Walking on a dream

Holy priceless collection of Etruscan snoods!

Join The Snuggie Crusade

Oh savage Wolf, humiliated so.

We Would Be Honored If You Would Join Us

The Last Supper was on a Thursday, apparently. From this we get the ancient tradition of "Thirsty Thursdays" with discounted bar snacks.

I'm Gonna Stay Away From You, Suckas

Really - this is an actual photo (false color) of squid suction cups. Taken through a microscope. I know, I know, looks fake. But it's real. And yes, terrifying.


Remember: The Macro is mirrored in the Micro, and vice versa.

Thar's Water In Those Thar Hills!

Well, apparently our WAR ON THE MOOON was more successful than initial - and lame - reports indicated. Apparently, in this close up here, you can see the white poofy cloud in the depths of the shadows. Water, NASA tells us.

There are actually two possible sources of water on the moon - in old craters like the one above, that have not had any direct sunlight for a loooong time; and 2. in the the lunar soil itself, everywhere. It's theorized the water could be mined out of the soil, but that would be a big effort.

So, for whatever it's worth - not much, it seems - yay! Water on the moon, which makes it much more theoretically feasible that we will one day colonize. Maybe in 2212.

Revenge Of The Ice Queen

With the immanent Oprah broadcast and "Goin' Rouge!" book release, it looks to be "Alot of Sarah, alot of the time". Joy! You might want to stay away from tv/interwebs for a week or so.

Personally, I'm with Levi - start dishin' boy!

Let's Check The Bible, Jim

 

Ms. Prejean gave a hard-hitting interview to "Christianity Today" and had this to say about her breast implants:

No, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting breast implants as a Christian. I think it's a personal decision. I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says you shouldn't get breast implants.

So, now that that matter is settled....

Let Us Beat Deathstars Into Plowshares

You can take the helmet off now, Soldier.

Armistice Day - 1111

“I will come to a time in my backwards trip when November eleventh, accidentally my birthday, was a sacred day called Armistice Day. When I was a boy, all the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month.

“It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one and another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.

“Armistice Day has become Veterans’ Day. Armistice Day was sacred. Veterans’ day is not.

“So I will throw Veterans’ Day over my shoulder. Armistice Day I will keep. I don’t want to throw away any sacred things.

“What else is sacred? Oh, Romeo and Juliet, for instance.

“And all music is.”

- Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions 

1111 Never Forget

There are FOUR freaks!

I don't want to see Snuffleupagus.

Only a matter of time

Maine got a lot of grief this last week, due to voting down Gay Marriage. But don't blame Maine -- what other civil rights question would you like to put to voters and see if they reject it? Women voting? African American civil rights? Legal Immigration? Point is, civil rights shouldn't be up for a vote. They should be Rights.

Anyways! Two great things did come out of the election in Maine last week: A voting down of anti-tax program which is a darling to the Sophisticated Teabagging set (read: Grover Norquist), and, best of all, legalization of state approved marijuana dispensaries. Maine now has the most liberal marijuana laws in the land, bypassing California with this latest act. It's a huge deal - it allows folks to sell medical marijuana from stores, all licensed by the state. It also expands the list of conditions covered, and protects against discrimination due to the activity. It's not complete legalization of course, but it's getting closer.

And this is the point: The War on Drugs has been as damaging and destructive - more so probably - than any other "war" in America's history. I don't say that lightly. It's put countless hundreds of thousands (millions?) of people in jail, around the world, spread violence and death wherever enforcement goes, enslaved millions more to suffer the pains of addiction with little legal option, but most of all, it has corrupted our laws, our police, our governments, and in turn much of the rest of the world. Have you seen your typical cop these days? He's closer to a Stormtrooper than Andy Griffith. 

We've lost our freedoms and part of the very idea of what it is to be American, all to deny someone else the freedom to get high, or whatever. It's the worst strain of Puritan meddling, and it has no place in what is supposed to be the land of the free. And to be clear: It's not about the drugs. It's about the principle of whether you should be free to do what you want as long as it harms no one else.

Are you?

Let This Be Our Final Battle

One can hope, at least.

