Raptor Jesus Hungers for your Sins

He suffered for YOUR sins. He also worked up a mighty appetite while doing so.

Don't you want to get closer to Raptor Jesus?

Unless you're Muslim, of course - it's all good. You get your own terrible lizard. Everyone does!


Also: This Raptor Jesus thing is big on the internet. Proving for the billionth time why I love these tubes so.

Threshold

Protip: This is what happens to you if you go past Warp 10.

The Devil Went Down To Guangdong

Not a photoshop. The "horn" is really an out of control mole; since this picture was taken, apparently, the mole on the right side of her head has started sprouting as well.


But fret not - since this nice old lady (over 100) lives in a place in China not yet corrupted by the evils of Christianity, the villagers still respect and honor this elder, rather than... hmm. Burning her? Among other Christian kindnesses...

Cold. Dead. Hands.

Speaking of nightmares! 

Consider this image a useful metaphor for the current RNC, and then perhaps you now understand how I feel about the Repuglican Party. They're a horror and truly a Freddy Krugeresque monster from nightmares, come to kill us all. If you know any Republicans, ahem, you should make it your task to talk them out of it, or otherwise be prepared for their zombie-like predations on your tasty liberal flesh. They can't be trusted.

Lots O' Jaws

I suspect this will be someone's nightmare soon enough. Bon Appetit!

It's On

It is SO on. Don't forget - we're soaking in it.

Whatever It, is.

END TIMES!

We all know what this means. DOOM. So gather ye loved ones close by and ye affairs in order, citizen, for the END is NIGH.


Eventually.

Cold Chillin'

Literally! This lounge lizard is cold blooded. Don't step!

Tony Owl will Gleam your Cube

Skateboarding is not a crime, man!

But seriously - this owl loves to skateboard. He does it on his own, for fun.

Cool Dog gets around

Pretty cool, right? If you'd like to search for your own pictures of this very cool dog, he appears to go by the handle "Cool Dog" in the Interweb. You'll find him all over the place. Because he's cool, of course.

It takes all kinds

And this concludes this cycle of "Stormtroopers in the wild". Wait!

 One more family pic - they're so cute!


And seriously, I half make fun of these folks, but I think I respect them too - they have the courage to dress up like this in public. That takes a lot. 

At Home with the Stormtroopers

Go ahead, find out for yourself: Go to the Great Google and ask it a question related to Stormtroopers. You'll be amazed at what you find.

I've never actually met someone who dresses up as a Stormtrooper, but I suspect, in part, they enjoy the camaraderie of Grunts. This is the Fodder-Bonding that can be found among any group of usually young males tasked with manual, possibly lethal work. There is a freedom found in relinquishing your individuality and giving yourself to the Collective, the group, the Stormtrooper Legion.

I'm a big fan of this bonding, in concept. It's a herding instinct and is quite powerful. The same applies with the idea of "Redshirt", but it will never be as popular as Stormtroopers, owing to the lack of cool body armor. So it goes - I bet on the wrong horse.


Or so it would appear.

The Family that Stormtroops together....

Psst, kid! Stormtroopers are not supposed to be carrying Lightsabers. We'll go easy on you this time, but please be aware the internet can be a cruel, harsh place, and dissent from accepted norms among certain subcultures - like guys who dress up in Stormtrooper outfits - is not readily accepted.

 

Deserve

Question of the day: Does everyone "deserve" whatever happens to them? Does America "deserve" Sarah Palin, for example? Does Trig?

Saves a lot

Remember this trippy scene from Season 3? Charlie is freaking out and sees a vision of Claire as the Virgin Mary, Aaron as Jesus, and Hurley as John the Baptist....

Which, according to my loose understanding of Christian Fairy Tales, is a good piece of evidence for Hurley assuming the role of Richard to whomever the new Jacob is. If in fact this is how things shake down.

Your mileage may vary....

Another Life Brutha

A great episode last night. Really loved it. Big time boost to my working theory of: The ghosts that Hurley talks to are not really ghosts, but people from the Alt-Dimension. They have an agenda and a seeming mission, so all along I've thought that either, A. They are fake ghosts, like the Smoke Monster can assume the forms of people and pretend to be them, or B. Somehow these ghosts are collaborating to get Hurley to do stuff, or C. They are from some other reality.

Does the Charley in the above picture look similar enough to the Charlie we saw in the Alt dimension last night? I think so.

