Now we're even (we're never even)

Currently the tallest building in the world - the Burj! Which is the home of evil, of course, since it is not located in the USA (the very different UAE instead). And you know what must be done with evil, right?

Do chuckle, then ponder that for a significant minority of Americans this cartoon is entirely correct. Eye for an Eye, as they say in the Bible. What a book!

America! What a country.

Tower Truthers

Click for big, as always. Know the truth.

Learn to let go that which you fear to lose.

Lord of The E Ring

It's Enceladus! An amazing moon of Saturn that we've learned a ton about in the past ten years, thanks to the wonderful Cassini probe. It's the brightest object in the Solar System for starters (apart from the Sun, of course). Why? Because it's completely ice and highly reflective. But see those blue stripes at the bottom?

The so called "Tiger Stripes" are areas on the Southside of the moon where the ice crust is weakened, allowing liquid water to rise to the surface. Liquid water, you say, that far out into space?! But it's so cold! True, but thanks to tidal friction caused by the massive Saturn and the other moons around it, Enceladus is squeezed and stretched with every orbit and this creates enough friction within the moon to generate heat. Heat enough to not only create a global subsurface ocean, but warm enough to create CRYOVOLCANOES.

Like Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park, geysers. But on a scale far, far bigger - these geysers, or water volcanoes, shoot an enormous amount of water into space, where it instantly freezes. Some falls back onto Enceladus, creating new layers of ice crust. The rest goes into orbit around Saturn, creating the "E Ring":

As seen here. Amazing, yes? And so we begin our tour of the Solar System's moons. Tune in tomorrow for the next exciting moon(s)!

The Turn of the Tide

Premise: Sarah Palin represents the modern Republican Party. From the lack of knowledge, to the cognitive dissonance, to the appeals to hate and fear, she near perfectly summarizes everything the modern Republican party has become. She's not a white male, though, so there's some variance (Paul Ryan is the 2012 version). But for this post, she suffices perfectly.

For, you see, back in 2008 we were told that she was going to be the spark that lit the fires of Republican re-ascendency. She was anything but - rather, a ridiculous anchor that helped sink the McCain campaign. She was an obvious fraud and grifter to me from the get go, but I'm ahead of the curve. It took a couple of more years for a good portion of America to catch up. It was a cumulative effect, starting with perhaps this:

The awesome turkey slaughter interview. Real America! And then she resigned the governorship of Alaska in order "to lead", cause governing is hard, of course. And there's much more money to be had in reality tv. Then this:

Hand notes. As if Republican talking points are too hard to memorize! Here's the gist, Sarah: Demoncrats bad, Republicans good! And then a whole bunch of stupid Facebook postings and such, and then this:

Which I posit was the straw breaking the dam, as decent everyday folks who were not paying enough attention finally came to the realization of the monster that lurked beneath the glasses. Which then swiftly led to

The grifting well drying up. And if you can't grift, you can't be a Republican of note these days. Which leads me to:

Super Sarah earlier this year, backing the failed Republican Missouri Senate run by fellow Wingnut Sarah Steelman. Check out the outfit! Is there any better picture which shows that the Republican party has become nothing more than a collection of grifters and C level reality tv stars? I think not! Palin was in no way a contender for the crown of 2012 Republican nominee for President, and her stock has fallen so low she was not even invited to speak at the Gathering of the Wingnuts, AKA, the Republican Convention. But then, neither was W or Dick. That past didn't happen! 

LOL! Sanity. This was from early 2010 - what a hoot! Can you imagine what a disaster such a ticket would have been? Even though it's hard to imagine a bigger disaster than the current Romney/Ryan clown show. Sanity!

Conclusion: Sarah's fall parallels the turning of the tide against Republican insanity, and once Barack crushes Mitt this election and the House returns to Democrat control, we'll be well on our way towards winning against these forces of regression and idiocy. Or at least I hope! Do what you can to make it happen.

Black n' White

A madness has infected America - Wingnuttery. It's a contagion at this point, replicating via right wing radio and tv. This contagion is spreading globally to the detriment of the entirety of humanity. But! This small percentage of infected Americans - usually around 27% full infection, 15-17% partially infected - is growing increasingly marginalized, least of all by the radicalization of the rest of the population. One cannot simply sit back and let evil take over unchallenged. Rohan? Will you stand?

The Wingnuts today are still seeking payback for the impeachment of Nixon - Clinton went down because of this - and view him as a victim of the LIBERAL AGENDA rather than any malevolent being on his own. Also too, given his policies during his Administrations, they'd burn him - but cognitive dissonance is never a problem for the Wingnuts.

Never fear! A Savior came and rescued America from the grip of the LIBERALS:

St. Ronnie Raygun, Bringer of the Madness. At this point, you've got to view Reagan in one of two ways (with some nuance, of course, but not worth discussing with the Wingtards, since nuance is a concept lost upon them): 1. The greatest President evah!, or 2. A dottering fool used to usher in an age of American fascism.

Did you pick #1? You probably HATE this guy then, amirite?

FDR. The DEVIL hisself. I mean, he gave America generations of wealth and comfort for the aged and ill, and oh yeah, won WW2. LIBERAL SCUM!

Not a 'shop, by the way - how awesome is that? Also too, everyone back then was pretty damn ugly  - evolution in action?

Ardaphile

The best map of Arda - Earth - I've ever seen. It's lovely. I've long loved maps of all kinds, fascinated by the perspective - so high up. Of course, as with all things, some are more beautiful than others.

Can you find Gondolin? Morgoth couldn't for the longest time, but then, he's got plenty of it. All it takes is a mistake, a small slip, and evil comes marching in.

