Courage of your convictions

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, of Pussy Riot, who is not only still in jail, but hasn't been heard from in some time - here's a link. Arrested for the brazen expression of free speech, and fighting for her rights. When one person fights for their rights, they fight for us all. But there are often consequences - like getting sent to a Siberian gulag. Would you dare stand up for your rights in the face of such risks? Do you dare express yourself boldly in the face of power?

Femen does. Click below for proof.

The Moment has come

Indeed, the time is nigh.

Rise up my Sisters! The world is yours for the taking.

Stone Age Future

Wind and Moon and Star is all I need to power my crystal - what about you?

All the jazz you need is straight above.

All these photos are mine, by the by. But I offer them up to you, tonight.

Asteroid's got a Moon

Here's the asteroid "Ida" (31K diameter) with its very own moon, Dactyl (1.4K diameter). Coming at ya live!

That Ida has a cute little moon gives scientists reason to believe many/most larger asteroids have moons as well, since, as the idea goes, debris is scattered around the asteroids often enough, and it's more than likely some of this debris will form an orbit, at least for awhile.
Here's tiny Dactyl, cutest li'l baby moon of Sol's System!

Once again, just for perspective, there's more accessible metals and precious stuff like gold on rocks like Dactyl than ever dug up on Earth, for all of time. Just waiting for us out there. Or, conversely, on an eventual collision course. Either way, we're rich!

Presidents meet Rock Stars

The gold standard, of course. But there's so many more!

It's Jerry Ford with George Harrison and the dude with the best afro in history!

From the pilot episode of "Hangin' with the Prez!", Willie Nelson and Gang meet up with President Jimmy Carter to put an end to littering! Also, many years later at the reunion show:

President Carter busts out his lucky harmonica and they jam out like olden times. Good times, before the dark times. Before, Michael.

MJ hears the babbled requests of President and First Lady Reagan - they're olds, you see, and don't get what MJ is all about. They were ordered to appease His Royal Gloved One. Cuz Michael owned the 80's. This is a Pete Souza, by the by, who takes most of the cool shots you see of Obama over the past 4.5 years.

Nah gonna do'it. Wouldn't be prudent. Bush Sr. met no cool rock stars, by the way, cuz he was a big wimp.

Pearl Jam and Big Dog. You know shit went down after this photo - grunged out mosh pit right there in the Oval Office.  Awesome!

W., like all Republicans, was still in thrall to MJ, even after he turned into a scary crow monster. K.I.S.S.I.N.G.

So cool.

Begin the Begin

This was the picture in my first ever post on this olde blog, so many (4.5) years ago. I post it again because it fits the theme, it's awesome, and as a symbol of the new year.

Opportunity spotted this almost pure iron/nickel meteorite near its landing spot, and so dubbed "Heat Shield Rock" by NASA wags. Lame. But the meteorite itself is incredible - consider that iron meteorites are far, far rarer than stony meteorites, for the simple reason that an iron meteorite only comes from one place: The core of a differentiated planet. This planet of course was destroyed, a small piece of its core sits on the surface of Mars, right beside Opportunity. The odds!

Longtime fellow redshirts might recall that I have a bit of a love affair with Iron - the chemical substance. Fe 26, yo. It is only created in one place - a star. Either in the core of a huge star and as that happens, the star soon explodes, spreading the Iron hither and yon. In that explosion even more Iron is created. And every bit of Iron you know of - including the Iron in your blood (think about that, man) - came from an exploding star. This Iron now scattered to the four corners coalesced with clouds of hydrogen and helium and other gases, which if lucky began spinning fast enough to create a new star, with new planets - all of which will have Iron cores. Iron lies at the root of all creation, and destruction.

For it's true! Stars happily chug along creating all the elements up to Iron, glowing and casting their life giving light across space, and onto many, many exoplanets and exomoons, but then as soon as a star produces Iron in its core, it's doomed. So Iron is the end of the fusion line, and literally poison to stars. And yet, on the other side of the scale, all the higher number Elements - like gold, silver, plutonium, uranium, etc - all decay, over time, to Iron, and in so doing cease being radioactive. In fact, a definition of "radioactive": anything higher than Iron on the Periodic Table. This decay will take trillions of years, but eventually there will be a time when all higher elements have decayed to Iron, and lo, that will truly be the Iron Age.

Iron is literally - and figuratively - the balance point of creation, of our very reality. Everything we know of is made up from Elements (which in turn are made up of combinations of electrons, neutrons, and protons, which in turn are made up of combinations of quarks, which in turn, current theory posits but has not proven, are made up of combinations of preons, and I'm sure there's some other turn to be discovered in the future), and Iron sits in supreme harmony among them, destroyer and creator, ultimately, of all.

Yay, Iron!

