WORD OF THE DAY! 3/11/14!

COSMOS: A SPACETIME ODYSSEY PREMIER

"STANDING UP IN THE MILKY WAY"

cosmos [koz-mohs]
noun
1. The world, or universe, organized into an ordered system.
2. A complete, orderly, and harmonious system.
3. Order; harmony.
4. A tropical American plant of the genus Cosmos cultivated for their brightly colored flowers.

EX. Observing and considering the cosmos can make you feel small; after all, what is a man to the world? What is a planet to a star? What is a star to a galaxy? What is a galaxy to a universe? What is any finite object or objects observable compare to the seemingly infinite? Can one person, one finite observer, ever begin to comprehend the cosmos?

There are the sorts of questions that might come to mind when watching Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, the classic educational television series covering a variety of scientific subjects presented by astronomer Carl Sagan in 1980, and these are the sorts questions we still ask ourselves over 30 years later. Since Sagan's death in 1996, his widow, and co-creator of the original Cosmos program, Ann Druyan, along with Steven Soter, a producer from the original seires, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson sought to bring a sequel to the original Cosmos to television. Unfortunately, they struggled for years with television networks who failed to see the broad appeal of the show. This seems slightly odd, considering the original award winning show has been seen by 500 million people in over 60 countries. So, how did we get a new Cosmos program?

Seth MacFarlane, the television juggernaut (love him or hate him) is the world's highest paid write in television, created a lot of extremely successful television (once again, despite his critics), and has a very sincere passion for science and science fiction. Even though MacFarlane is quoted as saying that he was the "least essential person in this equation", his involvement probably helped. But it would be unfair to give him all of the credit for the Cosmos sequel finally getting the okay.

The other big factor is that, after the success of many science focused programming and films, science has become mainstream. We live in a world where a scientific thriller, Gravity, about an astronaut being stranded above Earth was a huge hit and took away more Academy Awards this year than any other film. We live in a world where Bill Nye the Science Guy's debate with a creationist goes viral. And we live in a world where Neil deGrasse Tyson is one of the most popular American scientist. He has his own meme. He has been feature in DC comics in a Superman comic (pictured above). And so, Neil deGrasse Tyson gets to host his own Cosmos series every Sunday night on ten different Fox networks including National Geographic.

I've already watched the series premier and, despite some controversy and criticism, it is a beautiful piece of television, both thought-provoking and soul-stirring. Tyson's soliloquizing against the brilliantly rendered imagery is a perfect combination. I recommend this sort of programming to anyone and everyone.

Many people are afraid to think about the immense reality the cosmos because it makes them feel small. But I don't concern myself with feeling small. I feel like, rather than being part of something small, rather than being part of something finite, and rather than there being a clear end of the discoveries to discover in sight, that we are all part of something infinite. And that may be intimidating, but it is also compelling.

So, join Neil deGrasse Tyson on the infinite journey of human discovery and keep moving toward the horizon. There is no end to the journey, but there are many discoveries. Life doesn't "end". It "ands".

Watch the first episode of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey HERE.

WORD OF THE DAY! 2/7/14!

BILL NYE VS. KEN HAM DEBATE

debate [deb-ehyt]
noun
1. A discussion involving opposed viewpoints.
2. A formal contest between opposing viewpoints on a subject.
3. A deliberation.
verb
4. To take part in a discussion or formal contest of opinions.
5. To deliberate.

EX. I struggled with the decision to post this debate, as there is plenty of discussion before and after about whether it would or could have any sort of positive outcome given that, for example, much if not all of the ad revenue for the debate will go towards funding the Creationist Museum and that it might legitimize the option of Ham's Young Earth Creationism by putting it up against evolution, but the in the end, I think that it is a good debate and should be shared with more people.

While it may not change anyone's mind or end the debate about creationism and evolution, it does serve as a platform for us to discuss this subject. Personally, I applaud any chance to get people listening to ideas, thinking about them, and talking about them with others. This sort of discussion, in my opinion as a skeptic & agnostic atheist (meaning "I don't believe in the supernatural, because I have never witnessed any evidence that the supernatural exists, but I cannot know with full certainty that the supernatural doesn't exist"), will lead to people seeking more information to form and adjust their own conclusions and held-beliefs about the world and universe we live in.