Find out more by reading the fantasy bible, The Silmarillion.

A Hidden Base

What a fantastic use of escalator space! If I came upon such a sight with the Star Wars opening crawl appearing before me, I would giggle like an anime Japanese schoolgirl. For real - so awesome! Speaking of:

Construction season soon to recommence at Gondolin, or "Secret Rock". Walls rise, rivers tamed, forests tended like gardens. Ulmo has commanded it to be so!

I Think I'm Turning

See if you can identify all the characters here. You should be able to, with a bit of consideration.

So, maybe this is an obvious statement, but since reading Lord of the Rings I've noticed how many other stories seem heavily influenced by it. But then, it could easily be said LOTR is heavily influenced by other tales - Nordic mythology, of course, but also Greek and Roman. Perhaps all stories are influenced by all other stories, and this is our collective mythology - a notion nicely detailed by various Joseph Campbell works.

Three examples from Star Wars: Emperor = Sauron; Death Star = The Ring; Storm Troopers = Orcs.

I can defend these examples verbosely if you doubt me!

Bonus question: Who is this? 10 Nerd points if you get it correct.

Also too:

 

Glories of a Forgotten Past

Behold the glories of pulp sci-fi, from Germany! There once were days, children, when semi-popular magazines published short stories from all sorts of genres. What else was there to do but read? There was no wondrous intertubes, and if you were lucky enough to have TV, there were like 4 channels, tops. Can you imagine the boredom?! Radio could be fun, but are you going to hear about freaky alien jazz planets? Doubt it. And so you read, and because people read, people wrote, all over the place. So, with that, here's some of the finest European literature of the 60's:

Uh, is the Brother a space port? A mechanical monster? You decide.

Here's some futuristic French aliens performing space mime experiments of some sort.

Perhaps this dude? Lettin' it all hang out like he don't care. Speaking of:

Legolas and Gimli - best of friends!

Two Knights and a Knighting

Say what you will about the Queen, and royalty in general, but she knows how to handle a Bat'Leth pretty well. Look at that forearm strength! A real WARRIOR!

Consider, much like with Sir Alec Guinness, these two Knights of the Empire will probably be best remembered as wizards, starship captains, or mutants - all creative descendants of Tolkien.

The Traveler

"Odin the Traveler", (1886) by Georg Van Rosen.  Santa Claus like, but also like the hobo down at the 7-11, picking through trash. OR, of course, a distinguished old gentleman on a stroll through the countryside.

"Odin disguised as a Traveler", (1914) Artist Unknown. Note the awesome, Adidas like kicks.  This should of course remind you very much of the representation of Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings movies, and book (to a degree). Tolkien made no bones about borrowing from all kinds of source Myths for his characters, background, language, etc. He was an awesome scholar after all and one can assume knew everything there was to know about the subject of Northern European (including England) Myth.

Also too:

- Internet, 2011, no other idea. Kinda cool, kinda cheesy.

I often bad mouth religions and I feel pretty strongly anti-religious in most regards, it's true. But I love Myth, and if it weren't for the Holy Rollers and Assorted Flandererssss.... I'd like Christianity just fine. As a myth, as a collection of tales from older times? Love it.

Infallibile word of God from on High and any who speak or go against it deserve to burn in everlasting HELLFIRE? Fuck off!

And as far as Myth goes, Norse mythology is some of the best. So much tragedy!

Dispatches from Gondolin

What I find fascinating about this somewhat cheesy drawing: JRR Tolkien basically invented these genres of Swords and Sorcerers, Dungeons and Dragons, Worlds of Warcraft, etc - the entire Fantasy genre, for all tents and porpoises. And this genre spawned, also,  the Sci-fi we know  and love today: Star Wars is nothing but Fantasy with robots and spaceships rather than swords and horseback. 

Tolkien set out to do just this - create a new mythology, made up of bits and pieces of all sorts of existing myths. He succeeded extravagantly, I'd say. He and L.Ron have to go down as two of the greatest writers ever if for no other reason than the numbers of people who swear allegiance to the fake religions, histories, and stories they created. One of them on a bet; the other during a lifetime of deep scholarship and research. Who's to say who'll be more successful in the end?

The end - what's that, anyways? Just a new beginning, always. Nothing ends, just transforms into other things, somethings else to play a part on this grand stage of pretending - ACTING!


Also, too: The Geo-Thermal is kicking ass.

Also also as well: You can try and justify those giant eagles in LOTR all you want. They are literal Deux ex Machinas flying in to save the day, only when it makes little difference to do so.

Punk'd by Annatar

It seems like it is always the villain who drives most stories forward - the villain is the main agent of action, and everyone else is responding to him. Heck, "The Lord of the Rings" is Sauron.

But who, in real life, actually faces villains? Not many, I reckon. Me? I've got too many....


For the true Tolkien geeks out there, please peruse this wonderful blog to get the real story of the wonderful Annatar. Awesome, awesome site, though the author needs to pick it up with some new entires!

My Own Private Gondolin

Much like Turgon dreaming of Ulmo, I have a vision of a fortress in the forested woods, far from man and his many fancies, on the South side of a mountain, shielded to the West and to the South by other mountains, off the grid yet fully powered by new technologies (wind, solar, geothermal), waiting for That Day, the day Melkor the Morgoth's metaphorical hordes are unleashed on an unsuspecting world.

But I suspected it! And in my woodsy redoubt I will gather strength in preparation for this day, waiting for the fires to simmer before coming down the mountain, bearing HOPE....


Yeah. Gotta stop reading Tolkien.

Also, due to lack of funds, my future Gondolin will look nothing like the building in this picture (The Keck Observatory in Hawai'i). But boy wouldn't it be sweet?!