's?

Lemonade

Red, white, black or blue, we all got to get around. And it's always nice to do so in style. Kudos to you, young man!

Believe it: There's still a lot of bitter nerds out there about how Maul went down. Unacceptable!

And super kudos to this guy - my early leader in "Best of the Internet 2011 (Star Wars)". We should all follow your lead.

Schrodinger's Choice

You've heard of this cat, yes? The thought experiment goes like this: At the quantum level, it is impossible to both determine the location, speed, and spin of an electron, photon, and every other fundamental particle. It is as if they exist/don't exist simultaneously, and it is only until they are "observed" - that is, they interact with our world, like by colliding with something, or are measured.  Thus, in this cat in a quantum box, the fate of the cat is determined by the quantum interaction with a particle - and some kind of poison. If the particle is X, the poison is released, and the cat dies. If the particle is instead Y, the cat lives. Thus the crux of the thought experiment - if the cat's life depends on this quantum crystallization, and it is you opening the box that causes it, can you really ever say if the cat is alive or dead before you open the box? Or only until you observe the cat with your own eyes? Or something like that.

The idea being, in an extremely solipsistic way, that it's hard to say anything actually exists until we observe it - and by we, I mean our solid reality, consisting of everything you know. From a quantum mechanics perspective, the answer is: sorta?

But anyways, that's not the point here. Rather, this idea I've been toying with for months now, Schrodinger's Choice: This thought experiment imagines that you create your future reality with every choice you make/don't make, and thus, if you are choosing unwisely, you are creating literal "damned if you do, damned if you don't" scenarios for yourself, and thus a cascade of bad luck, misfortune, and otherwise funked up flows.

You come to an intersection on a busy rush hour night; going straight leads you one way, into a possible shortcut but with traffic complications; the other is a longer route, but a single lane prone to slow drivers and back ups. To choose either way, in this scenario, is to write one future, and to send another into oblivion, though in fact it existed only in your mind. The choice of one creates a traffic jam in the direction you choose, and the other way frees up as Gramps finally takes the left turn. Every choice you make instantly becomes the wrong one, and the more frustrated and angry you get, the more pronounced this occurrence becomes. That's your Schrodinger's Choice, and I'll spoil the answer: There's no winning if you play, so don't play.

Take that to any game you encounter.

Also, consider this a corollary to the Constanza Strategy, which is to choose the opposite of what you want to choose, thus attempting some metaphysical jujitsu on the bad mojo that's got you all gummed up.

Also, too. Remember "The Far Side"? I had forgotten about it, now, for years. I used to love it, I mean, seriously. I had all the books and read them endlessly. I love the absurd! Since, for sooth, our entire reality is completely and utterly absurd, and it's only our monkey minds that give it any semblance of sense. Anyways, enjoy!

Gifts of Despair

A certain professional coldness seems a must to survive the ComicCon circuit. Lookee here at a true, semi-famous pro.


I think it's 50$ a picture, by the way.

Prisoner of Fame

Imagine, if you will, the subtle torture that is being marginally famous. You're famous enough to be forced to deal with the many hassles of celebrities - like random people wanting to take a photo with you. You're not famous enough/rich enough to retire, and so you got to work, just like most folks.

Sure, you could go into Law Talkin', or Doctorin', but you're semi-famous! Where you gonna find the time to go to Law Talkin' School anyways? And so you hussle - a bit role here, a commercial there, maybe a play or two, a book, anything, really, just to pay the bills. But then you discover the Comic Convention circuit, and suddenly, you're marginally set for life.

Except, you have to attend these ComicConventions, sit all day and be pleasant, and sign sign sign autographs/take pictures, for some of the most desperate nerds this desperate world has ever produced.

And thus, the above: Stan Lee, posing with one of his creations. Can you feel the despair? 

Go Vote!

A synergy of sorts, but the only one I could find: A stormtrooper at a Teabaggin' rally. The sign reads, in case it's too small: "Truth is Treason in the Empire of Lies" - Ron Paul.

