Maths Is Fun, 2.

One day Mitchell asked John, "Did you see those birds and dragons at Arlen's house yesterday?"

John answered in a language unlike anything Mitchell had ever heard. It sounded like his tongue was no longer shaped quite like a human tongue.

"Gdrrrahhhhrrrksszz. Mrrrdbdbdzziiieeealloyusskhrd."

Mitchell looked directly at the reader and said, "Something very strange is going on. If I see eight such events, I will surely lose my mind. I have already seen two - Arlen's house and John's speech - How many more could I see and not quite lose my mind?"

Correct answer (number and label) in the comments here at the blog gets the next quesion.

Maths Is Fun, 1.

Seventeen large birds are perched on the roof of Arlen's home. If nine dragons fly out of the sky and eat one bird each and Arlen wets his pants in fear and wonder, how many large birds will be left to smell the pee pee pants after the dragons vanish, leaving no answers as to their origin, purpose, or destination?

Correct answer (number and label) in the comments here at the blog gets the next quesion.

Update: 2. is now.

Apocalypse: Has It Always Been Just Around The Corner?

Climate change, which is now irreversible, will render huge swaths of the Earth uninhabitable.

Ebola or some such virus will painfully kill some very large percentage of the human race.

Innocent children are enduring life in poverty, squalor, and cruelty, only to die young and in pain.

Fox news.

We will all be facially and retinally recognized by the computer, relegating anonimity and privacy to the realms of memory.

Gaza, Israel, Hamas.

The very wealthy will continue to get richer until the economic divide is such that the majority, who are now the new peasants, revolt.

Nukes continue to trickle down to countries and NGOs who will use them irresponsibly.

You get the idea. Is it reasonable to be more frightened for the future than ever before in human history, or has it always been thus? Have there always been people saying, "We only have about ten or twenty years left; then our whole way of life will just be swept away."?

The Onion: News Before It Happens, Part 5

In April of 2002, The Onion published this article:

Mideast Peace Process Derailed, Burned To Ground, Shoveled Over With Dirt

Only 12 years and 3 secretary of states later, the lamestream media caught on:

Kerry: It’s ‘Reality-Check Time’ For Peace Process

The Onion is America's finest news source for being #1 in news. Previous four examples:

Part 4: Iraq
Part 3: The Economy
Part 2: Also Iraq
Part 1: Bush II, U2, The Brewers

Some of the links to the "real" news are dead, as it turns out. None of The Onion's links have died, which just means they are better at that too.

Happy Valentine's Day

"There never was a time when you or I did not exist. Nor will there be any future when we shall cease to be"

-Krishna to Arjuna in the Baghavad-Gita, quoted in the George Harrison albums Somewhere in England and Brainwashed

"That was me!"

-Paul McCartney

Is it important to be a cohesive person from one decade to the next?

If so, why?

What makes you the same person now that you were five years after you were born?

…that you were five years ago?

…ten years ago?

…ten years from now?

…a hundred years from now?

…ten years before you were born?

What is the same?      What have you always had?

What is different?  What will you always have?

What defines you?       What have you always been?

What will you always be?

No Matter What

NameMemoriesThoughtsBeliefsActions

StuffLovesFamilyFriends

NationStateJobHobbiesBodySoulGod

Who are yOu?