Higgs Boson & American Science

So that happened. After decades of research and about nine billion in funds, scientists are pretty damn sure that Higgs Bosons exist. Two teams conducted experiments (ATLAS and CMS) that returned generally the same results, independently from each other I might add. While this is probably one of if not the greatest scientific discovery of our generation, there is still a lot of information to pour through, especially in determining if the discovery is THE Higgs Boson. The particle itself wasn’t observed but rather decay paths that point very convincingly at the Higgs.

“We have a discovery. We have observed a new particle that is consistent with a Higgs boson.”

Confidence is high among the scientists, but it might be too early to really say. It is the heaviest Boson found and it is still too early to say that it fits The Standard Model of particle physics completely, we’ll have to wait and see.

So why is this important?

Well this might explain why things have mass, which goes hand in hand with explaining how the universe works and how it was created. We only know about roughly 4% of the universe, everything else is still hidden to us. Things like Dark Matter and Dark Energy still elude us, but with this discovery we are one step closer.

I am not really sure how and if this will impact our lives in the immediate sense, if at all. Such valuable discoveries tend to have a large impact on our lives as the implications are rolled out. I would list the vast number of life changers we enjoy but really all you need to do is look around your house. How is that electricity treating you?

So that Superconducting Super Collider that was axed in 1993, I bet some people are looking embarrassed right about now. This discovery could have been an American discovery, but short-sighted politicians and the belief that America no longer needed to prove its science eliteness to the world after the Cold War resulted in Europe having one. That leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

While I understand the clinching of assholes at the funding it would take for scientific breakthroughs, cutting science funding is a step backwards just waiting in the future. Sometimes the greatest discoveries and ventures for humanity need massive amounts of money, effectively being  suicide trip businesses. Luckily for us governments can place a large amount of money into projects that later have countless benefits. What better example than the Space Race? Look at the many medical and technological benefits from that endeavor that have enhanced not only America but humanity as a whole, not to mention the various industries it boosted. Now we have commercial space rockets docking to the International Space Station and very serious plans to mine asteroids. This is all possible from the massive groundwork paved by the government and the massive money sink it burdened.

That sense of wonder has faded considerably from the minds of many Americans. I can’t help but feel concerned for the future as other countries start catching up, pushing to pass our once might lead. Before long countries won’t be asking if they can work with us, but rather if we can work with them, like how we hitch rides to the ISS from Russians.

 

If you want to read more, check these out.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/04/tech/physics-higgs-particle/index.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18702455

http://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/Higgs+boson+announcement+greeted+with+cheers+ovations+CERN/6881706/story.html

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Higgs_Boson

 

 

 

 

The Most Awesome Thing, Today

This is probably the most awesome thing I have ever seen, today.

A fan made a screenshot of a “Game of Thrones” fighting game. It breaks my heart that it isn’t real.

Oh intertrons, why do you hurt me?

Most awesome thing, today.

Source

How the F-?

I’ll keep doing this as long as the search terms people use to find my site are interesting. This might turn out to be my favorite blog game.

Lets get started!

cthulu

Cthulu is a giant winged god with an octopus head, a million times more evil than weird looking, H.P. Lovecraft is probably most known for. I think this cult icon is the real reason behind the tentacle fetishes in certain parts of the world. We would like to believe it is something as innocent as perversion, but I bet it is far more nefarious. Don’t believe me? Here is a picture of Cthulu posing all sexy like, note how the wave is splashing on him; covering his nethers because it is too much sexy for some people – that or his bits are so damned tentacled and unnerving the author decided to have mercy. Comes down to personal preference really. In all seriousness, go read The Call of Cthulu.

freud comic

Well this one actually makes sense. I posted a comic on this earlier before, it is called The New Adventures of Sigmund Freud. The general premise behind it is that Freud was frozen for years and thawed out to bring freedom to the world. I have no idea who made it. I tried googling it and didn’t find the author’s website. So go google it if you want to read more. The idea of a Freud running around like Captain America using psychoanalysis to free the shit out of some people is quite frankly hilarious.