Apropos perhaps of nothing, this is what Hurley was painting when he was visited by Ghost-Alt Charlie:

I'm still waiting - hoping - for some old time Egyptian flashbacks, and if it happens I bet this painting plays a part.

Also, perhaps apropos of nothing, this is the mural Desmond painted in the Hatch - the hatch which seems more critical than ever to me now:

Kinda cool Desmond was given a button to push last night.

More later, perhaps, but it seems more than obvious now that these two realities will merge in some fashion, and that will be our climax or close to it. Desmond will obviously be the key to this merger.
 

Turtles all the way down

This is the outline of the Large Hadron (not hardon!) Collider at the Cern Institute in Switzerland - the circle above is not actually visible, but is drawn on to show the path of the Collider below ground. It's huge, as you can see.

Here's a pic from inside the tunnel:

 To wit: Particles get shot around this loop in both directions, faster and faster until the agreed upon speed is reached, then they are diverted into a collection chamber where they are smashed together under the eyes of many specialized cameras. The energy from these collisions is quite high, high enough in fact to briefly release more fundamental particles like quarks and electrons.


One of the main goals of the LHC is the discovery (or non-discovery) of a particle called the Higgs Boson, which is believe to be the gravity particle (i.e. like a photon is the particle for electromagnetism). It all gets very technical, but the importance of this for now theoretical particle is easily understood when you realize scientists think most mass comes from this particle. It's really, really fundamental.


If discovered, many people will win Nobel Prizes because of it - Stephen Hawking among them. If not discovered - which is a real possibility - then many working theories will have to be thrown out and new models developed. 


Which might sound like a failure, but is in fact the very essence of science.

Finally, here's a new picture from the LHC showing the collision of gold atoms:

Science is cool, kids!

Frozen in Time

A bubble, freezing.

Ice, Ice Baby

This is a new map of recently discovered ice deposits on the Southern Pole of the moon - there should be just as much water in the North Pole. Take away: There's tons of water on the moon - not a dry orb.

 And these are far, far larger ice deposits just under the surface of Mars - looks like an old river system to me.

It's out there - our life source. We just need to get to it.

That's no Moon

This is Mimas, another moon of Saturn. Or, in the common vernacular, the Death Star Moon (not a Moon).

Which is all good fun, and I know I've got some chuckles from this - which is all that matters, of course! But there's more, as them science types just did some sort of scan on this here moon, and came back with the following image:

Which shows the thermal differences on the moon, with red the hottest and blue the coolest, but make no mistake - all these temperatures are wicked cool.

However, that doesn't matter, because clearly what does matter is Mimas is also Pac Man. So, the Death Star AND Pac Man - perhaps the hippest moon yet.

Follow the Water

This here looker is the moon Enceladus, a satellite of Saturn. The moon is getting tons of attention of late as it's now definitive Enceladus is filled to the brim with water. Real water too, none of that artsy Space Water. The blue in this photo is the water, which is frozen - very - at the surface, yet is clearly liquid at some depth below the surface, because it ejects all the time in the form of massive water geysers, as such: 

 Enceladus orbits very close to Saturn, and in fact is responsible for one of Saturn's rings, as the water that ejects from the moon then goes into orbit around Saturn as a ring.

This moon will no doubt eventually serve as a refueling station for long haul space truckers.
Eventually... 

It's in the Hole!

Click for big - outlined in the lower left is the Phoenix Lander parachuting into it's final descent to the surface. It did not land in the crater (Eagle), however - it's a trick of perspective. Still, though, this picture represents the first pic of a spaceship landing on another planet.

Unrelatedly, perhaps, I would like to propose that the game of marbles is taken up as a sophisticated adult game. One could make a course in the backyard and keep it nicely maintained, then you could have guests come and play a few rounds, have a few drinks, lose/win a few marbles, and a good time would be had by all. The game could develop a passionate fanbase, I believe, as there is a great deal of creativity in marble selection - one could easily become obsessed about finding rare or particular marbles - and, maintaining a course could be like a Japanese sand garden type hobby. Plus, it is fun for the kids!

I believe my first experiencing with gambling would have been with games of marbles on the recess grounds, 2nd grade. Winning a big pot with an opponent's special "bee marble" was a sweet rush.

