Opiate of the masses

"To the master of hemp growing". Hemp of course being a very useful plant. If you were wicked good at growing it in the USSR, you got this sweet pin. Congrats, Comrade!

But alas! There is also marijuana, which is from the same plant as hemp (cannabis), but with elevated THC concentrations. Drugs, m'kay? One that's been used for thousands of years, just not widely in the "West". And so it was treated as a dangerous radical foreign(er) drug that had to be prohibited. In so attempting, the Drug War has consumed the lives of millions and made billions for industry and created deadly and wealthy gangs while also placing a large percentage of African-Americans behind bars. It's been a resounding failure unless you work for Big Prison and enjoy high incarceration rates - USA is number 1, by the way, in imprisonment as a percent of the population. Fuck yeah!

But even more alas! It appears to be breaking. Many states have legalized medical marijuana, and now Washington and Colorado have legalized recreational use - in direct conflict to Federal law. So there's gonna be some legal stuff, but the tide has turned, it matters not. Soon enough a large part of the insanity of the Drug War will be done with, and marijuana will be legal across the USA, and maybe, just maybe, this country will be a cooler place.

Also, note for future oppressors: Always better to have your subjects intoxicated, yet still able to function at labor. A sober population causes trouble.

Trophy Rug

I can understand, way, way back in the day, why having an animal skin rug would be sweet. Cuz there were no other rugs! And imagine how pimp you'd be circa 10000BC in front of the fire lounging on a giant Snow Cave Beast pelt? Stone pimp, that's how much.

But today? With Snow Cave Beasts endangered? It's just barbaric.

Precious Little Snowflakes

As I've said many times in many ways, the closer you look at something, the weirder it gets. In fact, when you focus on anything directly, it's always weird - you ever really look at your ears, for instance? Anyways, some fun lovin' scientists - in the name of Science - started collecting snowflakes under a high powered electron microscope, and here are the results. They've got a website! In the picture of above, we're going smaller and smaller. But we can always go smaller still:

Go Saints! The Seahawks don't deserve to be in the playoffs.

 Further magnification - and gosh darn, it's hard not see these pictures and think someone was building these structures. They look incredibly man-made like.

Speaking of - look at this incredible microscopic ice crystal. Damn! As you can see in the chart below, with decreasing temperates/water saturation, the crystals take a variety of different shapes:

 Which leads me to my conclusion: Ice 9. Remember that? Read "Cat's Cradle" by Kurt Vonnegut if not. One of my favorite - perhaps THE favorite - book ever. But in sooth, there are different types of ice. Imagine a world where ice is as hard as granite, and methane flows like water - no need to imagine, as it really exists: Titan. Sirens of.

Where does it end?

News from the Kid Front: Didya know they've got graduation ceremonies for kids at every level of school, including preschool? Cute as heck, sure, but... c'mon! What's next: Birth Graduation? A diploma for being conceived?

This strikes me as "Everyone gets a Trophy" mentality. But then, I am a curmudgeon and am highly suspicious of how teenagers are dressing these days.....