*Observation* Apparently he got his nipple pierced.

man staring at nothing

STOP LOOKING THROUGH MY WINDOW!

spider on your ass

Again, this could be taken several ways. If you are in prison; you either have a seriously problem or you are looking to entice someone with your goods, of which I have no idea how to help. If you aren’t in prison and in fact a spider is on your ass, I have no idea how to help. Good luck living the rest of your life out as a statue. I don’t know what kind of species of spider is proving its dominance over you, but I imagine it is something like this.

cosby sweater

This just won’t die. I will not post or explain what this is, go google it if you really want to know. If you look it up, I bet you will never look at fruit loops the same.

mullet with power bars

This sounds like a great name for a band. Imagine hearing that in concert.

“After Sonic Death Monkey, Mullet With Power Bars is going to melt your face off!”

I’m probably late to the party. Some metal band is likely already named that. Actually if the Trailer Park Boys started a band, I’m 100% sure that is what they would call themselves. I imagine Mullet With Power Bars playing a sweet guitar solo during a video game boss fight in a barber shop where the barber must battle a power mullet straight out of 80s Mississippi. Again, I’m probably late to that and is on the DS…… I think Wario World has something like that actually.

How The F-?

This is a little game I am borrowing from two people; the eloquent fish of gold and the penmonkey Chuck Wendig.

Basically, I look over the search terms that people use to find my blog and write about it.

How can that go wrong?

frightened nude

…..Really?

I don’t remember using anything remotely close to this in any of my blogs or tags. Whatever, here we go.

Well, I see this going one of two ways; either somebody had their pants scared literally right off of them or they were already nude and became frightened. If the latter I assume it was a guy bent over the tub and accidentally looked at the mirror behind him, probably thought he was being attacked by a misshapen or badly deformed Wildebeest or something. If the former then I can only assume it was a Scooby-Do porn parody, I’m having a hard time making any sort of sense of something that would scare you nude. I guess if you were terrified of spiders and a nest hatched inside your pants that would be sufficient reason to get into the buff, but then you wonder about any spider explorers wandering into private areas, which we find ourselves bent over naked in front of a mirror again. What the hell is wrong with me?

nude grandmother

Next

I’m not making those up either. Look!

science, it works bitches

Yes, it does. I enjoy the modern conventions that our scientific community has bestowed upon us throughout the years. I enjoy Tang, video games, and the microwave to reheat leftover Pad Thai. I think calling everybody bitches is a bit unnecessary, but I applaud your enthusiasm, we should celebrate science more. The most amazing part of science is how we randomly come up with solutions to the worlds problems. Take a company researching a pill to help relax the heart, only to discover it barely does anything to the heart, but it helps grandpa knock over the knick-knacks grandma so artfully placed on the end table when grandpa turns his hips too fast.

 

funny grammatical errors

This one makes perfect sense. If you don’t get it just wonder around my blog a bit and it will make sense. There is some truth when I say I roll my face across the keyboard.

 

fashion mullet

I think this is the universe dividing by zero. Never have two opposing words been used together, these work together in the same way a brick doesn’t stay in the air. Then again, somebody made a ton of money from inventing vajazzling and pedazzling (google at your own risk), so I suppose anything is possible.

 

pictures of topless mermaids to colour in

I’m assuming by the u in colour that this is from across the pond, in which I ask why you are looking for topless mermaids to let your kids color? Then again this might be some perverted attempt at spicing up a marriage. If so I won’t judge, do what you have to do. I suggest a cup of ice, nine iron, duct tape, gummy bears,  and hungry hippos if you really want to get it going – you have to figure out how to use all that yourself, or google.

funny deathpool

What the hell is wrong with you? How dare you! It is Deadpool and if you can’t get that right I will take all your Internets away! ALL OF THEM!

 

ask the murlock

Whoever came up with Murlocks should be flogged, seriously. That damn garbled noise they make is about the most annoying sound I have ever heard. Then again it is always about context. We have this murlock sound:

and we have what would probably be the same if a dog stood in front of a sprinkler.

Which is hilarious.

 

things that make me laugh

I usually put stumble upon on humor and just go to town. Then again I can spend days looking at funny gifs. Here is my favorite gif. Mind you there is not a logical reason behind why I find it so damn funny.

 

Tolkien and Nazis

So I was reading this interesting little article over at io9 about Tolkien and the German publishing industry in 1938. You can read it here, so click and go read it!

The breakdown is that Tolkien was working out getting published in Germany and was asked a very interesting question that basically resulted in him responding what we would translate into WTF today; the publisher asked for documents proving his Aryan heritage. Before he replied he sent a letter to his publisher asking his opinion on the subject. In his letter to his publisher he said he had written two responses to the Germany publisher; one ignoring the question and the other basically saying piss off – but very English and very Tolkien-y.

