The Same Sun

Back when America dreamed big. Conquer the sky and the stars was all - once that proved irrelevant, you'll note, the funds towards Space dried right up. Politics at play, alas - everyone hates politics, and yet, it goes on. Odd!

The shuttle is on the left, the ISS on the right. The big yellow thing in the background is the Sun, our star and protector of Life. That star - that concentration of fusion bound by gravity - pours forth all the Power we'll ever need, whether it's rays on the solar panels of the ISS or the orange sunset from the mountains on planet Earth, the sun is all we need and all we'll ever get. So enjoy.

On some fronts we retreat

The aurora from the ISS - you can see how high above the atmosphere it is, which gives its apparent closeness when seen from the ground all the more magnificence. The shuttle is docked here too, and I believe this was the last visit. Alas! The Wingnuts and Confederates have killed the US manned space program over the last 30 years, as they have killed so much and continue to hunt for other things to kill. There is no NASA program waiting in the wings to keep Americans flying into space. That's it! The end of the incredible accomplishments begun in the 1950's and especially the 1960's - we went from the Wright brothers to the Moon in 60 years! We've spent the last 30 dicking around in low orbit, doing nothing much other than space trucking. 


Private industry looks closer to sending folks into low orbit, but it's going to be a tourist junket for the rich for a long while. Give it some time and it will work out, but it might take 20 years or so before it's cheap enough for scientists to get in the game.


So, adios, space! At least for us stupid Americans. We'll depend on the Russians to get to the ISS from here out. How about that?! Cold War what? I love the Russians as I love all of Earth's people, but it's pretty risky to put your manned access to space into the hands of a not quite dependable partner. We'll see how it works out!


Thanks Repuglicans. Your strategy of "drowning the government in the bathtub" (Grover Norquist) by spending like mad when in power, than fighting any attempt to fix the mess when out of power has worked like a charm. Congrats.


As a goodbye, here's some pics of the shuttle and ISS - the ISS is a big boondoggle and albatross, so don't expect the USA to be involved for much longer.


Enjoy!

This last shot shows the streaking shuttle re-entering the atmosphere proper. It gets hot - hence the smoke. Goodbye, shuttle. You were never that cool, but I'll still miss you.

Everything's Connected

Saturn's auroras in time lapse sequence, taken by one of the most important science tools ever invented - ever! - the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). Fact! Every planet with a magnetic field (Earth, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune) has auroras. Saturn has particularly spectacular auroras, as witnessed above, and below:

Look at them! They're things - you can see their thickness in this pic. That's because auroras are actually things - particles from the sun, sent flying on the solar wind, wrapping down the magnetic field of the planet towards both poles (due to the shape of spherical magnetic fields - everything is geometry, someone once said).  Cool, right?

It gets cooler. Scientists recently discovered - and believe me, despite all the wingnuts and Heebie Jeebies, we are in a Golden Age of scientific discovery, because of our advancing technology - that the coolest moon in the Solar System - Enceladus - is electrically connected to Saturn. They form a circuit. Lookee here:

On the left is a spot just below Saturn's Northern aurora, with a stream connecting to a big spot in an aurora like phenomena on Enceladus. These two spots spin around, the proof that they are connected. Check it:

This is Saturn's Northern aurora from above - in the upper left, you see a white box with a red dot in it. The red dot is the electrical field of Enceladus, as you can see it move in this time lapse image.There is a corresponding movement in the bright circle above Enceladus.

Enceladus is electrically charged in part because of all the water it expels. It expels a lot!  Enceladus contributes several of Saturn's rings, as it spews water into space which then freezes hard as rock then orbits around Saturn in a ring for some millions of years in beauteous wonder.

We are learning more and more about the Universe we exist in and are part of every day. It's amazing - to think! It was the mid 1990's when the first Exoplanet was confirmed, and now we are over 400 and about to sharply spike way higher - conventional wisdom now holds that just about every star has planetary bodies of some kind orbiting it. Meaning there are hundreds of billions (trillions?) of planets in our Galaxy. And of course there are hundreds of billions of galaxies. And so on.

