Sins of our Mothers

Fact: Birds raised in cigarette butt nests are 78% more likely to smoke as adult birds.

Home is where you make it

Fun fact to know and share: Birds that build nests using cigarette butts have much healthier chicks. The reason being lack of parasites, as no mite or tick dares cross the chemical monstrosity that is butt nest.

Does it hurt the birds? Studies so far say not at all, but the opposite - cigarettes help birds live healthier lives.

Tiny Worlds

Behold Saturn in her absolute magnificence. There are much larger pictures available on the Internet, fans, than here. Seek them out if you need a new desktop.

Look just outside Saturn's brightest inner rings at 9:15 o'clock  - there is a white dot. That white dot is Earth, and that dot contains our entire species, now, then, and seemingly forever.

We regress, while we know such wonders await us.


Blame Republicans.

A Storm on Saturn

In Saturn's North Pole sits a spinning red storm, whose outer edges form an octagon. As seen here by our friend, Cassini. A close up:

It looks like fire but it's not fire, because there's nothing to burn. Some combination of water and ammonia and other gases, each reflecting light differently, giving us color:

Amazing color. Cassini took this photo while stoned, for the record.

Cassini

That "star" you see in the middle right is actually Earth. Our world, from Cassini.

Cassini is currently cruising around Saturn, taking it all in.

Cassini is one of mankind's greatest achievements, on par with the pyramids etc. And I mean that both ironically and unironically.

In search of color in space

Not my shot - I wish. I've been looking for the Northern Lights for years, but never caught a glimpse. I'm pretty far North, but not far enough. I might have to travel to Iceland one day to remedy this - seeing colors dance across the sky is the kind of religious experience I want to try.


That's the ISS streaking overhead, with 6 people on board living and working in space. And here's what the Northern Lights look like from the ISS:

As you can see, the Northern Lights are a thin band of radiation at the edge of space. This is actual solar matter that has slammed into Earth's magnetosphere and spiraled down towards the Poles, producing the lights as the solar matter strikes the highest portions of the atmosphere.

Magic!

Just another Burj

You're yesterday's news, Burj al Arab.

Such is the fate of most Gulf buildings within a few short years. Spectacular has beens.

Now we're even

You might be surprised how common this attitude is among a certain percentage of Americans.

Or, you might not.

Mecca Vegas

Mecca in 1917. A world ago, as that world was directly connected to 2000 years and more of history. Whereas what's happened since is brand new.

Decadence. Luxurious wealth. Super technology. Welcome to Mecca 2013.

I'm sure the construction you see on the right has come far closer to completion since this picture was taken, if you can imagine it - another gaudy tower rising high in the sky.

There's malls in that big building, by the way. Shopping, at Mecca.

Tower Truths

I owe much to this tower, this Empire State Building. If not for it, I would not be in New Gondolin. So here's to you, the Original Tower (OT):

LADEE to space. To the moon, in fact.

Flying on Sunshine

A real pic, of a plane flying in front of a solar observation.

Behold the sun.

It's like Van Gogh made the basic unit of our existence - stars.

Solar fares

A real picture, of the transit of Venus across the sun, and a plane that got caught between the Moon and New York City.

Eyes everywhere

Soon enough every where will be under the all seeing eye and what happens then? When men in suits have video of everyone at all times?


We enter the new age soon enough, fellow humans.

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?

Blue Screens

Even the Enterprise had a memory dump now and then. Speaking of, RIP, Tasha Yar.

You left the cast too soon.

Shields at 33%

There's also small boulders in the exploding consoles.

Dance now, for tomorrow you die

Neelix knew what was what. You could shake off this mortal coil in just a few moments, so dance while you can. Laugh while you can. Appreciate classic 90's sci-fi, if you can.

In the event of brain worms

Phase yourself, bro. Better this death than becoming a mindless zombie at the mercy of malicious brain worms.

The Most Dangerous Animal

Super fat gun owning Americans are pretty dangerous - watch out, world!

Would you like to play a game?

Resistance is

Sexy! Like sexbots aren't inevitable. And so ethically gray!

Not logical

As Data's emotion chip continued to degrade, he took up risky behaviors in the desperate search for more intense emotions.

What is "real"?

Who's to say my love for this RealDoll is not equal to your love for another person? Hmm?

New Years Resolutions

2014 is the year I get a prostate exam!

You should get one too, if you have a prostate.

State of the Internet 2014

Merry New Year 2014!

Rule 34 2013

Hello, Internet. I am one of your many Kings, and I greet you both as Ruler and Servant. For today's lesson, let's consider Rule 34, which states: If it exists, there is porn of it.

Above is Admiral Janeway from Star Trek: Voyager. A Simpson's joke, but it's no joke. Of course there is Janeway porn.

Click below for a wicked tease of Rule 34!

Nice night for a walk

The Terminator, I'd argue, is an enormously important film not only because it's awesome, but because it launched the idea of the ROBOT APOCALYPSE into popular consciousness. And since it came out in 1984, that idea has spread and taken root - we all know of it. Many joke about it. Some work to bring it about.

I say to you, fellow meatbags! The future is

Terminator in the Woods

Trophies of his victims. Sick stuff man.

White Forest

I worry about the birds out in the forest. What do they do? How do they stay warm? Poor little birds.

All the poor little creatures out in the snow.

Obligatory Xmas Post

May your Christmas tree not catch on fire. Seriously, Christmas trees are extremely flammable so use caution all through the holiday season.

I think most people dislike Christmas, but don't want to say it. A silent majority, if you will. But the kids love it, so we all oblige.

Born Again

The longest night has passed, and our days grow longer. Slowly, to be sure, and months more of crushing Winter just now officially begins. But be of good cheer, we are reborn! And this is the true reason for the season.

Protip: The BNP is racist as hell.

Merry X-Mas!

Letting Go

I'm not sure if this is a Buddhist tradition, or an Indian tradition, but regardless, it's beautiful. Little candles that create fragile balloons which float off into the sky (probably landing and starting brush fires).

We are little candles that float in this world, for a time. This world is a little candle that floats in space, for a time. We're all just points of light, floating.

Illusion is Reality

His meritorious achievements are vast;
His wisdom is deep and sublime.
His light, with awe-inspiring glory,
Shakes the universe of a thousand million worlds.
I resolve to become a Buddha,
Equal in attainment to you, O holy king of the Dharma,
To save living beings from birth-and-death,
And to lead them all to emancipation.

Reality is an Illusion

It appears the stars are spinning through the night. There's nothing your senses can detect that says otherwise. You also know the sun moves, and have built a monument to showcase this movement - every Winter and Summer the sun will shine precisely so.

But this is all illusion.

It is we who are spinning, though you could never tell - do you feel like you're spinning at a thousand miles an hour?

So here's the amusing truth of it: You must have faith that science is true, or at least is the path of truth. That it is not the stars or sun spinning, but us, goes against your common sense. It goes against all intuition. It goes against our language - we say the sun rises and sets, when in truth it does no such thing. But you can't tell, you can't feel or see or hear the Earth whirling around in space.

And so you must have faith. In Science. Amen.

Orbital

It's an orbit joke - right? Say hey have you heard of the rogue captured? Jah, it's a shame.