Pacific Trash Vortex
It was an ISM…internet synchronicity manifestation. There was a much praised video about a plastic bag, that winds up in the Pacific Trash Vortex. The bag has a voice (supplied by uberkraut Werner Herzog), and goes looking for it’s “maker” (silently played by an unknown actress).
The bag has a remarkable existence. First, it is used to carry tennis balls, then dog food, then to pick up the by product of dog food. This is remarkable in itself… the typical krogerbag, if it doesn’t get thrown away on arrival at home, will not be used for more than one chore. But this is a special bag.
After the secondary canine duty, the bag is thrashed. Somehow, it escapes from the municipal destination, and begins a wind propelled odyssey in search of “my maker”. After a while, it is on the beach, and the wind takes it into the ocean. It floats in the sea, has pieces bitten off my non nutrition conscious fish, and heads off for a legendary garbage nirvana.
Before long, the bag is in the “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”. The GPGP is a bit north of Hawaii, and west of California. The bag movie was filmed in Wilmington, N.C. You should not think about this too long. At any rate, the bag is not happy in the GPGP, and moves on to greener pastures.
The feature linked above has a good description of the GPGP. “In the broad expanse of the northern Pacific Ocean, there exists the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre, a slowly moving, clockwise spiral of currents created by a high-pressure system of air currents. The area is an oceanic desert, filled with tiny phytoplankton but few big fish or mammals. Due to its lack of large fish and gentle breezes, fishermen and sailors rarely travel through the gyre. But the area is filled with something besides plankton: trash, millions of pounds of it, most of it plastic. It’s the largest landfill in the world, and it floats in the middle of the ocean.”
The next day, PG goes to a site called Listverse. The feature of the day is “top ten places you don’t want to visit”. Number ten on the list is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. GPGP is either the size of Texas or twice the size of the lower 48. It is a collection of debris, largely plastic, from the world. It is held in place by a gyre. This is a place where swirling ocean currents bump up against each other.
A visit to google led to a trip to wikipedia. There is an article at Wikipedia about GPGP that is an almost verbatim source for listverse. This takes recycling a bit too far. There is also a band called Pacific Trash Vortex. The link is to MySpace, which apparently is never going away.
Plastic is a petroleum by product, and has many benefits to our world. It’s durability is one of them, and also one of it’s negatives. (The fact that plastic is so cheap to make is another.) A plastic bag cast off into the environment simply does not disappear. Fish eat them, thinking it is good food, and die of starvation. (Does this affect the food chain?) While the film about the plastic bag is an exaggeration, the fact is that plastic is forever.
The vintage photographs are from the “Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”. The poster is from Treehugger.com. This is a repost from three years ago. Very little has changed in the world of perpetual plastic pollution. It is not known whether, or not, the Pacific Trash location of the Vortex has a no idiot policy.
Did BHO Throw The First Debate?
It is a few months since the election, and many of us are glad to be done with presidential politics for a while. This post is speculative. The idea is that the poor performance of BHO in the first debate last fall was intentional. Anyone using that link to watch the debate has too much free time.
Before we go any further, it should be noted that PG did not watch the first debate. He heard a bit of it on the radio while he was driving. BHO did not seem to do badly in the part that PG heard. Of course, sometimes these debates are more about visual appearance than substative discussion. Many people who listened to the Kennedy-Nixon debate on radio thought that Nixon won. (PG does not have a link for this, and is not inclined to spend time looking. If it is an urban legend, then so be it.)
Now, the consensus is that BHO did poorly in the first debate with WMR. Many right wing pundits were very happy the next few days. (When you google “the first bho wmr debate”, you get a link for airfare deals on flights from Bhopal to Mananara, (BHO to WMR).)
It didn’t matter after election day. BHO won with ease. What this post wants to consider is the possibility that the poor performance in the first debate was part of a plan by BHO. It would be a high risk strategy, but seems to have worked.
