Relativity

Understanding and rolling with perspective is a sweet super power.

Arnold and doll

70's Arnold and doll. Black and white gelatin.

Real People

Fun fact! Actors are actually real people and not the roles they play in TV and film, though some actors have indeed perfected the art of playing themelves in TV and film.

Also, not pictured, C3-P0.

In search of color in space

Not my shot - I wish. I've been looking for the Northern Lights for years, but never caught a glimpse. I'm pretty far North, but not far enough. I might have to travel to Iceland one day to remedy this - seeing colors dance across the sky is the kind of religious experience I want to try.


That's the ISS streaking overhead, with 6 people on board living and working in space. And here's what the Northern Lights look like from the ISS:

As you can see, the Northern Lights are a thin band of radiation at the edge of space. This is actual solar matter that has slammed into Earth's magnetosphere and spiraled down towards the Poles, producing the lights as the solar matter strikes the highest portions of the atmosphere.

Magic!

Dance now, for tomorrow you die

Neelix knew what was what. You could shake off this mortal coil in just a few moments, so dance while you can. Laugh while you can. Appreciate classic 90's sci-fi, if you can.

Big Sis

Say hi to our big Sister, the Sun. And it is our Sister (or Brother if you like) and not our parent, as the Sun and the planets all formed from the same ginormous cloud of gas. The Sun took up most of that cloud, but every single planet, moon, comet and asteroid came from the same cloud. Even you, roundaboutly.

Like all "things" - stars and planets and you included - the Sun is the result of a series of reactions held in balance. In the case of a star, this balance is composed of the inward pressure of gravity, and the outward pressure of fusion. As such, the heart of a star is quite small compared to its overall size, thanks to this simple process:

Fusion. Just a couple of atoms bouncing off one another with enough energy (because of the inward pressure of gravity) and kabloom! Fusion, the heart of a star, and thus the heart of all life. Fusion releases enormous amounts of energy, and that energy is the star, and all its light, in all frequencies.

These frequencies are the electromagnetic spectrum, from radio waves to microwaves to visible light - what we see - to ultraviolet, x-rays, and finally gamma rays. All seen here. Each frequency reveals different information, and thus astronomers use a variety of detection methods to learn not only about the sun, but everything.

We exist in a living miracle. It's pretty cool.

You know who else loved dogs?

Hitler, that's who. How do you feel now, dog owner, to know that Hitler also loved dogs? And wicked cool mustachios?

And going for walks. Do you like going for walks? Monster.

Behold the Hitler baby!  You were a baby once, too, like Hitler.

FOR SHAME!

To Beat and Repress

Wingnuts would defend it, of course. "Shouldn't be in a riot, anyways!"

Your crime is being present. GUILTY!
But let us remember that whatever happens outside of American borders is of no consequence.

700+ people died at a sweat shop dedicated towards producing crap at Wal-Mart. Big whoop!

4 people are killed by some douchebag's cry for help:

And the Imperial Army is forcing Afghani kids to hold up signs commemorating "our loss".

Fair and balanced, you see.

Shells

Let me drop some more perspective on you. Here's our old friend, the Oort Cloud. Picture billions upon billions of icy little comets tumbling around in a vast sphere, such that our entire solar system is enshrouded in a cloud of ice. A shell, like the electron shell.

It's big - extending almost a light year in all directions from the Sun. And then as you see, far closer in, is another sphere, or shell, of icy bodies, but also rocky bodies too - like Pluto. The Kuiper Belt, another shell - also like the electron shell.

So again picture this from far away in space, looking towards the Sun. First a giant cloud of white ice, floating lazily in a vast sphere. And another sphere of ice and rock far within that, and then tucked inside that shell are planets, and a star.

Every star with planets probably has something similar. And so now look up into the dark sky and picture every star you see as a white egg of ice shells, within beats the bright nucleus of a galactic atom. Together these atoms join with vast clouds of gas to create galaxies, and galaxies join other galaxies strung along in necklaces of dark matter, grouping in vast clouds of millions of galaxies, stretching.... forever?

Is a shell forever?

Star Scales

Apologies for the slow speed of this gif, but do stay till the end, where you'll visually grasp the incredible scale of star sizes. Our Sun is fairly normal size wise, but oh how much bigger do stars get! So big that the Sun is but a speck compared to the biggest.

But like with rock and/or roll, the bigger a star is, the brighter and faster it burns away. Our star will last about 10 billion years on the main cycle; the biggest stars last but a few million years then go KABLOOM, leaving behind a neutron star, or a black hole.

Behold this scale and know the glory and the rapture of our reality.

Because that's why

A billion, trillion, gazillion stars, and God cares whether you masturbate or not. Laugh while you can.

