More Galaxies than People

Feeling big today? Think about this:
"There are far more galaxies than people." -Carl Sagan

But, by the same token, don't feel bad; think of the uniqueness of you in the face of the rest of the cosmos. Only once ever has a configuration of atoms come together to have your thoughts and experiences.



Now, finish your beer, get another, and go watch SportsCenter...

 

Philosophy of Death

Philosophy of Death
By Shelly Kagan from Yale U.

There are 26 lectures. The first one can be skipped; it mostly lines out what the course will cover - not science, not religion, but the philosophy of death. Also the first lecture covers some classroom expectations and grading scale (boring).

So skip the first one and jump into the second one - Dualism vs. Physicalism

http://academicearth.org/courses/death

Academic Earth is a Web site that offers full video lectures from many great universities.

The Galaxy Zoo

You can help classify the heavenly bodies - sweet!
The following is quoted from their Web site:
"The Galaxy Zoo files contain almost a quarter of a million galaxies which have been imaged with a camera attached to a robotic telescope the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, no less). In order to understand how these galaxies — and our own — formed, we need your help to classify them according to their shapes — a task at which your brain is better than even the fastest computer."

So go now and help; it'll be the coolest nerdy thing you've done since selling your Everquest character for $200 and a case of Mountain Dew!

http://www.galaxyzoo.org/

Free Games to Waste a Day or Ten Minutes

A calming puzzle game, Loops of Zen:
http://www.quickflashgames.com/games/loops-of-zen/

However, if you want to throw knives at politicians and celebrities:

Knife Throw 2
http://www.quickflashgames.com/games/knifethrow2/

Fish Itch Also

Preliminary research on mice indicates that there are nerve cells that pass along an itch signal to the brain that appear to be seperate from the pathway for pain.

NPR - Scientists Identify 'Itchy' Neurons In Mice
by Jon Hamilton

Hold your breath for micro-sculpture

Willard Wigan: Hold your breath for micro-sculpture from Ted Talks. You might think that you've seen small sculpture before, but no. No you haven't.

Icky (living?) Thing in a Sewer

Dateline...
A Sewer pipe, Cameron Village, Raleigh, North CarolinaApparently, it's just a cluster of invertebrates called bryozoan, which are commonly found in both the sea and fresh water environments, says Thomas Kwak a biology professor at North Carolina State University's Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit.
Research:

• PZ Myers a biologist and associate professor at the University of Minnesota, writes about it in Server blobs of North Carolina


• WRAL (local news site to area of filming) -Mysterious 'sewer creature' sparks curiosity - by Dan Bowens

Does it live?

Enjoy Some Flea Market Photos - VIII

I really can't stand Ann Geddes' so called art, babies with flower petal hoodies and other babies as seemingly random vegetable matter. This one is a baby kitten doll in her style; isn't that cute...ralph.
So it's a baby wearing a donkey outfit next to a teddy bear wearing a camper's outfit sitting on a plate in a picnic basket. I'm not hungry anymore...


I know this one may not initially look all that odd or offensive. Two sculpted faces (in the style of the 80s) looking hopefully to the future. However, consider that the sculpture is made of leather. That's right; not one leather face but two. It's even creepier to touch; believe me.

This one is not so weird, but in a previous post, I pointed out wastes of resin castings. It is missing Beethoven in the mix.

Yips Meet a Telephone

Poetry Contest part 4 - The Saga has Sputtered Out

This post references a few previous posts; the last one was
Poetry Contest part 3 - The Saga Continues

What a disappointing ending. I was trying to get an interesting story out of the scammers at Poetry.com and they just stopped contacting me. Evidently, my poem wasn't good enough for their anthology. It might have something to do with me not paying for their fine leather bound books...
It's been more than six months and nothing, but wait let's go visit them again and read some of the past winners. That's always good for a chuckle.

Hmm...the website looks different. Let's take a look at the "Welcome" link. Well, this says it all, "*Lulu.com, an award winning Internet company, recently purchased the URL 'www.poetry.com' from the previous failed business that owned it."

Stay tuned; I'll be submitting there soon. Maybe I'll get that story after all...