I'm Not A Scientist...

So if I had even the slightest sense (of humility), I really would keep my fucking mouth shut (if only to spare myself the embarrassment)- but since so many of my fellow colleagues in Congress are also bought and paid for by oil companies, and our constituents actually believe in talking snakes and FOX News- what's to stop me!?!?

F-I-N-A-L-L-Y!!!

Photo by Jim Norris courtesy of Scripps Oceanography

Year after bloody year I'd yell at someone (anyone)- why the hell hasn't someone bothered filming this; it's not like they have no idea where they are. All that was ever freakin' needed was a coupla cameras with the necessary technology, and a wee bit of patience...

Blinded Them With Science

To say this is so scary on so many levels is, of course, a cliche. And yet scary is exactly what it is- and this I found particularly chilling (and telling)...

And eventually, when I spoke with the lawyer here at the University, I was told that, "Well, I represent the university, and I protect the university from liability. You’re kind of on your own." And I remember I looked at him, and I said, "But the very university, from the Latin universitas, is a collection of scholars, of teachers and students, so who is this entity, the university, that you represent that doesn’t include me?" But clearly there’s some entity that doesn’t really include us, the professors and students, and doesn’t really protect our academic freedom, I think, the way that it should.  (emphasis mine)

Seventeenth Century Photography

Interesting examination of Vermeer, and the technology he employed in the production of his great art. There is little doubt that he did, in fact, use the optical technology of his day to achieve the results in paintings such as The Music Lesson, the object of this particular documentary. One can even see evidence of chromatic aberration in Woman Reading a Letter (check out the back of her blouse).

In Tim's Vermeer, the inventor Tim Jenison goes through the arduous and painstaking task of first figuring out how Vermeer could have done his lifelike paintings with the aid of such technology (basically- a lens and two mirrors) and then sets about to actually paint its second coming (in 130 days) far better than anyone could have possibly imagined for someone who... had never before painted in his life.

Alas, I know nothing of painting, and despite the evidence (inarguable as it is), there is still far more to this artist and his art than mere smoke and mirrors (nor does the movie claim otherwise)...

One In Four!

Dr. Richard Haines- Another UFO 'Whacko'

Who just happens to be a retired NASA research scientist.

"From a science point of view, I just cannot ignore the data."



Speaking of scientists who dare to go where no scientist has gone before... Dr. Rupert Sheldrake.

And last, and certainly not least- one of the most well researched compilations on some of the all time best documented cases.

Gravity

Other than the stunningly realistic special effects, I didn't quite know what to expect from Gravity. And I'm more than happy to say that it delivered. George Clooney starts out as the casual, carefree, cowboy astronaut before quickly transitioning first into Cool, Calm and Collected Mr. Take Charge Guy, only to metamorphose even further into the ever so reassuring voice of mankind itself- warm, transcendent, almost spiritual.* Sandra Bullock perseveres through the ever escalating sequence of chaos via vacuum, stopping only once for a womb like, zen tribute shot to 2001. 

This movie, if anything, succeeds in portraying just how catastrophically dangerous space can be (not exactly a recruitment film), and how hard those space suits must work and train to make it all look so easy...

* Although The Wife said he looks and sounds like Buzz LightYear- also ironically true.

Cool!

Definitely one of the coolest things I've seen in quite sometime! And more than a little ironic in the sense that this was how it was always depicted in the cheapo, Grade B, Sci-fi flicks of yore...
(via Boing Boing)

The Human Arrogance

It goes both ways. There's the arrogance that states that we humans are so unique, the very thought of anything better could only exist in some planetary kingdom so incredibly far away that we will never know of them, or they us- so for all practical purposes, they might as well not exist. That same aura of superiority also extends to our own blue sphere, where only the human species seemingly possesses the intellect for self awareness, emotion and ritual. 

Astronomers and astrophysicists readily admit they cannot account for 90% of the very stuff that constitutes the universe itself, yet still laugh and scoff at the very notion that ancient civilizations with technologies vastly surpassing ours could visit our domain as easily we visit the depths of our ocean floor- or the neighborhood termite mound...

"The missing mass problem is extremely disquieting...We are talking about 90 percent of the mass of the universe, present but not speaking. Can we really claim to know anything about the nature of the universe if we don't know the properties, or even the nature, of 90 percent of its material?"   -Prof. Ivan King

Alien Harvest

This is old news (as far back as the sixties), but it continues to occur to this day. Horses and cows with there anuses, utters, throats and sexual reproductive organs cored out with the utmost surgical precision- and without a drop of blood (or tracks) to be found anywhere in sight! In some, the carcasses have actually made indentations in the ground as if dropped from considerable height. Of course, skeptics will dismiss all the above as the work of predatory animals. Try telling that to experienced ranchers- especially when scavengers will not even go near the remains!