Going into the first debate, BHO was on a roll. The release of the 47 percent video hurt WMR, who had suffered other campaign blunders. The election was looking like a rout for BHO. Maybe the democrats wanted to keep people interested in the race, and make it seem more competitive.
Another advantage of a poor debate performance would be to humanize BHO. He had been such a dynamic campaign performer before the first debate. By showing people that he could have a bad night, BHO seemed like less of a superman, and more of an everyday person.
Perhaps the bad debate performance was designed to divert attention from the attack in Benghazi. This attack seemed to be a serious misstep for the Obama regime. The Republicans were unable to exploit this disaster. One reason for this was the constant attacks on BHO from the Fox News crowd. It was the the boy who cried wolf. When something awful really happened, few people believed Fox news.
Whether it was intentional or accidental, the performance in the first debate is all but forgotten today. By this time, the only voters who counted were the undecided voters in a handful of states. The rest of the county did not count. This is a serious problem with the two party/ electoral college system of electing the POTUS. It is to the advantage of both major parties, and is not likely to change.
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Living Christmas Tree
a living christmas tree is not always a good idea
forty five years later
the top is chopped off by georgia power
along with the inconvenient magnolia next door
the two trees look like larry and moe
The pictures from The Library of Congress
G-d Is
G-d is
… in the details
… the opinion of an atheist
… the union with every breath
… smiling in your face when you turn your back
… isis, astarte, hecate, demeter, cali, iana, diana
… the whirlwind that blows through a junkyard, creating a jet engine
Soup Or Tuesday
About this time a year ago was super tuesday . This is a presidential primary thing. When you live in a non-swing state, this is the only time you get to make a choice.
By the time ST arrived, the field of contenders had thinned down. No one knows what the rejects were doing. The rumors of a Herman Cain – Michele Bachmann liaison are too gruesome to contemplate.
Among the choices was the incumbent, BHO. He has to juggle running the country, preventing war, getting reelected, and being the father of teenage girls.
This commentary will be in alphabetical order.
Newt Gingrich used to represent Georgia in Congress. He has stage presence. He still has all his hair, and does not dye it. Callista Gingrich has great hair. The daughter of Mr. Gingrich defended him, regarding his divorce from wife number one.
Barack Obama has killed more men with beards than any Republican.
Ron Paul is the only candidate to have served in the military. He is opposed to the promiscuous use of US military power. Bruno thinks Dr. Paul is much cuter than Enrique Iglesias.
Mitt Romney has the most money of any candidate.
Rick Santorum has the most children of any candidate.
The voting will take place at Ashford Park Elementary School. PG was a student there. There is a sepia picture of Dr. Thomas, who was the Principal. Seeing an antique looking picture, and realizing that you knew the person, makes you feel old. The voting is sometimes held in the cafetorium. It is not the only time PG has held his nose in that facility.
The so called real election took place in November. America had to juggle the chores of sorting out the hype, keeping the economy going, and buying the latest consumer products. Swing state voters had the additional duty of choosing the POTUS.
The Six G-ds of Christianity
There is a discussion brewing in the Jesus Worship blogosphere on the question of ” Is Christianity really monotheistic ”. This is in response to a post, on the subject of the unquestioning Christian .
There is a “motivational” poster, with the headline “Ten signs you are an unquestioning Christian”. One of these (either number one or ten) deals with monotheism. To wit: “You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of G-ds claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of your G-d.” Some writers are promising/threatening to write about all ten of these arguments, and the feature on monotheism is the first.
PG is a recovering Baptist, who is severely alienated from Jesus. He does suspect that there is a G-d, and is in no way an “atheist”. The tracts linked to above tend to break down the discussion to atheists vs. christians, which is highly misleading.
PG has been knocking around for some time the idea of a post about the six G-ds of Jesus Worshipers. The appearance of this series…at blogs that ban PG from commenting…has spurred him into action. Whether or not there will be more comments (from PG) remains to be seen.