Thank you for your letter. I regret that I am not clear as to what you intend by arisch. I am not of Aryan extraction: that is Indo-Iranian; as far as I am aware none of my ancestors spoke Hindustani, Persian, Gypsy, or any related dialects. But if I am to understand that you are enquiring whether I am of Jewish origin, I can only reply that I regret that I appear to have no ancestors of that gifted people. My great-great-grandfather came to England in the eighteenth century from Germany: the main part of my descent is therefore purely English, and I am an English subject – which should be sufficient. I have been accustomed, nonetheless, to regard my German name with pride, and continued to do so throughout the period of the late regrettable war, in which I served in the English army. I cannot, however, forbear to comment that if impertinent and irrelevant inquiries of this sort are to become the rule in matters of literature, then the time is not far distant when a German name will no longer be a source of pride.

Your enquiry is doubtless made in order to comply with the laws of your own country, but that this should be held to apply to the subjects of another state would be improper, even if it had (as it has not) any bearing whatsoever on the merits of my work or its sustainability for publication, of which you appear to have satisfied yourselves without reference to my Abstammung.

 

While I found this entertaining in an old school English way, read with the voice of Winston Churchill while he drank bourbon and smoked cigars, what got me were the comments to this article.

It starts with a comment from a guy saying that Bear Jew from Inglorious Basterds should pair up with Tolkien in a buddy movie as they move across Europe causing all sorts of what can only be described as shenanigans.

From there we add several other amazing characters completing what I could only describe as the most amazing movie concept ever.

The list goes as:
Roald Dahl (I know…)
Ian Fleming
Robert Heinlein
Julia Child
Bear Jew
Fassbender’s Magneto
Sniper from Saving Private Ryan
Mal Reynolds

I am having a hard time understanding just how awesome something like this would be.

English Language Gets Face Punched

This is a video I found of a 102 year old man describing the English language.

I found it pretty amusing.

 

 

Muppet Eyes

Here you go. Enjoy your nightmares.

Colbert 2012

So if you haven’t heard, Stephen Colbert is running for president in South Carolina, you know his home state. He tried a few years ago and was removed by the South Carolina Democratic Party executive council. So like any good little Southerner, he won’t be told what to do. Colbert is going to take on the system, with the system.

His super-PAC, which in no way communicates with him, is running a series of ads in South Carolina by owner John Stewart that offers some very funny rifts on our already troubled and out of touch Republican candidates while actually making some valid points.

Here is one about Mitt Romney.

Basically in Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad, 118 U.S. 394 (1886), the Supreme Court recognized corporations for the purpose utilizing the Fourteenth Amendment which gives a wide definition of what citizenship is, gives Due Process to all of a state’s citizens, and Equal Protection under a state to all of its citizens.

Now, with those rights it gives some basic freedoms to Corporations to help protect themselves (like you and I have) and simplify tax laws. That is all fine and dandy.

Where the problem begins is that is also allows Corporations to make donations to political parties.

Take that and couple it with the ruling of United Citizens v. Federal Election Committee in 2010, basically saying that money equals free speech. Corporations and Unions don’t have a limit on independent spending in politics.

Ask yourself a question, what is it that politicians live and die for?

The answer is being elected.

The second a Senator gets elected, he immediately starts to figure out how he can be re-elected. He isn’t alone in this, all politicians have this gene. politicians love getting elected almost as much as anybody else in the world loves money.

So, how does this happen? Well he/she raises money to travel around and tell people how awesome he/she is. The more he/she advertises explains his/her greatness, the more likely people will vote. (generally). Traveling around, making posters, paying people to organize things, creating TV ads, making websites, and all that costs money. In fact it costs a lot of money. Where does it come from?

Say, how likely are you to donate to a politician? Well corporations donate a lot of money to politicians, they lobby them to make decisions in their favor. Politician gets money to get elected, the corporation gets backing for something they want/need. I’m oversimplifying that process a little, but that is basically how it works.

Everybody wins, except the American people, and democracy insures that we will only be governed as well as we deserve.

Lobbying itself isn’t inherently evil, the donating money to the politicians is what hurts everybody. The law process in our country starts to shift (and has in some areas) a tug of war game between big corporations where the American people are caught in the middle.

COUGH – SOPA- COUGH. Media v Tech.