At first many considered it the work of UFOs, since strange lights would be seen in the area(s) around the time of these occurrences. Some thought "cultists," although not one has ever been connected or arrested to any of these instances over the decades. Lately however, more terrestrial causes are being considered and an "experimental sedative" has been found in some of the carcasses. But the question still remains as to exactly who, or what, and even more importantly- why...

So Where's The Video?

For all those who perpetually ask why don't we have an overwhelming plethora of irrefutable photographic evidence documenting UFOs. Shit, show me one (one!) crappy video of these guys moving around- and we've known exactly where they are... for decades!

NASA: We're Assholes

After Curiosity chief scientist ecstatically proclaimed, "This data is gonna be one for the history books!" Never A Straight Answer delivers with a world resounding-----  meh...

"One For The History Books"

Or maybe they will announce the discovery of something else altogether!

Never A Straight Answer NASA already confirmed Mars was at one time loaded with water, and that pockets of it still remain to this day. So... this announcement ("one for the history books") could (should) only mean one thing- they're biding their time, crossing their t's, dotting their i's, to finally announce evidence of... LIFE! Microbial life to be sure, but... l-i-f-e all the same!!!

Of course, the scientist who devised the original Mars Viking biology test for NASA way back in 1976 insisted his experiment proved there was life- and now, many think he was right.

Curiously, NASA purposely chose to send up a microscope for the geologists, but not one for the biologists to see if we could spot their little Martian dance of life in a specially heated, specially treated, microbial stew. This is science that could have been done right now! And yet, NASA purposely chose not to. You have to ask if they first want to accustom the fragile (Christian/American) public to the very idea of "alien" life, before the absolute shock of letting us see the wee little boogers...

A Coupla Thoughts (& 3 Iconic Images)

Right now (actually for the past coupla days during early voting), racist Republican motherfuckers (let's call these shameless lowlife turds what they really are) are trying to suppress voters (and voting) in predominantly African American and minority neighborhoods. From your stereotypical White Trash bullies, all the way to the governor's office, they are trying anything and everything to stop non-Whites from voting. And that includes: curtailing voting hours, giving out false voter information and outright voter intimidation- as they have countless times before in history (from Jim Crow right up until this election). All for a draft dodging, say anything, tax cheat, son a bitch, rich kid (no, not our last Republican President). Is there a pattern here?

For the life of me, why is it, how is it, that a rich brat, a rich spoiled brat that any working class son would happily take a swing at in any grade school playground... that same spoiled shit, somehow grows up to be their redemptive savior- after never earning an honest day's pay in their entire life!

Must be- that ol' Black Magic...

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And now for something completely different...

How it was shot and how you can help...

Best self portrait in the history of mankind.

The Future Present- get used to it.

Yes On #37

GMO's + Roundup = Cancer + Birth Defects

California has a chance to lead the nation this Tuesday- and catch up with the rest of the civilized world...

Science- What An Interesting Concept!

Inspect and study: visual sightings, radar recordings, photographs, videos, ground indentations, trace radiation and military, police, pilot and astronaut reports with... Science! 21st. century science- yuh know, computers and all that. What a novel fucking idea!

Chris Jordan- Showing Us The Signs

 A small and moving clip From Chris Jordan's soon to be be completed and distributed film Midway.

Petrochemical America- Richard Misrach

Petrochemical America: Picturing Cancer Alley is the latest opus from Richard Misrach (in conjunction with Kate Orff) that concentrates on the oil producing area round bayou way. Mr. Misrach does little on a small scale- even his little P&S photos of Katrina were printed extra large in Destroy This Memory. But this current exercise goes well beyond bludgeoning with sheer size- this is his full steam ahead, leave no stone unturned, grand thesis of a visual and informative tour de force. Not only does he seduce us with some of his incredible large format images, but we're also treated to some incredible graphics that break down and portray just about everything concerning petrochemicals and their relationship to: health, environment and economy- and we're talking in depth and detailed! Spectacular color diagrams (near works of art themselves) that demonstrate how those insidious chemicals affect flora and fauna, land and water, air and climate, man... and his future present. 

It ain't cheap, but ya get what ya pay for- a visual feast and a pretty thorough education.

The Swamp Gas Clearing*

Both the former spokesman and the former director of Project Bluebook agree that UFO's exist, are real, and that the government has long recognized and acknowledged their existence.

Again, that's not me talking, that's from two of the leading military officers connected with the former US Air Force investigatory commission into UFOs- of which its lead investigator, Dr. Allen Hynek*, eventually proclaimed it a propaganda tool of the US government explicitly created to debunk the UFO phenomena.

* Dr. Hyneck, much to his regret, was the originator of the term "swamp gas" when he was still in UFO denial mode.

What EVERYONE In The USA Needs To See!

Available for free viewing 9/15-9/22 only.  Must Watch!

And FYI...