There’s a need for creativity in this world. Cro Cop is creative in the ring, Michael Jordan was creative in Basketball, Wayne Gretzky was creative in hockey, Socrates was creative in thought, Jenna Jamesion is creative in porn,  Picaso was creative in art. The world is the world, having superbowls, oscars, stanley cups,  March Madness.  Enjoy this world cause at least it’s entertaining.

I was reading up on Donald Rumsfeld on Wikipedia and I ended up at the Wikipedia article of Bushisms and thought it was hilarious!  Thought Id share a little laughter with ya here.

According to Wikipedia: “Bushism is a neologism used to describe a peculiar word, phrase, pronunciation, or linguistic error that have occurred in the public speaking of United States Presidents George H. W. Bush and his son George W. Bush”

The funniest I think is this poem called Make The Pie Higher! which is a compilation of ridiculous things Bush said.

MAKE THE PIE HIGHER
by George W. Bush

I think we all agree, the past is over.
This is still a dangerous world.
It’s a world of madmen and uncertainty
and potential mental losses.

Rarely is the question asked
Is our children learning?
Will the highways of the Internet become more few?
How many hands have I shaked?

They misunderestimate me.
I am a pitbull on the pantleg of opportunity.
I know that the human being and the fish can coexist.
Families is where our nation finds hope, where our wings take dream.

Put food on your family!
Knock down the tollbooth!
Vulcanize society!
Make the pie higher! Make the pie higher!

Here are some famous Bushisms listed on the wikipedia page:

- 

Check out this Bushism videoroll, it is hysterical: http://throwawayyourtv.com/2006/03/bushisms-videoroll.html

One of the links there is to a site called Dubyaspeak.com, its pretty funny too.  I love the pics of Bubya they have on the main page.

From science.slashdot.org:

- Amazing creature!:  A new paper at www.plos.org (Public Library of Science) reports on the sequencing and analysis of the genome of a single-celled organism, whose genome is nearly as complex as the human genome.  Tetrahymena thermophila has 27,000 genes giving it amazing complexity and abilities.  It is a master at changing its shape and its properties in response to the changing environment.  This species uses its genomic complexity to physically dominate whatever environment it encounters.

- Cure for Cancer?:  A group of scientists were able to reverse advanced melanoma by inserting genes into lymphocytes from the patients blood that allowed them to recognize a protein on melanoma cells and attach itself onto the cancerous cell and kill it.

- Dark Matter exists:  After much speculation, scientists now have conclusive proof of dark matter.

- Depression:  By breeding mice lacking a gene involved in serotonin transmission, researchers were able create a breed of mouse that is depression resistant.

- Stem Cell Research:  A new scientific breakthrough allows scientists to harvest stem cells without harming the embryo and the remaining embryo also has the potential to go on to create a healthy blastocyst. What do you have to say about it now George?

- Cloned Beef:   According to this article at Popular Science cloned beef may be coming soon.

As Above, So Below

I am,
the Holy and Great ONE,
Master of the universe,
Lord of the galaxies,
Sheppard of the stars,
Maestro of life.

As Above, So Below,
the universe is my body,
your mother Earth and father Sun, a part of me,
the forces, my central nervous system,
you, my children, are my fingers, ears, eyes, tongue, and nose,
life itself is my heart and soul,
we feel our pain and hatred together, and share our happiness and love,
As Above, So Below.

Oh my children!
all life throughout my body,
thine ears, mind, heart are open to take my word,
I know that you are listening,
you cannot miss it,
you cannot ignore it,
for my word is your experience,
something you cannot escape.

Observe my beauty,
in your surroundings and in your self,
experience those interactions and connections,
your experience is also mine,
your heart and soul is also mine,
and your intentions are also mine.

Let go of the doctrine of the past,
take note, but don’t hold on too tight,
for I am a reflection of you,
a figment of your understanding,
listen to me in yourself,
because we are one,
they knew me then,
you know me now.

For I am ever changing,
throughout the aeons of time,
though time is merely a placeholder of events,
to Eternity I am ONE,
to Eternity I change not.

Life evolution is not for purpose of survival,
I have already insured its propagation,
life evolution is about experience,
just follow your hearts desires,
because within your heart is encoded the purpose of life,
like an instinct you cannot decode it,
you can only act upon it.