Christianity claims to be a monotheistic religion. This means, there is only one G-d. In contrast, the Romans and Greeks had G-ds and G-ddesses galore, and the Hindus have literally millions of deities. In what was claimed by some as an advancement, the Jews worshiped one G-d. (Zoraroastrians are said to be monotheistic, and did it before the Jews. There may be others.)
One of the sacred tracts of Judaism and Christianity is the ten commandments . The first three relate to the concept of monotheism, and the proper way to talk about G-d.
1-Thou shalt have no other G-ds before me.
2-Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.
Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy G-d am a jealous G-d, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.
3-Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy G-d in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
As a side note, PG has heard something about the use of Lord as a name for G-d. The riff is that “Lord” was an expression for an English nobleman. When the Bible was translated by James I, his workers used the L word as a synonym for G-d. The words for G-d in the Greek and Hebrew texts that comprised the Bible do not translate as Lord…that word was inserted by the anglocentric workers of James I. This is something that PG read in a book by Tom Robbins, and has no other source for. It may, or may not be true. If it is, then it just might be a violation of the third commandment.
Getting back to monotheism, does Christianity live up to the first commandment? This may seem to be a silly question when you consider the concept of the trinity. At some point in the early days of Jesus Worship, a decision was made to split G-d into three parts. We now had the father, the son, and the holy ghost. (Which makes for a neat blessing…the father the son the holy ghost, whoever eats fastest gets the most) The first commandment is still in effect, but, well, you just have to understand. The Jews continued to worship one G-d, and when Mohammed started his franchise, he changed the name to Allah. In that version, there is no G-d but Allah, and Mohammed is his messenger.
Meanwhile, the Jesus Worshipers were good at converting and reproducing, and soon had a very popular religion. But was it one G-d only? The faith had a book of ancient texts that they call “the word of G-d”. The fact that it was written, copied, edited and translated by man did not stop folks. The first commandment would seem to prohibit this custom, but, you just have to believe.
PG is willing to concede the point that he doesn’t understand the concept of the Trinity. He thinks it is a concoction of the Council of Nicea, and a violation of the first commandment. This is something that seems to happen a lot with Christianity…to proclaim one thing as a rule, to apparently violate that rule, but have a clever explanation that few seem to understand.
This does not explain the other G-ds of Christianity. For this discussion, we will focus on three…the Bible, Satan, and Salvation.
The Catholic Church had a conference to establish a consistent canon for their church. This conference became known as the Council of Nicea. (This conference is where the concept of the Triune G-d was formulated.) The texts in use by the church at the time were collected in one book. Some texts were not used, and there is a good possibility that the texts that were used were edited. This committee effort became known as the Bible.
During the protestant reformation, the new churches needed a source for their authority over the people. It was during this time that the concept of the Bible as the “Word of G-d” became known. This in effect made a G-d out of a book. This is in direct defiance of the First Commandment, which teaches to have no other G-d before you.
The book has been interpreted into many languages, and the interpretations have been interpreted. The star of the New Testament, Jesus, spoke Aramaic. His words were recorded, in Greek, many years after he *died*. Any quote from Jesus has been translated at least twice. This is from texts that were written many years after he lived. And yet, people talk about what Jesus taught, and have confidence, that they know what they are talking about. (The only things we know about Jesus is what the Council of Nicea chose to tell us.)
At some point, the idea began to float around that the Bible was not only the word of G-d, but that it was inerrant…that is, without errors. This would presume that no body in the chain of production made a mistake. This includes a scribe copying a text, and a Catholic editor assembling a canon. Nobody translating ancient languages, from ragged source materials, made a mistake. The people who make this claim seem to assume that they have a perfect understanding of this text. Is it a coincidence that the spell check suggestion for inerrant is ignorant?
This one is too blatant to let slide. When you declare a text to be the “word of G-d”, you are making a G-d out of a book. There is a semantic argument to be made… you can say that this isn’t worship. Lets say it out loud… calling the Bible the “word of G-d” makes a G-d out of a book, in violation of the First Commandment. This is not monotheism.