Also:

Revelation.

Still America

A life goal: Take anything and everything you are comfortable with and look at it from a completely different angle. Upside down, sideways, backwards, slanted, etc. Perspective is the most important lesson.

As far as I've read, there's some debate exactly when the Americas were founded by people. Remember that all people come from Africa, according to current theory, and thus traveled to Asia and on further to the Americas. Lots of walking! Perhaps boats were far better - two rival theories hold boat travel from Africa and Japan prior to land bridge via Alaska model. Who knows if we'll ever know for sure, but with better science and evidence, perhaps we'll get even closer to the truth.

In the meantime it doesn't matter as people will make up their own stories regardless. 

Black Ships in the Harbor

This is a detail from an 1854 scroll that was sent around Japan following the arrival of the American Commodore Perry and his fleet of Black Ships (Japanese term). It's satire, poking fun at Perry and the American war ships. Here's a more artsy, realistic version:

Here's an actual picture:

And here's a classy American drawing of ships (steam powered paddle boats, with sails - it was a confusing time in war ships) of the Fleet entering Tokyo harbor:

Perry's visit to Japan was all about whaling - rescuing lost sailors, buying coal and provisions, a little bit of trade with the whalers. Seems like no big deal, right? But aha! Cuz one thing led to another and here we are today:

Modern Japanese culture. Crazy in so many different ways, some good, some not. And it's all thanks to American influence. Japan was an ancient traditional culture pre WW2, and especially before 1854 - the American visit. But like with the rest of the "Western" world since WW2, America infected Japan with 1960's Hippie Power, and nothing's been the same since.

Sorry Japan.

Hero to some

Against the evil NAZI hordes, mind you, who had just lain waste to your country. Would not any man in this army be considered a hero to his fellow countrymen? Every tribe is looking for heroes, and war often provides them. So too, revolution.

Vladmir I Lenin, nerd who changed the world.

The nerd celebrated at sporting events.

The nerd who would sweep away the royalty of earth in the name of the common man.

The nerd who is a hero to many, but certainly not all. Are there any heroes who are? Lenin was sincere in his revolutionary beliefs, and is not responsible for any of the later horrors of the USSR - that's Stalin and his successors, but mostly Stalin. Dude was whack and in the running for "Evilest human, ever". Don't blame his deeds on Lenin, who liked kittens, and fighting authority. Here's an 1895 mugshot:

A nerd who got inspired by some other nerds (Marx, Engalls), and led a worldwide revolution. It would be incredibly awesome if it didn't collapse so quickly into totalitarian nightmare. Maybe there's a lesson there.

Or maybe not.

Floating in space

Some laughs on the ISS, floating above us right now some 230 miles straight up. There's almost always 6 people on board, who serve for several months before being replaced. Here's the current commander:

A Canadian! But then, that's really the main point of the ISS - international collaboration. And cool photos:

Here's an eclipse of the sun as viewed from the ISS:

Here comes the supply ship!

I'm not the biggest fan of the ISS in an analytical sense, since it consumed so much precious money and effort of the various world space agencies, and produces very little science. Besides cool pictures, there's not much going on there, and that will never change. We could have sent fleets of robots all over the solar system for the same money. But! I had my opinion modified slightly by this excellent tour of the station. If you have an hour to spare and are interested in the ISS, check this video out.

Also, if you want to see the ISS zooming overhead - and you should, it's wicked cool - go here and enter your location. There's a ton of cool things to track on that site, and I also highly recommend trying to see an Iridium flare.

If you do watch the video, the ISS seems like a pretty big place. But here it is to scale:

Big, but not really. Most of the size is solar panels too. Imagine living here for 3-6 months with 6 other people. Hope you passed your psych tests!

And ultimately, that's the main science being done on the ISS: Getting practice at staying in space. Let's hope we can use these lessons for worthier endeavors down the road. Until then, we float:

That's Italy's boot to the left, and Greece (SPARTA!) to the upper right.

Asteroid's got a Moon

Here's the asteroid "Ida" (31K diameter) with its very own moon, Dactyl (1.4K diameter). Coming at ya live!

That Ida has a cute little moon gives scientists reason to believe many/most larger asteroids have moons as well, since, as the idea goes, debris is scattered around the asteroids often enough, and it's more than likely some of this debris will form an orbit, at least for awhile.
Here's tiny Dactyl, cutest li'l baby moon of Sol's System!

Once again, just for perspective, there's more accessible metals and precious stuff like gold on rocks like Dactyl than ever dug up on Earth, for all of time. Just waiting for us out there. Or, conversely, on an eventual collision course. Either way, we're rich!