That time is nearly now...

Well, it looks like we're getting closer and closer to the inevitable, doesn't it? 

Am I getting the world of tomorrow I've always dreamed of?

If so, then where the heck is my flying car?!

To the Sky...

From the great minds of the past to the coming genius of the future; the owrds of Carl Sagan still are as inspiring, and as important, today, as they were in his time...



Getting into the world's Super Position...

Inspired by the reception of last week's Stuff over at Neverland Transit Authority, I whipped up this expanded diagram of Grant's concept of a reverse Schrodinger's Cat thought experiment...

Who says science is boring?

(PS: "Super Position" would be an awesome name for a nerdore band.)

Argumentative...

Sam Harris on discussion and debate...

Spare change for a dream...?

A fact, a thought, a reality...

Something to consider, in the grand scheme of things.

I know it's been quite here, at my office. Neverland Transit Authority
recently relocated, and things should be back to business as usual, this week.

Happy cosmic New Year...

Just a little something to get us into the right mind set for the new year.
As always, a huge thanks to Callum for his sensational
Carl Sagan tributes.

Intergalactic Planetary!

Visit the solar system and see the planets at any given time from yester-year until the day after tomorrow! Learn fantastic and fun facts about the universe! All from the comfort of your own desk!

Blast off with The Solar System Scope! 

Something to think about...

Neil Degrasse Tyson on Real Time with Bill Maher summing up one of the real "problems" with America, today; perhaps the world...

Meanwhile, Oren Lyons discusses an exchange between himself and a group of CEO's about the questions of tomorrow, and what will be left for anyone...

"It's like something out of, I don't know; Science Fiction."

When I was a kid, I wanted to drive around in a small van across America; where I would live, work on comics, and just drive around all the time. I never really considered how I'd get my mail, bills, and send off my work back then - remember this was the pre Internet age, just that some day I could do it. And it would be perfect...


What the...?! Four Square not available in the Himalayas?
Wait till I Facebook this!

It's now 2011, thirty years later, as I write this entry. I have a computer in my pocket that takes pictures, can send them in an instant anywhere, access my bank accounts, pays my bills, plays... Well, you get the idea.

Leaps and bounds in the field of data storage and computational speed have perched us on the edge of true mobility. Volumes of books can be contained on a single "reader", now. Hours... no, DAYS of music can be contained in a match box sized device. We can access libraries worth of information in seconds. And we can communicate across the globe, in real time, almost instantly. And though my car still can't fly... yet... we have on board navigational systems that can steer you to damn near any place on Earth.

This keeps up, I won't have much Scifi left to write about...

Down a Dark Path?

For the past few days, I've been vexed...

I know, I know; who really uses that word, anymore? But, still it seems the most appropriate word. Because, in fact, I have been horribly vexed by an argument that I allowed myself to be goaded into by my one off fundamentalist supervisor at work; in which, we spent four hours, while I was stuck at the front desk covering for our admin, going round in circles arguing the point of his belief, and how it was true... and that was that.

How, you might ask, did I manage to let myself get duped into such a folly? By, what seemed like such an innocent question, I suppose. He was curious how I could respect my grandfather, yet so completely disagree with his choice to leave science for the family business of faith.

From there it was easy for him to expose my personal assumptions and go after them. And, as typical for the religiously devout, he did so with the typical miss informed, under educated, half baked talking points that get regurgitated by all like him. My attempting to fill in the gaps of his arguments only made him cling harder to his flawed points; which ultimately did lead to the break down of his position; not only including his flip flopping on definitions and levels of veracity of his beloved scriptures, but to also reinforce the weakness of his personal character – for which I had, just recently, tried to protect him against when management approached me with the intent to possibly terminate him.

But all of that is pretty much water under the bridge. I stood my own ,and, I feel, came out on top, in that one. No, what has been really vexing me these past couple of days has been, truly, for the first time, coming face to face with the kind of creationist half assed back talk that, until recently, I've only seen second hand via sites like Youtube. Last Friday I actually met one of the biggest plagues on, not only America, but on mankind itself.