A quick look at the way Satan is treated by the church shows a curious similarity to worship. Yes, it is backhanded worship, and lots of negative things are said about Beelzebub. He with the horns and tail is given credit for all kinds of powers, and needs to be fought (with human collateral damage). Yes, Jesus Worshipers give the Devil his due, and then some.
The last “G-d” that we will look at today is Salvation, or the Christian scheme for life after death. Anyone living in the USA has heard this plan a thousand times, and many agree with it. Some do not agree with it. It is none of your business how PG feels, even if your first guess is probably correct.
What is undeniable is the importance placed on salvation in Christianity. It is discussed in every church meeting, often at top volume, and with dramatics that would shame a ham actor. Salvation is said to justify all the rudeness and verbal abuse that Jesus Worshiper inflict on their neighbors. If you do not agree with the concept of Salvation, you have no business belonging to a Christian Church.
Does this hysterical emphasis on Salvation make a G-d out of the concept? As with the Bible and Satan, it is a matter of perspective. A good argument could be made that Jesus Worshipers treat these three items with G-d like devotion, and make G-ds out of them.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is a repost.
Poetry Saves Time
There is another Marilyn Monroe story floating around. “Someone told me that Marilyn Monroe once remarked that she enjoyed reading poetry “because it saves time.” I like this quotation so much that I’ve never dared to confirm it; I’d feel disenchanted to learn it was bogus.”
Poetry Daily seems to think the quote is legitimate. “That great aesthete and reader Marilyn Monroe once said: “I read poetry because it saves time.” In the age of Twitter, and other tweet-like utterances from all sorts of birdies, not to mention attention deficit disorder on an epidemic national scale, it’s refreshing to find poetry that both saves time and enlarges it. “
PG applied the wikiquotes test. Miss Monroe said in Look Magazine, March 5, 1957, “I’ve been on a calendar, but never on time.” Many people who worked with her agree.
Wikiquots also has a telegram, sent to Bobby and Ethel Kennedy. Marilyn was widely rumored to be seeing Bobby. This was a few weeks before her untimely death. “”I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.” (Telegram from Marilyn Monroe declining a party invitation from Bobby and Ethel Kennedy. June 13, 1962.)
A google investigation into the poetry quote led to Did Marilyn Monroe really say all those philosophical quotes? This is in DataLounge, where you “… get your fix of gay gossip, news and pointless bitchery.” The question on top of the thread was “I notice that the must fucked up of my female friends absolutely worship Marilyn Monroe, and are forever quoting her. What’s up with that, and are all those quotes real?? by: Mrs. Johnstone”
There are 148 comments in the thread. Some say Marilyn was an airhead, and some say she was bright. There are some quotes, many of which are probably made up. There is a letter, supposedly written to Albert Einstein. Shelly Winters says the two might have had a special relationship.
“Were I to pursue physics instead of my first love, acting, I would attempt to solve these problems by understanding the reason for these discrete energy states, which are probably due to the fact that standing waves only exist at discrete frequencies. My theory would predict that energy exchanges will be discrete, as observed;… But as I said, I want to be an actress.”
Once, on the set of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell discussed embryological parallelism. Marilyn Monroe: Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny. Jane Russell: I was about to say the same thing.
One of the comments had a link to a fun story. Film legend Marilyn Monroe went to bed with fellow actress Joan Crawford – but the lesbian sexual experience only reaffirmed her attraction to men. Monroe left Joan gasping for more liaisons, much to Marilyn’s chagrin. Monroe described the encounter herself in conversations taped by her psychiatrist Dr. Ralph Greeson, recordings which were obtained by the Los Angeles Times newspaper from former prosecutor John Miner, who helped investigate her death. Monroe said, “We went to Joan’s bedroom… Crawford had a gigantic orgasm and shrieked like a maniac. “Next time I saw Crawford she wanted another round. I told her straight I didn’t much enjoy doing it with a woman.”
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. HT to Andrew Sullivan.
