California Fires from NASA

Amazing footage from NASA showing the CA wildfires. The image came from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite.

For people that don't "believe" that human activity changes the atmosphere (whether it's global warming or something else), I think looking at something like this, and the range of the smoke, coupled with the images of the Earth's atmosphere below start to form a perspective on what's happening. These are just one set of wildfires. There are fires all over, and pollution, and wars and whatever else going on too.

Ever take off in an airplane on a clear day, and you can see smoke from small fires on the ground going on for miles? Or the smoke stacks from a plant? It's really something.

Look at that! Like a razor thin veil between everything you know...and pitch black, death-cold outer space going off in all directions longer than our brains can comprehend. If you think about that too long, you'll get the pink spiders, the jim jams, the blue Johnnies, the snakes in the boots. You know, mania a potu. You'll go fucking nuts.

This is why, no matter what astronauts think before they go into space, they always come back down with a marked appreciation for the fragility of our planet.

I guess we're not supposed to think about it that much. We'd lose our drive to go to work and pay bills. We'd wind up like Alvy in Annie Hall:

Doctor in Brooklyn: Why are you depressed, Alvy?
Alvy's Mom: Tell Dr. Flicker.
[Young Alvy sits, his head down - his mother answers for him]
Alvy's Mom: It's something he read.
Doctor in Brooklyn: Something he read, huh?
Alvy at 9: [his head still down] The universe is expanding.
Doctor in Brooklyn: The universe is expanding?
Alvy at 9: Well, the universe is everything, and if it's expanding, someday it will break apart and that would be the end of everything!
Alvy's Mom: What is that your business?
[she turns back to the doctor]
Alvy's Mom: He stopped doing his homework!
Alvy at 9: What's the point?
Alvy's Mom: What has the universe got to do with it? You're here in Brooklyn! Brooklyn is not expanding!
Doctor in Brooklyn: It won't be expanding for billions of years yet, Alvy. And we've gotta try to enjoy ourselves while we're here!

Bigfoot Corpse

Yeah well the bigfoot corpse that turned up this summer, that nobody was allowed to see, has just mysteriously disappeared from the news, the world, and everything else, because obviously these rubes were just scamming people to get website traffic, or sell T-shirts, or something. The news agencies carried the possibility that this might be true but I haven't heard any follow-up that it's a sham. Sadly, I think that leads a certain, er, subset of our population to conclude that this sort of thing in factual. Perhaps we'll hear of a cover-up, but I'm pretty sure this one will just disappear until these jokers discover another bigfoot they can't show anyone.

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" certainly holds true with giant ape-like creatures romping through our forests. Also: Where'd all the UFOs and Bermuda Triangle stuff go?

Ancient Hairstyling and Teeth Whitening Services

When the various religious folk come by the front door, as they've done over the years, I very politely tell them I'm an agnostic and, if they persist, I show them a trilobite fossil, at which point they usually come back later with an elder. So, I treat them with respect as long as they treat me the same, which they most often do.

Sometimes, however, a person has to show a degree of skepticism. For example, here's a flier some fine young men left me during one of my many front door religious discussions. Check out The Christs' haircut! That's like a $60 wash, cut, and blow-dry by any American city standards of today. You can even detect a bit of gel in there as well. And those teeth! My, but they are super-white, and perfectly straight. I mean, I know Jesus is the son of God, but his hair was supposed to be longer, and it was likely messed up a lot, I would imagine.

This is almost as bad as the image they use that has all the animals living together in perfect harmony in Heaven...what will the lions eat??? And why make an entire animal kingdom based on killing and consuming other organisms if you're just going to change it all in Heaven?

The young lads always look at the non-believer with a bit of pity, as they turn and leave the house...