Ten quid on the Pterodactyls if there's any wagering to be had.  

For Your Entertainment

When in Rome, you might as well race lions around spherical tracks.

Indubitably more dangerous

So, mobile phones. I hate 'em, but I'm a bit grumpy like that. However, mobile phone use while driving is outright dangerous. Here's a brief blurb from a driving and talking study done in 2006:

Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free cell phones drove slightly slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance as their attention switched between driving and conversing, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash. Three study participants rear-ended the pace car. All were talking on cell phones. None were drunk.

The conclusion was, talking on your mobile while driving is as dangerous as being drunk while driving. We all know by now how dangerous drunk driving is; and yet, people around the world are blabbing away on mobiles, oblivious in part to their surroundings. This leads me to the following:


1. It's not me! I've been going a bit crazy while driving (more later), for a variety of reasons, one of them being I don't recall people driving this badly in the past. But I have to doubt that kind of recollection, as it can be tinged or influenced by a variety of factors. However, given that I learned to drive in the mid 80's, did a good deal of driving up to 1994, and then stopped driving for the most part till 2007, and now am full time again, it occurred to me I missed the introduction of the mobile phone on the roads, and now deal with it at full strength. So, given that a mobile phone user is just like a drunk, then yes, objectively, people are much worse drivers now, and driving is more dangerous.


2. Also, I'm convinced there's an evolutionary effect going on with mobile phones. To wit: Our brains are not designed to carry on a conversation with someone who is not there. It causes our mind to attempt to create them and their surroundings, mentally. This act perforce takes away your concentration on the here and now. Which is fine if you're in your living room; not so fine when you're speeding along at 75MPH. I've seen my first scientific study partially confirming this thesis, but I can't find it to link to it right now, so trust me. I believe I'm right.


3. Remember: A car is not a toy. In fact, it's likely you will do nothing more dangerous today or any other day than drive. So take it seriously!


Old Man Redshirt, signing out.

Good Luck!

Here's a giant bunny (or a very small man).

A Horse is a Horse

What up, Hoss?

Attack of the Giant Rubber Duckies

They'll find you, eventually, provided you're near some large body of water....

Fire on those Rival Taggers

When in Rome!

Also about Fire

 

Fun fact to know and share: Fire on earth is roughly only 500 million years old, dating back to the point in Earth's development when there was enough oxygen in the atmosphere to sustain the reaction. Now, no doubt there was fire on Earth before this period, but it would have been quickly snuffed out. Only when the oxygen content hit a certain percentage - and this was based entirely on the amount of plant material on Earth (as, most of the oxygen on earth comes from plants)  - could fire burn freely. This is all established in the fossil record, as prior to 500 million years ago, there is no evidence of charcoal.

Which makes me think there must have been some magic moment, a tipping point, when the first fire caught and then spread, and fire was truly born on earth. Let's pretend that happened 500 million years ago today.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY FIRE!

Fire is Life

In my new religion - to be revealed in the fullness of time - we have a saying: Fire is Life. Meaning, life is "to burn". All life is a fire, consuming anything given to it, and dying when the "fire pyramid" breaks down (fuel - heat - oxygen). The very cellular processes that make us up could be described as "fire", since their purpose is to take fuel and "burn" it, converting it to energy. Consider glucose, for example, and the role it plays in our functioning.

By this same logic, of course, fire is alive. I challenge anyone to tell me how fire is NOT alive. It's born, it eats, it reproduces, it dies. 

And to conclude this Friday Philosophy, the answer to the question: What is fire, what is life? Is: An oxidation process.

Think about it: In the vastness of the universe, with matter, energy, gravity, electromagnetism, the nuclear forces, etc, what is life? My answer is: A chemical reaction, an oxidation process.

Ponder.

Space Hotel Maitre'D

According to some PR flack, this here Space Hotel is slated to open up in the great year 2012. I would put the odds of that at 1%, but I'm rooting for you, Space Maitre'D!

It's a cool concept, and one I bet catches on in future space craft: Inflatables. You lift the deflated structure into space, then inflate it to full size. Given the hybrid rubber/plastic/nano materials available, it can actually be quite stronger than spaceships today, which are litterally as thick as a couple of soda cans.

