The Social Poets: Libya War: Funny Late Nite Jokes Roundup: "Check out what the comedians lampoon about The Peace President, Obama, going into Libya. Boy, I tell ya, a guy tries to help out some desperate people in a foreign country from getting slaughtered and all he gets is flak from the Republicans and comedians.
Of course, like so many sticky political situations, it's all about The Ego. The mostly male media ratchets up The Ego Meter by declaring Prez Obama is a wimp if he doesn't succeed at deposing Gadafi now that he's declared, 'Gadafi must go!' So, suddenly out come The Big Guns: the CIA operatives magicly appear in Libya 'advising' the rebel forces. Read that as, 'These guys are so clueless the only way to keep them alive is knock some sense into them and show them how to win.'"
The Social Poets: Libya: Gadafi Regime Cracking Under Pressure Says Intel: " The intelligence community is reporting 'the morale of Gadhafi forces is on the decline,' according to one official. 'Do ya think?' Your morale would be on the decline after witnessing coalition bombings taking out whole regiments of troops along with bombing cities. It's a lot different when the horror you once inflicted upon others becomes your own blood and guts horror.
Sounds like America's intelligence community so owes me a paycheck. :) They have finally come to the same conclusion as I have that The Gadafi Crowd can't handle the international heat and fear the massing crowds of Libyans who hate him."
Dennys Global Politics: Peoples Revolution Recaptures Port Cities: Libya Political Cartoons: "Since the U.S. and the minority coalition established the No-Fly Zone over Libya last week, the rebels have fared better. To gain control over the skies, it was necessary to destroy Gadafi compounds, tanks, anti-aircraft batteries, weapons dumps and whole regiments of troops on the move. In short, America, the British and the French decimated most of the Gadafi regime.
At present, the rebels have marched along the coastal cities, taking back ownership after Gadafi drove them out with aerial bombings and tank bombardments. Turn about was fair play and Gadafi's troops got a taste of the horror they inflicted upon others, now visited upon themselves."
Plutonium Finishing Plant personnel have finished stabilizing one of the riskiest forms of plutonium-bearing materials at Hanford. Polycubes are small cubes of polystyrene impregnated with pure plutonium oxide. Hundreds of polycube items remained at PFP after being fabricated for use in criticality experiments at Hanford during the 1960s and early 1970s. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory assisted in the cleanup of these difficult materials. - Image by PNNL - Pacific Northwest National Laboratory via Flickr
This week the Japanese decided to change the standard of what the plant workers are exposed to when they discovered it was 250 times the acknowledged international standard. Leave it to the dogma crowd to downplay the severity of this situation by declaring 'new standards' of radiation levels so that the plant workers are only exposed to 2.5 times their new standard."
Sometimes, I think if I didn't do posts roundup on all these crazy blogs I would never realize just how much I've been writing or on what subjects as the writing moves so quickly. The news is running at a rapid rate these days with all the revolutions in the Middle East and destructive world weather.
Fortunately, we have the comedians and the chefs to perk up our spirits and tantalize our taste buds so we don't get overwhelmed with too much negativity in the news and our politics."
The Social Poets: Obama: End Libya War Now and 14 Political Cartoons: "While America's war hawks and profiteers are thrilled to have spent $1 billion this week bombing Libya, it's time to complete The Hand Over to anyone else but us. Americans did not expect to be the country spending 95 percent of the money in this police action and we are not happy about it. American taxpayers are fed up with footing the bill for everything all the time and for far too long. We spend decades in idiot unnecessary expensive wars started by previous presidents, then start 'police actions' in a current administration."
The Social Poets: 56 Political Fitness Comedy American Style Cartoons: "With all the emotional saturation of the tragic news coming out of Japan we all need a comedy break. I've been collecting this silly political humor for a couple of weeks and it looks like now is the time for its debut when we all could use a stress reliever."
Visual Insights: Dennys Photo Gallery: 2011 Super Moon World Photos: "Yes, I've been on one of my visual vacations, tripping through the Flickr database for cool Super Moon photos. All of these photos were taken on 19 March 2011 for this year's Super Moon event all over the world. Usually, a Super Moon occurs about every 20 years. We are expecting another one in 2016. One photographer created a short video of his various shots and paired a great jazz love song with it. Enjoy these visual treats!"
From the sea over 100 miles away, the UK and America lobbed cruise missiles at Gadafi installations, most especially his air defense ones. After all, if you are going to send up French and American planes to enforce the no-fly zone you first have to take out the military capability of Gadafi to fire upon them."
