Tuesday, 16 February 2021

Water ice hundreds of feet thick at the surface on Mars, up Dao canyon. Looks promising and close to the equator..

 This imagery is looking good:  A seasonal reflection off dusty ice and a wash-out canyon that starts where the ice shows.   Water to drink, water to break into oxygen for breathing and hydrogen and oxygen to power vehicles and return trips to Earth, water to grow stuff, and apparently over 100 meters thick.  .  Reported at Behindtheblack.com


Snow on Mars?
Ice exposed at head of Dao canyon?
Overview map

Monday, 15 February 2021

Reincarnation Math Doesn't Add Up. Choose the path prompting you to experiment.

 Since world population 2000 BC was under 100 million and is now close to 7 billion, it's not possible for every individual to own a single thread of multiple lives on earth.  A good answer is to say there is no disharmony because there is no reincarnation.  A double-down answer is to say that each individual has their own thread of lives but some are lived on other worlds or alternate worlds to our own.  Sounds complicated but the alternate worlds has a place in modern physics speculation.  A third answer that reconciles the numbers and keeps reincarnation as a not-disprovable hypothesis is to say all lives past and present are connected nodes of the same being.   There are then many possible pathways back in time for you to trace, they just are not uniquely you.


              How do you decide?.  Or, what is a good test?   What questions does reincarnation resolve?
              The pursuit of happiness suggests that the choice that opens the most possibilities to you now is a good one. If two explanations exist, one boring and one exciting, and adopting either is low risk, why not go for the one that inspires you to experiment?                  The search for contradictory conclusions from the same premises so as to rule out a theory, is one I like better.      The search for an absolute determination of truth is even better but how ever can that be done?        
Tests and experiments appeal to me.


Convergent evolution of cars

 Maybe it's wind tunnel performance combined with fads, but mid-size SUV's look almost identical these days.   What triggered this post was me waiting at the ferry terminal when a lady opened the back door and started to load her dog aboard.  She was one row and one space out of position.  To fix this, I bought 3" diameter adhesive red dots and put several on my CRV.

Left colun:
Subaru Forester
Volvo Estate
Honda CRV
Buick Encore

Right column:
Audi Q7
Ford Escape
Toyota Rav 4
Mitsubishi Express

Sunday, 14 February 2021

Watch Lightning From Space. Looks Like Music.

 

The first 25 seconds is Lightning Mapper promotion, then beauty.
To see the music comparison, look at Bach's Brandenburg #4 presented as if seen from a satellite, seen from Johann's sublime perspective.

Wednesday, 3 February 2021

Shoe ownership by sex in America


Even little things are influenced by sex chromosome #23 and that includes shoes.
A lot of men and women are in the same group, owning 6 to 10 pairs of shoes.
In the 5 pairs and under group, there are twice as many men.
In the 11 pairs and over, there are twice as many women.
And one oddity:  The extreme ownership group includes almost as many men as women.

Tuesday, 2 February 2021

Covid, Cancel Culture and Xenophobia: Battleground for control of new human wealth: DATA

 

A pitched battle is underway to control new wealth.  Covid lockdowns with masking is one battle ground and so is Cancel Culture and so is control of elections.  The new wealth is data on almost every human being alive and the ability to exploit it and to throttle it cheaply at the speed of light.   Who is the top dog?   We don’t know yet.  Governments are trying for the lion’s share but give ground to large operations in Google, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  Mass media, the papers, and entertainment purveyors are in there tweaking and stealing and corralling data.  The big surprise is that NGO’s and private interest groups and even individuals own some of the internet space because access to millions of followers is so cheap and so fast.   The power structure is changing rapidly.   If government gets the upper hand, expect to see Chinese Communism with American Characteristics featuring mass surveillance and behaviour interdiction.  More likely is a mixed recasting of federal-corporate-interest-group powers.