Keep looking,
you'll find bliss in there, somewhere.

Ignorance.

Or, more to the point, the celebration of, and willful participation in, ignorance. At the heart of much of the impasse in our culture today is the total lack of understanding of facts, language, and spheres of existence outside our own comfortable settings. In America, my home country, this is practically a way of life. After all, this is the country that challenged an empire, built a new form of government, and then poured out, onto the world, it's own brand of innovation and prosperity. It's only natural, I suppose, that we've developed an arrogant attitude of superiority; as if our way is the best, and only, way to get things done.

This is playing itself out horribly on the world stage, as it's finally catching up to the United States. And, as we are ignorant of the impact of our own actions, continue down a dark path; unable, or refusing, to see that we are, in fact, fulfilling the tactics of our “enemy” - to be spread thin through multiple engagements as we spend our country to the ground. (If you think that's bad, Osama bin Laden even announced his strategy to the world, early on in our “war on terror”. And yet, ere we still are...)

At home, the practice of ignorance has led us, as a nation, to turn on each other, as conservative forces work to erode the more progressive direction our country began to take, on its own, at the closing of the last decade, and whittle away our rights, turning thr clock back on America some nearly 75 years. Fostering an atmosphere of ignorance, they have changed public opinion in frightening ways; rewriting history to demonize once valued heroes, as well as undermine the very safe guards and protections afforded us by The Constitution of the United States. In many cases, trying very hard to establish a theocracy where none was ever intended.

From sky rocketing child pregnancy in states like Texas – who implemented a religiously founded sex ed class based off of falsehoods and fear, to Utah – whose Mormon political powerhouse spent $25 million to insure California would legalize discrimination with Prop 8, to the over all declining test score of our youth – ranking us closer and closer to the bottom of the first world list each year, the Era of Ignorance is taking its toll on us all. And worse, it's spreading.

The new political tendency of the far right, in America – ignorant of various facts and education (To which I will make no claim of personal intent.), to rise up in arms and violent aggression against open discord has spread to other dangerous factions, groups, and individuals who so feel empowered to take matters into their own, under informed hands. While here in The States, kids bully and assault, and political action groups post hateful messages on websites, insighting others to violent actions, we witness despicable acts like those over the weekend in Norway; where one gunman opened fire on innocent children and a youth summer camp as a way to cut down “Fascist Jihadist”, “Marxist Liberals”, and “Muslim sympathizers” he found to be ruining his country.

It's easy to point fingers and lay blame to the left, or right. And, in fact, many have already fallen into this trap. But, for me, the real villains are pretty clear; those who would foster ignorance,and it's resulting hate, fear, and violence, as a means to any end. The end result of such an air of idiocy is harmful, if not fatal, to the progress of the nation, as well as the world.

Last week I was entrapped by, and came face to face with, the very tool – as much as he is a victim – of the new Age of Ignorance. Through him, and his like, the spirit of a nation, a people, and a species will be brought to a halt; its course ultimately reversed.

And it vexes me. How can I, as one soul, combat this, share knowledge, and end the tyranny of those so intent to undo all that we have worked so hard to achieve?

For a period of a little more than three hundred years – roughly from 700 CE to, about, 1100 CE - Baghdad, Iraq was the center of all learning in the known world. And they were on their way to unlocking all the great mysteries of the Cosmos, until on fundamentalist imam swept in with his orders of reformation. Looking to retake his country from, what he saw, were great evils (“Math is the language of Satin”, the battle cry.) Imam Hamid al-Ghazali led a violent fundimentalist take over and managed to plunge the Middle East into a Dark Age it still has yet to recover from.



Sadly, he does.



Today, despite all we've accomplished, we, too, are now standing at the edge of the precipice; our toes dangling over the edge of an abyss. Only with education and understanding can we find the path to a future for all mankind that will be to his potential, his own promise. But, as like my supervisor, we blunder along in ignorance, then that edge truly leads to the Hell he so fears; the bumbling meanderings of the ill informed and under educated making it a self fulfilling prophecy.

Deep in the heart...