The point? We live in a miracle. As a PS, here's humble ol' Earth, our home:

Aurora Australis, y'all.

Fire and Light

Iceland is an amazing land for many reasons, two of which are:
1. Auroras. If you want to see lights in the sky and be reasonably close to civilization, Iceland is your destination of choice. The island is in the band where auroras are common - way up North. Sure, you could go to Northern Alaska, or Siberia, or Greenland, but you'd be out in the cold, harsh, wild. It would suck.
2. Volcanic activity. Other than maybe Hawaii, Iceland is the most volcanic land on Earth. Also home to many volcanic geysers and hot springs. The island sits smack dab atop the mid ocean ridge which marks the boundaries of two continental plates. The pressure of these plates colliding creates massive heat, forming land above the ridge, like Iceland. It's literally land being born upon the Earth anew.

So, here's some aurora and volcanoes.

If you only knew the Power

More lightning - a whole lot of lightning. Maybe some trick of the camera, but damn! Super charged.

Behold the Kull Volcano and know that thou art DOOMED.

Lightning in a bottle

Fun facts to know and share: Once struck by lightning, your odds of getting struck again go way, way up. It's as if lightning forever after locks onto you.

Did you know lightning bolts can also start from the ground and meet another bolt in the sky?

Did you know lightning is made of plasma? And that plasma is the most common state of matter in the solar system? And yet, it's only found on Earth in lightning - briefly - and from scientists. Another way we are like gods (Zeus).

"LASERS"

For reals - many telescopes these days use lasers as tracking signals - the laser beam is shot at the target (it need not reach its target though) and the distortion of the laser beam (through the atmosphere) is recorded, and this distortion rate is then subtracted from the actual mirrors of the telescope, thus producing a much clearer image. SCIENCE! Ever onward.

Our splendid War Machine is of course funding research into using lasers as weapons - and why the heck would they not? Given the clime. You see here a successful test of a ground based laser shooting at a drone a couple thousand feet up, destroying it. It's inevitable, it seems, that our weapons will get more and more sophisticated and powerful. Leading to...? What do you think? I know, right?

Not a laser beam, as far as anyone knows. Search GIS for Borras Norway. They say it's a rocket remainder, but, really? C'mon! Clearly an inter-dimensional portal beaming agents into our reality. Clearly!

A little light show via a medium of bubbles. Light is of course but one sliver of the electromagnetic wavelength, which spans radio waves to X-rays to gamma rays, and everything in between. Lasers are focused light, densely concentrated - since light is photons, particles that can vary in density based on the circumstances.

Point? Everything is weirder than you can imagine.

Former Signs of the Divine

Think of being alive 50,000 years ago - you are not very different than people now. Maybe a bit shorter, definitely thinner, but the same body shape, the same brain, the same social skills. Culture is not as advanced, but it's there. You've got old people telling boring stories, etc. So boring! So you take a walk from the tribe and as you crest a hill, you see this - a green streak dancing through the sky. WTF?

How do you explain this? There's no science yet, though no doubt its seeds are sprouting and spreading. Thus, the gods - some Shamen in the Sky who can do most anything, and is the cause for just about anything you want to attribute to them. The Sun's a god, the stars are gods, the wind and rain and lightning are all gods, or products of the gods. What else can explain them?

With no scientific foundation to understand the phenomena behind what you see, feel, hear and think, you go with what you know - human society, animal society, extrapolated to as lofty or low a position as you (or your Tribe) can imagine.

But now?

We have science. It is THE main force for progress (and destruction) of our species, and has taken us out to space and into the atom itself. It has made us like gods upon this Earth and YET! There are still sizable percentages of people in every ever more densely corner of the world who will still attribute good things, bad things, any sort of thing, to the gods. And of course other people's gods are totally stupid and wrong and we should kill them, or otherwise make them see the error of their ways.

Relics of our ancient past, given apparent eternal life through the power of replicating memes, ideas created, modified, passed on and codified over time and repetition. Even in the face of facts. I think sometimes in spite of facts.

