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not including Doodles
not including Doodles
Page 59 of 133, posts 291 - 295 of 664
So that no one has to mine the heap of offsite comments for the nuggets, these were panned out of the stream for October 2013, brushed off and polished up as needed before being set here:
Who are the media now?
Wed 2013 Oct 2, 3:25pm
Drop the "media," the "press," and the "journalists," at least in relation to those outlets which once might have deserved such names but which now are all Ministry of Propaganda branches.
I want to mention this again: I had access to Cable yestermorn, and noticed that CableOne had a slide saying they had dropped CNN & other Turner channels over doubled fees and dropping ratings. Big sad, not.
If you wonder, how do we inform, reform, or take over (etc) the media, maybe you're not asking the right question. Or not asking it of the right media.
Newspapers: dying. Broadcast revenues (excepting conservative talk radio)? I don't know, and am too armchair right now to ixquick it, but I presume the big networks are having problems, if not local stations. And this isn't the first fees up/ratings down cable dispute, right?
How will the Dinosaur Media of the Ministry of Propaganda die? Starved to death. Cable (TV) itself is going to go away, I guess. I'll even add the phone service as we know it. Gone the way of telegrams. It's acceleratingly becoming all Internet.
I know broadcast and print still rule a lot of minds. The Sea Change (choke.. did I just use that? what does that mean?) hasn't quite happened yet. CableOne will probably negotiate something with CNN.
Still, hopeful signs. The Media, already, AFAIC, is AoSHQ & kin. With or without government permission.
The number to call
Thu 2013 Oct 3, 11:03pm
What's the number you should know?
F 1 U C K Y O
Help our government to grow!
F 1 U C K Y O
Call today and sign up, bro.
F 1 U C K Y O
Doctor Uncle Sam you blow.
F 1 U C K Y O
Soured Brand
Fri 2013 Oct 4, 8:38am
RINO - Perhaps we're past the point where being a RINO should be considered a liberal in conservative's wool. With the old leadership, RINO means not acting like Boener and the Associate Progressives. For example: Cruz is a RINO, a conservative yet Republican.
Sad to see the Republican name so soured. As the search for third-party names always demonstrates, it's hard to beat. For truth in advertising, the great civil struggle is Constitutional Republicanism ("if you can keep it" -BenF) vs Democratic totalitarianism.
Proper Province of Government
Mon 2013 Oct 7, 9:49am
Aside from military and veterans, what has been 'shut down' that is in the proper purview of Constitutional goverment?
Every thing I read about (and so much more, of course) seems like a laundry list of agencies and activities for a Real President or Congress to shut down permanently, handed to the states, or, more often, citizens.
Missed Reagan the first time
Sat 2013 Oct 12, 11:21am
Between being in my 20s and more finding fault in all politicians, and the lefty superficial media reportage pre-Internet, and no contact with counter-narrative sources, I was not enamored of him at the time of his election. I did foresee he'd be in for eight, easily.
By the time the Wall fell, I was a bit more appreciative.
Footnote. When the Wall went up, I was 9. When the Wall came down, our daughter was 9. An age at which one can be mightily impressed by such events.
Nobody ever kicks a dead dog
Sun 2013 Oct 13, 9:42am
"The day he was inaugurated, a friend said to the father of Robert Maynard Hutchins: 'I was shocked this morning to read that newspaper editorial denouncing your son.'
"'Yes,' the elder Hitchens replied, 'it was severe, but remember that no one ever kicks a dead dog.'"
From the chapter "Remember That No One Ever Kicks a Dead Dog," in How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie.
Avoid Laughingstock Media
Sun 2013 Oct 13, 1:01pm
I don't have an actual teevee set. I don't have a teevee antenna. I don't have cable teevee. I don't have satellite teevee. Haven't for years now. Yet, apparently, I'm better informed than 99% of the folks I know who watch those sources.
See, I peruse "independent groups dedicated to observing and disseminating information about important events" every day. Like right here this morning, for example. I also when I can observe and disseminate.
In fact, I only find out what's happening with the old Laughingstock Media when I see it reported by the real media. "Piers Morgan said this, ha ha ha," whoever he is. "Rachel Maddow said that, ha ha ha," whoever she is. They are nobody to me.