I think the debate was fairly interesting and, while many people may have already heard both side's arguments before, I had not heard everything discussed or thought about everything discussed. I learned a lot about Ham's Young Earth Creationism, a belief held by many in the world but especially by fundamentalist Christians in the United States that the world was quite literally created by god around 6,000 years ago and then a Great Flood wiped all life except for two of every animal and Noah's family on the ark 4,000 years ago, and about many different disciplines of science, from biology to geology, from Bill Nye.

My biggest qualm with the debate is that, far too often, Ham fell back upon his faith and the Bible for evidence. In contrast, Nye used scientific evidence and the majority consensus of the scientific community brought about by decades and centuries of tested, true, or theoretical scientific exploration of the observable world around us. The major difference between these two view points is that, for biblical "scientists" like Ham, all of the answers to the big questions can be found in the Bible. Evolution is rooted in observable evidence; it can make predictions about the past, the present, and the future and many such predictions have been found to be accurate (EX. Transitional fossils). On the other hand, new earth creationism is, primarily, rooted in faith; their is nothing wrong with faith (in fact, as an agnostic, I don't rule out the existence of a god creating the universe) but, as far as I and many other see, it cannot do the same sort of things that science can do. Furthermore, most religious texts, including much of the Bible and the Old Testament contradict the evidence presented by all disciplines relevant to history from archeology to geology (EX. Egyptologists have found no evidence in their centuries of study and exploration of the Exodus ever taking place in Egypt) unlike the theories of the Big Bang, evolution, etc. that are backed by hard evidence-- just because they're theories does not make them any less valid (EX. Gravity is a theory. We don't know how it works, but it is an observable force.). Yet, if evidence is found to the contrary of these theories, and very little or none has been found, then the science community would be glad to explore new avenues created by any discovery. That is the very nature of science. It is the systematic collection of information used to formulate ideas about the universe and make predictions about discoveries yet to be discovered. That is not the nature of Ham's creationism.

Religion and science, in my opinion and in many others, don't mix. Creationism's place is in the philosophy class, not in our science text books.

MUSIC MONDAY! MISTER ROGER'S LEGEND OF ZELDA SCIENCE SANDWICH!

MISTER ROGERS REMIX: SING TOGETHER

This week we start with another edutainment remix from the computations and hard work of John D. "melodysheep" Boswell(the mixer behind the Symphony of Science series). We've seen his work on another fantastic Mister Rogers remix in a past article (HERE) and I'm glad to see he is still working to bring fresh content to the internet with PBS.

THE LEGEND OF GANONDORF

Then I follow it up with some classic musical mayhem about the Gerudo with the Triforce of Power, Ganondorf! Not much to be said here but, if you do love a good video game themed musical romp, you should check out more from Random Encounters.

FU SCIENCE- ADHD

Animation Domination High Def have really managed to carve a gruesome niche into the body of youtube's cartoon corner and into the heart of my blog. I'm so glad to be subscribed to their content and I highly recommend you enjoy them before they get too big on Fox this Summer.

WORD OF THE DAY! 6/12/13!

construction paper [kun-struhk-shun-pehy-per]
noun
1. A paper made with heavy groundwood, in a variety of colors and sizes, for making posters, cut-outs, and other craft projects.

EX. I love construction paper. I make all my custom cards with construction paper. There is something nostalgic about the material. We all used it in school, when we were kids, because it was colorful, could stand up to more rough handling, and was less likely to give you a paper cut (I totally just imagined that third reason, but my paranoid nature deems it to make sense). Who else loves the feel oh having a box of markers, a pair of scissors, and nothing but your imagination to guide you on a journey through a construction paper universe?

WORD OF THE DAY! 2/21/13.

asteroid [as-tuh-rohyd]
noun
1. Astronomy. Also called a minor planet, any of the thousands of small bodies of from 480 miles (775 km) to less than one mile (1.6 km) in diameter that revolve about the sun in orbits lying mostly between those of Mars and Jupiter.

meteoroid [mee-tee-ohr-ohyd]
noun
1. Astronomy. Any of the small bodies, often remnants of comets, traveling through space: when such a body enters the earth's atmosphere it is heated to luminosity and becomes a meteor. 

meteor [mee-tee-ohr]
noun
1. Astronomy. A meteoroid that has entered earth's atmosphere and is falling through the sky. 
2. Astronomy. The fiery streak caused by a meteor falling through earth's atmosphere, also called a shooting star.

meteorite [mee-tee-ohr-ahyt]
noun
1. A mass of metal or rock that has reached earth from space; a fallen meteoroid. 

