Friday, October 30, 2015

Crescent


Looking at this beautiful image of Pluto via New Horizons shows why space exploration is so important, something congress seems not to understand given just how small NASA's budget truly is.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

A Mote in God's Eye


A 14 gigapixel still of Andromeda portrayed in 4k at varying zoom levels never ceases to amaze. BRT showed this clip about a year ago in 2K but wanted to show it again as every dot seen in the pix is a star hiding other stars, a fact that depicts, in small fashion, just how immense Andromeda truly is yet said galaxy is just one of hundreds of billions of galaxies residing in our part of the multiverse. Gives one pause doesn't it.

Addendum: Here is the largest image ever taken of the Milky Way. Staggering says it all.


Retro yet not :)


Steampunk is very cool. Retro yet not, digital yet not, something a bar in Romania has in spades. :)


Charles Babbage would be proud.


The Difference Engine/powered by hand, not steam. :)



Monday, October 26, 2015

Theocracy 101


BRT has mocked the Republican candidates as bloviators lacking in class, knowledge and common sense in all things related to governance but what would happen to the 1st Amendment if any of these clowns actually won?



Bertrand Russell's quote regarding religion is something to think about, don't you think? 


Maybe Bertrand was channeling the famous computer graphic teapot but that can't be the one as that one exists, in the Boston Computer History Museum.:)


Sunday, October 25, 2015

Passing Thru - To 1700


1700 posts is a pretty big deal to yours truly. As often stated, I am amazed and humbled that you, my loyal readers, have continued to read and comment on the "pearls of wisdom" imparted from me to you over the past few years. No time for pontification but rather, please check out this clip done by your videographer showing how creativity comes in all shapes, forms and sizes, beginning with two amazing places everyone should check out if one has the time. Seen below is the blurb describing what this video's all about.

A journey thru MASS Moca & The Clark with emphasis given to the environments housing the art. With Mass MoCA, it's the linking of factory buildings to create spaces perfect for modern art of all types, for The Clark, it's a minimalist addition of elegance and grace.

1701 coming up, to a computer near you. :)

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Dumb & Dumber


Dumb & Dumber, no, not the flick but rather the readability level of the bloviating by the presential candidates, with THE DONALD @ number 1 with a 4th grade Readability Score. In comparison, Washington's  "Farewell Address" was 17.9 and Kennedy's  inaugural 13.9. Since then, the downward spiral's been remarkable. Maybe it's the fast food we eat or the entertainment we watch. In any case, Dumb & Dumber rules. :)






Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Saturday, October 17, 2015

More eye candy, Jovian style :)


Jove in action.


KIC 8462852


Something mysterious this way comes, in this instance, a star residing 1500 light years from earth, invisible to the naked eye but not to Kepler, the exoplanet explorer extraordinaire.





It gets better.






Obviously far more research needs to be done to determine if this finding turns out to be actually true but in one sense, it reminds one of Larry Niven's SF classic Ringworld, a tale about how an advanced civilization could build tech able to harvest energy from a star at truly grand scale, something along the lines of what Kepler may have discovered.



Another possibility could be the construction of a Dyson Sphere, a concept first articulated by famed SF writer Olaf Stapleton  in Star Maker and popularized by Freeman Dyson.



Friday, October 16, 2015

Remote Control


Edwin Snowden did the country and the world a service by blowing the whistle on the 24/7 surveillance being conducted against us by the NSA and significant others. Now comes an anonymous WB doing the deed on the heretofore secret policy of using drones to "off" people considered enemies of the US. In depth and explosive, The Intercept, in The Drone Papers, takes the lid off of something that needs to be seen, just as the NSA's activities have been thanks to Edwin Snowden.


Thursday, October 15, 2015

The Getaway :)


A very good friend of mine turned me onto this awesome mashup where Stanley Kubrick is the villain. See if you recognize all the asides to the grand master while Jimmy Stewart Does the Deed as hero as per Hitchcock's  Rear Window. :)

Thanks DD, I needed that. :)

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

The vastness of reality


Cassini's portrait of Mimas and Pandora, two moons of Saturn, shows how vast, beautiful and mysterious reality truly is. Click the pix to see other images just as astounding as this gem. :)

Have to post another. 


Intellectual Property Rights


BRT has talked often about the TPP with emphasis on intellectual property rights vis a vis copyright, the disaster first perpetrated on the US thanks to the late Sonny Bono (The Mickey Mouse Act) who extended the length of copyright from the Founders 14 years plus one allowed extension of 14 years (if the cr holder was still alive) to life plus 70, which means Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, written in 1905, could theoretically remain outside of public domain until 2025 as Einstein died in 1955. Steamboat Willie, the first Mickey Mouse cartoon, debuted in 1928. Disney died in 1966, ergo, Steamboat would not enter the PD until 2036. Now, with the TPP, this intellectual rights nonsense goes worldwide, along with extensive expanded CR rights to hollywood and big pharma with us paroles and political representatives not having any say as to why the TPP is a fubar of the most onerous kind.



It gets better.



& better still.





Click here to get the complete Wikileaks TPP Intellectual Property Rights document while you still can. The TPP still has to be ratified, the question to ask is, can we stop it before it's too late.




Friday, October 09, 2015

Humvees "r" us


BRT has stated in the past that the US created ISIS because of an inept neocon foreign policy that started when "W" decided to invade Iraq back in 2003 even though several senior military commanders warned against this action in the strongest of terms. As proof of America's stupidity regarding why this fact is true, check out this video of the hardware ISIS uses, in part, to commit atrocities throughout the middle east as a direct result of destroying a nation without a viable fallback position, something the Brits instituted without question when they had an empire back in the day. (Hire the people you conquer).

For more info, click here for a rundown of just how incredibly able the US is in screwing the pooch in the most violent region on planet earth.

Thursday, October 08, 2015

Monday, October 05, 2015

The Secret :)


Honoré Daumier's piece titled “Meeting of thirty-five heads of expression" sums up the gossip mongering quality of man to a "T". From feigned disgust to salacious laughter, the never ending symphony of gossip or the keeping of secrets never ceases to amaze anyone who is part of the human race, particularly when seen through the eyes of an artist as skilled as Daumier.










Delicious, is it not?


Honoré Daumier - The painter writ large. :)


Betting on Mammon


BRT has talked about the REAL REASON why we remain in Afghanistan on several occasions, courtesy the excellent in-depth research the Russians did in the 1980s regarding the mineral wealth of this war ravaged country, something writ large in this map showing the end results of said research along with recent studies done by the US. Interesting to say the least.




It's all about the resources, right? At least it's not for naught as seen by examples of truly stupid reasons for war as seen by this History Channel post of  six of the finest conducted by us rubes on planet earth.