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Resonance

The Erechtheion (or Erechtheum) is an ancient Greek temple constructed on the acropolis of Athens between 421 and 406 BCE in the Golden Age of the city in order to house the ancient wooden cult statue of Athena and generally glorify the great city at the height of its power and influence. The Erechtheion has suffered a troubled history of misuse and neglect, but with its prominent position above the city and porch of six Caryatids, it remains one of the most distinctive buildings from antiquity.

Much like temples of  Ramesses II at Abu Simbel in Egypt, the Erechtheion has resonated with me from the moment I first saw pictures of it in sixth grade.

Abu Simbel

When I stumbled across an article documenting the modern day relocation of the Abu Simbel temples in an issue of National Geographic in the late sixties, I repeatedly asked my mom when we’d been there. Of course, she replied that we’d never been to Egypt, yet I distinctly remembered having been in that place at some point.

I have no such “I’ve been there” feeling regarding the Erechtheion, but I am in absolute awe of the beauty of the building, and like I wrote, it just resonates.

Proof of past lives? Maybe, but probably not, because the one thing I do believe is that if reincarnation is real, considering the vastness of the universe and the billions of undoubtedly inhabited worlds out there, it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to be forced to live out multiple lives on this single rock we currently call home. That would imply there’s something inherently special about this planet—and human beings themselves—that I feel entirely unwarranted as it puts us back as the medieval “center of the universe” thing.

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Science!

Take a good look: this is the black hole at the center of our galaxy.

In the inset image, gas in the glowing orange ring surrounds the black hole’s event horizon, a boundary from which nothing can escape. The ring is created by light bending in the intense gravity around Sagittarius A*, which has a mass some four million times greater than our Sun. This groundbreaking image of Sagittarius A* was taken by the Event Horizon Telescope team with data from telescopes around the world. After the EHT’s iconic image of M87*, released in 2019, this is only the second time a supermassive black hole has been directly observed with its shadow.

The wider look at the space around Sagittarius A* includes data contributed by several NASA missions. The orange specks and purple tendrils were captured in infrared light by the Hubble Space Telescope, and the blue clouds represent data from our orbiting Chandra X-ray Observatory.

Fall in to the whole story: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/images/sagittarius-a-nasa-telescopes-support-event-horizon-telescope-in-studying-milky-ways.html

[Source]

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Moron.

Who paid for this asswipe’s law degree? Because it’s obvious they wasted their money.

Insurrectionist and all around asshole, Josh Hawley introduced a bill on Tuesday that aims to revoke Disney’s copyrights.

So much for the love affair between big business and the Republikkkans.

Hawley’s bill would seek to retroactively limit Disney’s copyrights, effectively stripping the company of much of its intellectual property

Yeah like Coke or any other company would allow that shit to stand.

Hilarious!

If Congress were to go back to a 56-year maximum, it would violate the treaty of the Berne Convention (international treaty on copyrights) potentially incurring monetary penalties or trade sanctions.

So like DeathSantis, this dumb ass move would actually cost American tax payers shitloads of money.

Moron.

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Some Observations

    • Knowing only one language is like having only one eye.  You can still see everything, but you miss out on the depth.
    • Some people, it is said, see retirement as the end of a meaningful life.  I see it as the end of a meaningless life.  No more spending eight hours a day doing things so inane and irritating that they literally need to pay me to do them.  Retirement is the time to bloom.  Most jobs wilt you.
    • Gangster “leaders” always underestimate the strength and resolve of democracies.  The Kaiser did, Hitler did, Tojo did, Saddam Hussein did, and now Putin is doing it.  They never seem to learn.
    • Toddlers (of whatever chronological age) go on the internet to show how performatively cynical they can be.  Adults grapple with the detail and complexity of difficult problems in the real world.
    • There is money to be made by telling people what they want to hear, and what stupid people want to hear is that smart people actually aren’t so smart after all.  That’s why, for example, the junk media so often report new scientific discoveries as showing that “scientists were wrong about such-and-such”, even though usually the new discovery fits into existing theories quite well.
    • If somebody uses words like “sheeple” or “herd” to refer to those who disagree with him, he’s probably in some kind of cult.
    • People who claim to not care about good manners have probably never had to deal with somebody who’s really rude.  That gets tiresome fast.
    • Saying “it’s a republic, not a democracy” is like saying “it’s a beagle, not a dog”.  A republic is a type of democracy, and the only type workable for a really large population.  Every democracy in the world today is a republic (well, some are technically constitutional monarchies, but they function as republics, with elected representatives holding power).  People who use this slogan aren’t basing it on some clear distinction between the two — they’re just rationalizing a claim that they should get their way even if they don’t win majority support.
    • Angry people are usually easy to manipulate.  That’s why would-be manipulators try to keep their audience in a state of constant outrage.
    • Better my own road to Hell than someone else’s road to Heaven.

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A Trick of Light and Shadow

“Explanation: Why does Saturn appear so big? It doesn’t – what is pictured are foreground clouds on Earth crossing in front of the Moon. The Moon shows a slight crescent phase with most of its surface visible by reflected Earthlight known as ashen glow. The Sun directly illuminates the brightly lit lunar crescent from the bottom, which means that the Sun must be
below the horizon and so the image was taken before sunrise. This double take-inducing picture was captured on 2019 December 24, two days before the Moon slid in front of the Sun to create a solar eclipse. In the foreground, lights from small Guatemalan towns are visible behind the huge yolcano Pacaya.”

[Source]

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