Spce Laser Beaming at US

Galaxy Arp 220 as imaged by the Wide Field Planetary Camera on the Hubble Space Telescope.NASA, ESA,

 A powerful space laser emitted from a distant galaxy has been discovered by astronomers.

The beam of radio waves is what scientists call a “megamaser” and this one is the most distant yet, emerging 5 billion light-years from Earth.

It was detected by an international team of scientists using South Africa’s “MeerKAT,” a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas.

Megamasers are naturally occurring, radio-wavelength lasers that can help shed light on galaxy collisions.

“Megamasers act like bright lights that say: Here is a collision of galaxies that is making new stars and feeding massive black holes,” said study co-author Jeremy Darling, of the University of Colorado.

When galaxies merge, the gas they contain becomes extremely dense, producing a specific radio signal known as a maser.

Megamasers are powerful masers produced in huge galaxy collisions, like beams from cosmic lighthouses.

The unearthing of the most distant megamaser to date was described by Darling and colleagues in a research paper published last week.

To reflect its status as a record-breaker, the team named the space laser Nkalakatha — an isiZulu word meaning “big boss.”

“Nkalakatha is one of the most powerful OH megamasers known, and it’s the most distant megamaser of its kind ever discovered, so it is truly a ‘big boss,’” said study co-author and Rutgers University astronomer Professor Andrew Baker.

“We expect it is only the first of many OH [hydroxyl] megamasers that will be discovered as the project continues.”  READ MORE...

Falling

FUNNY Funny funny

ADULT

A person who has stopped growing at both ends And is now growing in the middle.


BEAUTY PARLOR
A place where women curl up and dye.


CHICKENS
The only animals you eat before they are born and after they are dead.


COMMITTEE
A body that keeps
minutes and wastes hours.


DUST
Mud with the juice squeezed out.


EGOTIST
Someone who is usually me-deep in conversation.


HANDKERCHIEF
Cold Storage.


INFLATION
Cutting money in half without
damaging the paper.


MOSQUITO
An insect that makes you like flies better.


RAISIN
A grape with a sunburn.


SECRETSomething you tell to one person at a time.


SKELETON
A bunch of bones with the person scraped off.


TOOTHACHE
The pain that drives you to extraction.


TOMORROW
One of the greatest labor saving devices of today.

YAWN
An honest opinion openly expressed.


WRINKLES
Something other people have,
Similar to my character lines.

Rocky Horror Show

 

Everywhere... Everything is Explained...

This is Michelle Yeoh in the very fantastic Everything Everywhere All at Once. In it she plays a mom,

and her story made me want to call my mom.   Courtesy of A24

This past weekend, a couple of my friends and I went to see Everything Everywhere All at Once. I went in knowing two things about it: The first was that the very talented and fantastic Michelle Yeoh was in it; and the second was that it involved the “multiverse.”

As the credits rolled, with tears trickling into my mask, I had a hard time discerning what was making me emotional. I say emotional because it wasn’t just one feeling, but a strange mix of several: joy, wistfulness, catharsis, yearning, hope.

Without giving too much away, the very simple gist of this maximalist, fantastic tornado of a movie is about the choice to exist, to fully live within the present moment. It’s about finding the beauty in our small, odd lives, even as we constantly compare what we have to our unfulfilled fantasies. The movie also examines how we take solace in the personal disasters we’ve narrowly avoided. But what makes Everything Everywhere All at Once so powerful is the multiverse, a dazzling antidote to the fact that real life these days feels like it’s been designed to blur and pummel our emotions into dullness.

What is the multiverse? A world full of endless potential; multiple parallel universes spinning in synchronicity; and the possibility of alternate, powerful, seemingly better versions of ourselves. At a time when a pandemic, wars, and political cruelty have become constant, inevitable presences in our daily lives, it’s the ultimate fantasy for this moment. And that’s not just because Marvel, the most powerful entertainment company in the world, has gone all-in and made the multiverse a cornerstone of its current storytelling.  READ MORE...

American Cars

 

Cannabis Intoxication

New research published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence provides evidence that a new scale that incorporates contemporary young adult language to measure the effects of cannabis is a viable alternative to standard assessments of intoxication.

Many previous studies examining cannabis use have simply asked the participants to indicate “How high do you feel?” on a sliding scale. But the authors of the new research noted that such a scale might not adequately differentiate between various levels of effects and might not be in line with the common language used among young adults.

“Research on cannabis is growing pretty rapidly, however, the field is still working on some pretty foundational issues about how to measure the effects of consuming cannabis consistently as well as in a way that reflects the experiences of people who are using it,” said study author Renee Cloutier, a scientific director for the Program Evaluation and Research Unit at the University of Pittsburgh.