EX. An asteroid is an asteroid as long as it lies between Mars & Jupiter (or in other asteroid belts), but becomes a meteoroid once it leaves a fixed orbit, then becomes a meteor/s if it enters Earth's atmosphere and finally become meteorite/s once it reaches Earth's surface. Thanks, Obama.

WORD OF THE DAY! 10/26/12.

quasar [kwey-zahr]
noun
1. One of over a thousand known extragalactic objects, star-like in appearance and having spectra with characteristically large redshifts, that are thought to be the most distant and most luminous objects in the universe.

EX. Apparently, its not "Blackjack", its the FUTURE. It's called "QUASAR" !

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/4/12.

I love posting poorly timed stuff (its like a month after the Olympics..or something)

argentum [ahr-jen-tuhm]
noun
1. Latin. Silver; the reason that the atomic symbol for Silver is "Ag".

brimstone [brim-stohn]
noun
1. Sulfur.

EX. Argentum, or silver, is involved with a lot of fantasy, science fiction, and folk lore, but no creature or myth is more closely tied to silver in the public conscience then the werewolf and lycanthrope weakness of silver-- or more commonly the silver bullet. But what makes silver so special and what biological reasons could silver be the Kryptonite to the Wolfman and Fruitbrute?

The missing member of the monster mash cereal team.

One special quality is that it tarnishes; if left unpolished or protected from air, silver develops a disgusting black crust that ruins its and the element that causes this tarnish? Tiny bits of sulfur floating around in the air. So, how does this kill your average Fangface?

Hanna-Barbara is good at ripping itself off...((WE NEED MORE TEEN MYSTERY TEAMS!))

Sulfur, also known as brimstone (the devil's element), combines with silver to create silver sulfide. Now, silver sulfide isn't poisonous but, if we assume that werewolf blood has a high sulfur content, which matches some myths that werewolves smell really bad, the silver sulfide would block the bloodflow in their body and that is what would kill them (and quite brutally). How else would this come in handy in slaying werewolf Shaggy?

Anyone else remember the two awesome made for TV Scooby Doo movies from back in the day?

This is where things get interesting; werewolves would burn blue because sulfur burns blue, therefore, simply implement the test from the Thing to find out who the werewolf is when their blood or hair burns blue. Also, their skin would secret sulfur, meaning werewolves would have sulfur on their skin and that would also show up in chemical tests. Finally, sulfur smells! As I said before, just look for the smell of rotting eggs and you got your beast.

And there is some useful science on werewolves. Now to discover some useful facts on why Unicorns love virgins so much...

WORD OF THE DAY! 9/3/12.

terror birds [ter-er-burds]
noun
1. Also known by the official classification, Phorusrhacidae (meaning "wrinkle-bearers" due to grooves on the skull), these creatures were large carnivorous flightless birds that were dominant predators in South America 62-2 million years ago.

EX. Terror birds are basically the new Velociraptors-- or they would be if they had a good enough publicist like the raptors had in the form of the Jurassic Park films. Unfortunately, the only memorable appearance of this beast was in the megalithic schlock, 10,000 BC.

Then again, dinosaurs have been losing a lot of street cred thanks to scientific discoveries, ex. dinosaurs probably were covered in feathers and, indeed, T-Rex probably looked like a giant fluffy chicken.

Fun stuff.

BONUS VIDEO

MUSICAL MONDAY! SYMPHONY OF SCIENCE: MISTER ROGERS REMIX

MUSICAL MONDAY PRESENTS

SYMPHONY OF SCIENCE: MR. ROGERS REMIX

CLICK HERE TO ENJOY!

"Did you ever grow anything in the garden of your mind?
You can grow ideas in the garden of your mind.
It's good to be curious about many things.
You can think about things and make believe.
All you have to do is think -
And they'll grow." -Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers Remix

I've apparently only every linked one other melodysheep video in the history of my blog and that really is a crime. Ever since I first discovered the "Symphony of Science", the world of popular science, an age of positive nostalgia, and the figures that populated it were open to me and I've taken several opportunities to learn from the great minds and amazing personalities of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.

