Orion Deep in East Texas

BSA 131, originally uploaded by androidny.

This is a 30 second exposure looking west along the bank of Big Cypress Bayou southeast of Jefferson, TX. Click on the image and then click on the magnifying glass to see it enlarged with a black background.

George P. Spencer Epitaph

George P. Spencer of Lyndon Center, Vt., died in 1908 at age 83. His epitaph is inscribed on the sides of a granite monument:

"Beyond the universe there is nothing and within the universe the supernatural does not and cannot exist. Of all deceivers who have plagued mankind, none are so deeply ruinous to human happiness as those impostors who pretend to lead by a light above nature. Science has never killed or persecuted a single person for doubting or denying its teachings, and most of these teachings have been true; but religion has murdered millions for doubting or denying her dogmas, and most of these dogmas have been false."

(From Charles L. Wallis, Stories on Stone, 1954)

WAR ON RELIGION? ABSURD!

The idea that the President and/or Democrats are making war on religion is absurd. War with religion would be both ridiculous and futile. That allegation is outrageous demagoguery and political malarkey.. A fence (or a wall) between your religion and mine will make us better friends, believe me. "Good fences make good neighbors." That's old-fashioned common sense and common courtesy. We each think our own religion or worldview is the right one, but we can and must live together with our differences and we don't have to go to war about it. No religion or denomination has the right to impose its values on another. When you try to advertise yours on OUR court house square with a creche or pray over a loud speaker at a football game, you are trespassing on my property and invading my privacy. The courts have upheld that fact. . If there is a war, evangelical Christians are making it. The First Amendment of the Constitution guarantees " the free exercise of religion", mine as well as yours, as well as freedom to practice no religion at all. The simple fact is that your rights end where mine begin, and vice versa.

Anne Williams

Don't think about it (maybe it will go away)

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Call of Life is the first feature-length documentary to fully investigate the growing threat posed by the rapid and massive loss of biodiversity on the planet. Featuring leading scientists, social scientists, environmentalists and others, the film explores the scope, the causes, and the predicted global impact of a mass extinction occurring on a scale not seen since the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

If current trends continue, scientists warn that half or more of all plant and animal species on Earth will become extinct within the next few decades. Entirely caused by human activities, this contemporary mass extinction is disrupting and destroying the complex, interconnected biological systems that support life on earth.

Through interviews with eminent biologists and ecologists, the film examines the primary drivers of species loss: habitat destruction, global warming, pollution, and invasive species, all compounded by the expanding human population and our consumption patterns.

Call of Life tells the story not only of a crisis in nature, but also in human nature. In interviews with psychologists, anthropologists, and historians, the film looks beyond the immediate causes of the mass extinction to consider how cultural and economic myths, along with deep-seated behavioral patterns have allowed this crisis to develop, continue to reinforce it, and even determine our response to it.

Call of Life examines the collective and individual choices we have before us, and how the decisions we make -- or fail to make -- in the next decade will affect the habitability of Earth possibly for millions of years to come.

Visit the website The Video Project for more info>>

Free Speech Done Right

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This is what the LOVE police are about... Realise who and what you are as an amazing race of beings... Stop letting your life cloud your soul from being free...!

Step right up and watch as one man in London with a megaphone and a cheeky sense of humor gives voice to the many narratives of consumerism—e.g., “Meditation is a waste of good shopping time!”—and has some fun at the local police’s expense while he’s at it. —KA

Original link from Truthdig.com.

Y U NO - SOPA

Y U NO - SOPA

For those unaware of SOPA and the internet censorship it would potentially bring to the web down http://americancensorship.org/ 

Darque Wing on the Decline of America

Here's a good measure to see just how far America has declined: in the last century, the nation undertook major initiatives to expand the infrastructure that helped to create the mega-economy that we once had. For example, the electrification of rural America - it was a huge financial risk, but the federal government was responsible for bringing electricity to much of rural America. Businesses had already sprung up to deliver electricity to cities, but business interests saw it as too expensive with too little return to bring electricity out to the rest of the country - an initiative that completely changed life in states like Iowa, which have no metropolitan centers and thus would still be ignored by power companies if it weren't for the 1936 Rural Electrification Act.

Or the interstate highways - like electricity, these roads serve as an integral part of the social and commercial lives of Americans. No corporation would have laid out the enormous cost of building such a highway network, and they certainly wouldn't have allowed anyone to use it for free. And yet, since the passage of the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, championed by Eisenhower (a Republican pushing for massive federal spending! gasp!), we've built more than 46,000 miles of interstate highway. Without it, our way of life would cease to exist in about 24 hours - that much of our business is conducted with the help of travel, that much of our food is delivered by truck, that much of our lives depend on mobility.

When Kennedy called for a moon shot, the technology and expertise to create and use it simply didn't exist. But that one call, and plenty of government funding, created a push for education in math and science like none before. A generation of engineers, designers, materials scientists, physicists, and cosmologists was eagerly trained and put on the job, all on the government dime. Not only did we get to the moon in style, we achieved historical advancements in everything from plastics to aerospace design to communications, advancements that became some of the most essential technologies of our day.

So what are we doing now to build the infrastructure of tomorrow, to spur on the economic activity of the 21st century and beyond? Fuck all, that's what. We're letting the bridges and highways that our grandparents built decay. We're desperately seeking back-breaking austerity measures and chasing the dreams of people who sincerely wish for a return to the values (and, apparently, standard of living) of the 18th century. Not only are we ignoring the projects that could create as much opportunity in the future as rural electrification and highways did last century, but we're actually taking a step backward by not maintaining the infrastructure we do have.

What are the projects of tomorrow we're ignoring so that we can debate how best to deliver tax breaks to billionaires? For one, the internet. With SOPA, our leaders have declared war on the internet, stifling it just to make sure nobody gets free music. Meanwhile, thanks to lack of competition (functionally identical to a monopoly state), telecommunications companies are charging customers outrageous fees for access to "high-speed" internet access (most of which is carried on the cable system from the telegraph era, the very best of late-nineteenth-century tech). Meanwhile, those nasty socialist countries - you know, the ones with governments that spend tax money on social programs instead of oil wars? - are building the internet infrastructure of tomorrow, with speeds many times what we see here in America, and for a much lower cost, if any. And it isn't just about letting people log onto Facebook or looking at porn, either - billions of dollars in business every day count on the internet for everything from ordering to internal communications to advertising. If we looked at the internet like our mid-twentieth-century counterparts, our Congress would be looking to create a federally-funded fiberoptic network of astronomical speed, and then delivering it across the country - all as a public utility, in the interest of improving the social and commercial lifestyle of tomorrow.

But no, instead of creating the environment in which everyone prospers, we're more interested in de-funding everything to afford more tax breaks for rich people. People talk about the decline of America, as if it has something to do with gays getting married or how many "czars" the President appoints. Bull. If you want to see just how much America has declined, look no further than the difference between how we used to embrace opportunity and how we now quash it.