Odd times - we live in a sci fi world of satellites and nuclear power, while bearded men still preach brimstone and fairy tales with impressive results. I worry some times that Science is losing the war against the myths of cult and tribe, because by default we are prone to animism, which is all the gods ever are. Only through education - culture - can we learn about science and absorb its lessons deep within our selves. And so every time you see some Wingnut Education board putting Creationism on the public school science agenda, know this is a direct strike against the very force which has made our species dominant on Earth. The power of ignorance is a very real threat, and it must be fought forcefully and tirelessly.

The above is a pic of the Amundsen polar station at the South Pole - the very purpose of which is science.

Auroras, by the way, are charged particles from the Sun getting funneled down magnetic field lines around the Earth into the poles, where they light up through interactions with the atmosphere. They are also incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring - no god needed.

MC Jesus and The Force

What with the turning water to wine and the phat scratch skills, Jesus could really rock the party. No wonder he went viral. Some serious buzz in the cult scenes.

And thus the Chewie = Animal from the Muppets circle is complete.

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.

Battle of Some of The Gods

I'd put money on Elvis in this Battle, just to play the odds. I mean, against Shiva? Really? Not even J The Hammer and Nails C can go up against Shiva. And yet, due solely to his crooning, I think Elvis can Win.

Also Too:

High Adventure Trucking, indeed.

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?

Calm like a Bomb

There's always been crazy ass Americans. Difference is these days, they've got the keys to the kingdom, and are calling all the shots. Which are crazy. Pray a Perry or FSM help us all a Palin doesn't get elected. It'll be the end of us all.

Nuclear explosion during a good old fashioned Nevada detonation. It's beautiful, in a "UR F'd" kinda way. Powered by nuclear fission, which is quite simply splitting a heavy element into lighter elements. This splitting releases energy, and a chain reaction event releases a metric fuckton of death waves. An explosion like the above probably used only a teaspoonful of matter. You, right now, have the power of many, many nuclear bombs packed inside your body.

Think of it! We are near a day when some crazy hustler Holy Roller could get the codes to launch nuclear weapons. Religion and Science, together at last! It's like a cautionary sci-fi yarn.

Remember: These are the same folks who are rooting on the Rapture. FSM help us all if they can actually push the Big Red Button.

Axis of the Past

Germany is a paradise these days - towers for cars, health care for all, at peace within and without.

Hiroshima Japan - and a lesson for the world in many ways. Where there is life, there is hope, and you can always rebuild.

No Coke - Fuck that Shit

Chicago, July 2011, Navy Pier. Fun place! I took a bunch of awesome shots.

Chicago, 1941. PBR was somehow blended 33 to 1 back then, and, I presume now. Are we not being told of this wondrous process? I've never heard of it before. But then, I'm moving with the Heineken crowd these days.

UNLIMITED POWER (not phallic)

Wardenclyffe Tower, or the Tesla Tower, the first cell phone tower, but much more! Tesla intended it to also transmit wireless power, and think about the implications of that. Unfortunately, unlimited and free power was not in JP Morgan's interests, and soon all the money was gone, the Tower was vandalized, and Tesla's Lab was burnt, as were the majority of his work/notes. Co-incidence! Tesla was the man, a pure genius, but alas, most of his brilliant ideas are lost to us. So beware, future inventors! Inventing an engine that runs on water will make you many enemies. And a few awesome friends. As such:

Another genius, but no Tesla. There are few in our history who can compare.

Tourists and Museums

Museums would be so much better with far fewer tourists, yes? Except yourself, of course. Perhaps this is also true about everything else.

Here's some art found in a museum:

Seeming random sculpture turns to a faithful reproduction in shadow. Now that's art!

I think Plato had it right with the whole "shadow in the cave" analogy. We are bound by our senses as biological animals - this would be the cave - and all we can perceive is what our senses allow us to - in this case, the shadow thrown against the cave wall. We know there's more out there that we don't know about - for instance, that regular matter and energy only makes up 4% of our Universe. 4%! That's nothing, and yet here we sit, no doubt thinking we have it all figured out.

Delusions of a mammalian brain, high on itself. Ain't it grand?