So cue the current Colbert super-PAC ad. Romney said that corporations are people. Romney also used to dismantle business and sell what he could. So if corporations are people, and Romney dismantled business and sold what he could….. he is then a serial killer?

If Corporations are people, why hasn’t one ever been executed and why when a corporation is brought to court is it not judged by other corporations?

It’s a joke of course, but he raises a good point. Which is basically in a nut shell what Colbert is trying to do in the big picture. He is not actually trying to run for President of the United States, he is just trying to show the idiocy that is our current system.

It amuses me when news channels blast Colbert for missing his deadline to register for the ballot, like he didn’t know that? Him and his army of writers and political aficionados aren’t likely to look over that detail, just saying.

Now before you dismiss what he is doing as nonsense, tomfoolery, and/or mockery of our voting system, I urge you to look at a few things.

• He explained in layman what a super-PAC is, how it works, and what is used for.
• He is showing that as long as you have money, you have all the free speech you want.
• He is showing just how shady and squirrely the laws have become for our elected officials.
• He is proving how synonymous politician and entertainer have become during election time.

Elections are less and less about actual policy and law and more about entertaining the people with non-sense and things a President has no control over rather than addressing difficult issues.

Whether you agree or not with a person’s decision, is it the place of the government to tell somebody who they can and can’t marry? I guess it isn’t that surprising considering it wasn’t that long ago various groups of our nation didn’t have rights, we seem to still be stuck in some backwards mentality.

See I probably just hit a button. Now watch when a politician is being asked a question that is best left unanswered, watch how quickly they jump to a social hot button and avoid tough questions. No single party is innocent of this tactic either, oh no. In fact there are no innocent parties in politics. Everybody is guilty of something. I just happen to believe that right now the conservative side is showing just how weak it is.

No, I didn’t vote for Obama. But I will with the crowd we have now. We have Newt complaining about how Romney came into money by the very laws that Newt helped pass. We have people not voting for Romney even though he is the poster child for fiscal conservatives. We have people who think Freedom of Religion means every religion but Judeo-Christian. We have another guy who, although he is honest and sticks to his guns – I really, really do admire that, is kind of crazy. Then again maybe we need crazy?

Anyway, just because I don’t agree with the conservative doesn’t make me a liberal. In fact I’m a moderate. I believe we need balance between states and federal government and I believe Republican and Democrats have valid points on some issues and believe they are idiots on others.

This “my party or the enemy” mentality needs to go, the my way or the highway approach isn’t working. We need better discussion and open dialog. I think that Colbert/Stewart are the only ones trying to level the field, trying to bring things around from out of touch politicians stuck in their ways and expose the loop-holes in our system.

If you comment, be nice.

Healthcare

**BEGIN RANT**

For those who don’t know, I have sleeping problems that surround an overactive brain and narrow breathing passages which gives me extreme fatigue and general extra assholery for an attitude. In short, unless I am using a sleep machine I never get the sleep that a regular fully functioning person gets. Up until a year ago I didn’t even know I had this problem so when I found out it was the eye opener. I thought everybody was as tired as I was, I never knew any different. So it really sent me for a loop to realize something I had accepted as the norm was bad. especially when I was told that if I didn’t do something about it, by the time I’m 70ish I will have lost most of my coherent mind. Actually pretty scary to me because I view my single most defining characteristic to be my mind, whether it actually is will be an entirely different discussion. Not to be thwarted and be a debbie downer, as long as I do what I need to do I will be okay.

Now you are up to speed.

Went to my doctor and after almost a year of using the machine, I’m still not where I need to be. I need to take medicine. I’m not overly excited about being dependent on a pill to function, but I will do what I have to do in order to be better. I get the prescription and zip on over to my neighborhood Walgreens where I am then told my insurance doesn’t cover it. Then I made the horrible mistake of asking how much would it cost out-of-pocket out right. The answer will give me nightmares for years to come. It will be 5k a month to take the medicine I need to be a normal functioning person.

Ouch.

I can’t do that.

My alternatives are taking a less effective medication that has around a 10% success rate or amphetamines with a high rate of success and addiction with a large chance my insurance also won’t cover it.

I know I know, people have way worse issues than what I am going through. I shouldn’t complain, I really shouldn’t. My step dad is going through kidney dialysis and that is about 10000000000000 times worse than my ordeal. It just blows my mind how convoluted the system has become.

