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

"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...

Something To Ponder On A Holiday Afternoon

Think ya know shit; think scientists do? What if the plumber you hire shows up and tells ya- I know 5 per cent of everything there is to know about plumbing... Feeling confident about him are ya?

Astrophysicists know... 5% of everything they should know, 5 freaking percent of everything that's out there in the bloody unknown universe (let alone the multiverse), and they'll flat out laugh in your face if you so much as suggest that there's life out there (or closer, as the case may be) smarter than our own little monkey brained selves!

Granted that's five percent more than some goddamn Creationist knows, but that sure as shit aint gonna convince me they got a handle on things, particularly their own hubris.  (via boingboing)

Update: Amazing! You can now add a couple more percentage points-- thanks to a 22 yr old!!!

Dark Matters from PHD Comics on Vimeo.

Proof Of Extraterrestrial Life!?!

The scientist who discovered it definitely seems to have his head screwed on right- a lot more than can be said for the certain news media reporting it... And if after all the controversy, if this is, in fact, proven to everyone's satisfaction, a good majority will still insist- oh, sure microbial life maybe, but not anything, you know, like... intelligent. That's Impossible!

Yeah, and your girlfriend's just a little bit bit pregnant.

Necessity Will Have Changed Us...

Right now we are merely a semi intelligent virus- contaminating and violating everything we come into contact with. There is no guarantee that we will ever make it off this planet before we pollute, overpopulate and inevitably destroy ourselves or our planet's very life force. Sometimes it seems only a question of which will happen first. Our own history emphatically reveals that we do not learn from our mistakes, in fact, we usually magnify them.

In the meantime, let Carl Sagan's soothing, mellifluous voice calmly guide us from our very worst fears to our very finest hopes...

Levity

(via Boingboing)

Spectacular?

Gotta admit I was completely underwhelmed by the egg sized jpeg I kept seeing of this supposedly "stunningly spectacular" 3,000 photo composite of our own Milky Way Galaxy- till I finally caught up with the high res image...

The Crab Nebula- W0W!!!

Pretty Amazing...

One more reason man should not be allowed off this planet! And one of them dots a very expensive camera...