The Social Poets: Newt Gingrich Cartoons: Newtie 4 President - NOT!: "Two words: Newt Gingrich. Two more words: Laughable Hypocrite. This guy has more ex-wives than should be possible. He lays a line of huge BS on them, they swallow it hook, line and sinker. Then, years later, they are shocked Newt admits he is shallow, two-timing and a total hypocrite."
From Denny: Be on the look out for a gigantic moon hovering over you on the night of 19 March 2011. The news outlets and stargazers are all excited to see this event. The moon has not appeared this large since 1992. This huge moon appears because the moon is closer to the Earth than usual in its elliptical orbit. That closest approach in the orbit is called the perigee at about 364,000 km. When the moon is orbiting farther away it's called the apogee at about 406,000 km. Tonight the moon will be orbiting at about 221,567 miles (356,577 kilometers). The average distance between the Earth and the moon is about 238.000 miles (382.900 km).
Huge moon 30 percent brighter tonight
Of course, the astronomy killjoys like to inform the romantics among us that this huge moon is just an illusion. An illusion you say? Prove it. The moon will appear 30 percent brighter in the sky and about 16 percent larger - though your brain will swear it's bigger than that when low on the horizon. It's an optical illusion and it's your brain that is tricked - or so the science guys say.
The Moon Illusion.
Scientists, being the Big Namers that they are, call it The Moon Illusion. Rather clever like when the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia paid $100,000 for a marketing firm to name their upscale coat and tie restaurant. The settled on the name: The Restaurant. Call me old-fashioned but I'd demand my money returned after that farce. :)
Well, the science guys don't really have a definitive answer as to why our brains are tricked into believing the moon is larger when the reality of the measurements say it isn't so. They do have a couple of Just Supposing Ideas as to why this optical illusion occurs.
Ebbinhaus Illusion theory
One possibility is when the moon is low on the horizon we have plenty of hills, houses, even trees in the landscape to which we can compare its size. However, when the moon rises high in the sky it does look isolated and nothing close by for comparison. Here goes another name: the Ebbinghaus Illusion. This is where objects of the same size give the appearance of being different sizes when they are placed in different surroundings. After all, most of what we judge in life is in perspective to the surroundings of which we compare it.
Perspective
Another idea is that when we view the moon against objects in the foreground that we already know are far away from us, our brain starts running away with this comparison: "Wow! That moon is even farther than those trees and I know those are really far away. Even though the moon is far away it sure does look big. In fact, that Super Moon must be huge!" (Works for me.)
Legend of the Super Moon
Natural disasters like earthquakes, unusually higher and stronger tides and beach erosion, along with human mayhem have been linked as legend to the Super Moon event. The natural disasters might make sense as the moon is closer in orbit and exerting more gravitational pull on the planet than normal. However, the science guys seem to think it's no big deal and will be minimal. Tell that to the folks in Japan still encountering 6.0 and above aftershocks, to the tune of several hundred now, since their earthquake and tsunami just one week ago Hopefully, they will not experience any more Mother Nature mayhem during the Super Moon.
Optical illusion or not I've come to the conclusion the brain is a natural romantic so give it up and just enjoy the cosmic show tonight!
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The Social Poets: Japan: Plutonium Reactor Careening Out of Control, 18 Political Cartoons: "The whole world watches, waits, and holds its breath dreading nightmarish nuclear disaster. We are transfixed upon every tiny bit of streaming news coverage to the point of emotional saturation. And the news does not get any better. Even the Japanese government called the situation today 'very grave.'"
Yeah, this was a "teaser" and you have to go to my blog to read the rest of the post. And, yes, there was one Mary O'Brien in the family tree a while ago. She must have passed down her teasing sense of humor. :)
The Social Poets: Japan: Nuclear Update, Earthquake, Tsunami, Nuclear Political Cartoons: "The Japanese keep changing and downplaying the radiation level numbers. At one point last night one Japanese official said the radiation levels at the troubled nuclear plant had reached 1,000 times the healthy levels. He was later forced to back off on that number, claiming it was a mistake in translation. No, it wasn't. Read that as a diplomatic way for a bureaucrat to get out the truth, knowing he would have to walk it back but at least the information would get out to the public."
The Social Poets: Updates: Wisconsin, Islamaphobia, Newsman David Broder and Political Cartoons: "This past weekend 100,000 protesters came out again into the Wisconsin winter weather, committed to carrying the fight to the public court of opinion. While the governor and the Republicans believe they have won they may find they have ignited an Employee Firestorm across America against all politicians."