What we have (until they come for us) is what "freedom of the press" really means. Everybody owns the "presses" now. This is The Press. Realize it. Promote it. Enjoy it. This is the Media Now. You're not just soaking in it. It B We.
Hizzonah's Lunch
Tue 2013 Oct 22, 8:20am
Hizzonah Mayor Richard J Daley would've eaten Rahm Emmanual for lunch, with TFG for desert.
Ted "Bruiser" Cruz
commented Wed 2013 Oct 23, 1:36pm
I want to apologize to Nigeria for saying that the Obamacare was like a Nigerian Scam, which it is, but what I meant to say was, the Obama administration is like the Somali Pirates!
pResident Choomster with nostrils frosted
commented Thu 2013 Oct 24, 9:36am
I think, this week, I shall have all US Marines required to wear orange clown noses. And ruffles. You know, the really big ones around the neck like those old paintings. They would look just so precious, don't you think, Val?
Thu 2013 Oct 24, 9:44am
And for the Presidential elections, I shall put forth an Fatwa Executive Order that one State will be chosen by 'lottery' ::giggle:: to vote for the President. We'll start with New York...
Muted Morning
Sat 2013 Oct 26, 8:04am
Half-moon behind thin clouds
Ghostly pallor across the pastures
A muted All Hallow's Eve
before the glorious All Saints dawn
Ban DST!
Sun 2013 Oct 27, 1:05am
Midnight, Mountain Time,
Except for perverse Man.
Clocks shifted East, but
The Sun refuses to cooperate.
Some kind of ode to Ace of Spades HQ, I guess
Sun 2013 Oct 27, 11:33pm
They warned, avoid the h8rs
They warned, don't enter in
Those racist Ace of Sp8rs
That den of filth and sin
Strange was the attraction
The drunken revels' roar
The fervent shout Get Off My Lawn
As I walked in the door
Nearby gunshots resounded
Pants fell and boobies strained
The urge to flee abounded
Entranced I but remained
When suddenly I hear it
At heart behind the play
Celebrating Spirit
of Because We Can Today!
Defending the borders
Sun 2013 Oct 27, 11:58pm
Courtesy of Mrs. Webworker, courtesy of gatesofvienna.net:
Bulgaria is planning to build a wall along its border with Turkey to keep out illegal immigrants.
Creepy Creeping
Mon 2013 Oct 28, 7:58am
Govt runs the trains.
Govt runs the roads.
Govt runs the schools.
Govt decides what we eat.
Govt decides what we own.
Govt runs the friggin' clocks!
But we don't want socialism.
Spymaster Obama
Mon 2013 Oct 28, 10:58am
[headlines:]
Obama Knew Of NSA Spying On Merkel
Obama Claims To Have No Knowledge Of Spying On World Leaders
This begs the old question:
What did the President know?
And when did he quit knowing it?
(h/t Natl Lampoon of long ago)
Oklahoma living
Tue 2013 Oct 29, 7:51am
We apparently got a blast from the South, because it's actually shirtsleeves warm in NE Land of the Red Man this morning. And wet. Like a late Spring day. After some chilly mornings, I'll take it!
Here in the middle of the continent, when the wind blows out of the South, it can feel like Louisiana.
When our weather comes out of the North, hardened Montana visitors have been known to freak out over the biting cold winds. (Srsly)
From the West, thunderstorms and tornadoes. Always impressive.
Out of the East? Taxes, socialists, tyrants, and thieves. Glad the earth's rotation* keeps that to a minimum.
What's Missing is Principle
Wed 2013 Oct 30, 10:45pm
I watched Ronald Reagan's speech for Goldwater with my daughter tonight. Edifying and horrifying half-hour. I think the only thing missing from a total parallel with the current situation is... where's a Barry Goldwater?
Everything "Progressive" actually regresses
Thu 2013 Oct 31, 4:10pm
Civilization developed knowledge and reason, a Golden Rule, and the ideal of Self-Government. I'd add, a common 'faith' of mutual religious tolerance.
Progressivism is an ironically inverted misnomer, like all their projections and deceptions.
Everything "Progressive" actually regresses to those swamps of savage ignorance, superstition, immorality, and tyranny, and, of course, religion of the Elite, from which (some of) human society has barely emerged.
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Scare your friends! Scare yourself!