Inflatables will be big on any Moon/Mars base... but who am I kidding? We have better odds of regressing to a Puritanical Luddite society than a space faring one, these days at least.

Now I know how the Pilgrims felt....

You've no doubt read by now in the "real" news how Obama suffered a big defeat last night, or how this election is a sign the GOP is on the rise, or how Health Care Reform is now in danger...

Judge them by their words - pay attention who spins things this way. For, while no doubt the Democratic party lost two Governor elections to their Republican opponents, and that can be spun as "good" news, it's not critically important either. Rather, Democrats picked up 2 seats in Congress last night, including the highly contested seat in NY-23 which, get this, had not voted Democratic since 1871. 1871! And yet now, because of the TeaBaggers, they have a newly minted D representing them. Fun fact: North of Pennsylvania (i.e. NY and New England) there are 57 congressional seats, 55 of whom are Democrats.

And so, the Teabaggers were able to force out a moderate GOP rep who probably would have won and replaced her with a Glenn Back Teabaggin acolyte who lost. But they are claiming it as a victory! And maybe it is, from their insane perspective, since news just broke that the NRSC - the National Republican club which backs Republicans in primaries and elections with money and support, will no longer back candidates in primaries. This is an amazing deveolpment and essentially gives the Teabagger (Via the "Club for Growth) a blank check to attack everyone they deem "moderate".

So the purity purges will continue. The next super fun election will be Florida senate race, specifically the Republican primary. Watch to see if the somewhat reasonable Charlie Crist (current Gov of FL) can defeat raging wingnut Marc Rubio. It will be a harbinger.

To wit: Expect more craziness in the short to mid term, with possible long term positive resolution (that is, the GOP has been destroyed, or so reformed that they no longer resemble today's party). 

Form is Emptiness, cont.

The old Buddhist maxim: Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is form. Its one of the foundational concepts of Buddhism, and can be difficult to fully grasp. I'm not sure I do, even to this day, even after decades of thinking about it.

But look at this here picture of a Helium atom. Some key concepts to realize, about our reality: According to quantum physics, there are no concrete and tangible "things" in this picture. There are just probabilities that a molecule will be in a certain place at a certain time - witness the "cloud" around the central nucleus - it's not an electron shell or wall, but rather a range of electrically charged orbits.

Consider also the vast emptiness contained within each atom -- atoms are, by far, mostly empty space. That is, the very thing that builds up everything we are and see around us are by far, empty spaces. This vast emptiness is mirrored on the macro scales in the distances between stars, between galaxies, between galaxy clusters, and so on till no doubt we're talking about vast, vast, vast distances between different universes.... and this is all within our "dimension" - there could be many, many (infinite?) more.

Finally, consider that matter is simply highly compacted energy (E=Mc2). 


I could go on and on and on, and even then I know I'm missing something. To wit, however: Some 2500 years ago, The Buddha and his Buds somehow understood the very foundations of physics, of our reality, and our place in it. 

It's inspiring.

Where my holograms at?

I've been patient enough: Where the hell are all the holograms? And flying cars?! And moon bases?! DAMN YOU SCIENCE YOU OWE ME!!!!

Purity Patrol is in Pursuit

Some fun updates from the heated contest in NY-23. Dede Scozzafava (R) dropped out of the race this weekend, and at first was non-committal about what her supporters should do, but then on Sunday came out in support of the Democratic candidate in the race (Owen). The Offical RNC had backed Scozzafava, as did a few big name Rethugs, but plenty more came out in support of the Conservative Party candidate in the election, a creepy wingnut named Hoffman. Now that the (R) is out, the official RNC and laughable poster boy Michael Steele, as well as embarassed Newt, have swung their support to the Teabagger.

Who knows who will win -- it's a heavily conservative district that has voted Republican for about 120 years. Regardless, the Teabag/Wingnut/Nutjob Fundie takeover of the Repuglican party is now official and complete -- that is the only way to describe these events, where an actual Republican candidate is hounded out of running by Right Wing Nutjobs. The loathsome Michelle Malkin described Dede as a "radical leftist".

