Mood:  down

While philosophers on Earth continue debating the meaning of life, we now have an example of the universe's overall vapidity: a billion-light-year-across valley of emptiness, of nothing.

Such a void is incomprehensibly large: light itself has only had about 13 chances to cross it in the history of... uh, history (depending on your stellar reckoning) and the sheer amount of emptiness out there (don't try re-reading that: you heard me) is staggering.

Reminds me a little of a Star Trek: Voyager episode, one of the few sci-fi stories to explore the psychological ramifications of traipsing through a ridiculously-large expanse of nothingness (although, presumably, the light of the cosmos does penetrate OUR gigantic emptiness out there, even to its isolated center, but that light's gotta be none-too-bright...)

...I always though that the Pale Blue Dot was cause enough for existential introspection, but the staggering vastness of this void simply boggles my noggin.

...I really feel like going to church, now...

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 2:33 AM ADT

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Mood:  loud

Suppression of the tenants of liberal democracy continueth...

I don't know a thing about this Florida preacher in question, and he might be a real wacko himself (he calls the Prophet Mohammed a 'murdering pedophile', but he might also have some nutball views, too...)

Kidding! Remember, Mohammed only started espousing the 'death to infedels' line because his little religion was slow getting started. Murderer nothing: he was the world's first showman!  Suckers like Christ died on a cross to start their religions, and all he needed do was inflame passions...

I'm gonna stop before CAIR sends their goons after me, too...

Strange, that an organization with such an innocuous name would have such a deviating mission: to subjugate American hearts and minds to the glory of Allah (I most assuredly will refer to him as Yaweh, Jehova, and even Adonai in addition to the standard 'Father The Almighty', but never Allah, despite what some cave-ins in the cloth wanna see brought about).

CAIR is not interested in 'relations', only in channeling cash through bogus charaties to aid and abet terrorists (sometimes) and anti-Western thugs (almost always) on a regular basis. That, and STIFLING open discourse  and criticism about their chosen faith (admittedly that Florida preacher was a little on the obnoxious side...). True 'relations' involve a give and take relationship, and CAIR has always only been interested in take, take, take...

They should call themselves CAIC (cake): 'Council on Americans-TO-Islam Conversion'.

 (EDIT: Hey, I didn't even know that this acronym for an organization actually exists! And it seems so appropriate, too!...)

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 12:12 PM ADT

Updated: Saturday, 25 August 2007 12:18 PM ADT

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Mood:  caffeinated

More mysteries of teh life, teh universe, and teh everything are unlocked today...

Why is coffee bitter?... 

I've always wondered how a naturally-occurring pharmacy-in-the-ground, laden with xanthines and bearing a brittle, earthy shell that's burned in an oven before being ground up and filtered directly into a cup of really hot water could be so bitter... 

I also wondered why things fall down, too... until I turned seven, or so...

Eh, to be fair: the study actually goes ultra-deep into not just WHY the stuff is bitter, but how it exactly becomes so (so its analogous to finding out why things really fall down, which I personally didn't understand until... well... never, actually...)

They think that this research will make dark roasts more smooth.

In the meantime, Scientific Progress goes running for the nearest percolator...

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 4:11 PM ADT

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Mood:  don't ask

Don't you hate it when the friggin' neighborhood kids mess around on your lawn?...

Hey! Hey, you all! Yes, I'm talking to you, little punks...

sigh... the house isn't a home, really: it's a petting zoo, and it's mostly my fault...

The big boys come for their handouts, too, and some of 'em are stacked like tree roots! Unfortunately, it's seen as unsportsmanlike to peg a buck at two feet with a rifle while he's eating at your feet...

The neighbors wouldn't be pleased either, I suppose... 

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 12:06 AM ADT

Updated: Thursday, 23 August 2007 12:09 AM ADT

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Mood:  d'oh

Sweet baby Jesus: no!

Seriously, there is really no place for a woman like her on this program... (Janeane ain't utterly worthless as a human being, however... her Frog accent is really quite charming, and some performances heartwarming).

I find it quite humerous that pundits accuse little old ving quatre of being a far right-wing venture. That crappy sixth season aside, this show has been an OPPONENT of methods such as torture and heavy-handed civil liberties tramplings, if its critics would care to actually watch it (IE: torture most often is on the wrong person, or produces the wrong info, and the DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENT on 24 (there has never been a Republican in office) always finds success in a centrist, rational course of action as opposed to his hawkish advisers' schemings.

Though I must say, I would look forward to seeing Jack slap miss Garofalo around a little...

kidding!

...yeah...

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 5:02 PM ADT

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Mood:  a-ok

It's a young universe out there, all things considered, but already there are heavenly objects that are on their way out the door (the 'door' being oblivion, I suppose...)

Enter this peculiar li'l amigo: a withered shell o' a star that's out there all alone in the night. It doesn't have all the trappings of celestial fanfare about it that such a dead star typically has, nor anything at all to signify its previous brilliance...

The thing's not even in the galactic plane, anymore. It just continues drifting out into the dead of space: crusty, cold (comparatively) and solitary. 

"Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away..."

                        (...I wish I'd wrote that, but I didn't...) 

