Cancer cured. Again.

 awesomeness, blather, news, science  No Responses »
Apr 082012
 

‘Universal’ cancer vaccine developed

I fully expect that  most cancers will be a thing of the past in the not too distant future. People alive today might come to live in a society that looks upon cancer much as we look upon syphilis… sure, it exists, but you get a shot and it’s over.

I also fully expect that before too long, bacterial diseases that we’ve come to regard as minor irritants easily cleared up with a shot will come back with a  vengeance. So, we’ll trade people dying from cancer for people dying from a paper cut.

 Posted by at 3:17 pm

That Old Time Religion

 awesomeness, blather, history, humor, religion, youtube  4 Responses »
Apr 082012
 

One way to get people fighting is to discuss the origins of Easter. Most of the Christian world calls it not “Easter,” but something like “Pascha,” derived from “Passover.” The name “Easter,” on the other hand, derives ultimately from a pre-Christian Germanic goddess known as Ēostre or Ostara. It seems that the Anglosphere and the Germans are pretty much the only ones who call it something like “Easter,” everyone else calls it something derived from “Passover.”

As with Christmas, the German pagans contributed notable aspect to the holiday… the Easter bunny and colored eggs seem to be remnants of the pagan past, with probable links to the Norse goddess Freyja. But as with so much of such things, the history is at best muddled.  The most that can be said is that it *appears* that there was a spring holiday celebrating fertility, rebirth, the end of winter, that sort of thing, and when Europe was Christianized there was a merging of the pagan with the Christian.

From my perspective, the two traditions may have been merged into a single holiday, but the basics are quite different. The pagan holiday, being a springtime fertility holiday, probably featured a whole lot of drinkin’, partyin’ and makin’ little pagans, while the middle eastern religious import was based on terror, genocide, murder, pain, shame, all that stuff (don’t believe me? “Passover” is based on the belief that while God was busy exterminating a good fraction of the children of Egypt, his murderous rage “passed over” the Hebrews; then, centuries later, new traditions about a guy getting nailed to some lumber got added in). I know which one sounds more like a holiday to me.

Today, it certainly seems that the pagan aspects of the holiday – a celebration of fertility – seem to be alive and well:

Happy Easter from Kate Upton

Happy Easter

Safe for work? Ummmm… sure. Why not. (Note: not really.)

Some of the comments from the Fark.com thread where I saw these really say it all.

I think I’d kill everyone I ever loved and ever cared about for 17 seconds with that woman.

She seems…. fun.

Goddess of Fertility pays us a visit 🙂

Bunk. Now.

She has a great set of personalities.

GOD BLESS AMERICA


 Posted by at 3:08 pm

The End of Racism Revisited

 AARRRGH, blather, news, politics  5 Responses »
Apr 072012
 

A few years ago I floated the notion that the Obama administration could lead to the end of racism in the US. Not because he’d herald an era of color-blind wonderment, but because the race-baiters would get so exercised that they’d use the term too much and turn it into a “cry wolf” that people would just ignore… thus letting  rationality finally enter into the debate on the issue.

A few years on and… wow. Things are getting pretty bad on the “rational debate on race” front. Witness Derbyshires article… and the response to it. witness the non-racist Trayvon/Zimmerman incident, and how it’s been exploded into a racist incident by those looking to exploit it. Witness the blatant, easy racism that turns not only into violence but violence that people enact with a party attitude.

At any point in history, people can look around them and say “boy, things suck. Society must be about to fall!” But right now… boy, things sure suck in the area of race relations. It sure *seems* to be noticeably worse than it was not so many years ago. An honest discussion of the concept remains an impossibility; any attempt to do so gets a person branded a “racist,” which remains Kryptonite to any sort of success. I’m left to wonder what things might be like in another four years.

 Posted by at 10:25 pm

Wind Map

 awesomeness, science  No Responses »
Apr 072012
 

This is, indeed, pretty nifty (if a bit slow to load):

Wind Map

It shows *current* wind conditions across the Lower 48 in animated form. Below is a crappy subscale still image of the wind patterns from March 13:

 Posted by at 12:32 pm

This will end well…

 AARRRGH, blather, Crazy, Gah., news  5 Responses »
Apr 062012
 

Armed Neo-Nazis Now Patrolling Sanford, Say They Are “Prepared” For Post-Trayvon Martin Violence

Greeeeaaaaat. National Socialists vs. Black Panthers. I’d *love* to be the arms dealer selling to both sides… it would be *awesome* if they could wipe each other out. Sadly, the reality would include “collateral damage.”

I hope that when the bullets start flying, the lawsuits start heading towards Al Sharpton, Ed Schultz and MSNBC for bringing this crapstorm of dumbth down on Sanford.

 Posted by at 11:55 pm

Thomas Kinkade died

 art, humor, news  6 Responses »
Apr 062012
 

Thomas Kinkade, one of nation’s most popular painters, dies suddenly in Los Gatos at 54

You might not know the name, but if you live in the US… trust me, you’ve seen the art. The dude knew how to crank out vast reams of commercially successful paintings, generally of quaint cottages next to creeks in the woods. He was hated by the art snobs because his art was fairly predictable and aimed at getting sold to Regular Schmoes rather than Art Snobs… but a vast number of people liked his art well enough to buy it and hang it on their walls. And thus he was a “sellout.”  If I could figure out how to get people to like my photography a tenth as well, you can bet your ass I’d sell out the same way in a heartbeat.

Anyway, some years back Something Awful ran a “photoshop Kinkade paintings to make them better” thread, with results that are something Truly Awesome.

Paintings of Light Part One

Paintings of Light Part Two

 Posted by at 9:37 pm

Who wants a big X-15?

 aircraft, awesomeness, blather, history, models, new products, rockets, spacecraft  1 Response »
Apr 062012
 

A professional colleague of mine has produced a 1/15 scale model of the X-15A-2, and can make a few more. The first part of the photos below show it sans stand; the second part shows it with a temporary stand. I understand that this particular model is spoken for, and will have a stainless steel stand. I imagine the production run will be rather small, considering the size and level of detail involved. The price he’s asking is $4,750 plus shipping. If you are interested, let me know: scottlowther@up-ship.com/blog

Some detials: the drop tanks are held on by rare earth magnets, the front tank tube opening on the body has a little hinge that you can close after droping the tanks.  The ventral fin is removable, held on with magnets, the horizontals are positionable.

And, yes, I’m quite jealous.

 Posted by at 4:24 pm
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