Marbles are really cool and I'm surprised to find the game is not as widespread as I would have believed, given my proclivities. Ergo, you should play marbles*. Marbles!









*This post sponsored by The Marble Company, your one stop shop for all your marble needs.

When Dalai met Carl

And I say, "Hey, Lama, hey, how about a little something, you know, for the effort, you know." And he says, "Oh, uh, there won't be any money, but when you die, on your deathbed, you will receive total consciousness." So I got that goin' for me, which is nice.

No but seriously, this is why the Dalai Lama in specific, and Buddhism in general, is mostly cool, and when The Mighty Lord Emperor Redshirt rises up and takes over this World, swiftly banning most religions, I think Buddhism will make the Do Not Cut List (DNCL), at least for a while. So you got that goin' for you, Buddhism.

No, wait, seriously. I kid, but that's all in good fun. But the Dalai Lama is really cool, and the Chinese are foolish not to deal with him. Here's a snippet from Carl Sagan's book "The Demon Haunted World":

In theological discussion with religious leaders, I often ask what their response would be if a central tenet of their faith were disproved by science. When I put this question to the Dalai Lama, he unhesitatingly replied as no conservative or fundamentalist religious leaders do: in such a case, he said, Tibetan Buddhism would have to change. Even, I asked, if it's a really central tenet, like (I searched for an example) reincarnation?
Even then, he answered.
However, he added with a twinkle, it's going to be hard to disprove reincarnation.
Plainly, the Dalai Lama is right. Religious doctrine that is insulated from disproof has little reason to worry about the advance of science. The grand idea, common to many faiths, of a Creator of the Universe is one such doctrine - difficult alike to demonstrate or dismiss.

So while Buddhism definitely operates as a Religion in many ways, with some of the negatives that comes with - I suppose (don't know really, as I have about zero experience with formalized Buddhist Religion and am assuming that any formal institution of men will have corruption within it), this attitude - dare I say it's scientific - is refreshing and healthy. Couple that with a consistent and good moral system lacking hypocrisy, and a lack of actual Gods (Big G) (gods [small g] in Hinduism and Buddhism are openly acknowledged for their symbolic values and abstractness, or so I have read), and I think this is close to as good as a "religious" system can get.

Personally, I would fuse a Sagan inspired Cosmology with the more practical aspects of Buddhism for a synthesis of science and meditation based "spiritual" practice. Also, martial arts.

My America, cont.

This is my dream: A world where the Snoop Dogs and the Larry Kings of their respective communities could hang out in bright yellow convertibles, and smile.

Ain't it grand?

A True American Dream

Yeah, I love this picture. It represents everything I love about America. I leave it to you decide why.

Arrows of Time

A fun little drawing - no way to tell yet if this true or even close to true. All theoretical. But this diagram attempts to explain several things: 1. Why does time move in the direction it does? We call this "the future", but there's nothing in physics which says why time would only seem to run in one direction (forward); it should be just as possible to run backwards, but it does not. I have my reasons why this is the case, but you see above someone else's - the direction of time depends on the direction of your Big Bang. Thus, right now, there's another universe where time moves backwards. And this explains Mork from Ork.

This also show how the Multiverse could exist - as separate emanations from a larger parent universe, which in turn might be an emanation of an even bigger parent universe, and so on. According to some quantum models of the multiverse, every moment, every decision, every 1 or 0 creates a new universe.

Hard to swallow, but when dealing with infinities, anything's possible, and it can be best to leave behind any preconceptions.

In sum, this picture might help explain, visually (which is always better), one model of our reality.

Mmm.... could it be.... Satan?

According to a recent poll, 27% of registered republicans think Obama is the Anti-Christ. The actual devil on earth. Let that fact soak in for a bit.

Then, consider, that this 27% is certifiably insane, and ask yourself what other crazy conclusions they might come to - like W. was a great president, for example? Or the Repuglican party is best placed to serve people's interests? Or Sarah Palin speaks knowledgeably on a wide variety of issues?

Go ahead and make up whatever you like - this 27% sure will.

Angel Wrasslin'

If you ever have to wrestle an Angel, I would recommend going for the wings first.

Fan Art

Fan art's tricky business, brutha. The Internets are filled to the brim with fan art that'll make your ears curl and toes twinkle, let me tell you, there are horrors beyond words out there. I leave it to you to decide to brave those waters. I would recommend you don't, since to quote the Elders, "Once you've seen, you cannot unsee."