1. Click on the images to see large display.
2. Print on 110# card stock.
3. Unjam heavy card stock from printer repeatedly.
4. Go purchase a better printer at Wal-Mart.
5. Print faces, cut off heads, punch out eyes. Theirs. Not yours.
6. Figure out some way to tie mask to face, usually involving tangling rubber bands in hair.
7. Settle on super-glue to paste to forehead, chin, and cheeks.
NB: Management is not responsible for results of these instructions.
Ever-popular, perpetually-horrifying
"San Fran Nan"
"San Fran Nan"
Frighteningly lying liar
"Lois Lerner"
"Lois Lerner"
Smug and silent; a little too silent....
"Sebelius!"
"Sebelius!"
Defiant, vague, cutting like a chainsaw
"Testifyin' Hillary"
"Testifyin' Hillary"
BEST-SELLING!
Terrifying threat heading right for you!
"Campaignin' Hillary"
Terrifying threat heading right for you!
"Campaignin' Hillary"
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For those for whom the reference is obscure:
Doctor Who's Face of Boe (Tardis Wiki)
Doctor Who's Face of Boe (Tardis Wiki)
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Mass Extinction 250 Million Years Ago Sparked Dramatic Shift To Complex Marine Ecosystems
The earth experienced its biggest mass extinction about 250 million years ago, an event that wiped out an estimated 95% of marine species and 70% of land species. New research shows that this mass extinction did more than eliminate species: it fundamentally changed the basic ecology of the world's oceans.
Ecologically simple marine communities were largely displaced by complex communities. Furthermore, this apparently abrupt shift set a new pattern that has continued ever since. It reflects the current dominance of higher-metabolism, mobile organisms (such as snails, clams and crabs) that actually go out and find their own food and the decreased diversity of older groups of low-metabolism, stationary organisms (such as lamp shells and sea lilies) that filter nutrients from the water. ...
Lidgard added, "When Pete walked into my office with his preliminary results, I simply couldn't believe them. Paleontologists had long recognized that ecosystems had become more complex, from the origin of single-celled bacteria to the present day. But we had little idea of just how profoundly this one mass extinction--but not the others like it--changed the marine world."
250,000,000 Years Ago Siberian Traps
The Siberian Traps were the largest volcanic eruption in Earth history and they occured right at the same time as the largest extinction event in Earth history. The massive volcanic eruptions and lava flows lasted at full intensity for about a million years. It is estimated that approximately 95% of all species were wiped out. ...Initially sulfur aerosols and volcanic ash envelop the earth's atmosphere blocking out sunlight and sending surface temperatures plunging . Ash and sulphur aerosols can remain in the upper atmosphere for 100's to 1000's of years which would be enough to cause a significant glaciation. At the end of the Permian period the biggest ever drop in sea level in history occurred. Two scientists named >Holser and Magaritz in 1987 proposed that such a marine regression could be caused by a large scale glaciation. ...
Permian–Triassic extinction event
The Permian–Triassic (P–Tr) extinction event, informally known as the Great Dying, was an extinction event that occurred 252.28 Ma (million years) ago, forming the boundary between the Permian and Triassic geologic periods, as well as the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. It is the Earth's most severe known extinction event, with up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of terrestrial vertebrate species becoming extinct. It is the only known mass extinction of insects. Some 57% of all families and 83% of all genera became extinct. Because so much biodiversity was lost, the recovery of life on Earth took significantly longer than after any other extinction event, possibly up to 10 million years.Researchers have variously suggested that there were from one to three distinct pulses, or phases, of extinction. There are several proposed mechanisms for the extinctions; the earlier phase was probably due to gradual environmental change, while the latter phase has been argued to be due to a catastrophic event. Suggested mechanisms for the latter include large or multiple bolide impact events, increased volcanism, coal/gas fires and explosions from the Siberian Traps, and sudden release of methane clathrate from the sea floor; gradual changes include sea-level change, anoxia, increasing aridity, and a shift in ocean circulation driven by climate change.
According to the Geologic Time Scale on Wikipedia, the P-T event was 251 million years ago.
According to the Marine Life Era paper, "250,000,000 years ago witnessed the appearance of the fish family, the vertebrates, one of the most important steps in all prehuman evolution." This was in the period which "has become known to your researchers as the Devonian."