“Without this step, researchers are limited in their ability to generate knowledge that is reliable, generalizable, and easy to communicate back to the people who are most invested in it (i.e., people who use/purchase cannabis). The downstream consequence is that we lack a robust evidence base for creating an informed and empowered consumer base or policy makers who want to develop evidence-based cannabis policies.”

Researchers have developed a new sliding scale for cannabis effects that includes four anchors: relaxed, calm/chill, high, and stoned/baked.

To further evaluate the new scale, Cloutier and her colleagues conducted a 14-day daily diary study with 161 young adults. Each day, participants were asked if they had used cannabis. If they had, they were additionally asked to report the mode of administration (bong, vape, pipe, edible, etc.) and to rate their subjective intoxication using both an older scale and the newly developed scale.  READ MORE...

Pavlov's Cats

 

The Pyramid Builders

The Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza. Seeking to understand how this remarkable monument was constructed has long been a source of scholarly fascination. Here we see the west side of the pyramid, with the Western Cemetery, which contained officials and retainers, visible in the foreground. PHOTO: © Mark Lehner.


We know it as the Great Pyramid. To the Ancient Egyptians it was the Akhet Khufu or Horizon of Khufu, named after the 4th Dynasty king who reigned from roughly 2633 BC to 2605 BC. By any measure, the pyramid that served as his tomb was a staggering accomplishment. Its four sides were each approximately 230m long, while the edifice incorporated some 2.3 million blocks and originally stood almost 150m high. Within lay an intricate network of chambers and passages, which showcase the skill of Egyptian masons. 

Despite the monument’s impressive statistics, though, there is one thing it is notably short of: text. Unlike some later pyramids, and the famous tombs crowding the Valley of the Kings, the interior of the Great Pyramid is not lavishly adorned with hieroglyphics. Instead, just a few graffiti naming work gangs were daubed in suitably discreet spots. Until recently, these sparse words provided the only contemporary textual glimpse of construction operations.

A decade ago, hoping to secure an eye-witness account of work on the Great Pyramid would have seemed like archaeological wishful thinking of the highest order. But then, in 2013, fragments of the earliest papyri documents ever found were recovered by an archaeological team led by Pierre Tallet, Professor of Egyptology at the University of Paris-Sorbonne. 

It speaks volumes about the scale of Khufu’s grand design that these texts, which were compiled by individuals involved with construction operations, were not found within the pyramid or even at Giza. Instead, they were recovered more than 130km away, in Egypt’s Eastern Desert near the Red Sea shore. The papyri comprise logbooks and other bureaucratic records that detail the activities of teams engaged on Khufu’s mortuary complex. 

Some of these accounts overlap in a remarkable fashion with the results of archaeological work led by Mark Lehner, President of AERA (Ancient Egypt Research Associates), at Giza. Now these two archaeologists have collaborated on a book shedding new light on one of the most renowned archaeological monuments in the world (see ‘Further reading’).  TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE...

Girl in Water

If You Have Good Health, You Have Everything

Two months ago, I got out of bed one morning and had soreness in my butt cheeks.  A couple of days later, it was in my butt cheeks as well as the back of my thighs.  I continued to ignore it until it began to inhibit my ability to walk.  I tried exercises, cold packs, and heat but nothing really worked.  Finally, I decided to see an orthopedic doctor, who after seeing me walk like a penguin, immediately said, "L5/L6 - MRI TO CONFIRM."

Since I need to be sedated, I had to wait 2 months before I could have a sedated MRI...  It is going to take place at the end of this month...  meanwhile, I have been walking with a cane and it is painful to walk, but not impossible to walk.  I expend more energy when I walk now so I have to stop and rest.  I can walk down the steps, but have no power in either leg when I try to walk up steps.  I now find myself pulling myself up the stairs with the handrail.

My doctor told me that there were three things that he could possibly do for me once he had the results of the MRI.  First, he could do nothing.  Second, he could give me injections that may or may not work.  Third, he could do surgery.  Since my wife had shots to help her back issues and they did not work, I have decided to go with the surgery option.  And, I am sure that there are all sorts of risks associated with surgery and I have seen the results of surgeries that did not work...  in fact, they made the situation worse...  and the patient was screwed for life...

It is also interesting to note that as I get older then more and more negative shit happens to me with my physical body...  as if my body is gradually falling apart.  For instance:  Heart Attack, Lymphoma, Melanoma, Thyroid, Prostate, Eyes, Ears, Sinuses, and just the overall lack of physical strength that I used to have.

