There has been an error

An error of some sort was required to create everything you see. For, there was matter and antimatter, and theoretically these two should cancel each other out, and yet they do not. By like 0.000001% for reference. But that 0.000001% was enough to create our entire Universe. Every star, every galaxy, every black hole, the sum remainder of an unfinished math set.

Imperfection is the source of Creation.

This being true, should we judge those who make mistakes? Or systems that crash?

Like this digital billboard with a Windows error in the fog?

Dinolution

Science ruins everything, right? WRONG! Science makes everything awesome. Fur example, a large percentage (not all) of dinosaurs are now thought to have had feathers. Even the mighty T-Rex:

Stylish, fashionable, warm, and not remotely related to flight. Science thinks, for now, that feathers first evolved for warmth, and later evolved for use in flight. This evolution was carried forward by dinosaurs, who ultimately became birds.

Birds are the evolution of one branch of dinosaurs. All of them. Think of that the next time you feed the ducks.

QUACK!

The Light

We're related to trees, right? As all living things, whether they be animal, plant, or lowly bacteria, are related - just a question of how far back. Plants have gender, have sex, so to speak, reproduce, breathe, drink, eat, sleep, bleed, grow old and die, just like us.

We can't live without sunlight. And not just for the practical reasons, like vitamin D and the psychological effects of lack of light - and yet still not just for all the food and animals we depend on that need light too. But even deeper - we're drawn towards the light at a level so basic as to be chemical.

We are made of light, of energy: E=MC2. And verily, most of the elements that compose our bodies - that compose all of life - were forged directly in a star. We are literally star stuff, as is just about everything on this planet, including the planet itself.

And so - THEORY! - I believe we are subconsciously drawn towards light from the very fabric of our being, and not just at a psychological level (though there's surely that), but at an atomic level. Our atoms came from light, and to light they will one day return, but till then, they yearn. As we yearn.

Also, it feels so good!

Let there be Jar-Jar

With but a click of the mouse our Lord George creates comic sidekicks and shallow stereotypes, digitally rendered. Much like the real Lord, amirite?

Creator the Destroyer

 The dissolving shell of an exploded star, out there in space far, far away. These expulsions of tremendous amounts of matter forms clouds which, if lucky, grow denser and denser and start spinning and, maybe one day, if it ate all its vegetables, this spinning leads to fusion, and the birth of another star, a heavier star.

A star is fusion. But contained fusion, due to the gravity pressing down on the enormous weight of the star - fusion + gravity = star. If we can re-produce this on glorious Earth, we will create Paradise, with endless and clean power. Star Trek, man.

What is fusion? The opposite of fission - which is the splitting of the atom, releasing energy. Fusion is the fusing of atoms, also releasing energy. Lots. The sunlight that warms your face is from fusion deep within our star, The Sun.

Stars are born from a compression of ginormous gas clouds, ignite a fusion cycle, and then burn through their fuel supply. The bigger stars will create elements all the way up to our old friend Iron (Fe). Iron is truly magic, for, among many other wonders, it spells the end of stars - if a star ever starts fusing Iron, it will die shortly, in a megahuge explosion called a Supernova, the remnants of which will push matter - Iron, Calcium, Gold, etc - throughout the local space.

The Cat's Eye Nebula, a nebula being the aftermath of a Supernova. And in these clouds resides the very material that made us up - literally, the iron in your blood was made in some star long ago that done exploded and showered the surrounding space with debris, some of which was iron, which collected due to gravity, eventually forming a planet, which after some time gave birth to you. The same with Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, etc. Dig it? We are actually star children, and isn't that just a trip?

Here's some more star porn (click pic for big):

Pretty nifty, eh? This is our reality - we came from exploding stars just like these. And every atom in our body will one day return to a great spatial cloud. Isn't this all more wondrous than any mythology yet conceived on Earth?

Go Johannes!

This is really big news from the Redshirt corner. This here satellite based telescope, named after that swell fella Kepler, is designed to spot exo-planets.

To date, we've found approximately 350 exo-planets, but all were inferred to be present, either through observing a gravitational wobble in the parent star, or in periodic dimming of the star's light as the exo-planet passes in front. Better than nothing, to be sure, but these inferrences are limited, and only would discover rather freakish planets of Jupiter size, yet also close to their sun -- that is, nothing like our Solar System.

I believe this is only due to our lack of tools, not because there are no other solar systems out there like ours. Kepler will add to the ongoing revolution in astronomy since Copernicus, which can be summarized as such: We're not the center of anything.

Each new astronomical discovery makes it ever more clear what our true place in existence is -- a dust mote - and with each discovery, I hope, the God Squad and their myths are knocked ever further back into the ignorant shadows.

Because, when Kepler finds a planet similar to ours, orbiting a sun similar to ours, with similar elements in its atmosphere, it will be another new chapter in this ongoing story of humanity understanding our place in existence. A great new chapter, the first one that has real potential for awesome discoveries (to wit: Life, everywhere).

Stay tuned!

I am my monkey brother's keeper

We share 95% of our genome with chimps, and a similarly high percentage with all other vertebrates, such as Octopus (Dr.).



The monkey on the left is very old, the one on the right a grandson.

Evolution tells us that not so long ago, our ancestors were probably not that different than these guys.

However, Creationists would have none of what the THEORY of evolution would tell you on this or other subjects (though it can be agreed with when it does not contradict the Bible - as whatever preacher at the time/place chooses to interpret the Bible), and instead would have you believe that indeed, mankind was created from dirt in the Garden of Eden by a rather juvenile acting G-D, to Fall so ridiculously, and then to beget and beget and beget some more, with - hilariously from a biological perspective - a reset due to the general wickedness of the world, and repopulation of the planet from the descendants of Noah and the rest of the gang on the Ark.

This has been another prong in the postmodern pincer move of the conservative attack, to discredit science and raise up religion as a shield to any logical criticism. Hard to argue with God afterall. And if the Bible says so, well, that's good enough reason for whatever you want to justify.

So, to summarize so far: Co-opt and delegitimize the media; scorn science and logic and elevate religion and tribal emotions.