counting backwards

December

Thank you for arriving. I hate to talk bad about it when it’s on its death bed, but 2008...

My interview with ex-Blood Brother/Jaguar...

ryanjpointer: iammattjordan: until: ...

Was It Me

I hate when I can’t tell if I dreamt something or if it actually happened. Late Thanksgiving...

The Land of Ice and Snow

Legend was playing on the big screen at the foot of the stage when we entered Irving Plaza for the...

Medusa

They’re filming a movie outside my school. Purple signs went up on Friday, letting people...

“taciturn One entry found. Main Entry: tac·i·turn...”
— From M-W.com (One of my...

Squirrels, however, will probably outlast all...

Relax

My interaction with the children at the after school is limited. However, I am sometimes called upon...

Watch TV

Last night, while sitting on the floor of Maxwell’s in Hoboken, N.J., next to my good friend...

gluttonyisabliss: via littledaydreamer7. Chocolate...

smaran: Google honours Belgian surrealist painter René...

Bye bye Chuck.

Medium

I went to the mall to get my cell phone number changed to something more New York. I though I could...

Scorpios

I was putting antifreeze in my car today. I’m inept at such things. Pouring the fluid into the...

Shiba Inu Puppy Cam

Through the Fire and Flames

Last night, I had to venture into Manhattan to buy Dragonforce tickets from some dude on Craigslist....

letsgomets: Side by Side I have to admit, my heart just...

Mentorship

Later, one of our helpers, a sixth grader who now attends the same junior high school I graduated...

Daddy Pants

Lately, I’ve been getting more face time with the students at work. For the most part,...

soupsoup: If theres grass on the field… I can’t wait...

Smuttynose Old Brown Dog Ale

The East Coast is far superior than the West in terms of sandwiches. Last night, after the comic...

Bond You Can Believe In

James Bond just doesn’t get old. It helps that they swap out the title character every...

Pages from Josh Middleton’s Sky Between...

Second purchase from Big Apple Con. Anyone who’s been...

Went to Big Apple Con at the Penn Plaza Pavillion....

Feature story on artist Lawrence Argent for...

Ralf

Vomit was the overlying theme at work today. I got a frantic call at the office; in the background,...

In honor of Quantum of Solace (007 movies are awesome for...

Polk

When I was working the election, I met a man named Polk. At 5:30 a.m., he helped me put up the signs...

Rough logic, childhood style

magicmolly: The Seward Street Slides are hidden in a residential neighborhood in San Francisco....

I get obsessed. I don’t know how it started, but my...

karenabad: (via agsystems: Monster-Munch Vintage Pond...

Highways and taco trucks, the unsung heroes of California....

Listen

Hooked on a Feeling

Since this afternoon, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about this sandwich. When I close...

John McLaughlin Scowls at Your Cosmology

[I woke up early this morning (9 a.m., which is early for me, especially on a Saturday...don't judge me) to meet some friends for "brunch" in the city. I had a tuna melt at this diner on Sullivan St. (it looked more like a bistro) and it was fantastic. But prior to the tuna melt, I had a bit of mind melt watching an old episode of John McLaughlin's One on One on PBS. He was interviewing Nancy Ellen Abrams and Joel Primack, two cosmologists who'd written the book "The View from the Center of the Universe." They were talking about big shit, man, y'know, the UNIVERSE and shit. All crazy dark matter and GRAVITY--usually when I think about that stuff, my mind falls into a hole for a few hours and passes out. It's too heavy. Mr. McLaughlin is truth, though, and he doesn't care about your fancy learnings. If you're going to face off with him, you'd better fucking bring it. This is an excerpt from the transcript.]
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: This is what you say on one page of your books: "The universe in common speech is a basket term. It's just a container for everything else, but the universe of modern cosmology" -- that's what you are, cosmologists. You're also an astrophysicist.
MR. PRIMACK: Sure.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: So you know all about the quantum theory, et cetera?
MR. PRIMACK: Yes.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: "But the universe of modern cosmology is not just a container, it's a dynamic evolving being. Its initial explosive expansion slowed down as it made most galaxies and stars, but about 5 billion years ago it began expanding faster and faster. The universe exists in different ways on every size scale from the largest to the smallest and all times are within it." And it's increasing in size at massive speed, correct?
MR. PRIMACK: Correct.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Now, are you saying here that the universe is somehow divine?
MR. PRIMACK: No.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Is the universe God?
MR. PRIMACK: No.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You're not saying that?
MR. PRIMACK: No.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: But it's living.
MR. PRIMACK: Living is a complicated word.
MS. ABRAMS: It contains life. It is the source of all life.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: And we are inside it.
MS. ABRAMS: And we are inside it. That's right.
MR. PRIMACK: But the universe --
MS. ABRAMS: But we are the universe. You see, the universe isn't something out there in the distance and we're somehow objective observers. We are the universe right here. This table is the universe. You are what the big bang is doing right there in your chair right now. We're all part of it.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: The big bang is continuing.
MS. ABRAMS: Yes, that's what the universe is. It goes on and on. Well, you can think of it that way, yes.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: You have proof of that?
MR. PRIMACK: Well, that's a terminological issue as to whether we want to call it the big bang. But we are direct decedents of the big bang and the universe has been evolving and changing ever since then and it will continue to do that. The way the universe is now is not at all the way it was a few billion years ago. And a few billion years before that, it was still quite different.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: So when you're teaching this in class, as you do, your first objective is to remove the idea of stasis. This is not a static situation.
MR. PRIMACK: Absolutely.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: It's a living situation. And the universe itself is living because it's expanding.
MR. PRIMACK: And changing.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: And changing. Thus we have volcanoes and eruptions and tectonic plates and so forth.
MS. ABRAMS: On Earth.
MR. PRIMACK: The Earth is a living planet. It's in a living universe. It's in a universe that's constantly changing, evolving. It's a dynamic universe.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: Where did it come from?
MR. PRIMACK: We don't know. We have theories.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: It's finite. It's not infinite.
MR. PRIMACK: The part that we can see is absolutely finite and we know how big it is.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: But it's constantly evolving, which makes it sound like it's infinite. If it's infinite, then you're in theology.
MR. PRIMACK: The part that we can see is finite. What's beyond we don't know. We can make theories about it, but we don't know which theories are right yet.
MR. MCLAUGHLIN: We'll be right back.

Brain Scans Show Bullies Enjoy Others' Pain -...

I think we all know what side of the fence The Big Red Dog...

kathrynwatson: soupsoup: moderation: Really Staten...

Other than the obvious, yesterday ruled because I got to...

"We're Playing a Numbers Game"

I spent all day working the polls as a door clerk. One of our machines broke down after the first...

The Door Clerk to History on the Night...

I’m sure everyone knows tomorrow is kind of a big deal. But, thanks to being a broke-dick,...

32

I missed the Marathon today. Actually, I should say I missed the ING New York City Marathon today....

Big Blue romps Cowboys 35-14. Happy Birthday to me.

My interview with Tom Gabel of Against Me!...

My interview with Kevin Murphy of The...