But there is good fan art out there, sometimes great. Lost seems to inspire a lot of great fan art, like this picture, and in the post below.

But not this:

Terrible, sure. But also spooky: Drawn sometime during season 1. Not by me, but by the Internet.

Conning the Conmen

Much mental energy has been expended on the intertubes over the question: Who are the good guys and bad guys on Lost? It's the sign of a well crafted story that it is quite impossible to tell. There are points in favor and against for all the main characters - a plausible case can be made, for example, for Smokey to be the "good" guy. That's unlikely though, of course.

But rather than good and evil, I think a far more likely scenario is: There are a series of cons going on: Jacob runs a con, Smokey runs a con, Ben, Widmore, Eloise Hawking, they're all running long cons - the long con has been a consistent theme on this show, from the start. None of these people are necessarily Good or Evil, but are rather acting on behalf of what they think to be correct. However, with all the conning going on, who knows what's what? As I said, Smokey might be the victim in all this - he did say Jacob took his body, his humanity. If true, that puts him in a very sympathetic light. Hard to justify all the killing, however.

The next level of players in this game - Jack, Hurley, Sun, etc - clearly have no larger ambitions other than getting off the island/reuniting with loved ones. Selfish, of course, but aren't we all? 

I would be satisfied with a resolution along these lines: The Island is Eden, and is the source of much of mythology. Due to its magic abilities, the Island has been fought over forever. At some point, guardians were appointed to protect the Island, and they did, but eventually one of these guardians got bored of the whole thing, and wants out. Hence the events we are seeing.

In such a scenario, it's really a case of no one has the full story, everyone is trying to get ahead for themselves, and thinks the stakes are high enough to fully justify an "ends justify the means" philosophy. In this scenario, it would be safe to assume everyone is "bad", in that none of them understand the true significance of the Island, and instead are just seeking to fulfill their own personal desires regarding it.

Thus, the true "hero" of the story would likely be someone who doesn't give a damn about the Island or anything related to it, and has enough reasons to give up the Island. Desmond, in other words.

My own personal Lost Jesus

The interwebs have long surmised that there's something very special about Desmond, given the various time wonkery things that have happened to him. Fer instance, turning the Failsafe key when the hatch was imploding. Then he shows up naked in the jungle - how does that happen, exactly? Then he starts seeing glimpses of the future, with Charlie dying, and he tries to save him for awhile but then gives up, and instead points Charlie towards a productive end.

In a later episode, The Constant, we see Desmond's mind travel back and forth in time, finally "merging" when he talks to Penny on Christmas (awwww). 

So, Island Jesus. Somehow. That's why he's The Package,  somehow the foil to Smokey's well laid plans. Or, to save everyone. Save the world.

That's the other cool theory I've been reading lately: The conflation of the hatch and the button pushing, with the island and Jacob-Smokey. Each is in a situation, stuck performing a rote task which they are told is of the utmost importance, but they truly don't know. Over time this task becomes hellish, and someone tries to escape - and given that a pair of people are needed,  the gig is up.

So, Island = Hatch, And thus Jacob = Desmond, and Smokey = Radzinksy

 Possibly.

American Taliban

Hey look! It's the Hutaree Militia group, just one of many rightwing Christian Terrorist groups getting ready to kill and injure Americans. It's not really terrorism though, of course, since they're all white. But still!


Looking forward to 4/19 this year - Waco/OKC anniversary, which seems like the perfect time to have an open carry gun rights march in DC. Good luck with that, Christian Warriors. I'm sure no one could ever misinterpret your motives.


Most of these clowns are in jail now - where they belong. But they and their fellow travelers will simply take this as evidence of Liberal Government Tyranny -  I mean, by God, what kinda country are we living in when a Good Old American Boy can't plot to kill police officers without getting harassed by The Man - who's black, dontchya know?


Also, it seems now is as good a time as any for a.... Hutaree Wedding. Arkons and Boramanders, please rise:

Good times.

We play the roles assigned

I've come to the conclusion that the so called "American Dream" is in fact one of the more useful tools of control The Man has invented, in the US at least. Basically, it allows the Elite to say "work hard and you can be as rich as us - anyone can!", when in fact that is not true. It allows the Average Person to blame themselves for any failures - since anyone can make it in America, if you don't, you're a failure.