It's all so hilarious, the destruction these fools wage upon themselves in the name of ideological purity -- purity to an ideology that is dissonant in the extreme and makes no logical sense! That is, it's hilarious when these fools destroy themselves. Not so funny to consider they were running the nation just a short time ago, wreaking the same destruction on America and the world.


Also, to once again show how brilliant Obama is: There is an election in NY-23 only because Obama appointed the sitting Representative from NY-23, a REPUBLICAN, as Secretary of the Army (or something like that). That appointment directly caused this special election which in turn has shown a deep and seemingly unbridgeable rift in the Repuglican Party.


So you know,  I think this is going to go all "Way of The Whigs".

Yee-Haw!

Everythin's biggah in Tejas, Hoss!


Click pic for biggerness.

Descent

Another leading light of the Teabagger intelligentsia.

Hello Cleveland

A long suffering denizen of the Dawg Pound. This is not your year, friend.

Lingering, while the End Times draw nigh

Buy a Snuggie. Turn on the free LED book light. Set your soul free. Join. Us.

Praise to the Ancient Serpent of Tee Time

Our ancestors lacked a short game.

I quibble with the size of the nacelles

Not really. It's a great costume! Good luck getting any treats, however, Trek Dog.

Confederacy of Morans

Something you'll rarely read in the MSM is the truth about the Repuglican party: It's almost entirely a Southern party. So, when you see national polls about this issue or that, just remember that. For example, here's a fresh poll which asks folks what their opinion of the GOP is. Here's the results by region:

Republican Party favorability

Fav Unfav

All 21 67

South 48 37
NE 6 87
Midwest 10 78
West 12 75

Striking, yes? So, not only are the National numbers absolute trash, but they conceal an even harsher truth: Outside of the defeated Confederacy, the Repuglicans are as popular as an STD.

And yet! They are given a national platform in the media that far outweighs their popularity or representation. Every story has to have a "Conservative" opinion; there are entire news corporations dedicated to this incredibly small and hateful minority; on and on.

We're living in some hallucination right now, but it's clearing. Do your part. Speak to this truth.

More Iron

Iron, on Mars.

Just discovered by that plucky explorer, Opportunity. It's amazing the rovers are still working - well worth the paltry few dozens of millions of dollars we spent to send the two rovers there. We should be covering the planet in more.

New Fan News

I have a fan addiction -- can't sleep without one. It's the noise. I'm not ashamed of this addiction, nor am I looking to lose it. In fact, I seek to refine it.

As such, Dear Readers, you can count on this blog to keep you up-to-date on any and all breaking fan news. Like this nifty new fan, from Dyson. I've got a Dyson vacuum cleaner, which is awesome, and my office has a Dyson hand dryer, which is awesome as well, so, based on precedent, this fan looks to be awesome. BUT!

Not many people understand my addiction. I know there are others out there like me, but there's so few of us, and many ARE ashamed. And so no one speaks to our needs: Is it loud?

Initial reports indicate: As loud as a normal fan. I will not vouch for this report, however, until I have a chance to hear it myself. If anyone out there in Interweb land has heard it, please let me know.

Gold Man's gonna get ya!

Mug shot. Convicted of selling coke while dressed as Gold Man. Like that'll fool anyone.

More in "Conservative" Hilarity

This is Dede Scozzafava, Republican running for Congress from NY-23. Hoffman is something called the "Conservative" Party's representative for the same office. There's a Democrat in the race too - who will win, but I don't really care about any of that.

What is interesting about this photo, and this contest, is we have our first real example of Wingnut v. Wingnut with this election. Hoffman is a Tea Bagger. The Tea Bagger's think Dede is a RINO, or a Dem-Lite. So they won't support the Republican candidate for the spot. And now, parachuting in from across the country, are Tea Bagger Command: Dick Armey, sitting down for local newspaper intereviews with Hoffman. Here's a recap of how that interview went:

A flustered and ill-at-ease Mr. Hoffman objected to the heated questioning, saying he should have been provided a list of questions he might be asked. He was, if he had taken the time to read the Thursday morning Times editorial raising the very same questions.

