Katy doesn't need a dude...

You go, Girl! Life's a Do It Yourself project!

The 'Question Everything' for today is:

What part of 'Thou shalt not kill' do these people not understand?

This kind of behavior goes against everything I've learned about religion. And I hasten to add that religion has started more wars than gunpowder has.

What's this?

What are they trying to prove? First, the Israelis fire tank shells into a school being used as a refuge by civilians, and then they declare a four-hour reloading 'truce'. What the hell's that?

They say they have to destroy tunnels. A tunnel has two ends, doesn't it? So go find the end that comes out on your own side of the border, and then instead of blowing something all to hell, just pump it full of seawater.

In the early 1940s, the Nazis were loading Jews onto trains and taking them away to be killed. How is this Israeli action against Palestinians any better?
That's today's Question Everything.

Do sanctions work?

Most of Europe's natural gas and oil evidently comes from Russia, and for all the
talk and symbolism of sanctions, they are unlikely to cut off their supplies.

I think the main difficulty in dealing with Colonel Putin of the KGB is that he admires the old Soviet Union, and perhaps imagines himself as another Stalin.
He has been trying to persuade China and India to join him in an Asian power block, while evidently ignoring the fact that India and China are already co-operating in matters of mutual defense and mutual interest, and they could
easily swallow Russia's 143.5 million if they really put their minds to it.

Putin has talked about rebuilding Russia's bomber force, and probably hasn't stopped to think about why intercontinental bomber forces aren't still popular.
They were outperformed by ICBMs, which are more difficult to intercept and
don't have to have an elaborate airfield nor return home to it. Russia's present bomber force consists of some fifty-year-old turboprops, and about three dozen more modern jet bombers, which are no longer cutting edge technology. Maybe because they aren't all that effective, compared to other systems.

And if the Cold War really is over, then Putin should bring home his goon squads
from Ukraine and let some of our favorite nude models get on with what they do best, and let peace return to the valley.

And this from our gardens...

A couple of pictures...

These are from a neighbor's flower garden...

 

Astrophysically speaking....

First, the big picture......

This 'dark matter' seems more like 'invisible matter' because we can't see it directly, but rather only by its effects.

Not long ago, our scientists introduced us to the Higgs boson, dubbed by the media as 'the God particle', a nickname Higgs and other physicists strongly dislike. But what if this 80% of the universe known as 'dark matter' is some sort of evidence of God? What then?

And going back for a moment to 'Uncle Albert' and his 'E = MC squared' theory,
everything in the universe is in motion - even grandpa in his lounger watching TV, because the earth is, for example, moving in eight directions simultaneously and all that other stuff out there is whizzing around and flying off in various directions as the universe expands into something we'll call The Void for want of a better definition.

So, if energy equals mass times velocity squared, then masses in motion can be considered as energy. And there are different different kinds of that. The 'Big Bang' (the original production, not the TV show) was one kind. The steam generated by heating water is another kind. And maybe 'dark matter' is some other kind that ties the whole thing together and gives it somewhere to act and react. I think what I'm trying to say is that along the space/time continuum, there is only a very limited range of 'frequencies' or physical properties that are detectable by us and beyond that lies the vast majority of that space/time continuum. And just because we can't 'see' it, it doesn't mean it isn't there, interacting with what we do 'see'. And as our technology improves, we're able to detect a little more, a little further, along that continuum. But we still aren't able to make sense of enough of it to explain the big questions, like "Where did it all come from?" or "Where is it all going?" 

Some things, like peace in the Middle East, seem to be perpetually beyond our grasp. And if we can't solve a problem like that, how can we hope to understand something like 'dark matter'? 

Something to have a look at...

This helps you keep a low profile among those who want your information, and it puts a little icon in the taskbar of your browser, so you can make choices....

And this is how you configure it, once you've downloaded the free program.

And this panel (upper right on blog page above) is where you can make choices for any website you are on. You display it by clicking on the icon of the little head and shoulders found on the right-hand end of your taskbar (as above).
It works on your PC as well as on mobiles. Don't leave home without it.

Visit the website for your free copy.

Speaking of Wonder Woman...

Here she is as a Windows 8 desktop theme...