This depressing stellar mausoleum was discovered by accident, of course. The astronomers were really looking to witness some Gamma Ray Bursts (with decent eye protection, I hope...). No one would really use advanced stellar equiptment to find such a bitterly cold, energy-spent, lifeless, faded star in space, anyway...

There are plenty here on Earth for them to study...

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 9:58 PM ADT

Updated: Monday, 20 August 2007 9:58 PM ADT

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Mood:  mischievious

In a cradle, diapers, pull-ups or big kid pants, they can all get hitched in Arkansas.

Frankly, I'm shocked! I am stunned into abject speechlessness!...

Not by the fact that kiddies of any age can now marry anyone else in Arkansas, mind you, but by the fact that this wasn't already the law over there in the first place. 

...now, I don't wanna be considered Anti-Arkansas, but... well... yeah...

Nemo me impune lacessit, motherf***er, and don't mess with Texas.

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 1:13 PM ADT

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Mood:  caffeinated

Ardashir gripped Kairos by the neck, like a mother cat would her kitten, and lowered him back into the chair.

     “I mention Basincrest, dear boy, because it represents progress.  Progress keeps us alive, and progress keeps us one step ahead of the desert wastes that surround us: the scorched earth that is just waiting to claim our civilization among its many, many casualties.”  He leaned close.  “Now,” he whispered, “we have the opportunity for progress aplenty, and all that stands in the way is one silly boy’s silly little story.” Ardashir drew a purposeful breath: “What did you see beneath the fault line, young Kairos?”

     He didn’t want the truth, Kairos reasoned.  He was looking for some other answer, something to justify his expedition into the fault, but Kairos knew that nobody should go near that place, not ever. What he had seen was as horrible as it was deadly. He couldn’t give the Elder the answer he wanted, so he repeated his assertion:

     “My original words are true, Elder. I swear it.”

     Ardashir’s countenance changed from warmth to iciness in an instant. He removed his hands from Kairos’ shoulders and snapped his fingers. A militiaman sprinted up the steps to the deck in short order.

     “Away with this naughty louse.” The Elder demanded, waving a hand at Kairos. “For his disobedience in unauthorized spelunking he is under house confinement until further notice.”

     The militiaman literally dragged Kairos down the stairs while the Elder gazed out across the town at Basincrest, with his back to the steps.

     “And, my good militiaman, for the boy’s desertion of the Ogsand family this morning he has earned twelve lashes, vertiginous oils included, if you’d be so kind...”

... 

--- "The Reign of Eden" draft, pages 25-26.

Proving once again that cruelty towards orphans can be FUN!...

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 12:15 AM ADT

Updated: Friday, 17 August 2007 12:23 AM ADT

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Mood:  amorous

Methuselah's Children...

Admit it: that's a friggin' fantastic title, ain't it? It's irresistably good, huh?

I've been trying to manage my vast accumulation of crap in storage recently, and I was hitting some soggy cardboard boxes when I came across a box with this li'l Heinlein gem peekin' out of it (along with about a half-dozen others that I've no idea how I came into possession of...)

World's greatest sci-fi author? Debatable, and most likely no. But damn terrific writer? Absolutely. This guy's stories GLIDE: what losses he accumulates in description, detail and characterization he quite makes up for with a fairly credible scientific worldview (even today a lot of his stuff is quite worthy of 'suspension-of-disbelief'... and then lots isn't, of course...) and the narrative flow he wields is fairly killer.

Some of his ideas (including the incest issue...) are questionable, but one can't question the fact that Heinlein knocks out a lean, mean little story with plenty of narrative clout in only a hundred-plus pages. Contrast that with current sci-fi authors who go on for several hundred pages (.......or those like me, who prattle on in what we try to call 'epic'-length stories....).

There's also the current state of fantasy to consider. What's the average page-length of those babies, huh? 700 pages? 800? 

Love him or hate him, the guy proves that excessive wordiness is no substitute for knowing what the hell you wanna actually say and getting it down well...

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 11:20 PM ADT

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Mood:  not sure

Another one bites the dust...

Now, I'm not really big on TV programs at all (but I'm also not the kind of pretentious blowhard that claims to only watch 'Nova' on PBS and National Geographic... while I mostly watch cable news and Discovery Channel (HD THEATER, BABY!) I also have a select number of mindless entertainment programs that I absolutely love...)

And, interestingly, my two favorite fictional TV personalities are both named Jack / Jack...

Anyway, I just wanted to comment on the death of this 'John from Cin' thing because I caught an entire episode of it, and lord if it wasn't the most unlikeable thing I've seen in a long time (TV has its share of ridiculously idiotic TV shows and pathetically bad TV characters, of course, but this particular show seemed to be in a race to try and lose as much viewer interest as possible...)

A misfire of epic proportions, I suppose. Eh, at least the outlets are trying 'new' things, but they appear to need 'good' new, and John was 'bad' new.

A good rule of thumb for TV execs is that people generally like new stuff, as long as it doesn't suck.

'John from Cincinnati' broke that rule, I suppose.

Posted by shanekentknolltrey at 11:11 PM ADT

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