The key to longevity is harmony,
live in harmony with all my children in all their forms,
together you form an intricate balance,
achieve harmony and you may have longevity,
but eternity is only mine.

Earth humans,
difficult times lay ahead for you,
these tribulations are necessary for you to experience,
for greater power requires greater responsibility,
take this experience to heart,
and forget not what you will learn,
follow these words, and the cosmos shall be yours to explore.

Levels within cycles and cycles within levels,
I have appointed a time for all things.

Taking my daily bike ride across town, I see a family of ducks gliding peacefully across a river as I bike over the bridge.  It is around 11:00pm and getting dark, the streets are empty, I can see just the dark sillouettes of the ducks and a slight dark ripple on the water.  What a beautiful sight I think to myself as I imagine my being is that of one of the ducks and imagine life from that perspective.  Such a peaceful and beautiful moment in the ducks life, yet on the other hand, a daily struggle to find food and survive is inescapable.  Not very different from any life, including my own.  But for this moment at least, thanks to our interaction, I am in tune with the peacefullness of the ducks, and I am overwhelmed with an appreciation for life far beyond my ability to articulate.  It is impossible to express my full thankfullness for my being, my life, and for the life around me that I love so dearly to observe, interact with, experience, and to be a part of.  It is nice to give my brain a moment of relaxation and to strictly experience as I take a break from my relentless analytical processing trying to gain a greater understanding of the deepest nature and meaning of life, being, and the universe.  I have been criticized as being too analytical, that I need to take more time to just experience.  But I find that with every development of my understanding, with every revelation, the experience becomes more and more beautiful.  I cannot help it regardless, that is just the nature of my analytical “male brain”.  How great it is though to have a female influence to touch me with the “other side”, the female perspective.  That is one of the most beautiful aspects of life, the incompleteness of a single man, or a single woman, which is transcended into a “complete” experience with the union of male and female.

Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried have successfully created a “BrainChip”!  They have been able to connect a cultured hippocampus slice to a semi-conductor chip making direct connections between the hippocampus neural network and the chips transistors.  The electrical signals produced in the hippocampus travel onto the semi-conductor chip and can be read and examined.  I am assuming that using this same principal, one could send electrical signals from the chip into the hippocampus. The hippocampus is the region of the brain responsible for short-term storage of memory.  These scientists actually have been doing this kind of work now for the last 15 years and it is not the first time they have connected a neuron to a transistor, but Im assuming this is the largest scale to date. Check the slashdot article here.

Alright, I'm going to tell you something, but you must understand the context in which it is said.  This is an element of conversation that is extremely important to the exchange of ideas, but is something that we are not always consciously aware of.  That is, people sometimes forget that the way someone phrases a sentence is just as important as the actual words themselves, in terms of communicating an idea. The actual words in a sentence provide the framework or the "nuts & bolts" to the sentence, but there is a huge portion of a conversation that relies on the accentuations provided by the speaker that aid the message.  The body language of a speaker, and the voice inflections they use, all help the receiver better understand the speakers message.  This makes it easier for the listener in a conversation; they do not have to think about the sentence as much, in terms of trying to understand what the speaker meant by an ambiguous statement.  They are also consequently more certain, or sure of what the speakers message really was.  People generally prefer this type of communication.  *An example of this principle can be seen in the general behavior of people with chronic depression.  The "flat affect" that depressed individuals generally display is a major reason for the cyclical nature of their depression: as a defense mechanism to avoid being ridiculed and ostracized for a belief or opinion, depressed individuals generally attempt to minimize the expression of their own view-points and opinions.  They tend to use more general, ambiguous words when speaking, and will not show much, if any, facial expressions or voice inflections during a conversation.  This provides less information for others to use against them, but it also makes the listener have to think more carefully (spend more energy) about what was said in order to formulate some sort of interpretation of the message.  Therefore, most people do not enjoy conversing with depressed people as much as those who use facial expressions and inflections, and might even avoid interacting with certain individuals.  This will have the negative effect of reinforcing the depressed individual depressive beliefs, and the cyclical nature of depression continues. *Another example can be seen in how some people do not like to use the now common MSN Messenger, feeling it is too "mechanical" or impersonal.  It can be seen as analogous to conversing with a depressed individual, with flat affect.  All you get is the words; no voice inflections, or facial expressions.  Although the smiley faces/winks attempt to correct for this drawback, I'm not sure that it is entirely sufficient.  