Also, kudos to you Opportunity - you rule. But let's also pour one out for Spirit:

NASA lied to the rovers, of course, the cold hearted bastids.

Bonus Spirit pic, snapped 3/8/04:

Earth, as seen from Mars by Spirit. I'm on "Team Spirit" in case you couldn't tell. Opportunity's awesome and all, but too obsessed with being cool and down with the "in crowd". Spirit would talk to goths, for example. Also understands mortality, as any good redshirt should.

And so with that, I begin again. As we all do, every day. But some days more so than others.

2 Assads and a Queen

So there's some stuff going on in Syria. Did you know? Do you care? Most Americans don't, I figure, unless it's for temporary political purposes. The Empire only cares for the Empire, at this point. Always a turning point, for the worst, in the history of Empires.

Those are the Assad boys at bottom. Bassel, the eldest and as such the heir apparent, is long dead, in a "car crash" some time ago. So Bashar's been in large and in charge since Dad died in the year.... 2000. Things went well for a while, even surviving the Empire's invasion of neighboring Iraq. But it's going down the shitter now, and I think the Assad's reign over Syria is near an end. I don't think what replaces it will be better at all, but that's the Middle East for you!

Also too, that of course is Freddie Mercury at top. Born Farrokh Bulsara, Freddie was perhaps the greatest rock n' roll showmen of all time, leader of one of the best rock bands of all time, Queen. Also gay - in fact, I'd say he looks to be the archetypal gay man, true or not. So now I have to ask what, if any, of the "gay look" descended from Freddie Mercury, and thus from his basic Arabness. Though he was in fact a Parsi and had nothing to do with Arabs or Islam. But these are trifling details! He looks Arab enough, compared to the Bassads, right? I have no idea where this photo comes from by the by. Trying to understand it. It's the sunglasses, mustache, and short dark hair. Pretty damn gay, Bashar!

Also as well - I recently read the best interview about Queen I've ever encountered, in Astronomy magazine, of all places. It was about Brian May - who's incredible. He got his PhD in Astrophysics and he completed it after Queen ended. He also built his own guitar (Red Special) with his Dad when he was 15 and has played it ever since. Awesome bloke. His PhD was about zodiacal dust, which sounds like an album name, but is also an awesome subject. Check it all out.

So there you have it. Whatever "it" is. Let me finish by saying I read Astronomy magazine regularly - I'm a subscriber! - but never Rolling Stone, even though somehow I've been getting issues sent to me for 3 years now, even though I never signed up for it nor have been billed or paid a bill. I look at the covers and go, "meh". I'm old enough now I no longer care what the young people think is interesting. So get off ah my cloud!

Bring me the Broomstick

If you recall, Dorothy was sent on various missions throughout the Wizard of Oz, one of which was straight up assassin detail - kill the witch, take her broom. This of course is what the powerful are all about - get you to do their deeds or otherwise serve their purposes, and use explosions, flashy lights, and fear of death to help intimidate you into so doing.

Knowing this, you can thwart them by rocking out, but never selling out. Man.

Profiles in Manhood

Ah, men (human and alien). The cause of, what? 98% of the world's problems? All the wars, by far - by far - most of the crime, the violence and murder, the wanton cruelty of the powerful over the powerless. Men - if you had to exclusively and effectively profile one group, skip the Arabs or Russians or Chinese; profile every man - we're the cause of all the trouble!

For example, alcohol, and foolish behavior. Men excel at this, imbibing both with gusto. For example, chugging. Here's an oldy but always a goody:

A wonderful piece of art - please note the very partly consumed shrimp flying through the air. You put that much liquid into a semi-permeable container and at some point - quickly! - it's gotta come out.

Freudian Field Day, Chicago, 1983

I presume the Patriarchy was only fully established with the first cities, which by necessity required power structures to operate, and these were all run by men. From there, success leads to success, power leads to more power, and 1000's of generations have lived a massive dichotomy: Men run everything, and are the cause of all humanity's problems. Maybe it's time for something new?

Let's go Matriarchy! Women would do a better job of running everything, since they've got more in the game. Sure, perhaps over time, women with power would turn into bloodthirsty monsters bent on crushing all their enemies. But perhaps they would not! And that's better odds than with men, with whom we've had an ample sample size.

But alas! Divide and conquer does indeed prove ruthlessly effective, and all it takes to keep women from rightfully taking over is a small percentage of turncoats, or, in this case, women drinking alcohol, acting the fool.

Rock n' roll!

The Water Cycle

Booze goes in, pee comes out. The key is finding somewhere other than your pants to complete this wondrous cycle. Case in point:

Deviations from the mean are always worth attention.

Really Big Thing

I keep telling "them" -- this rock n' roll thing is going to be huge some day. Especially Grunge.