Human nature is reverting to the tribal in this setting.   Behind “woke”  “white privilege” and other badges of approval and shame is the old time simple fact of xenophobia, fear of strangers.  Sadly, the strangers are fellow citizens who don’t live in my bubble.  

If we own our own data and can capitalize it, not just have it snuffled up or stolen by a few big players, perhaps this will change. Don't expect justice but hope for a measure of competition between thieves of freedom.

"In the modern world, data is wealth"

Sunday, 24 January 2021

Take a selfie that's not a close-up and has no fat nose: Ask Mr Google

Set your camera up to take a selfie
but don't take it.
Stand the camera on its edge a little further off
maybe leaning against something
with the display towards you.
Compose the shot so you and your friends look good.
Say, "OK Google.  Take a Selfie".
Three seconds later it's done.
No more fat noses or extra tools.

 

Saturday, 16 January 2021

More Troops in DC than Afghanistan for Inaguration

 

 Think about it carefully…. 25,000 troops needed at the U.S. Capitol to install the Biden administration.  How many armed soldiers do you need at the inauguration of the “most popular Presidential candidate in American history after the most secure election in history?”

Friday, 8 January 2021

Chinese Communism With American Characteristics, Part 3

 There won't be another fighter of Trump's stature in the near future.  America's core institutions have become corrupt with Justice, sadly, the chief, followed closely by election machinations in many states.
The hope of nations now turns from the USA to China but not as you may expect.  The Chinese model of mass surveillance and control of the economy by your (corrupt) betters is ascendent in America.  My hope is now in the Chinese people, that their still-to-come revolution will be in my lifetime.

Chinese Communism With American Characteristics, Part 2.










Sourced here:  

Chinese Communism With American Characteristics. January 8 2020 Dissent is Deplatformed in America.

 The near future is clear:  Chinese communism with American Characteristics.  Today Twitter and Google and the rest are wiping out all they hate about America.  Goodbye to freedoms.  Hello to apps and cameras reporting on all you do and write to others.  Attached are screenshots from this historic day as voices the Left despises are cancelled.








Tuesday, 29 December 2020

Dancing Robots

 Slow start, then freakier and better and better:  "Do You Love Me"

Longing for a Sweetheart

 The longing for a sweetheart and a darling is so great that it puts a burden on hetero friendships.  I remember what it’s like having a big puppy climb onto my lap while I was driving. It was licking my face, wriggling around, half out the window and wanted to drive too.   That’s hard to manage




.  The No-Puppy version is normal friendship.  The With-Puppy version is when the longing comes along for the ride and pops up everywhere.  

Monday, 28 December 2020

Plaque on 3700 year old teeth shows what people ate and reveal a trade network.

 The stuff they scrape off your teeth at the dentist is a petrified residue from bacteria.  In that calcareous plaque, specks of food are trapped.  Researchers at the ancient city of Megiddo in modern day Israel have examined teeth of a dozen bronze age people.  They found turmeric and bananas and soy and proof of trade out of Asia centuries, even more than a thousand years earlier than previously guessed.  Science Daily News.

Sunday, 27 December 2020

I'm not glad artists and musicians are having a hard time with Covid, but...

 The New York Times reports on musicians, artists and dancers, over half of whom have no job at all now.  This is shocking but it isn't 100 percent bad news for me.  The Arts along with Academia, and Insiders-with-Power are the main support for top-down commands about masks and lock-downs for your own good and safety.  For some of them to suffer painfully the consequence of their standard bearers' decisions is good.  That will shorten the Lawmaker's learning curve and allow average people to get back to making their own choices sooner.     This link is to a sympathetic and well-researched story about those in the arts and out of work.

Wednesday, 23 December 2020

COVID Behaviour is political

 This September Gallup poll shows a sharp worry & compliance distinction between Democrats and Republicans. The sub-story is that the Democrat men and women are indistinguishable on the issues but the Republican women and men, besides being very different from Democrats, are often quite different from each other, the men expressing greater confidence and willingness to risk changes.