From Denny: When you are a student there always seems to be endless dates and quotes to remember. And you know you will probably never see those same inconsequential offenders ever again for the rest of your entire life - and that of everyone you know. :)
When I was a little girl I used to get yelled at for doing these short stories in my head to help me remember things. My parents thought me weird. OK, I even got yelled at in a play writing class when I was one of two juniors in a class with grad students. The professor was some miffed he needed two more bodies to fill the class or he wouldn't get paid that semester for the class.
So, he was no fan of the Undergrad Two and rode us constantly. He was thoroughly exasperated as to how I was not crumbling up wads of paper and throwing them in the waste can (pre-computer days) or thoroughly frustrated while going through the supposedly torturous writing process.
I told him I write in my head. He looked at me like I was from Mars. I told him when the movie was finished in my head, after re-writing the scenes, then I would put it down on paper. And I did. He liked the little one-act play and was forever silent on what to him was a very foreign and unorthodox writing process.
I sure do love technology. It's as if I was born for tech. The keyboard can almost keep up with my flying fingers and rapid thoughts. However, since I'm a right-brained type who figured out how to live in a left-brained world, I also know there are a lot of left-brain types who struggle with visualization. It's downright torturous for them.
You might be one of those people who never learned well or easily how to do this for yourself. While I don't expect you to write a movie in your head, you may find this short video quite useful for improving your memory under pressure.
Right-brained people can profit from this video as well. You might be someone who thinks in pictures but has problems sounding coherent in a left-brained environment. This process can help organize your thoughts to come out of your mouth in a more efficient way for people to be able to relate to what you are discussing.
You probably already know about how to take a word or phrase you want to remember - but it's so damned dull your brain starts to snooze - so you have to come up with a memory trick to make it exciting for your brain to retain it. This video shows you the basic process to get going on it. The rest is up to you to experiment with it, adjusting it to your personality to create a great fit. Have some fun and Happy Writing In Your Head! :)
From Denny: We all love music. There is some music that the brain really likes. When you soothe the emotions to quiet down, the thoughts focus better. The trick is to hit it just right that you don't get so relaxed you want to sleep. :) You want to hit that meditative level where you get into the zone of clearing clutter from your mind and can easily do that problem-solving at a faster rate.
And, if you really want to boost your memory power, pull out that frankincense essential oil and take a whiff. You can also place it in a bath with some almond oil. Almond oil is closest to the natural oil of human skin.
Take a listen and see how music can train your brain to think better.
From Denny: These wallpapers are all 1600 x 1200 and from stuffkit.com. Of course, I just had to give them names... :) What good is a writer-artist who loves science if we can't have some fun with technology? There is even a funny WikiLeaks mouse wallpaper to give you a smile.
From Denny: Yesterday, thousands of people connected by disconnecting as they turned off their smartphones, laptops, tablets and other techie toys. The goal is to leave them off for 24 hours and interact more with the people in front of you, you know, like your friends and family. Forget texting or social networks for at least 24 hours.
We all complain about reclaiming our time as our own. Well, our brains would sure enjoy more time unplugged as well. Remember that the right side of the brain needs more time for processing creativity but can't work as deeply or as much if the left side analytical is literally hogging all the memory space.
Actually, I forgot about this unplugging day but coincidentally, I just happened to be in tune anyway. I unplugged on Thursday and part of Friday because I could tell my brain needed a rest. It was time to decompress from too much technical input like statistics which we bloggers are forever collecting as we grow our blogs. After time away I always come back refreshed and can actually write my many posts in a shorter amount of time.
Tech people don't think twice about housekeeping their computers with diagnostics that clean out the temporary files and other junk. Why not give your brain - and your emotions - some time out as well to flush the unnecessary files? Consider unplugging as a regular routine every so often. Your stress level will drop significantly and your production will sky rocket to new heights.
This national day was started by a non-profit group of Jewish artists called Reboot. Their ongoing project is called the Sabbath Manifesto.
As much as I love science and technology I'm always doing something visual to give balance to the brain. Here are some technology funnies for your visual part of the brain to enjoy too:
Dennys Art Sanctuary: 38 Creative March Desktop Wallpapers: "What do we think of when we reflect upon the month of March? We think of Winter ending, Spring coming in on the cool winds, soaking Spring rains, the trees leafing out and green weeds. There is the fun celebration of St. Patrick's Day. And there is the old adage, 'March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.' These designers took these all as their inspirations."
Image by DVIDSHUB via Flickr
