Republicans decide to finally grow up, sort of

It seems that the Republican party has finally realized that it cannot get away with having things their way or else throwing a tantrum.  As anyone with a grain of intelligence can tell you, American politics are screwed up, but the GOP has taken things to the next level and beyond in many instances.  The entire concept of the 'Tea Party' and their often racist, homophobic, big business promoting ways that have pushed into popular Republican values has become a joke onto itself.  But their general plan of acting like they are the good guys when in fact they only care about getting paid well finally backfired.

When a bill to renew a cut in payroll taxes by about $20 a week for an average worker making $50,000 a year came to the senate was first stopped, Republicans claimed it was because the only way to do it was not a 2 month renewal, but a full year, Thus tricking the voters into thinking the Democrates were idiots for thinking of this and couldn't be bothered to deal with when real issues were at hand.  But once word of this spread that if this wasn't done now, the payroll tax would be increased in an attempt to find funds for a previous cut in social security tax, Republicans realized that they would receive harsh criticism for their actions and gave in to negotiations.  Instead of looking for money where it could be appropriated more easily and less destructively to the working class, it would have been placed at the foot of middle class taxpayers had things stalled further.

To be fair, many Republicans were fully on board with the tax cut, but the idea that they had to convince so many others that this was the right thing to do and had to be done now is absurd.  It is this part of the Republican party that has made American politics a joke to much of the rest of the world.  Even this side was mostly on board with the idea, but kept wanting to hold out for more breaks for small businesses instead of seeing that the economy was not in a state to allow the American taxpayer to pick up this burden at this time.

I do hope that this will be a step in the right direction and that the Republican party can become a more unified whole, stepping away from the crazy direction that it has been following with increasing intensity in modern years.  It is time for the world to be shown that we Americans should be a leading force in the world not because of our power, but because of our system, that we have the right ideals. Unfortunately actual political work seems to only only become muddled in the bureaucracy far too much as of late.  I believe that such a turn around would be just what many nations need to restore some of their faith in the economic and political strength of the Unites States.

A final note on Christopher Hitchens

I had recently stumbled upon this video over at Spanish Inquisitor.  After watching it...and once the numbness finally left my limbs from my proximity to that kind of stupid, I decided to have a go at this.  The individual in the video brings up the idea that, according to his doctrine, Christopher Hitchens is in hell not because of some punishment, but because god loves him ever so much.  For those of you with a low stupidity tolerance, I shall give you a moment before trudging on.

So how does someone love another enough to let them burn eternally?  Well, there really isn't any way that it can make sense, at least not the kind of sense that is seen outside of serial killers and, apparently, Christian talk show hosts.  According to him, Hitchens was in pursuit of damnation his entire life, by not accepting the loving embrace of Jesus (I still cannot write that without getting a bit of a shiver down my spine at the thought of just what that embrace might entail).  So in his infinite and unquestionable wisdom, god gave him just what he had always strived for, an unveiling of the truth and a betterment of humanity...wait, I'm sorry, god was just fresh out of those and instead Hitchens has to settle for an infinite understanding of pain and agony, same thing right?

According to this man and all those countless others who follow such doctrine, god loves everyone and is willing to let everyone have what they desire.  And by that I mean give those who believe in his kid everything they could hope for while torturing the rest.  All the good the man did, all the events he brought to light in his various books and articles, his own moral stance and actions, all cast aside because Hitchens didn't believe in their god (specifically their god's son...who is also god...I hate the trinity), all his life's works condensed into one little nugget that, with the aid of a bit of Magic Jesus Juice, would be light enough to float into heaven. But Hitchens clearly made his choice, so his eloquent and satirically laced nodule would be just a bit too heavy and would sink down into hell (satire being the densest of all writing styles).  Thus, god gives us what we truly desire, isn't it beautiful?