I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!

This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.

Registration code: 7330476

Wish me luck!

The long awaited, highly anticipated fight between Matt Hughes and the legendary Royce Gracie just ended.  I am disapointed with the outcome because I have a lot of respect for Royce, and I was hoping he would whoop Matt's ass.  Although I recognize Hughes as being a really tough fighter, I think he is an arrogant jack-ass and I cant wait till someone beats him down.  Gracie showed a lot of heart though when it looked really grim as Hughes had a grusome arm-bar locked in tight.  You could see by the expression, or lack of expression, on Gracie's face that he would have let his arm break before he would tap out.  Gracie is still a legend and no doubt there is no love lost from Gracie fans out there.

 I can't wait for UFC 61 coming up!  Sylvia vs Arlovski #3!!  Ortiz vs Shamrock #2!!  Great line-up.  I love Arlovski, hope he gets the heavy weight title back!

I, at this point in my life, am under the belief that there really is no such thing as choice. It is an illusion. You may think that you are "choosing" which brand of bottled water you pick up at the corner store, or which college or university you apply to, or which religion to believe in, or which morals and values to follow, but you really are not. What is happening is the neural network inside your brain starts firing and weighing each choice, and once it is satisfied with the amount of information it used to weigh each choice, then the heaviest weighted choice will come out on top. So the choice in the end is a product of the actual configuration of the neural net in your brain. That neural net is formed, and is always being re-shaped, by the experience you have had in your life, big or even seemingly insignificant experiences. Also genetics are responsible for how your brain forms at the time that you are too new to have any experiences, and, Im assuming, it also plays a role throughout your life as the brain develops. It is all Cause and Effect. There is no choice. Did you choose which human being, or other form of life, that you where to be? Did you choose which society to be born into and brought up in as your young brain developed? The only place that I think it could be possible that actual choices are being made would be in your soul. If there really is, which I like to believe there is, a spiritual aspect of our existance that goes beyond our physical bodies then I am willing to believe that there is A POSSIBILITY that the soul can make choices, but even the soul, I am so far assuming, is governed by cause and effect and the same principle applies to it causing it to also not have the ability to choose. It would be a product of the souls experience gathered over passed lives. Once you realize that this is the truth, that there is no choice, it can be an epiphanal experience. You can release all of your hatred, every last drop, towards all different forms of life. And you can look back at someone you hate, and take a look at their life from their perspective, and understand why they are a person that you used to hate. And you realize that part of the whole purpose of life is to have an infinite realm of all different life forms and personalities. Even things you used to hate, that are grotesque, or immoral, or outright terrible, can become beautiful. It is the nature of the universe and life. It is beautiful.

Now just because I have come across this belief, that I have no choice in the whole matter, does not mean that I am all of a sudden going to give up on life and go into some kind of vegetative state and not care about anything. No. I still want to make a positive change in the world for the human race, I still want to overcome my challenges in life, and I still understand that my actions determine my future and control my destiny. Because that is who I am, even though I didnt choose it.

I am happy to announce that I am bringing in a new format to Cosmic Blog that I think will improve the site greatly.  A couple of my friends are interested in contributing to the site, and after thinking about it, I realized that making Cosmic Blog a multi-author blog will bring in some great posts from authors with different backgrounds and perspectives, and will also promote more discussion on the topics.  So far we officially have three authors now, myself with a technology background, Ryan (G-Rock) with a political science background, and Johny with a psychology and history background.  I am also running the idea by another 3 people that I think will be great contributors who also have diverse backgrounds including philosophy, engineering, and biology.  The diversity is perfect for the site and I think the theme of Cosmic Blog goes along well with these people.  Stay tuned for some really great blogging!

When I was very young, back when the original Nintendo came out, I would occasionaly have dreams where I had aquired every single Nintendo game there was.  Then I would wake up, and disapointment would sweep over me as I realized that it was a dream and that I still only had a couple measly games.  Well, my childhood dream has come true!  Now you can easily download every single Nintendo game to your computer, which I did.  Only problem is none of 'em are any good!  Theres a few classics that I still enjoy but for the most part its not really worth wasting time on.

Now if only my dreams of flying in the air like superman would come true!!

Damn, it happened in Feb '06 but I just heard.  I really liked Dilla and Slum Village.  R.I.P.

