oh, PUH-LEEZE!

Our dearly beloved (former) governor Blago wants to go on a reality TV show instead of prison. The TV show is a sort of celebrity "Survivor" where famous people live in the jungle and complete challenges to raise money for charity. He's already got a contract with the network (NBC) and is just waiting for the court to OK it.

Not that you care, but...

The Hubble Space Telescope has been around a long time, taking pictures of the visible universe. One advantage of this is that when something happens, such as a supernova, scientists can go back through archival data and study the star before it exploded. Recently, such an event has happened, and as it turns out, astronomers may have to completely revise their theories of stellar evolution.
Stuff like this makes me somewhat giddy, because it reminds us that theories are often imperfect, and that there's SO SO SO MUCH we still dont know =)

The supernova occurred in a distant galaxy, but there is a similar star in our own Milky Way, called Eta Carinae which could explode in a hypernova.. a million, a thousand, a hundred.. years down the road. At this point it's pretty hard to tell. It would seem that this star is too far away to affect us should it explode, but we would DEFINITELY see it from earth (in the 1800's it was the 2nd brightest star in the sky after Sirius).

Apocalypse now

Wes and I discuss current events from time to time. One concern I've voiced recently is the possible government takeover of credit. Given the current situation, it's not at all unlikely, and if it does happen, it is the Mark of the Beast.
For those of you who aren't familiar with the book of Revelation in the Bible, one HUGE sign of the apocalypse is this mark of the beast thingy. Basically "the devil" takes over and assigns everyone a number, and without this number you cannot travel or trade. Some people were calling the "national ID card" the mark, but your purchasing power is not limited by the ID card. It would be by a government credit card.

Now I know some of you are saying "Oh man, she's gone Christian on us!" But that's not anymore true than saying that I've gone Mayan and started sacrificing people. I do still view the bible as largely fairy tales and parables. After all, Revelation is presented as a dream, full of imagery and metaphors.
And even as Wes and I talk with certainty about the coming end times, we remain calm, almost observant. This whole sequence of events seems very alien, barely reaching our lives. I mentioned to a coworker that aside from my sliding "college savings account" I don't even notice a recession. Shit, have you seen gas prices? They're freakin awesome.

Edit:
Actually, I just remembered how we got on this topic. I was thinking about how the government is printing way too much money and it's leading to inflation. So I proposed we burn massive amounts of cash to increase the value of the dollar. However I soon realized the possible worst-case-scenario of civil war over cash supply, at which point the government would step in and nationalize credit, leading to (BUM BUM BUMMMM..) the mark of the beast.

YouTube conspiracy theorists... sigh..

YouTube has both its merits and its drawbacks. In line with the wonders of the internet, anyone can post anything they want! This is obviously two sided...

anyway, kids on youtube are claiming you can see Nibiru or our sister star or w/e if you take pictures of the sun. SOME are mildly convincing.. But then I had a thought... Venus. Venus is near the sun this time of year. Fucking Venus.

Anyway, I took some pictures for myself this morning.. turned up nothing but the sun. Maybe a UFO but that very well could have been a speck of dirt on my windsheild (I was driving. Taking pictures of the sun while driving! Yes!)

So I guess I'll just do that till the sensor in my camera is fried. lol. Anyway, I won't post ANY pictures unless It is beyond a reasonable doubt that I have two suns or a UFO.


BUT here's the thing.. Previous Nibiru vids said we'd be able to see it in the southern hemisphere in 2009. And now.. January 1st all of the sudden people are like "OMG NIBIRU THE PROPHESY IS TRUUUUUU" Well if you knew anything about astronomy you'd realise it's probably Venus. Seriously "Mystery planet"? Barf. (err scratch my "venus" theory. You can't see it in the morning for another month or so-ish. But they'll be filming it when they can!)

You can fool some of the people all of the time..

you can fool all of the people some of the time...
But to fool most of the people all of the time, you need a two-party political system.

States’ Funds for Jobless Are Drying Up: Seek Government Help

B-buh? Give money to create jobs, instead of bailing out CEOs? We never even though of that.

The solution to repeat offenders

In my previous entry I mentioned that we have a 60% repeat offender rate here in the good ole U.S. of A. Here are some solutions:

1. Rehabilitation! Wouldn't that be super if we could have a system where we could successfully rehabilitate criminals to be productive members of society? If we could have a less than 10% repeat offender rate? Sure you don't want prison time to look too much like a free ride...
2. Lifetime sentences. Never let them out. Sure that'd be costly, but maybe we can combine #1 and #2 so we can be sure the ones we do let go would behave themselves.
3. Capital punishment for all felonies. Obviously you shouldn't be put to death for say, running a red light (or should you?) but for sure at least cases where there is irrefutable evidence the suspect killed one or more people intentionally. I would say there has to be intent (other than drunk driving. Other countries punish DUIs with death, and we should too.). This whole less than life for murder thing is ridiculous.

Sure, #3 is a bit harsh, but theoretically it would lower the initial crime rates. Maybe people would think over their options before stealing a TV.


On a completely unrelated topic, tonight is a peak viewing period for the meteor shower. I forget the name of this one, but apparently this one is known for some spectacular fireballs. The only problem this year is that we've got a full moon, so the peak is between sunset and moonrise, about 1.5 hours.

I came home yesterday to find an envelope from Norweigan Cruise Lines on the counter. The conversation went something like this:
Me: What? You guys are going on a cruise? When were you gonna tell me?
Mom: I dunno.
Me: You'd tell me like a week before. "Hey, we're going on a cruise. Can you take care of Daisy?" Man, you never take me anywhere cool.
Mom: What you wanna go on a cruise? I didn't think you would.
Me: Its a CRUISE! (looks at the brochure) To MEXICO!
Mom: Yeah, but you don't like family vacations.
Me: Our vacations are like, the Dells, or Memphis. Not a cruise to mexico!
Mom: Well, do you want me to look into it?
Me: Yeah.. could you?
Mom: Yeah. You'll probably have to share a room with Doug.
Me: .. Hm. When is it?
Mom: February, for ten days. Actually, you could probably take Wes.
Me: Wow, ten days. I've got five classes. I don't know if I wanna miss that much. Hey when is that insurance thing due? I get like five or ten days to drop classes for a full refund! heh, kidding.
Mom: What?
Me: For insurance.. Enrollment. I could fill out the form and drop the classes.
Mom: What? You're dropping your classes??
Me: No, I said I was kidding.
Mom: Well do you want me to check into it for you or no?
Me: (looks at brochure again) Yeah, would you please?

Wooooooo cruise to Mexico! Possibly! Mayan ruins OMG!!!