If that seems a bit, well, crazy to you, congratulations, you are not a psychopath!  The attempt at wit at the very end of the video, where the individual states that Hitchens would not want to be given access to heaven is actually correct, but not for the reasons he thinks.  For who in their right mind would want to enter into a heaven that involves spending all your time worshiping a tyrant.  No, Hitchens wouldn't want entry into such a place based on the principles of its ruler, not out of pride as this person, and many others think.  But luckily for him, we live in a universe where things don't work that way.  Instead we have nothing to fear but the people who prop up their ideals upon the very gods they create in an attempt to raise some part of themselves above what they see as the 'enemy'.  This is a sad state of affairs and one I wish was not so, but if anything, Christopher Hitchens taught us to look directly at what is worst about ourselves, he did this in a hope that the rest of humanity might rectify the wrongs of others.  And for that we should thank him, for giving us a chance to look at the darker parts of our selves and figure out how to make things just a bit brighter.

1949 - 2011

Ayn Rand, it had to be done

While talking with my love, I was inspired to get a bit creative and ended up creating  a new demotivational poster.  So, for everyone who has had to put up with the kind of self idolizing libertarian idiots that so many of us, sadly, have the burden of calling acquaintances, here is a meme you can get behind.

CERN announces possible evidence for the Higgs Boson

On Tuesday, December 13th, the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) announced that two competing teams have possibly detected the hypothetical Higgs Boson, the last of the elementary particles predicted by the Standard Model remaining to be uncovered. The possible new discovery was made at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the largest particle accelerator in existence. With a circumference of 27km (17 miles), the LHC is able to accelerate twin proton beams up to a speed of 99.999 the speed of light, creating an impact energy of 14.7 TeV (Terra Electron Volts). One of the prime reasons for the construction of the LHC was to look for the Higgs Boson, which until the construction of the LHC, had a predicted energy limit above the capability of the largest particle colliders of the time.

The announcement was made based on the works of two competing teams working at two separate detectors located at the LHC. One at the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) and the other at the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid), both of which are considered the general purpose detectors of the LHC, with the ATLAS fittingly being the larger of the two. The team at ATLAS found an excess of reactions stemming from the range of 125-6 GeV (Giga Electron Volts) while the CMS team found a similar excess at 124 GeV. When combined with other data from previous experiments, this gives us a certainty of 95% of the Higgs Boson being limited to the range of 115-130 Gev. To give you an example of what these numbers mean, 125 GeV is 133 times the mass of a proton, one of the two particles that make up the nucleus of an atom.

The Higgs Boson itself is far to short lived to be detected directly. Instead, it can be infered based on particles formed from its decay inside the detectors at the LHC. Because of this and the mess of other particles formed during these intense collisions, it takes both large amounts of computing power as well as huge numbers of collisions. In the case of the Higgs, an excess of two muons and two neutrinos, which come from, in turn, two W bosons. Because these kinds of reactions can be formed by random background noise, physicists must be careful to rule out all possible causes before settling upon the Higgs Boson as the source.

A simulated computer model for the reaction caused by a Higgs Boson.

It should be noted that CERN did not confirm that the Higgs Boson had been discovered, but that further evidence must be uncovered before it can be safely said that the Higgs Boson exists. Until then, this new data only makes the existence of the particle much more likely while reducing the energy ranges that are likely to harbor the particle. If the Higgs does exist, it is expected to be confirmed sometime in 2012 if current predictions are accurate.

The importance of the discovery of the Higgs Boson is hard to understate. It has often been referred to as the "God Particle" in the media, much to the chagrin of many physicists. This is due to the book of the same name written by physicist Leon Lederman who has been quoted as stating that the Higgs Boson is:

so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive

As well as jokingly following this with:

the publisher wouldn't let us call it the Goddamn Particle, though that might be a more appropriate title, given its villainous nature and the expense it is causing.