I think it's been noted that the office has been... less than active, as of late. Why? It's a long story. But, in a week where I've nearly given up hope for the human race, Texas, of all places, has restored a little of my faith.

Thanks, y'all. I take back some of thr things I've said about you...

Half a Penny...

What cost the universe?

Fly Me to the Moon...

In contemplation of the moon landing, on this date in 1969...

The leap from a pair of haphazard brothers in a field to the moon was as if nothing, when standing next to the span of man's dawn until his first strides into the 20th century. And yet, in that one small step for man, more was covered in the age of his knowing than all of his days before. And before him the horizon of his potential; a future that, at once, would be so beautiful, and yet so terrifying.

To those who came before, and those still to follow; "thank you"!

The Great Demotions

Carl Sagan gives pause to consider man and his much needed humility...

Scaling Heaven

Wait! I can Spleen!

There's nothing the IronChuck doesn't enjoy more

on a sick day than busting out his back up spleen

and settling on the couch for a nice nap...

Thank you, I*heart*guts!

Okay, okay, for those of you not in on the little cancer joke, let me... e'spleen. As a teenager, I contracted a lymphoma  knows as Hodgkin's lymphoma, a rare complication that can occur with mononucleosis. At that time, one of the parts of the treatment was exploratory surgery that involved removing the spleen.

Yes, you can follow those links to learn more. I encourage you to do so. And, if you can, please visit the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society to learn how you can help create more birthdays.

So now, whenever I'm ill, I bust out my trusty back up spleen and settle in for a quick bout of recovery time.

He's in a tux; he knows what he's talking about...

Sadly, though I am not a penguin, I have had this conversation, myself.

Like angels on the head of a pin...

"I look across the vastness of space and the countless stars contained inside endless galaxies, and I have to stop and wonder if, maybe, the molecules in my body believe themselves to be universes, too."

Probably not one of my most Earth shattering, revelations, but note worthy, none the less, in consideration of time, space, and the vastness of existence yet delved by human endeavour.

In the grand scheme of things, we, as humans - presumably the greatest species in all existence (A conceit, I know.), tend to look upon the planets, stars, and galaxies and see the top of the scale. Sure, we have no problem mixing our way down through cells, molecules, and into particles, quarks, and such; accepting that we will always find something smaller still. Each new building block of existence is excepted, after a time, quite well. We may not, at the time, understand the play of forces happening at that level, but we continue to dig.

Perhaps that is because looking down, at the smaller, is so much easier than looking up, toward the larger...

I won't be the first, here, to propose the idea of the infinite scale. Nor will I be the last. However, I tend to marvel, a lot, actually, at how our planetary system looks like an atom. In fact, the whole of the Milky Way could be seen to be a cluster of interacting atoms, more commonly referred to as a molecule.

If this were to be true, what ways could this bend our understanding of existence? How would we redefine the forces of nature as we understood them? How would we view and value our own selves? Atom smashing? What scale of genocide would that be? How could we, in turn, reach out toward our host universe as we would, inevitably have to reach into the tiny guest universes harboring within all matter?

Bigger still would come the philosophical musings that could tear at the very fabric of the spiritual...

In The Gunslinger, by Stephen King, Roland is a lone gunman at the end of his world. Toward the conclusion of book one he meets an old sage that takes him on a vision quest. He leaves the vibrational world he exists on and, eventually, moves away from his universe to see its place in the grand scheme; a molecule in a purple blade of grass in a vacant lot that's about to be cleared for a building.

Location, location, location...

When Roland returns to himself the sage then asks him to consider "God". For, if he truly is the maker of all things, is he the maker of all things there, too? And to all the levels below us, as well? He is then left to consider the nature of a creator who creates to an infinite level.

And, in such the same way, I now must ask you to do the same. Perhaps not in as much as the mythical, but, at least, in the terms of the cosmical. After all, what part we, to be trapped in that blade of grass? Or, still, to lord over existences untold as he splice apart matter in a vain search for our own minute understanding of space.



Where are we, now, if the universe is no longer distances to stars, but distances through scale?

I think I have a headache...

Another ditty from Symphony of Science.