Does it matter if it is 7 AM Greenwich Time?

Sorry, but I'm pissed and I have to post. As it turns out, if you are a top Democratic Party thief, er, bundler, then "duh, we forgot it's illegal to steal our customers' money" is a valid legal defense! Yahtzee! Mr. Obama can expect a very generous campaign donation to arrive shortly, via an anonymous blind trust. So much for Romney and his pesky little-people $50 donors!

Important lesson: Do not put your money in any bank or investment firm headed by anyone who is well-connected in Washington. Locally owned banks and credit unions are nutritious and good for you.

I thought the chemtrails were made by the secret government aircraft.

Edna.

Chillax— Celebrities will protect us.

America: where even our lunatics are entrepreneurs. :-)

(P.S: I tried answering "pyramid" to the security question. It didn't work. Clearly Amy's not on board with healing our planet yet.)

Laugh if you want, but…

Dig: gas is cheaper here by almost $1.

Raddy!! WE'RE RUNNING OUT.

But we can hope that once the zephyrs have blown all the pyramid-people off of their bicycles and onto their backside purviances, we can try to get their businesses re-established.

Several years ago I attended a presentation on aliens (the ET kind), hosted by a local metaphysical group (school assignment).

The guest speaker claimed that she had been abducted by aliens and was subsequently being stalked by the government (I guess to study her abduction, or maybe they were in cahoots with the aliens, I don't recall).

This woman was extremely emotional about the entire experience, explaining how hostile and dangerous these aliens were, and recounting tales of government issued black helicopters hovering over her house and the houses of friends she visited.

The audience became visibly agitated and started questioning her details. I thought her story was blown. But no. Their outrage was attributed to the fact that aliens are not hostile creatures.

Apparently there are many races of aliens, some who even live near the core of the earth, and their purpose is to bring we the fucktards of the universe lessons of compassion, so we can advance technologically.

You see sillies, the abductee wasn't a victim of alien hostility. She just couldn't identify a compassionate creature, even if it probed her in the ass.

In conclusion, when given an assignment to observe a belief system outside my own, I will endure just about anything to avoid church.

off-topic: But, I'm with radwaste on this - holy crap! Those gas prices suck. No wonder so-cal crazy is riding a bike.

Everyone saw this, right?

"Raddy!! WE'RE RUNNING OUT."

Nice to see you out and about on your tricycle. Didn't know you were into pyramids, though.

Well, the paying agent says the blue herons are signalling, Raddy!

Time once again for you to start pretending you know things that other people don't know.

I always find the topic of aliens facinating. I think its hubris to assume that we are the only self aware species in existance. Especially considering so may of us seem incapable of self awareness.

I saw an interesting youtube clip with Neil deGrasse Tyson pointing out the fact that less than 1% genetic diversity gave us enough intelligence to create all we see around us, vs being just like chimps, so what might another fraction of a percentage give us in terms of intelligence . And wouldnt an alien species capable of FTL view us in the same way we view chimps.

"I think its hubris to assume that we are the only self aware species in existance. "

I'm not so sure. When some astronomers talk about the number of solar sytems having G-type stars and planets about the same size and orbit radius as Earth, there are a few things they leave out. Here's a big one: Your everyday stellar fusion processes are only capable of producing elements up to iron, which is element 26. The only process in the universe that we know of that produces heavier elements is the supernova, and supernovas are very rare events even allowing for the time scale. Our own solar system probably formed from the gas and dust cloud produced from a supernova about 5 billion years ago. Several trans-iron elements are essential nutrients for life on Earth, zinc and iodine being the most important ones. And a huge number of the trans-iron elements are important enough to our civilization that we'd probably still be simple agrarians without them, including nickel, copper, germanium, tungsten, molybdenum, gold, mercury, lead, and all of the lanathum series.

The two big questions that leaves are: (1) how common are solar systems formed from the remnants of supernovas, and (2) is there an alternate system of life that can evolve intelligent life forms without the trans-iron elements, and can such species build a space-capable civilization without those elements?

"I think its hubris to assume that we are the only self aware species in existance."

I'm not so sure.

I don't mean to be at all flippant, as I find the idea of alien life fascinating. However, it probably doesn't matter whether there is life out there.

The nearest stars are not friendly to life, at least as we understand it. The closest promising stars are dozens of light years away. Assuming that Einstein is correct, and the speed of light really is the upper limit, round-trip communication time would be measured in generations. That makes any sort of meaningful interaction almost impossible, even ignoring language and technological difficulties.

Very, very good point, random guy.

And CD, the thing about probability-of-life calculations is that religious people will use them as supporting elements no matter how high or low your numbers are.

More about the random guy point: Scientists often talk about the discovery of life on other planets as if it would have inherent meaning for us about our place in the universe, not just practical meaning.

They never speculate on how that meaning, would , y'know, mean stuff, even just in a wordy way.

May I make a reading suggestion?

Alone in the Universe: Why Our Planet is Unique by John Gribbin. (borrowed from my local library

The author explains step-by-evolutionary-step why life on Earth is the exception rather than what would be expected anywhere. I found it to be a fascinating read and it left me believing that: yes, we are alone in the universe, or at least in our galaxy.

Consider this

"Time once again for you to start pretending you know things that other people don't know."

Actually, I've backed up everything I've said while NOT denying that others CAN understand these things. You have simply done to me what you have to Amy - misrepresent a position as an exclusive one. Ordinary physics, the type you slept through in 7th grade, should show you the rest.

As one of these "other people", it's simply up to you to swallow your self-induced outrage that someone wouldn't embrace everything you say as gospel and go learn something.

You can do it. Whether you will... well, no, not at my urging you won't. You're too wrapped in in some sort of personality issue.

Now, you may go make up more things about what I've said. Your great grace of expression and zeal for this blog, while it does you no good at understanding, does make that easy for you.

Meanwhile, a fossil fuel expended is gone for good. If the public does not monitor the expenses associated with the pensions offered by public agencies, they will suffer.

> misrepresent a position as an exclusive one.

It's like you're making the Groucho joke.

Dude, I quoted you. Cut & paste from the same page. You said those things, exclusively.


Anyway, I saw this new sex toy and thought of you. Have fun! It's a Zephyr weekend!

Oh, and by the way...

Aw Sorry, I bungled the link for the plaything:

http://www.daily-interactive.com/projects/resources/

Check it out! Hours and hours of guilt-inspiring, terror-mongering funtime!

Because once you use something, it's gone for good.

(By the way, I missed the part where you backed up:

> Rising oil prices are signalling energy trouble
> just like the gentle zephyr preceding a
> hurricane. We're in the Age of Oil, and that
> time is limited. When energy costs get so high
> we can't ship anymore, I hope we can get these
> businesses re-established.

Because once you use something, it's gone for good. -- Crid [CridComment at gmail] at August 18, 2012 1:01 AM

There is a major fallacy in that statement.
Coal, gas (assuming natural gas), and petroleum are all compounds, not elements. Uranium and other heavy/radioactive elements live in a middle ground -- they naturally devolve to not being radioactive.

But the rest of the elements like iron, aluminum, carbon, gold, cadmium, etc. can be reclaimed and reused indefinitely. About the only way to make an element non-reuseable is to irradiate it or turn it into plasma.

> There is a major fallacy in that statement.

Brother Jim, I hear you, and I agree completely. I was teasing Raddy for his comments here:

http://www.advicegoddess.com/archives/2012/08/02/why_american_ol.html#comments