Coming to Mr. Hoffman's defense, former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, who accompanied the candidate on a campaign swing, dismissed regional concerns as "parochial" issues that would not determine the outcome of the election. On the contrary, it is just such parochial issues that we expect our representative to understand and be knowledgeable about, if he wants to be our voice in Washington.

Got that? Dick Armey - from Texas - is telling the local newspaper (The Watertown Daily) that "parochial" issues are not the main concern. For "parochial", read "local".

This is a perfect distillation of what we're up against. Dick Armey is one of the leading figures of the Tea Bagger movement, though he'll deny the association. His "Think Tank" - the laughably named "Freedom Works" - is bankrolling most of the Tea Bagger efforts. Dick Armey has been involved in most of the slime of the past twenty years. And here he is, in upstate NY, working on behalf of the guy working against the Republicans, telling the local paper "parochial" matters are not his concern. And why's that? Because actually governing is not his concern -- it never is to the Wingnuts. Power. Control. Money. That's all they want.

And it seems we now have a rift, and it is being shown in NY-23. Newt and Orange John Boehner are for Dede, the (R); Dick Armey, Rick Santorum, Sarah Palin, and now the laughable Gov. of Minnesota, have all come out in support of Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate. Here's what T-Paw had to say about Mr. Hoffman:

We cannot send more politicians to Washington who wear the Republican jersey on the campaign trail, but then vote like Democrats in Congress on issues like card check and taxes. After reviewing the candidates’ positions, I’m endorsing Doug Hoffman in New York’s special election. Doug understands the federal government needs to quit spending so much, will vote against tax increases, and protect key values like the right to vote in private in union elections.

T-Paw gave this riveting quote to the leading lights of the Tea Bagger movement, a wingnut blog. It's all so hilarious, and I actually have a hard time believing this is all happening, like it is. I mean, do these idiots have an iota of clue?

This is a nice big step towards the destruction of the Republican Party as it exists today. Hooray!

LOL Coloredskins

Ooops, meant Redskins. What a team! Change your name.

And is it me, or are there a plethora of really crappy teams this year, way more than normal? In no order, the crappy teams of NFL 2009:

Washington
St. Louis
Carolina
Tampa Bay
Tennessee
Detroit
Buffalo
Oakland
Kansas City

I'm sure I'm missing some teams too. Is this a pre-reaction to the looming "no cap" year?

Make way for the Public Option!

Harry Reid done just told me that that there Public Option (with a state opt-out) will be in the Senate version of the Health Care reform bill. Yay! This is big news, because it was Harry Reid and the Senate who were the real threats to the PO. Now that it's officially in there, it's only a matter of time (IMO!) before the Public Option becomes a reality.

Due to heavy doses of Repuglican FUD, many people don't know what the Public Option is. Well here you go, it's very simple: If you wanted to, you could purchase (with your money!) health insurance from a Government run agency. That's it. You then use that health insurance wherever a doctor or hospital accepts it (which I assume will be the vast majority). Due to the available pool of subscribers, AND (most importantly!), the Government will not be running the PO as a profit center, costs should be relatively low. Note, this is not a "government takeover of medicine", there are no "government doctors" you'll have to see, etc, etc.

Now, the real wonderful dynamic to this, in my opinion AND from my perspective, is this will not only break the Insurer's monopoly in health insurance, and thus reduce costs/increase service for everyone, but it means you (and I!) don't have to be tied to a company's health care plan anymore. I don't know much about this subject as I've been luckily healthy most of my life, but I've always assumed if I did not have a job, I would not have health care, end of story.

With the PO, however, I could choose to purchase insurance even with no employer, or self-employed. I'm no longer chained to one company - freedom of labor: It's what Captialists say they want (shocker of course the Repugs are against this, right?).

So, join me, won't you? In the future, when we can all be insured, and then follow our respective crazy dreams.

Yankees, I do not appreciate

Or, in the common vernacular, Yankees Suck!