We have businesses treating healthcare like a piggy bank, inflating middlemen to increase profits and bogging progress down with so much bureaucratic nonsense that if the public was actually aware of the goings on of the industry there would be riots tomorrow. My doctor told me that for most HMOs, the owning business for most medical companies takes 20% of my pay before I even park my ass in the chair at the doctor’s room. Now I cannot confirm the accuracy of his statement, I don’t have access that sort of information but I think it does warrant a moment’s pause and thought.

Lets just follow the money. This is my understanding of how it works. I’m sure parts are wrong so feel free to correct me on them.

You pay an insurance company X amount of money in case something happens to you or you need some sort of medical assistance (pills, tests, whatever) and they spread the cost across you and the other group members. Believe it or not, that is socialism – but that isn’t on point. It is a business so they want you to pay as much as possible with them paying as little as possible. So insert rules to protect their money like limiting the extent of treatment or medicine you can have depending on circumstances like pre-existing conditions and if there is any chance at alternatives. But remember, at some point insurance has to do something else the government gets really upset.

You go to the doctor and charges you a price set on many factors; his expertise, years in practice, size of practice, relationship with medical companies and/or insurance companies, malpractice insurance, general overhead and labor for his staff, etc. Sometimes though, if the doctor (or hospital) realizes that you have very good insurance, they might bolster your treatments to get that little extra money out of your insurance company.

The more money that gets pulled out of the insurance company, the less for profit, which means the more you will have to pay to make up the difference from some other person’s medical needs. After all businesses exist to make money.

Some medical problems are sooooo damned expensive because the treatment is soooo damned hard to do or specialized that insurance companies say no, which kind of goes hand in hand with pre-existing conditions. This isn’t really a problem anymore with the new health care bills, the FY has just been spread out a little more.

Step in the Government. They tell everybody how to do everything. Some of the regulation helps protect you as a consumer/business, some of it hurts you as a consumer/business. Really depends on where you stand in the equation. The game of any politician is to run for office, get elected, and stay in office as long as possible. So sometimes governments threaten or pass deals that might hurt businesses, so we begin some lobbying to contribute to the campaigning of the politician. Now that politician might care somewhere deep inside about your healthcare, but ultimately they only care more about staying in office. You aren’t giving them funds for campaigning, so you don’t really get the say in how their deals go do. Remember, corporations are people, and the supreme court decided that money equals speech, so business that throw the most money at politicians have the loudest voice. I seriously doubt major corporations sit around and think about what they can do to help out the average worker, I’m betting board meetings surround the concept of maximizing profits – at least that is what experience has taught me.

But lets say that the government sneaks a beneficial bill in and it gets passed. Think about that.

The more the government tells people to do things. The more work people have to do the more money it costs,cause time = money. This works across the board but mostly for the businesses. Like telling pharmaceutical companies they cannot use bleach to kill AIDS. Although bleach kills AIDS, it also kills you in the process.

Drug companies also get to patent their work. After years and years or research and the risk of getting their pants sued off of them because a side effect includes monkeys flying out of your ass to cure depression, these companies can patent a drug for 10 to 17 years depending on when the drug hit the market. That means they can charge a price they set for the drug, and because no other company is allowed to use the formula they have no direct competition – usually….

So when you run to the store to get a drug that you need to be a normal functioning citizen, you can get slapped by the insurance company saying no go cheaper or pay the 5k out of your pocket.

The insurance can tell you no on things specifically if there is even remotely a chance that something might work, percentage of 1 is included.

**END RANT**

I am just frustrated and needed to vent. I do feel better.

BTW if you quote any of that for any sort of truth without checking the facts, I question your intelligence whether I’m right about it or not. I don’t claim to know or understand the entire system, this is just what I have been able to pick up on and read about.

All Purpose Zombie Tool

Like any self-respecting nerd, I have my break-in-case-of-zombie-apocalypse glass shielded axe and shotgun plus ammo cache. I mean who doesn’t? It is all the rage now a days.  You never know when your neighbor is going to show up to snack on you, so being ready for any decaying mindless killing machine prone to random fits of choreographed dance is something that any potential snackee might want.

So watch this video. A home-made all purpose zombie cleaning tool that has such high multipurpose that you can expect a swiffer version any day now.

**WARNING**

This video may contain an awesome Scandinavian pirate accent. (Probably not politically correct)

You know you wish you were this guy’s neighbor…. unless you are a zombie… that might be very stressful during neighborhood barbecues.