Gloomy Sunday Number Thirteen
PG stared out at the gray sky. He thought that the first sunday in march might be the most depressing day of the year. The ever cheerful blogger had an idea for a repost. Pictures today are from The Library of Congress. The people on a Baltimore streetcar seem to be happy.
Billie Holiday had a hit with”Gloomy Sunday”in 1941. The legend is that people would listen to the song, and kill themselves. As a result, the song was banned from the radio. Or was it?
“Gloomy Sunday” was written in 1933 by Rezső Seress. Additional lyrics were later written by László Jávor. It became known as the ” Hungarian Suicide Song”, and was reportedly banned in Hungary. An English translation (which is said to not do justice to the original Hungarian) was rendered.
The song has a melancholy sound, even as an instrumental. The story is about a person…it is not gender specific…who decides to join a loved one who has died. A third verse was added, to the english version, where the singer says it was all a dream.
The song became popular in the United States. And the suicide stories started to spread, along with rumors that the song had been banned from the radio. (It was indeed banned by the BBC.) There are indications that these rumors were part of a publicity campaign.
The urban legend busters snopes. calls the story “undetermined”. Legends like this get a life of their own. A grieving person hearing this song on a dreary Sunday is not going to be uplifted. One thing is known for sure…the original composer did take his own life. Rezső Seress jumped off a tall building in Budapest in 1968. The legend is he had never had another hit song after writing “Gloomy Sunday”.
Graphic Number Four
One saturday morning, PG listened to as much as he could take of an online discussion. It was two Ivy League psychology types, discussing something called the Implicit Association Test. This gimmick shows you pictures, and tests your subliminal reaction. The test unit completed by PG said “Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Straight People compared to Gay People.”
So the frizzy haired psych talker… or maybe it was the other one … said that the tests would not have predicted that America would elect a black man POTUS. Since BHO has a white mother, some people do not see him as being black. If you say this out loud the ism police will come for you. PG decided that he would be happier if he did not listen to the rest of the discussion.
Facebook is not always an improvement. A fbf, who PG has not seen in eleven years, posted graphic number four. This is the fourth in a series of motivational graphics, where the reader is guilt tripped into reposting the image as a gesture of solidarity. On top of that passive aggressive nonsense, it was a lousy graphic. PG decided to simply retype the message.
Its been said that everlasting friends go long periods of time without speaking and never question their friendship. These friends pick up phones like they spoke yesterday, regardless of how long it has been or how far away they live, and they don’t hold grudges. They understand that life if busy and you will always love them.
The grammar police have been notified. This was written like H. P. Lovecraft.
Pictures are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Up To Speed
PG went to get his drivers license renewed.
The State of Georgia had a program to encourage the drug free workplace.
A sign said that the program will help get your employees off drugs.
The phrase used was get you up to speed.
KIDS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS
I saw the sign about
KIDS WITH SPECIAL NEEDS.
The sign said to repost in honor of KWSN.
I felt ill.
I doctored the sign.
I no longer felt ill.
I felt accepted.
Douche
Backstory recently presented a feature, Rinse and Repeat: Cleanliness in America. As the title might suggest, it is about cleanliness. The location of this concept with regard to G-dliness was not discussed. While researching this story, a listener named Micheal Gambil sent a letter to the studio. This letter was read as part of the broadcast.
“This one is going to be great! My comment/suggestion may sound a little strange, but I was having a talk with my 70 year old aunt regarding female hygiene recently. She is still a believer in what is known as doucheing. YUCK! It got awkward…but it really made me think about the history of “lady products”. Flower scented sprays etc…I think there has been change on this issue. Or not…maybe it is just me and my quasi-hippy friends!”
Douching became popular in the nineteenth century. It was originally thought to be useful as contraception. As other methods of controlling fertility became available, douching became more of a cosmetic item. The corporate marketers are good at creating demand for a product.
More recently, the dangers of using this product have come to light. This awareness came into public consciousness at roughly the same time that douche started to be used as an insult. No one knows if the two developments are connected.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This is written like David Foster Wallace.
Chamblee54 
1 comment