And yes, there's more......

There! That's the whole theme. These enlarge when clicked, if you want any.
And I still think the original Wonder Woman looks better than the recent copy.

 

Today's 'Question Everything'

Today's Question Everything is: "Do you find all this as bizarre and ridiculous and unnecessary as it seems to me?"

Every time someone proposes peace, one side or the other finds some excuse to continue the fighting. People of good will do not need 66 years to reach the compromises necessary for a peaceful resolution of differences. So this really isn't only a war, it long ago became a 'make-work project'. Whole generations have come and gone making a career of fighting their neighbors. If that isn't a suitable definition for insanity, it will do until a better one comes along.

Wonder Woman...

May I repeat? You don't get a second chance to make a first impression!
And that first impression looks like this:-

Hollywood, like Israel, just can't leave well enough alone, perhaps because they are all part of the same gang.

Lake Mead only 39% full

It's 139 feet below its maximum, and hasn't been this low since it first began filling in 1937, when the dam was built.

 

The Weather...

That cease-fire....

As Bill Maher remarked on 'Real Time' last evening, 'Reloading time'....

And it shouldn't take more than 66 years for both sides to realize the other guys aren't going anywhere. The Jews weren't this long wandering the desert after the Pharaoh kicked them out of Egypt back in the days of Moses. And I think we're all getting a fresh perspective on why that may have happened.

The 'Pot-a-lizer'? The 'Weedometer'?

If you think all those lights changing colors at intersections are really pretty, and you wonder what the special occasion is, and you hear all those car horns blowing nearby, accompanied by screeching tires, and you wonder why there's all that traffic rushing through the intersections from the cross-streets while you're trying to get through yourself, and nearby pedestrians are yelling things like "Hey! Dumb-ass! Watch It!", and you can't figure out what they want you to watch, especially while you're enjoying all these pretty lights already, then you're probably 20 feet off the ground and rising, and you really ought to park that thing before someone T-bones you right into that store on the corner.

Ridiculous!

This is a classic example of what's wrong with American politics; there's too much frivolous 'shit-disturbing' and not enough serious political activity.

If no one managed to find sufficient numbers of sane and patriotic Americans to impeach that warmongering dumbo 'Dubya' then those rabid Republicans haven't got a hope in Hell of finding sufficient grounds for impeachment of President Obama, and they ought to be thoroughly ashamed of themselves for even jokingly suggesting it.

F-35 Helmet $600,000 +

For the price of one helmet, you could buy five or maybe six rebuilt Stearmans and start your own air force, and it would be a lot more fun.

News from the Moscow Times

Read the complete story here.

About 'Fifty Shades of Grey'

Alice Audley of the Telegraph has a few choice words for us about this overrated 'pot-boiler' of an erotic tale.

And if I'm understanding her correctly, it seems as if this may be a sly re-hash
of that 1986 R-rated epic '9 1/2 Weeks' that made Kim Basinger famous, even
though it rates only two-and-a-half bones from Videohound. And Videohound describes two-and-a-half bones like this: "Technically well-made but often standard fare; won't make you yell at the screen too much."

And let's face it: sex has been around as long as Homo Sap-head has, and it amazes me that it hasn't already become as boring as three-day-old cowshit.
The Earl of Chesterfield described it thusly: 'Sex: The pleasure is momentary, the position ridiculous, and the expense damnable.'
George Burns said: 'My mother told my father to tell me about the birds and the bees. He took me to Coney Island, pointed to a couple making love under the boardwalk and said, "Your mother wants you to know that the birds and the bees do the same thing." '
And Rita Rudner said: "I got kicked out of ballet class because I pulled a groin muscle. It wasn't mine."

 

Global Warming update....

It's the 24th of July, raining lightly, and the temperature's 57 F. This Global Warming is getting to be a problem. I may have to get out my winter snuggies.

Cut poverty, but first.....

...let's try to cut the bullshit. Why? Because - if bullshit was music, Washington would be the music capital of the world - maybe even this half of the galaxy!

What goes up must come down...

Air travel they say is safe. They are probably right, but take a look at this next one showing a live radar display of air traffic right now over North America, and
you get another perspective on the problem. It almost looks like gridlock.