According to the Geologic Time Scale on Wikipedia, the Devonian began 420 million years ago.
The P-T devastation is described in the last section of the Marine Life Era paper:
This age was one of great life impoverishment. Thousands of marine species perished, and life was hardly yet established on land. This was a time of biologic tribulation, the age when life nearly vanished from the face of the earth and from the depths of the oceans. Toward the close of the long marine-life era there were more than one hundred thousand species of living things on earth. At the close of this period of transition less than five hundred had survived.
The peculiarities of this new period were not due so much to the cooling of the earth’s crust or to the long absence of volcanic action as to an unusual combination of commonplace and pre-existing influences — restrictions of the seas and increasing elevation of enormous land masses. The mild marine climate of former times was disappearing, and the harsher continental type of weather was fast developing.
And this paper describes the Permian, and the Paleozoic Era, as concluding only about 160 million years ago.
I've long known the "known" geologic time and the Urantia Papers' geologic time scale differed. I've never really taken the time to research exactly how much difference there really is. Or why this should be. If the Papers are to be credited, either they used the "knowledge of the time" and the scale of epochs has since been modified, or our measurements of time are off by an amount which the Papers are helpfully correcting. The latter explanation would suggest, of course, some problem with our assumptions about radioactive decay (the yardstick of geologic time).
And lo and behold, in his article, History of Life, I find one Dr. Chris M. Halvorson parses an explanation from Papers 29 and 42.
PDF at UBFellowship.org, with comparative chart
Web page without chart
"The Master Physical Controllers, specifically, the energy transformers [link], have regulated radioactivity (42:4.10) over the span of geologic time, according to the evolution plan of the Life Carriers. In the past, the rates of radioactive decay were greater than the present rates. Therefore, radiometric dates, which are determined by assessing the degree of decay, overestimate the crystallization age of a mineral in a rock, especially if the mineral was formed in the remote past. For the oldest rocks on the surface of the earth, the radiometric dates are about four times greater than the actual dates."
I must admit, Dr. Halvorson's extrapolations seem oblique to me. I didn't find any "according to the plan of the life carriers" reference involving Energy Transformers modifying radioactive rates of decay, nor any reason to assume there was any such claimed variance in the rate of decay, or any other substantive modifications of the normal workings of the universe, either at the behest of the Life Carriers or for any other reason, save that they are personally on inhabited worlds and help "insulate the planets against the powerful energy streams passing between gigantic planetary and starry neighbors." But Paper 29 is emphasis-in-the-original clear that "They can and do change the physical form of the energies of space."
So, maybe, Dr. Halvorson. I'm not a Dr. and I don't play one on TV.
By Dr. Halvorson's chart, the differences between current scientific and the Papers' time scale is none in the recent, and increasing (up to 4x) by the earliest geologic strata. Although the difference shown in his chart is not a steady progression, the variations from a straight line or curve could be within the margin of error in geologic terms (which margin increases the further back in time one goes). Dr. Halvorson began his paper noting that the time periods are only approximations, and there is not exacting agreement among all geologists on all points.
So, it may simply be that the rate of radioactive decay is over-estimated in the (geologically) long term. Perhaps a smooth change of rate based on, I don't know, the expansion of the universe, rather than an interventionist variation by Power Directors.
This is the kind of noodling a knucklehead non-scientist like me can come up with.
My search for any other research relating the Papers' timescale with science's, alas, just turned up more copies of Dr. Halvorson's paper. And I'm not quite prepared to start researching the possibilities of mis-estimations of long-term radioactive decay rates, right now.
I was actually led into this by discussion on Ace of Spades blog of the P-T extinction, especially this comment:
The extinction event of 250 million years ago, estimated 90% kill rate. From Peter D. Ward's book Gorgon on his decade of work in the Karoo of South Africa, he came to the conclusion it was multiple events that lead to that extinction event. From too much iron being exposed to the air and stealing oxygen to the Siberian lava traps erupting.
Anna Puma (+SmuD) [her blog]
From Anna's brief remark, this does sound kind-of like the "an unusual combination of commonplace and pre-existing influences" as the Life Carrier of Nebadon said in Paper 59. Now I'll have to track down Gorgon. In my geologic free time.
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