They understood the value of edutainment and the "Symphony of Science" series is an excellent celebration of their words and works. Please make sure to click the link below to see and here some more amazing videos from the maker of the video I have linked above. Thank you.

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe." -Carl Sagan

SYMPHONY OF SCIENCE: A GLORIOUS DAWN Ft. Carl Sagan

WORD OF THE DAY! 6/1/12.

fap [fap]
noun
1. The onomatopoeic representation of masturbation. Often used to suggest that something is attractive or, when used ironically, extremely perverse and/or unattractive. On the internet, it is most commonly used as a simple response to an image or video.


EX. Warning. Today's link may be too mature for some audiences. 

WORLD CHAMPION OF FAP!

WORD OF THE DAY! 5/29/12.

entelechy [en-tuhl-eck-ee]

noun

1. A realization or actuality as opposed to a potentiality.

2. A vital agent or force directing growth and life.

EX. Unfortunately, the entelechy of  this pubescent werewolf or wolf-person shall never be fully realized due to the inadequate glorification of the sciences.

WORD OF THE DAY! 3/22/12.

personification [per-son-uh-fi-key-shuhn]

noun

1. The attribution of a personal nature or character to inanimate objects or abstract notions, especially as a rhetorical figure.

2. The representation of a thing or abstraction in the form of a person, as in art.

3. The person or thing embodying a quality or the like; an embodiment or incarnation: He is the personification of tact.

4. An imaginary person or creature conceived or figured to represent a thing or abstraction.

5. The act of personifying. 

celestial [suh-les-chuhl]

adjective

1. Pertaining to the sky or visible heaven.

2. Pertaining to the spiritual or invisible heaven; heavenly; divine: celestial bliss.

3. Of or pertaining to celestial navigation: a celestial fix.

noun

5. An inhabitant of heaven.

celestial body [suh-les-chuchl-bod-ee]

noun 

1. Natural objects visible in the sky

EX. Pictured above and below, are amusing and/or adorable personifications of the major celestial bodies that make up our solar system. I dunno about you guys, but a Hetalia like animated show about these characters would be awesome.

WORD OF THE DAY! 3/14/12

hippocratic oath [hi-pok-raht-ik-ohth]

noun

1. an oath embodying the duties and obligations of physicians, usually taken by those about to enter upon the practice of medicine.

EX. Every Nurse Jenny takes a hippocratic oath before being assigned to one of dozens of active Pokemon centers throughout the Pokemon world. If free medical care is good enough for Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, then it should be good enough for 'Merica.

WORD OF THE DAY! 2/27/12

omission [oh-mish-uhn]
noun
1. the act of omitting.
2. the state of being omitted.
3. something left out, not done, or neglected.

plutoid [ploo-toid]

noun

1. a celestial body which orbits the Sun but is further from it than Neptune; designated by the International Astronomical Union to refer to Pluto and similar space objects.

EX. The recent omission of Pluto from the designation of planet has stirred up a lot of debate. I care more about the emotional denigration that Pluto is going from by being downgraded to a dwarf planet or plutoid.

WORD OF THE DAY! 2/1/12

atavism [at-uh-viz-uhm]

noun

1. Biology. a. the reappearance in an individual of characteristics of some remote ancestor that have been absent in intervening generations.

                   b. an individual embodying such a reversion.

2.  A revision to an earlier type; a throwback.

3. A step, or several steps, backwards in evolution. 

EX. It appears that secondary mutations are not always useful in the X-Men universe. Sure, Angel gets metal skin and  Beast becomes a cat guy, but sometimes you get your total f***-ups. Shooting concussive laser beams out of your knuckles would seem to be a bit harder to control, but shooting claws out of your eyes would be just about useless, if not agonizingly painful.

In such situations, could an atavism come in handy to reverse the effects?

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/30/12

doppelganger [dop-uhl-gang-er]
noun
1. a ghostly double or counterpart of a person.
2. a copy or clone of an object, animal, or person.
3. someone who copies the appearance and/or mannerisms of another person; a copycat.

EX. I have several theories about the image above of the Mythbusters;

First of all, this is an expression of the false belief that every little person is a miniaturized copy of a real celebrity, politician, or Water Polo coach. These little doppelgangers try to avoid the larger versions of themselves to keep from getting absorbed into the mass of the larger entity.