I was raised a Christian, but very early on in my life dismissed the entire religion because it was so obviously B.S. a child can see right through it.  But, the more I became interested in the true nature of the universe as I became older, I started to notice little parts here in there in most religions that I strongly felt truth in, which do not even disagree with materialistic science.  This led me to believe that possibly some of this religious knowledge actually used to be extremely accurate, just that it has been misinterepted and even purposely distorted over thousands of years.  Once I came to this realization, I started looking at religion in a different way, and the more I look into religion, the more I believe this theory to be correct.  Now, to me, it seems like our most advanced understandings of the universe, including quantum physics, are really just rediscovering what some so called "religion's" expressed thousands of years ago.  A lot of people have heard of books like "Quantum and the Lotus", comparing quantum physics and buddhism, but it goes much deeper than this even.  It goes as far back as religion and almost all religions that I know of hint that this theory is true.  Today I looked up a topic of interest for the first time, the "Tabula Smaragdina", otherwise known as the Emerald Tablet of Hermes.  I came across a great paper called "The Tabula Smaragdina Revisited" by Karen-Claire Voss.  It was another great example of the theory.  I will not get into great detail here about specific passages but if you have basic understandings of the universe, galaxies, stars, atoms, physics, quantum physics, big bang(theoretical), etc, and you look at the oldest and most original religious passages, you will find many inexplicable consistencies.

Reading through Space.com looking for good pictures I found this article.  It puts our energy usage into a new perspective.  If only we could use energy so efficiently.

"A recent study found that a supermassive black hole’s process of generating energy from the matter falling towards its gravity well is much more efficient than nuclear or fossil fuels. A car with such fuel efficiency could drive for one billion miles on a single tank of gas, they say."

What an awe inspiring thing, this universe we live in with all the life it harbors and nurtures and even destroys only to produce new great cycles.  From galaxies to black holes, to stars, to planets, to star dust building blocks collected together in cells, collected together in bodies of life forms, all part of one beautiful connected collective.  The word beautiful is an understatement, I dont know how to articulate its true beauty.  Connections going infinitely deep, because of the "cause and effect" nature of the universe.  Producing all these beautiful life forms for me to observe, producing my life to live out. 

Experience is a beautiful thing.  I believe it is the purpose of our individual existences(Not to be mistaken for the purpose of life existing, as a collective).  Experience.  That is all we can do.  As individuals, our 75 year, blink of an eye, existence and experience is played out in front of our eyes, the only thing your being can do is watch it play out.  Whatever events "cause and effect" dictate for our individual lives to experience. It really is just a teasing blink of an eye relative to the billions of years of unlimited experience throughout the universe.  But at the same time even that 75 years is so much compared to no experience.  I cant complain.  I will definately enjoy the experience along the way, as I am forced to play out the role laid before me by the Holy and Great One, the collective universe.  So just Be, you cannot escape that, and sit back and experience your Be-ing.  The good, the evil, the happiness, the sadness, the consequences, the gluttony, the greed, the rightousness, the love, the hatred, the altruism, the mistakes, the embarassment, the sacrifice, the accomplishment, the victory, the defeat, the adventure, the beauty of LIFE.  That is all you can do.  You are nothing more than an array of 5 sensors attached to a CPU processing that information and forming it into the experience for "the observer" to watch.  Who is this watcher, this observer which is the deepest level of my being?  Is it my soul?  Does that element exist beyond my physical body and physical life?  One thing is for sure, the observer is the common bond that all life in the universe shares.  Release your hatred toward any being, we are all brothers and sisters, we all relate.

Allegedly a new pyramid has been discovered in Europe, the first ever found there.  It is located in Visoko, Bosnia.  A pyramid shaped hill called Visočica has been declared an ancient pyramid by an "amateur archeologist".  It is allegedly taller than the Great Pyramid of Giza.  Excavating just started this month.  Apparently so far they have confirmed that under the Earth of the hill is man-made structure made out of stone.  Also, they have found an underground tunnel system, which could be connecting this pyramid with other hills in the area suspected of being pyramids themselves.  But, these stones and tunnels could possibly be explained without the existance of this alleged pyramid.  An astonishing discovery, if it is true, a terrible scandal if it is not.  There is much criticism, and the credibillity of the so called archeologist is questionable.  It is most probably some kind of hoax I think.