The Higgs Boson was predicted by three independent groups at nearly the same time in 1964. Eventually the particle was named after one of these individuals who has been given the credit for fleshing out the concept the most, Scottish physicist Peter Higgs. The Higgs Boson is the quanta (smallest unit of energy) for the Higgs Field, which would grant mass to other particles. One of the simplest ways to describe the Higgs Field was written by David J. Miller. He described the process as:

Imagine that a room full of physicists chattering quietly is like space filled with the Higgs field. A well-known scientist walks in, creating a disturbance as he moves across the room and attracting a group of admirers with every step.

This increases his resistance to movement. In other words, he acquires mass, just like a particle moving through the Higgs field. Now imagine if, instead of a well-known scientist entering, somebody started a rumour.

As the rumour spreads throughout the room, it creates the same kind of grouping, but this time it’s the scientists grouping together.

In this analogy, these groups are the Higgs bosons. If we find these groups, we can prove the Higgs field exists and thus explain the origin of mass.

The Higgs Boson also would be responsible for the symmetry breaking of the ElectroWeak Force, which is a combination of the Electromagnetic and Weak Nuclear forces and would explain why the mediating particle of the Electromagnetic (the Photon) is mass-less while the ones for the Weak Nuclear (the W and Z bosons) has a mass. It has also been hypothesized as one possible cause for the Inflationary period of the universe, when the young and hot cosmos expanded in volume by a factor of 10 to the 78th power between the times of 10 to the -36th seconds and either 10 to the -33rd or -32nd seconds. Though the Higgs Boson's part in Inflation is still hotly debated.

Disturbing youtube name, disturbing videos. Please report this.

So, I was on youtube, watching The Young Turks and I was watching this video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSltPSxD-Bc&feature=autoplay&list=UU1yBKRuGpC1tSM73A0ZjYjQ&lf=plcp&playnext=3
When I came across a comment by someone called beagoodgirl4Daddy.
If you go on their channel, it has nothing but videos of preteens, or even younger, doing 'sexy' things.
Please, please go and report them. I believe in freedom, but that is just absolutely horrible. There's no way that should be on any popular site.
Unless you approve of sexualizing young children, this is sick, wrong and just plain disgusting.

-Misa 

Mola mola, the Ocean Sunfish

The Ocean Sunfish is a bony fish that has made it its life-long goal to set as many records as possible. It does this while having an appearance that is, in a word, odd. These fish have undergone so many specializations as to set them apart from nearly every other group of extant fish.

The largest species, the Ocean Sunfish Mola mola belongs to the genus Mola of which it shares with only one other living member, The Southern Sunfish Mola ramsayi. In turn, the genus Mola belongs to the family Molidae which contains three genera and five known species. Until more genera were uncovered, the genus Mola did not exist and was instead classified under the same genus that houses the pufferfish, Tetradon. However, with better study of these fish and improved classifications of the related genera and species, they were moved to their own family and genera. Though they are still classifed within the same order as the pufferfish, porcupinefish, boxfish and filefish, the Tetradontiforms.

The Sunfish's relation to the Tetradontiforms has led to an ongoing debate as to the toxicity of these fish. Some claim that the organs contain a low level tetrodotoxin, the same kind of toxin found within certain pufferfish (as well as the Blue-Ringed Octopus and certain newts) and the cause of Fugu poisoning. Despite the claims, there have been no confirmed cases of tetrodotoxin poisoning in any species of sunfish. Which is certainly reassuring for the multiple cultures (primarily Japanese and Thai) that find sunfish flesh to be a delicacy.

Seen next to a diver, the adult Ocean Sunfish's size can truly be appreciated.

These fish have an appearance that makes them seem like they are only half a fish. In a sense, they are as their cauldal fin (the tail fin) has degenerated to a clavus which barely has any use in locomotion, acting more as a stumpy rudder. The dorsal and anal fins have become the prime sources of locomotion, moving side to side to slowly propel the fish through the water with a speed of under 2 mph (3.2 hm/h) and a range of around 16 miles per day (26 km). In fact it is due to this slow speed and large size, combined with their habit to lay on the surface of the water on their side to sunbathe that they have become known as a boating hazard where they have damaged hulls and destroyed engines. But this is essentially the only threat these docile fish pose, with the lone example of direct injury occurring when of boy was injured when an Ocean Sunfish breached (jumped out of the water) and landed on his boat, knocking him into the water.