But they'll probably win this lame World Series regardless, due to this disturbing trend:

The Yankees have won 26 championships. Of those, 19 came in Democratic administrations. The Yankees dominated during the Roosevelt years. They were still great under Truman. They were excellent under Kennedy. They were bad for part of the 70s, but as soon as Carter took over, a new dynasty began. That ended when Reagan came to power, but the Clinton years were hell on Yankee haters. And now, after 8 years when Yankee evil was waning, it has come back with a vengeance under Obama.

Of the 7 Republican titles, 3 came under Eisenhower, which just goes to show that he wasn't a real Republican to begin with. The other four came in the Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover years, when they were just another team and before their real evil was made known to the world

The real exception to this rule in Lyndon Johnson. The Yankees did not win a World Series in the Johnson years. I think this goes to show just what a great president Johnson was. The Great Society and Yankee sucking. How can one beat that? Moreover, this totally makes up for Vietnam.

That leads to another question--is the sacrifice of 58,000 Americans worth a bad Yankee team?

The answer is obviously yes.

So, get your money on the table now, if you're into that illegal sports wagering thing.

Or, if you'd rather...

A Waffle House Wedding.

It's a nice day for a...

Wal*Mart Wedding.

Coolest Drunk Guy in History?

He's a contender!

It's all coming together....

Some believe the execs at Fox are blood drinking Reptilians -- it would be irresponsible not to find out the truth, right?

NOT a Hipster-Grifter Tattoo

This incredible picture is an extreme close up of the surface of Mars, and the black lines you see throughout this picture are the trails left behind from passing Dust Devils.

Strange picture indeed. I don't think it would be possible to guess what this is without being given a hint or a dozen.

A few points to consider

Not that this settles the matter, since, well, can the matter ever really be settled? But hey, statistics don't lie, and that goes doubly so for graphs.

The War has Begun

Against Fox News, by the forces of sanity and logic. And it's about damn time. Fox news, of course, will not take this lying down -- indeed, since Ms. Dunn et all have made their official comments about Fox News, the Foxies have made it their lead story, day and night. And this will continue, to their detriment.

Because, at last, the spell has been broken, and people are talking about it. The News organizations specifically. Now, there's a lot of ignorance that has to be burned through first. Witness this quote by a hapless Washington Post writer:

Where the White House has gone way overboard is in its decision to treat Fox as an outright enemy and to go public with the assault. Imagine the outcry if the Bush administration had pulled a similar hissy fit with MSNBC. - Ruth Marcus

Just imagine! Oh wait, no need to imagine: The Bush Admin repeatedly stated that MSNBC and NBC were paying the price for their "viewpoint". That was straight up payback; The Obama Admin has stated they will continue to go on Fox news, there just not pretending its a news station, but rather an opinion/partisan media outlet. Which is fine -- that's the whole point. There are plenty of partisan news groups out there on both sides. However, none of them, except for Fox news and its allies, pretend they are "Fair And Balanced". Which is Doubelspeak at it's finest.

Regardless, this is gonna shake things up. And it's going to further expose the rest of the absolutely terrible and corrupted Washington media corp. Watch morans Jake Tapper and Mark Halperin (and others) rush to Fox's defense; witness the hyperbole of the Becks and Hannitys; observe how this "debate" plays out in the Newscorp media world (WSJ for example).

It's a mess out there. But, like with most things so far, I believe Obama has maneuvered his opponents into a lose-lose position.

In Russia, Poster bids on You!

Old school Soviet art is great. I'm sure there's some fancy-pants term to describe this style, but I will simply call it "Post-Awesomeness".

Also, a reminder of what good propaganda can look like. Take some notes, Repuglicans.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

It's a real product: Play-Doh cologne. Apparently, "for creative types looking for a remembrance of their youth", or some such. Words fail, though the all mighty $$$ always talks.

Cutting Edge Christian Research

This is pretty radical stuff, since it presumes some knowledge of actual science, however slim, but even slim is a gateway to other knowledge. Dangerous knowledge.

Fun to note: The Boogy Woogies should really be protesting theories of gravity rather than evolution. No one really knows what gravity is at all, whereas evolution is well understood with tons of proof. Their craziness would be on firmer ground, though I'm sure that's beside the point.

Sins of the Parents

Like the kid has a chance in this crazy world.