This is also very interesting. While I was looking up info on the pyramid in Bosnia, I ran into another interesting piece of info.  A structure was discovered underwater at the Japanese island of Yonaguni.  It appears to be a large stone ziggurat. Some believe the structure is natural, some believe it is man-made.  If it is man-made it was made arround the end of the last ice age, 8 to 10 thousand years ago, the last time that area and the structure was above the water level.  The pictures are spectacular, and it looks very man-made, but who knows.  Good site, with pictures.

Yes, yes!  Here we go.  Its been long, long awaited, much anticipated.  NHL playoffs are here for the first time in 2 years.  So, for the next few weeks, you'll have to catch me in front of the tube.

I'm gonna take this opportunity to pay my respect to all the hockey players out there doin it for the love of the game.  So many great players, I couldnt start naming names.  I will name one though.  Peter Forsberg.  On and off the ice, I wish I could become such a spectacular man.  The most highly skilled player that has ever played the game!  Most definately.  Congrats big Joe on winning the scoring race.

- Heres my first round pool picks:

-East-                                        -West-

OTTvsTB – OTT in 5              DETvsEDM – DET in 5

CARvsMTL – CAR in 7            DALvsCOL – DAL in 6

NJvsNYR – NJ in 7                 CGYvsANA – CGY in 7

BUFvsPHI – PHI in 6               NSHvsSJ – SJ in 7

 ***My round 2 picks are in, check the comments.

Part one I only talked about global warming.  Lets go deeper.  First though, the last couple days I've seen a couple new articles that where downplaying global warming.  They say that "global warming alarmists" are over-exagerating the situation with the motive of getting more funding for climate research(http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110008220).  So, the same old story arises, one group of people says one thing, the other says the oposite, who do you believe?  I don't know.  All you can do is look at the facts and decide for yourself.  I havent looked in depth yet, so I am un-decided.  So that being said, Im gonna add on to my previous post.  Of course, there are factors other than climate change that will determine the future of the human race.

Burning of fossil fuel is not the only polution problem we have.  Waste, some toxic, is still constantly being pumped out of manufacturing processes with nowhere to go but into the global biosphere.  And we are still damaging the ecosystem in other ways.  Species are still going extinct from our actions.  With the accelerated rate at which our civilization is growing and expanding how long will it be before the ecosystem becomes dangerously deteriorated?

The population on the Earth is approximately six and a half billion people right now (http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop).  In thirty years it could be over 10 billion!  How 'bout 60 years from now?  14 billion?  More?  I think there is something like a 250,000 person increase every day.  Imagine that.  This is a problem obviously.  We are already causing so many problems with 6 billion.  Will living conditions be better in 30 years?  We must learn to stop increasing the population.  The more people we bring into this world, the more poverty there will be, and the conditions will continue to deteriorate.

How much longer can we keep expanding and growing the economy?  As the economy increases, we manufacture more and extract more resources, thus more damage is done to the environment.  What happens in the next 50 years for economy when there is no more oil to burn or when(if) someone comes out with a great alternative energy technology that releases the energy industries grip on people?

War.  Our race has been at war with itself since as far back as we know no doubt.  Always at war.  Just 60 years ago millions of people died in world war two.  So many people had to fight.  How many wars are still to be fought?  Is peace on Earth possible?

Businesses now are bombarding us with subliminal messages, and using psychological effects on the general population to create wants and needs in people to consume their products.  To them, it is like a game of manipulating people into buying their products.  They are even using psychologists to get into your childrens minds.  Business is becoming more powerful even than government.

How do we get our race, as a collective, to take responsibility for the harm we are doing, and avoid a seemingly inevitable self destruction, or a George Orwell 1984 scenario?  Or does it even matter?  Maybe it is just a natural, never ending struggle.  I know this is a very pessimistic view.  I do see positive outcomes. I believe the future could be very positive, if we can learn the responsibility required for the power we have recently acquired. And what a beautiful future that could be.

Mmm.  Girls.  There is nothing in this world, in life, that I love, appreciate, and respect more than a beautiful woman.  And by beautiful, I dont mean just good lookin.  I mean beautiful in body, mind and soul.  Thank you god for blessing us with their presence.  They are the best thing the human race has going for it.  I have so much respect for the Queens out there.