One of the first record breaking traits to be noted about the Ocean Sunfish is its size. These fish are both the heaviest bony fish as well as the largest ray-finned bony fish. With a weight of up to and sometimes exceeding 2,200 lbs (1,000 kg), these fish are massive. Also, due to their odd appearance, they often have a length equal to their height, often around 11 ft. (3.3 m).

Despite their large size, Ocean Sunfish feed primarily on small organisms.  Their primarily source of nutrition are sea jellies, but they have also been known to feed on small fish, crustaceans, squid and eel grass.  Their teeth have fused into a beak, similar to many other tetradontiforms, but the sunfish's has fused in a way to prevent it from closing its mouth fully.  So instead of biting at its food, it will suck it in where it will blow water back and forth rapidly to tear apart its soft bodied prey.  It will then partially swallow its food and allow its pharyngeal teeth to grind the food down to a more manageable size before swallowing it the rest of the way.  The pharyngeal jaw is a trait held in common by some 30,000 species of fish and is, as the name suggests, teeth or, in some rare cases like Moray Eels, fully mobile jaws used to pull food down the throat.  In the Ocean Sunfish, they are basic teeth in the pharynx that simply grinds bits of food and nothing more.  Due to their nutrient poor diet, the Ocean Sunfish must eat frequently.

Due to the primary prey item of the sunfish being sea jellies, these fish are often found dead after they have tried to eat a plastic bag floating in the water and are unable to swallow it further.  Making pollution, as well as ocean traffic and fishing the primary threats to these fish.  Due to their size, they have few natural predators.  The only ones of note being Sea Lions, Orcas and certain sharks.

One of the other record setting traits of these fish can be found in their rate of reproduction.  The Ocean Sunfish lays more eggs at a time then any other vertebrate.  At a time, a single female sunfish can lay as many as 300,000,000 eggs (yes, that is 300 million).  These eggs are then externally fertilized by a male and then left to drift with the rest of the plankton on the oceans currents.  These eggs are fed on by multiple organisms all along the food chain including fish such as tuna.  It is because of this rather wasteful method of reproduction that such a large number of eggs must be produced to maintain the species population.  Once the eggs have hatched, the tiny fry appear as 1 mm, spiny spheres, betraying their common ancestor with the pufferfish.

A newly hatched sunfish fry.

Another of the record setting traits of the Ocean Sunfish has to do with the size of its spinal cord.  Due to the shortening of the body that has occurred over time, the actual spinal cord only extends about 1mm from the base of the brain.  The rest of the body is connected through the peripheral nervous system.  Thus, the sunfish has the smallest spinal cord of any fish in relation to their body.  They have also lost many of their vertebrae leaving them with the fewest of any fish.  In fact, despite being a bony fish, the sunfish has lost nearly all of its bone, replacing it with cartilage.  This adaptation has allowed the sunfish to grow to such large sizes without causing damage to its skeleton.  Further showing convergent evolutionary traits with the cartilaginous fishes is the development of denticles, sharp, teeth like protrusions of the skin.  These give sharks and rays, as well as the Ocean Sunfish, their sandpaper like texture.  This acts as a kind of body armor as well as decreasing water friction allowing them to move more easily through the water.

Change Immigration Laws To Include Character And Employment References

Disaster has struck, and I need the help of the good people of the internet.
This blog belongs to my boyfriend of two years who lives in America. I am English. Recently, yesterday, he tried to come here, as mentioned on his blog, but due to some complications at immigration, he was refused entry, because our immigration system in a computer system where you must tick the right boxes, rather than judging who we actually want to visit our country, and who we don't. This is pure unfairness.

My petition letter is on this link, for the change.org petition, please sign and give us both some hope for humanity, and maybe we can change the unfairness in this particular part of the world.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/petitions/24371