A nice system, you see, since upwards social mobility is an out of date phenomenon in America, yet everyone pretends it's still the truth. 

Alas, the story is basically the same as it's ever been in human history: A small group of elites wielding disproportionate power over the vast majority.

But, all that said, and in truth, there are exceptions, of course. A darn clear one being Barack Obama, who is as good an example of the "American Dream" as I can recall.

And in this long slog that is the evolution of life on Earth, all it might take to make dramatic changes is a rare event, every now and then, like an asteroid. Or like Barack Obama - something, anything, which upends the status quo and shows everyone, clearly, that there are other ways. Ways that provide a clear break with the past and the chance for a new future.

These same moments are met, in turn, by their opposite forces, the reactionary forces, as such:

Here's a man who's been lied to his entire life, and not only believes the lies but has adopted them as his own thoughts. He's being used, but doesn't realize it, and instead takes all the anger and frustration that results from being used and directs it at those who had little to nothing to do with it - the Other.

This is the role of the Other, always: To redirect; in this case, redirect hostility from its actual target (the Elite), towards someone else, anyone else, it hardly matters who.

But then, we all play our roles, one way or another.

Gored Sox

Hey, it's almost baseball time. I don't really care, haven't really since 2004, which was baseball perfection and can never be topped, so why bother? Also, as a downeast traditionalist, I far prefer "Cursed but plucky loser" to "Yankees North". It's just more fun.

Thusly, never win, Cubs!

We make it real

The discussion in the last post got me to thinking: What is real? I have a hard time answering the question, actually, since I see all these different levels, and what might be considered real on one level is not on another.

But, to wit: What is most "real" is what our body tells us is real, even if it's actually fake. For example, anxiety can be based on nothing, but the effects of anxiety are real on the body, via chemicals and hormones. Here's a neat trick I have learned using this phenomena: Say you are feeling sluggish, down, lazy etc. But you need to be more alert. Here's the trick: Imagine yourself in a fight. Imagine it in as much detail as you can - you're being chased, attacked, beaten by a mob, etc....


Your mind will make these imaginings real, and will release chemicals, which in turn will affect your body, producing a desired effect. In essence, you are tricking your body to react as it's designed to, but artificially. You will feel the rush of adrenaline when there was no real cause for this, other than you making it so.

This is the power I am getting at - to shape the fiction of our existence towards your desired goals. It requires, essentially, awareness and then control over your mind. To the degree of that control comes a degree of "making reality as you see fit".


Maybe.

Life's a show

I once watched Professional wrestling, and for a period of time, I thought it was real. I remember being routinely frustrated/puzzled as to why they did not have WWF results or standings in the sports page alongside the box scores.

Then, not sure what did it, I learned that in fact, the entire sport is a sham, it's all staged, and is more like theatre than sport, in that there are intentional plot lines, heroes, villains, etc. It's stage drama. 

Drama, like all art, in my opinion, is simply an awesome way our human brain engages in scenarios. Art allows us to explore other realities, other choices, other decisions and consequences, and thus, possibly learn something from these simulations without having to go through the event ourselves.

Science seems to be coming around to the idea that Dreaming - something all mammals do - is the brains way of not only processing new information, but running simulations with this info (and other info), again, to prepare the brain, and thus the body, for a variety of future situations.

This is a powerful functionality and clearly is a feature of "higher" life forms.

But, keep following this train of thought and it the point is quickly surmised: Perhaps our entire reality is but a simulation. 

Nothing - and I mean absolutely nothing - is as we think it is, due to our sensory interfaces; we're using the remnants of billions of years of evolution to interact with reality, but these interfaces are but tools, means for a lifeform to survive. They do not speak in any way to the "truth" or actual reality of... reality.

For example, define the color "Blue". You could try using a spectrum, and that would be scientifically valid. I could define blue as "anything that is more likely to reflect the blue spectrum of light and absorb other spectrums".

And even that definition is dependent on understanding our sense organs. Which are failable.

And thus, perhaps you can see how our lives themselves might be considered a simulation in some higher reality, since the truth is, we have little idea at all about our true existence.

Long story short: For the kid freakin' out above, the question of whether wrestling is real or fake, or if life is a simulation, or if our very atoms are but points of a string that floats among infinite dimensions... all these things are pointless, in the moment. Cuz he's feeling it, and feelings are as real as we get.