In case you've forgotten, a sizable percentage of these wingnuts worship RONPAUL! For some reason. And in true fascist "please give us a King"  form, they've taken RONPAUL's son RANDPAUL under the same heavenly wing. You know - RANDPAUL, guy with the Goon Squad who smashes women's heads into curbs because they DARE hold up a protest sign?


I laugh, I cry, at the shocking dissonance revealed in this sign - here's a guy attending a rally dedicated to lies, to stoking fear and hatred, and yet he thinks HE's the one in possession of the truth. And so it is with many/most of these ignoramuses. You could tell them there's plenty of proof for Evolution, but they won't hear it, cuz "They know what they know". They will only listen to approved sources, and then completely uncritically.

In a way, these people reflect a great failing in our education system, since they have seemingly now ability to think critically, or sort lies from the truth. Rather, they've gone so deeply tribal that anything - ANYTHING - perceived as coming from the "Other" is immediately discounted. Completely.

How do you talk with morans like this?

Here's a start:

  Find common interests, and build a foundation of trust from that!


Tomorrow is going to be crazy, I suspect, and possibly grim. We are still on the fine line of... many things. There's been a big uptick in violence and dirty tricks from the usual suspects. I hope nothing happens tomorrow.

There's a few basic scenarios that will happen tomorrow: Dems keep both houses, Teabaggers/Fox declare massive voter fraud and spend the next weeks breathlessly pushing that angle.

Repugs win house/Dems maintain Senate. Some voter fraud, but also the Nation getting back to its senses and putting Repuglicans back in power.

Repugs win both houses - the rightful order has been restored, almost. Time for Impeachment hearings!

Don't think so? Even if they only win the House, keep an eye out for Daryl Issa from CA - he'll be launching bullshit hearing after hearing.

Amazing trick, I still marvel at the what the Repugs have accomplished since St. Ronnie's Revolution: Spend like crazy, but claim you're for small government; outsource all domestic manufacturing, keep wages stagnant, relentlessly attack social programs that benefit the middle class, and claim you're for the "Common man"; meddle in everyone's personal business, but claim your against "intrusive government". Break the country, and then when someone tries to fix it, do everything in your power to stop them, all the while blaming them for all the problems.

And that's where we are today, with the Media fully on board. Ready to give a portion of power back to an even crazier, more incompetent group of jackals than the last.

And if it happens, we deserve whatever we get. Sorry, rest of the world/future!

The End (The Beginning)

And we've reached the end of the line - the Black Hole. This is an artistic rendering of what they might look like. It's doubtful anyone will know for sure for a long, long time, since they don't emit radiation of the type that allows us to see, and in fact, suck it in (the whole "Not even light can escape a Black Hole"). Perhaps you've wondered how this could be? I'm glad you asked!


Black Holes are a rather clear example of what I was talking about a few days ago, regarding "things" as opposed to "ongoing processes". There is nothing which actually makes up a Black Hole. Rather, everything we call a "Black Hole" is merely the result of a massive (and I mean massive) gravitational event which effects all of the space-time around it - we call these effects a "Black Hole". Semantic distinction, perhaps, but what isn't semantics?


So, a Black Hole is really an extreme gravitational event. I find myself amazed all the time to know that no one really understands what gravity is. You might think that's the most knowable force in the universe, since we experience it all the time - drop a rock on your toe, there's gravity. Thus, we understand the dynamics of gravity really well - this allows us to fly planes, blast off rockets, etc. However, no one knows what causes gravity, or what it actually is.


