Thursday, April 30, 2020

Spino ... swam :)


Intensity plus, Spinosaurus was the largest semi-aquatic predator in history, feasting on fish and other such fauna residing in huge lakes in Northern Africa around 95 million years ago. Seems Spino had a tail, a big one, meaning this bad boy probably swam after prey as per the modern crocs of today.





And this.



Intensity + indeed.

Addendum: Check here to see how Spino actually moved in the water. Croclike without question. :)

3 Coronavirus Facts ...


Forbes's piece titled 3 Coronavirus Facts Americans Must Know Before Returning To Work, School is a gem. Nontechnical, accurate and no BS, this is what the government should be promoting regarding the real deal about COVID-19. 










Read the entire piece, it's the smart thing to do.

Tuesday, April 28, 2020

Dunning–Kruger effect ...



We all know about the verbal expertise of The Donald and the competency he has shown regarding COVID-19 but to read the psychological definition of what makes this guy tick is fascinating to the max.





Any questions?

Sunday, April 26, 2020

Rapid sea rise - 14,650 years ago


Global warming is driving the rising of the seas at rates thought impossible until now.

The rapid rise of global temperature over the last century is almost certainly unprecedented in recent Earth history, but our current rate of sea level rise has stiffer competition. About 14,650 years ago, as the thawing of the last ice began to hit its stride, sea level made a remarkable jump of 12 meters or more—and did so in less than 400 years. It's an event known to scientists as Meltwater Pulse 1A.

Said event happened here.



Fast forward to 14, 650 years ago and one sees this.





Endgame.


Rapid sea rise indeed.

Scary Shit ...


Thomas Oxley wasn’t even on call the day he received the page to come into Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital in Manhattan. There weren’t enough doctors to treat all the emergency stroke patients, and he was needed in the operating room.

The patient’s chart appeared unremarkable at first glance. He was male, no medications, no history of chronic conditions. He had been feeling fine, hanging out at home during the lockdown like the rest of America, when suddenly, he had trouble talking and moving the right side of his body. Imaging showed a large blockage on the left side of his head.

Oxley gasped when he got to the patient’s age and COVID-19 status: 44, positive.

The man was among several recent stroke patients in their 30s to 40s who were all infected with the virus. The median age for that type of severe stroke is 74.

As Oxley, an interventional neurologist, began the procedure to remove the clot, he observed something he had never seen before. On the monitors, the brain typically shows up as a tangle of black squiggles — “like a can of spaghetti,” he said — that provide a map of blood vessels. A clot shows up as a blank spot. As he used a needlelike device to pull out the clot, he saw new clots forming in real time around it.

Scary Shit indeed.

Physics/Woodworking 101 :)

Wednesday, April 22, 2020

John Conway


John Conway

A math giant passed away, John Conway, a guy who was a natural in his craft like the Babe was in baseball. He just had the chops to make things happen in ways that astounded his peers to no end.




It gets better ...




In his spare time, he created the Game of Life ...



The Game  :)

Why GOL is REALLY SIGNIFICANT.



RIP

Ritual 101 :)

Betting pool, it's the left foot prior to entering the bathroom. :)


Tuesday, April 21, 2020

Musica universalis


The ancient Greeks would relate to this newly discovered six planet system bigtime regarding how the planets orbit their sun is in almost perfect "harmony" as said planets exhibit an elegant orbital resonance that's rare to the nth degree.




It gets better.





When one reads this, the notion of Music of the Spheres/musica Universalist and the Greek Modes come to mind as the ancient Greeks were into both concepts in their endless pursuit of trying to understand how reality works at deep level.






Think Miles Davis and the modes as Kind of Blue, the greatest jazz album of all time,
is based on musical concepts nearly 3000 years old.


The greatest jazz tune ever written.




Read the liner notes on the album penned by Bill Evans, 
which, to me, is the best explanation of what jazz truly is.

Sunday, April 19, 2020

What it means to be human ...



Blade Runner, a commercial flop in theaters but a masterpiece in reality. delves into the existential question of what it means to be human, a question asked by so many starting with Homer and the Greek Myths to Shakespeare, Faulkner and Camus. My dear friend D, a film savant and superb documentarian turned me onto this clip as it does answer the "existential" question of whether Deckard was a replicant of a different kind, along the lines of his lover Rachael.



Camus would relate to Roy Batty's Tears in Rain monologue without question.

Saturday, April 18, 2020

A rosette for the ages


Einstein stated this was, and is, the kind of orbital path Mercury makes when orbiting the sun. Seems a star orbiting  Sagittarius A* the supermassive black hole located at the center of the Milky Way does the exact same thing, thus confirming yet again, Einstein was something else altogether. :)







How cool is that? :)

Lest we forget ...



April 22, 1970/50 years ago, Earth Day, a day the US supported in ways beyond comprehension doesn't change the fact we have screwed the pooch on how we treat our home.



How times have changed ... for the worst.



One result of this inaction of cleaning up our act is the rise of COVID-19


Any questions?

We have met the enemy ...



Pogo, the brilliant creation by Walt Kelly, rings true, not only in terms of how man soils his nest in so many ways but also in terms of what is happening in the year of our lord 2020 under the auspices of a deranged president inciting violence against the COVID-19 shutdown of three states run by, you guessed it, Democratic governors. 


As followup to BRT's Harbinger of things to come is this ...



The Darwin Awards awaits a new batch of people needing to be culled from the gene pool.


We live in dangerous time without question.

Friday, April 17, 2020

Harbinger of things to come ...


The crazies, the stupid and the uneducated, spurred on by Agent Orange, promises the possibility of violence as COVID-19 continues to ravage the country in ways beyond the realm of comprehension. A depression of biblical proportions looms and our woefully inadequate president seems not to care or understand how dangerous this situation truly is. He needs to be removed from office now ...

In a series of all-caps tweets, Mr. Trump declared “LIBERATE MICHIGAN!” and “LIBERATE MINNESOTA!” — two states whose Democratic governors have imposed social distancing restrictions that have shut down businesses and schools and forced people to remain at home. He also tweeted “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!

Any questions?

@ 5PM ...


It's the Daily Show @ 5 PM, you know, the one that seamlessly mixes COVID-19 updates from people who actually know a little bit about pandemics plus rants on god knows what from, you guessed it, Agent Orange, AKA The Donald, AKA the POTUS.



Read the rest of Politico's long and detailed piece. It will warm the cockles of your heart without question.

Thursday, April 16, 2020

The real pandemic


This picture of a little sea turtle hatchling racing toward the water before being eaten evokes the now terrifying possibility of wildlife collapse happening in a time frame not considered possible until now.




Phase transitions are never linear, think the onset of ice on a pond, a day before the surface is fully covered, the surface of said pond is 50% ice-free. This, in effect, is what's happening with the rapid collapse of wildlife as global warming is accelerating at such a pace, animal populations can no longer adapt. Because of this, COVID-19 is not the real pandemic mankind is facing, climate change is.



Wednesday, April 15, 2020

1781


1781, the notion of Federalism is nigh thanks to COVID-19 and the irresponsible and inept actions of The Donald raises the possibility of splintering the country whereby the notion of The United States of America becomes but a mirage of the first order.




Example 1


Bringing the concept of splintering to the nth degree is John Feffer's powerful novella Splinterlands where climate change, combined with resource depletion and environmental degradation, becomes an all too real dystopian nightmare of the first order.


1781 indeed.