From My Back Porch

From my back porch in East Tennessee, I watch the morning news 24/7 and I am inundated with the following:

• The Russian invasion of Ukraine
• An increase in Illegal Immigration at our Southern Borders
• Increasing Inflation
• Trying to teach our children about transgenderism
• Blaming former President Trump for President Biden's decisions
• Increase in crime and violence in our larger cities
• Attempting to defund police (law enforcement)
• Destroying the fossil fuel industry
• An Unnatural push toward going green and climate change
• Kissing the ass of the Chinese government to increase profits
• Not having the "balls" to stand up to Russia
• The censorship of opposing views

My back porch is littered with all the dead thoughts of my daily concerns and each weekend, I sweep these thoughts into the trash so that I can prepare myself for the upcoming week...  and, more of the same...

I am retired and can do nothing but bitch about it...  but as long as the Democrats are in power, this bullshit is going to continue...  and my only hope is that the American people in November change the situation with their votes...

Our problem here in America is not Liberals and Conservatives, nor is it Socialists or Libertarians...  it is THE WEALTHY...  the BILLIONAIRES and MULTI-MILLIONAIRES that are influencing and controlling our society...

We can stop them if we want to stop them...  We can unite if we want to unite...  There are more of US than there are of THEM...

When I was Young

 

Coke Leaving Russia (click to start)

Free Speech

I believe in free speech as long as you only believe in what I have to say or others like me... if you have an opposing view then you should not have free speech, you should be censored...  

There is no room in our society for people who disagree with us...  in fact, those people should not be allowed to live in our free society

We will not stop until you only think like we do....

But hey...  this is America!!!

Hellbender

China's COVID Crisis

The COVID wave crashing across China right now not only threatens the billion-and-a-half Chinese. It also poses a serious danger to the rest of the world.

Leaving aside the risk to already fragile global supply chains, there’s a chance that the surge of infections in China will give the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen ample opportunity to mutate into some new and more dangerous variant. If that happens, the progress the world has made against COVID since vaccines became widely available in late 2020 could slow, if not reverse.

“There’s the distinct possibility that things will get out of control in China,” John Swartzberg, a professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at the University of California-Berkeley's School of Public Health, told The Daily Beast. “If that happens,” Swartzberg added, “there will be a remarkable amount of viral reproduction occurring in people and this will increase the possibility of problematic variants being produced.”

Experts disagree just how likely it is that the next major variant—“lineage” is the scientific term—might emerge in China. Ben Cowling, a professor of epidemiology at The University of Hong Kong, said the next major lineage may come from countries where the virus has already swept through the population. Somewhere in Europe, or the U.S.

But there are unique dynamics that boost the chances of a new SARS-CoV-2 lineage appearing in China. The Chinese population is huge—and might be way less protected against infection and thus viral mutation than, say, Americans or Europeans.

This disparity is partly the consequence of China’s earlier success against COVID. For more than two years, the Chinese government and health establishment managed to suppress the novel-coronavirus. This despite the pathogen likely originating at a meat market in Wuhan in east-central China in late 2019.

Thanks to China’s frequently severe limits on crowds and travel daily, the country went two years with practically no COVID. Yes, there were a few tens of thousands of cases across the vast country during the initial wave of infections in the spring of 2020. But after that, almost nothing. So few cases that the 150 or so daily new infections authorities logged in mid-January 2021 qualified as a surge.  READ MORE...

Horse Pals

 

Party of White Supremacy

Ibram X. Kendi visits Build to discuss the book Stamped: Racism, 

Antiracism and You at Build Studio on March 10, 2020 in New York 

City. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images) (Michael Loccisano)

A professor at Boston University said that Republicans are "the party of white supremacy."

In an op-ed for The Atlantic, Ibram X. Kendi, Boston University Andrew W. Mellon professor in the Humanities and Director of the Center for Antiracist Research said that Republicans are not the party of "any group of parents," but rather "the party of white supremacy."

Kendi wrote in the op-ed that Republican opposition to critical race theory means it is "clearly" not the party of parents.

"The Republican Party is clearly not the party of parents. The Republican Party is certainly not the party of parents of color. But is the Republican Party even the party of white parents?" Kendi wrote.

He stated that Republican "branding" of being the "party of parents" is a "myth" that's equivalent to "the great lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump," adding that it has been built on "false conceptual building blocks.

Kendi says that the "false conceptual building blocks" are "Republican politicians care about white children," "Anti-racist education is harmful to white children," "Republican politicians are protecting white children by banning anti-racist education," and "Republican politicians are protecting white children by banning anti-racist education."

He goes on to say that if Republican politicians care about White children, "they would not be ignoring or downplaying or defending or bolstering the principal racial threat facing white youth today."

Falling Apart