Ethan Siegel, in typically wonderful fashion, lays out the basis for the Big Bang, beginning with the most basic astronomical observations of an expanding universe to the intricacies cosmic radiation.
If you want to know how the Big Bang theory came to be, start here.
Because we started here.
A Solar System Across Sweden
A 1:20 million scale solar system has been built that covers the entire nation of Sweden. With different buildings and sculptures representing different planets and solar bodies, the replicas begin in Stockholm (with the Sun and inner planets) and stretch all the way to the far north town of Kiruna (the point of termination shock), 950 km away from the “Sun”.
I’ve put the names of what the above sculptures represent in the photo captions.
To see the full list of pseudo-planetary landmarks, check here. Any Swedish followers seen any of these?
[Entirely unsurprising. Remember: The CIA is Wall Street and Wall Street is the CIA. See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJFjiTI-Kyc —Ed. ]
NYPD shares secret spying center with One Percenters
UNDERNEWS (SAM SMITH) - 2/6/12 12:45 PM
Pam Martens, Counterpunch - The New York Times, the worldwide news agency Agence France-Presse, Wired Magazine, the New York City Council had all previously reported the location of the supposedly super secret counter terrorism center on their public web sites: 55 Broadway in the bowels of the financial district. What was a secret about the operation, and not reported by 60 Minutes to its viewers, despite being well aware of the facts, is that the center is jointly staffed and operated by the NYPD along with the largest Wall Street firms – the same firms under investigation in 50 states for mortgage and foreclosure fraud and widely credited with causing the Nation’s economic collapse. The Wall Street firms that were involuntarily bailed out by the 99% are now policing the 99%.In a telephone conversation with the co-producer of the program, Robert Anderson, he conceded that he was aware of the presence of the Wall Street firms in the center. It would have been hard to miss them. The facility is designed with three long rows of computer workstations. The outside of each cubicle bears a brass plaque with the names of the occupants: Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, JPMorganChase, etc.
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(Source: glitchthemachine)
A former New York City police detective found guilty of planting drugs on two innocent people was spared prison time after a dramatic courtroom mea culpa Thursday.
“I can’t look at myself in the mirror anymore,” Arbeeny tearfully told Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Gustin Reichbach, according to The New York Daily News. “Sir, I am begging you, please don’t send me to jail.”
Shocking, right? It’s no surprise that this cop got off with a slap on the wrist. What I wonder is what happens to the convictions of all the people Jason Arbeeny arrested for drugs during his career.
I have a suspicion this happens all the time. And this strict punishment will surely dissuade any other cops from continuing the practice. Yeah… It’s a miracle that this even saw daylight to begin with, but that it ends with such a pathetic “punishment” means that it will continue.
Replacement Jaw Made Using 3D Printing
One of the benefits of 3D printing is that it enables to essentially download spare parts for cars or electronics. Well, now you may be able to download spare parts for yourself (surgeons not included). An 83 year old woman from the Netherlands has now become part cyborg after a chronic bone infection meant her lower jaw had to be removed. No worries though, a new jaw was simply made by fusing together titanium dust using a laser, one layer at a time, in a manner very similar to more conventional 3D printing. It takes 33 layers to make up 1 mm of height and was then covered in ceramic. The surgery itself only took 4 hours, a fifth of the time usually required for reconstructive surgery of this type. The woman was also able to return after only 4 days and was apparently capable of uttering a few words directly after surgery.
This is an excerpt from pages 35-36 of The Chemical Muse: Drug Use and the Roots of Western Civilization
Despite this traditional squeamishness about the topic of recreational drugs, a wealth of ancient literature shows that the Greco-Roman world actively indulged in numerous mind-altering substances of homegrown and foreign origins. Plants were the source of the pleasure-inducing drugs used to elevate the mood and enhance the senses. Opiates, anticholinergics, and psychotropic fungi were the drugs of choice in antiquity, but a number of unrelated toxins were also used to create the out-of-body experiences that the Greeks and Romans so craved. It may not be pleasant for some of us to admit it, but the texts clearly show that our most original and respected thinkers flourished within a culture that wholeheartedly embraced recreational drug use.
The Classical world understood that some drugs, whether mixed in wine, snorted, or smoked, could readily alter consciousness and considered the dramatic changes inbehavior that characterized these psychotropic substances to be a form of madness or insanity. Potent drugs and hallucinogenic poisons enabled their users to violate the limits of propriety by temporarily placing them in states that were clearly out of sync with the rest of society. This pharmacologically induced psychosis made drug users rave in a manner that was typically considered to be a sign of mania. Such insanity was not always the desired result of psychotropics; citizens of the ancient world typically used different types or smaller amounts of recreational drugs to induce mild euphoria, with no additional psychological side effects. Doctors, philosophers, and natural scientists traditionally recognized the potential for botanical drugs to have different effects on their users, including variations in potency due to the level of dosages and the natural strength of different species.
about the author: David Hillman pursued his Ph.D. in classics at UW-Madison. His topic was “pharmacy in Roman literature,” and he had the tedious task of poring over volumes of medical texts in Latin and Greek. He discovered that not only did the Greeks and Romans know a lot about herbal concoctions including opium, there was evidence that the use of some of these substances went beyond medical necessity. (via The Daily Page)
Ergot was some gnarly shit.
Ordinary people. The courage to say no.
The photo was taken in Hamburg in 1936, during the celebrations for the launch of a ship. In the crowed, one person refuses to raise his arm to give the Nazi salute. The man was August Landmesser. He had already been in trouble with the authorities, having been sentenced to two years hard labour for marrying a Jewish woman.
We know little else about August Landmesser, except that he had two children. By pure chance, one of his children recognized her father in this photo when it was published in a German newspaper in 1991. How proud she must have been in that moment.
