Dark Omens

Recent protest in Greece. Not sure which one exactly, because they've been protesting pretty much non-stop for about 5 years. Economic austerity imposed on them from Germany, however, has made the protests of the past few years much more intense.

But protests are protests, and Greece is pretty good at them. What's new is a dark and foreboding development:

Greek NAZIs. The Golden Dawn is ostensibly a political party, but really it's a fascist gang that uses waaaay too many NAZI symbols for any sane collection of people. They've become emergent as the Greek economy has crashed, and in the time tested tactic of all nationalist fascist groups, have used the fear/hate of foreigners as a rallying cry to swell their numbers. They've become a paramilitary force, for example. Witness:

See the black clad goons along the wall? Golden Dawn "Security". Brownshirts, in other words, who have been tied to many assaults and crimes.

It's easy to see the formula at work: Tough economic times create a sense of helplessness, and predatory groups use this feeling to channel their anger towards an "other" - almost always a foreigner of some sort. By joining with other like minded nationalist "patriots" attacking the "decadent Others", folks get a sense of belonging and lose their feelings of helplessness. And thus armies of fascists are formed.

But its not all lost in Greece.

There's still a ton of anarchists!

Prophecy R Us

You come to me, seeking answers. I tell you: Obstacles you will face, great challenges. But in the end, after the give and take of war, you will prevail. Yay!


Delphi, Greece, 2008.

Equal Time

A Redshirt blurry original. Isn't it arty?! Click for big!

Wonder, Woman

Here's one of the first sketches of Wonder Woman, who premiered in comic form in December 1941. It being December of 1941, she was of course fighting for Truth, Justice, and the American Way, even though she was an Amazon. Go figure! Did you know the non-fictional home of the Amazons was Bulgaria, along the Black Sea? Not very exotic.

But maybe this will do.

Or maybe this?

But definitely not this. Note the loss of the Eagle as the costume evolved. Also note that the Romans of yore used the Eagle as their standard - no coincidence, of course.

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.

Born too soon

Alas! Poor space frog, with dreams of voyages to the stars in his eyes. Not for you, sad frog. Maybe in a hundred or a couple hundred years. Maybe a thousand. Possibly never. Even though you can easily dream of it, even though we could make it happen if we collectively got together and went for it, even though it should have been your destiny from 1969, alas! Not to be for you.

Stuck with probes, hooray.

An example of an internet meme, by the by, in case you don't already know. Here's how to make an internet meme: 1. Find a picture. 2. Type something over it. 3. Spread hither and yon and hope the seed takes in the cybersoil.

But for true, we are limited by our technology, by our collective achievements, to a degree. Consider the so called Ionian School. From here circa 630BCE - 420BCE,

From the Wiki, also from whence I got the map, in Spanish, for some reason. I like it better this way - more exotic. But that's Turkey, y'all, and SCIENCE was basically born right here, during this time period. Mayhaps it was also invented elsewhere, but we have no records. Here, we have a record - the Scientific Inquiry well and truly got started here and continued through humanity, to today. Word up, Delos!

Anyways, they came up with the concept of the atom, yet had ZERO way of observing the atom, due to the general technological level of humanity. Even a supergenius savant could do nothing about it. And thus the mind, the person is limited by when he/she was born. You, me, today, we sit on the brink of a radical redefinition of humanity, and we'll probably miss it.

Born too soon, but aren't we all, always?