digital art: Robots No. 7

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digital art: Santa Claus

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Poem: Mathematics

1
I can convince myself
Of the veracity

Of almost anything
I want to believe

2
My family, friends,
And co-workers

Will tell you
That anything I say

Must either be divided
Or multiplied by three

The trick is knowing
Which one to do.
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Dr. Juma can fix anything!

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This photo is a sign from a "clinic" in Bucerias, Nayarit, a Mexican town I have stayed in many times. I haven't been to see the Doctor, yet, but it is very tempting. The Doctor can pretty much tune-up everything in your life, without the need for specialists.
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Snubbing Dr. Dean--one more bone-headed mistake by BHO

By Pablo Fanque
All This Is That National Affairs Editor

Howard, Howard, Howard. You're doing the wrong thing for the right reason. Don't go over to the dark side with Arlen Specter and Crazy Joe Lieberman.

Undoubtedly, Dean coming out against the health care plan, while intellectually and politically grounded, had something to do with his cavalier treatment at the hand of Obama and his henchmen. My biggest question for President Obama is: why did you give Joe Lieberman the red carpet treatment, and ignore a Yellow Dog loyalist like Dr. Dean? What were you thinking?

NBC's Mark Murray thinks it does, too:

"Here's something else to think about: In retrospect, was Barack Obama's conspicuous snub of Howard Dean a big mistake, given the former DNC chairman's opposition to the Senate health-care bill moving through Congress?

"Remember that when Tim Kaine was tapped to be the new DNC chairman, Dean wasn't at the Obama-Kaine press conference announcing the move. Instead, he was in American Samoa, but his allies maintained he would have canceled that trip had he been given a heads up about the press conference.

"What's more, Dean never got a plum position in the Obama administration. Possibly adding insult to injury, few DNC aides who worked for Dean initially got top jobs in the Obama administration."

Whatever the case, Howard Dean still has a lot of pull in the party ('though some think this is debatable), and this was a boneheaded mistake by an administration scrambling for every single vote it can find. To alienate one of the most passionate national advocates for health care reform? Not so smart.
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self portrait: The Great Escape

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Creepy Santa photo roundup

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Some pretty spooky pictures of Santa Claus. Try these:

on Mental Floss,

or on Quumf ,

or check out Sketchy Santas.

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I guess David Beckham is an All This Is That reader?

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Our thoughts go out to Anthony Vietti and Katie Nolan, somewhere on Mount Hood

Mount Hood photographed from Mount Saint Helens
Photo courtesy of the United States Geodetic Survey
November 23, 2005, by John Pallister - click to enlarge

We are hoping for the best for the missing climbers on Mount Hood. One of the climbers, Luke Gullberg, was found dead at around 9,000 feet last weekend.

24-year-old Anthony Vietti and 29-year-old Katie Nolan are missing, and we hope, are holed up in a snow cave somewhere high on the mountain. The climbers left at 1 AM Friday, and hoped to summit and return before nightfall. The weather has been so abysmal, and the avalanche danger so high, that no one can go up on foot. Black Hawk helicopters have been circling the mountain, but have so far seen no signs on the missing climbers. The Associated Press reported there would likely be no further flights over the mountain, but the Black Hawk was back Monday. They saw no sign of the climbers.

Photographs found in Luke Gullberg's camera showed the climbers were roped up at some points during their climb. Gullberg's body, however, was not roped.

As it happens, I am reading Jim Curran's K2 Triumph and Tragedy now (you probably don't know this, but I am an armchair mountaineer, and have probably read around 50 expedition books over the last ten years). Despite the 13 climbers who died on K2 (out of 27 who reached the top in 1986), the survivors withstood incredible epics and nightmare bivouacs. It no longer seems likely that Vietti and Nolan have survived, but it is not at all impossible. One thing reading those fifty mountain books taught me is that fit, experienced and resourceful climbers CAN survive against incredible odds.
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Alien Lore No. 164 - An interstellar portal opens up over Norway: The Greys crave Lutefisk

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Thanks to Jeff Clinton for pointing out this story on altaposten.no. The quotes are [shaky] Google translations of the Norwegian web pages.

Spectacular phenomenon in
the skies over northern Norway



"In the morning rush hour, at 07.47, showed the special phenomenon in the sky. Thousands of people across northern Norway has been joined by the phenomenon, and the phone lines to both Altaposten, most other northern Norwegian media, and also the capital of the newspapers have glowed."

"The phenomenon described as a glowing ball in the sky, which rotated and "thrown out" luminous rings. The phenomenon grew rapidly in a spiral, with bright white rings towards the edges and blue, bright rings in the center. Helio was growing, until it eventually was significantly greater than both the moon and other things it will be normal to find in the sky. "Spiral" also walked across the sky, leaving a bright blue track."


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The whole thing lasted just under one minute and then the spiral in the sky appeared to collapse, leaving a dark, circular "hole" in the night sky.

"It was a very special sight, a kind of white spiral, giant, who lit up the sky. Eventually, it was a big, black ring with a bright green (aurora colored) tail behind him. In the end, only the tail again, and it could be seen in the sky about 10 minutes afterwards as well, writes Liv Reidun Tverelv in an e-mail to Altaposten. "


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Of course, as happens with every paranormal story, there are debunkers and "rational" explanations, e.g., spoilsports. One came from CBS news, claiming the portal was merely a missile gone awry:

"According to CBS News and other media, the Russian authorities confirmed on Thursday that it was a Bulava missile, which failed and ended his days in the spin far up the atmosphere Wednesday morning. Seven of the 12 test launches of the "Bulava" missile has been unsuccessful, according to the Russian Defense Ministry."

A reader, Anders, offered up a more scientific explanation:

"Posted by Anders Olav Bjørkavåg 09/12/2009 18:54:13

"This fun lysfenomenet NOK has an electrical origin. Discharges in plasma organizes itself as "Birkeland Cables" and can therefore lead the electric charge over large distances. These are configured as coils of cables - "tornado shape" if you will. At low power, these are invisible. Increases energy intensity, it begins to glow as the fluorescent and the Northern Lights. With increasing intensity, these self-organized wires push themselves further along in what is called z-pinch effect. This causes a further konsentrereing of electrical energy and a get-glowing plasma arc (as in lightning and sparks). They organize themselves again often in special formations where some typeiske varieties are precisely the spiral shape (Galaxy Form) and ring structure (such as some planetary nebula).

"The reason that meterologer and astronomers do not recognize this right away is that they are not trained in plasma physics. Plasma Physicists will recognize phenomena from plasma (electricity) experiments in the labs and in the simulations."
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Maybe the best physical comedy scene ever in a movie - Harpo and Grouch in the Duck Soup mirror scene

One of the very best pieces of physical comedy in a movie...ever. Grouch and Harpo Marx in "the mirror scene" in Duck Soup. . .

Drawing: test subjects

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