There are three main theories of gravity that have gained general currency over the past 300 years: 1. Most well known is Newton's Laws of Gravity. It's quite accurate on a day to day perspective, and in fact we got to the Moon using Newton's theory. Roughly, Newton posited an attractive force that binds matter together - he had no idea what that force is though. However, it's been shown 100% conclusively that it's not entirely accurate - for instance, our GPS system would not work using Newton's theories. Which leads us to, 2. Einstein's Theory of General Relativity. This is essentially the working theory everyone uses now. And while it has been proven in many, very conclusive ways (the GPS system again; the orbit of Mercury was accurately predicted with it; the bending of light by stars was predicted by it), no one seems very confident it's the final answer, since, when it comes to Black Holes (the most extreme gravity), it doesn't work either (it results in an infinite gravitational field within zero space [THE SINGULARITY] - both results are absurd according to current theories). We'll no doubt be sticking with Einstein's theory for a while, because it is very, very accurate. For instance, this theory introduced the concept of Spacetime - a single entity of the spatial dimensions and time. (The 3rd theory is Quantum Gravity, with an actual particle that transmits the gravity force - the graviton. No proof however of this particle, yet).


Gravity in the Einstein perspective is NOT a force. This should be stressed, as it's quite radical. All it is in the geography of space time. To wit: things with mass bend spacetime, and this bending is gravity. Objects with more mass bend it more. We are bending spacetime right now by our very existence, and when move, we create ripples in space time. Objects with the greatest mass bend spacetime to the extreme, as shown here:

As you see, Black Holes appear to rip right through spacetime, and thus our nonsensical, absurd conclusion that it has infinite gravity in zero space. Makes no sense, but this is one of the greatest mysteries in history. I suspect if we ever do find out what's going on in the Singularity, we will have opened the door to an entirely new level of science.


Black Holes vary greatly in size. When big stars explode, they create stellar black holes, and there are no doubt billions of these in the Universe. But black holes can merge with each other, and this merging process was probably quite active in the early universe, when the first stars were being born than quickly dying. They can get so big, in fact, that entire galaxies form around them - it's now believed all major galaxies formed around a "supermassive" black hole.


Black holes also go by different names  - but this is only because until recently, we did not know these different things were the same phenomena. For instance, a supermassive black hole can also be known as a Quasar. Here's a pic:

That's an entire galaxy in the center, with two giant jets of gas shooting out of the poles of the active black hole at the center of this galaxy. Such that quasars = active black holes. They're feeding, in other words.

The black hole in the center of the Milky Way was active a long time ago, but no longer. What happens is after all the chaos of creation, things settle down, and eventually all the matter surrounding the black hole stabilizes in orbits far enough away that it doesn't get sucked in. Once this happens for long enough, the black hole goes quiet, and simply spins in the middle of the galaxy, creating the momentum for the entire galaxy's rotation.

It's even possible there are micro black holes everywhere - right in front of your nose, for example. But little proof has been offered for their existence or creation.

I leave with you the most common type of black hole: the Binary star system, unbalanced. In the upper right is a real picture of what we assume is a black hole.

Bet you didn't know that the vast majority of stars in the universe are in pairs: Binary systems. Our single star is the exception to the rule. Most of these pairs are lopsided, however, with one bigger than the other. The bigger one exhausts its fuel faster, and thus enters the death spiral faster, and if it's big enough, it will create a neutron star or black hole. Which is the kiss of death for it's surviving sibling. I'm sure as it's getting sucked into nothingness, it's thinking "NOT FAIR!"

But what is "fairness" in this vastness?

I do (I guess)

It's a trap! For her, I suspect.
"Fairy marries Tinkerbell"
The dowry was a 30 pack of Bud Light.

All that's missing is a shotgun. Pretty damn sad, actually - can you feel the love?


And that, dear readers, is where babies come from.

We are all the sum of everyone's issues

Born into a losing ticket in the parent lottery, from afar, it's easy to see how having horrible parents/childhood will create an adult with little chance for success or happiness. Rather, sadness, addiction, crime, violence, etc. And once an adult, this sad soul will proceed to fuck up whatever poor child happens to cross their path. And so it goes.

For all of human history, and no doubt before - our parent's issues getting imprinted onto their kids, who in turn imprint their issues onto the next generation. A cycle as old as consciousness. The cycle of suffering.

It is possible, however, to break it. You just have to start anew. To quote Yoda: "You must unlearn what you have learned". Unfortunately, that's pretty much everything.

And who has the time and/or the energy for that?!