Then, we've got the parallel-earth theory that theorizes that there is an infinite number of parallel universes. Thus, the Mythbusters must have made a subspace ship to travel to a universe where all humans are midgets. Presumably, they use it to bully their smaller selves into doing their chores and taking candid photos with them.

Or perhaps Jamie's plans to clone the two of them has finally come to fruition and soon an army of Mythbusting badasses will be running around making soda machines that can shoot cans at you, shark proof boats, and Coca-Cola Mentos bombs that can covertly take out the Moleman C.H.U.D. that threaten the upper biosphere.

Perhaps, this is a side-by-side comparison of the time that Adam and Jamie were cursed by the same witch that turned a younger Jamie into a walrus, only to be saved by an Eskimo princess, after he proved her crystal ball was made of glass and not the crystallized heart of a Lava Wyrm.

Or maybe its a couple of kids wearing masks...

The world may never know.

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/16/12

HAZMAT / hazmat [haz-mat]
noun
1. Acronym. Hazardous Material.
2. a material or substance that poses a danger to life, property, or the environment if improperly stored, shipped, or handled.

hazmat suit [haz-mat-soot]
noun
1. a garment worn to protect the user from dangers in the environment.

NBC suit [en-bee-see-soot]
noun
1. Acronym. Nuclear, Biological, Chemical suit.
2. a type of military personal protection suits for use in a dangerous environment.

MOPP [mohp]
noun
1. Acronym. Mission Oriented Protective Posture.
2. a military term used to describe protective gear used in dangerous environments; includes a gas mask, mask carrier, highly durable rubber gloves and boots, and an over garment- Joint Service Lightweight Integrated Suit Technology (JSLIT).

Note: Pictures above are from Miyake-Jima, a Japanese island where the inhabitants have to carry a gas mask at all times due to sulfuric gases from the island's volcano, Mount Oyama.

Below is a picture from Romantically Apocalyptic.

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/12/12

snowball effect [snoh-bawl-ih-fekt]
noun
1. a process that starts from an initial state of small significance and builds upon itself, becoming bigger, more dangerous, etc.

EX. First, you throw a snowball. Then, he will growl at you. If you throw another, he will show his teeth. And if you throw a third snowball, he will maul you.

That is the snowball effect.

WORD OF THE DAY! 1/3/12

pixel [pik-suhl]
noun
1. the smallest element of an image that can be individually processed in a video display system.

EX. In a 2-D world, we can assume that you shrink another individual by dividing their pixels down until they reach a smaller ratio of tightly packed bits. You could reduce an individual, even a group of individual or an entire world, down into smaller and smaller bit ratios until their entire world becomes binary and could fit on a data cartridge.

The advantages of shrinking parts of the world are quite staggering. World hunger could be solved by reversing the pixelation division and blowing up a food item to enormous size. Assuming that molecules are mostly empty space, if we can expand that empty space without bursting the confines of the materials, we can create more matter. More matter means more food.

Imagine how this could solve the fuel crisis? You could shrink your space ship or expand your fuel. The world's gas crisis would be ended and exploration into sub-molecular space would be possible.

The only obstacle in this process would be in the energy source of the pixelation ray. Yet, we can assume that some form of this technology can be backwards engineered from pokeballs.

WORD OF THE DAY! 12/31/11

time-space compression [tahym-speys-kuhm-presh-uhn]
noun
1. also known as space-time convergence, is a term used to describe a process or processes that seemingly accelerate the experience of time and reduce the significance of distance during a given historical moment.

EX. Thanks to the empty-headedness of kid's television, Ash Ketchum hasn't aged in over a decade.

The use of time-space compression, in this case the conduit, as opposed to some mind shattering technology, has been the minds of the producers, writers and the bright box we call television, to keep Ash Ketchum from aging in a way that is more creepy than when Michael Jackson became white.

Despite saving the world, even the universe, on about a dozen occasions, Ash Ketchum is trapped in the body and mindset of a pre-pubescent boy. Perhaps someday, a brilliant Japanese writer will get it into his head to have Ash mature, and release him from his hellish existence where he, like Sisyphus, is forced to push the same stupid boulder up the same godd*** hill for all eternity.

P.S. A new protagonist and a different tone might make the show tolerable, again.