Space Invaders

Asteroids and meteors and crazy astronomy, oh my!  (Here's a bit of fun with that.)

Oh, and don't forget to check out this insane dash-cam footage from Russia:

 

Quote of the Day: The End Is Nigh, and We're Clucked

Here it is entertainingly taken out of context from a post by sci fi author Sarah Hoyt:

"I've seen the apocalypse, and it all ends in chickens."

Quote of the Day: Greenie Hysteria

Heh:

... the habit of reading every warm spike and every storm as fresh confirmation of the coming apocalypse needs to stop. It’s bad science and it’s bad politics. Green hysteria is more likely to paralyze us then help us take the kind of steps we need to take towards sustainability. 

The gravest danger to Earth these days isn’t climate skepticism; it’s the broken, Malthusian and statist green policy imagination. Wedded to grandiose and unworkable “solutions”, greens feel they must push the panic button at every opportunity to stampede the world into embracing an unworkable and unsustainable policy agenda.

Well, I don't feel the urge to panic and adopt a Stone Age lifestyle if the New York Times is shutting down its environment desk and if Al Gore, that blowhard high priest of the Green religion, feels it's OK to sell out to Al Jazeera for a sweet, sweet personal profit of $100 million.  

2012: JibJab's Year In Review

Apocalypse Not!

Movie Madness: Apocalypsinema

5 movies to watch as you wait for impending doom!  I reviewed glorious #5 here.  Oh, and for one apocalypsey flick to avoid, see this review.

Movie Madness: Dumbest Apocalypse Scenarios On Film

It's the end of the world as we know it ... and I feel fiiiiiiiine!

Your Doomsday Weather Forecast for December 21

Stephen Hadley on Dealing with Iran

Former national security adviser Stephen Hadley has a pretty long article considering the pros and cons of several possible approaches.  In Hadley's words,

The purpose of this article is not to advocate a particular course of action, but to contribute to the public debate by setting out the full range of plausible approaches to resolving the confrontation between the international community and the Iranian regime over its nuclear program -- a program that virtually the entire international community believes is a vehicle for achieving an advanced nuclear-weapons capability if not a nuclear bomb itself. Eight options are described below -- from negotiations through use of force to containment -- along with potential benefits and costs in each case. 

These should be viewed as a set of "nested" options that could lead sequentially from one to another. They should be seen not in two dimensions, with the task being to pick one of the options from among the list, but in three, as a family of options through which the policy of the United States and the international community could move over time depending on the success or failure of prior options -- and the choices made by the Iranian regime.

Aaaaaand this is when you realize that sometimes all options have their downsides and that sometimes all options are bad, though some are worse than others.  The last option - acquiescing to a nuclear Iran under the delusion of being able to "contain" it - is unthinkable. I don't care how many eggheads argue that a nuclear Iran could "make the Middle East more stable." (What have you been smoking, eggheads?)  Do you really think a nuclear Iran would be a rational actor?  The mere thought is almost enough to make you miss the "good old days" of the Cold War.  Oh, I do love the understated disadvantage of this option: "Israel might not accept this outcome."  You don't say!

If This Is as Good As It Gets in the Middle East Morass

Then DAYUM.  Really?  I don't even know what to say about this.  Well, its thesis has the distinction of being something I've not heard actually advocated so far in the many ongoing debates, discussions, and various freakings-out about Iran, Israel, and ramifications for regional (in)stability.  No, I'm not saying that I back it.

The Euro Crisis: "a shabby, demoralising slide into darkness"

Life imitates T.S. Eliot: here are a few thoughts on the slow slide into ruin when we're expecting instant apocalypse.  That doesn't mean the ruin is any real.

Nerd News: 2 More Depressing Looks at Higher Ed

One and two.

I Got Your Apocalypse Right Here: the Acid Volcano

No, really.

Nerdpocalypse Now!

TOTALLY SWAMPED AT SCHOOL. I hope I'll be back once this crazy week is over!  Here's a fitting song: "But we're never gonna survive until we are a little crazy ... !"

Euro Notes: Monti and The Italian Job

An unenviable and Herculean task.

Quote of the Day: The Coming Medical Ethics Crisis?

Oh, goody.  Terrifying thought by a practicing physician in the new age of government intrusion:

When the physician’s primary obligation is to satisfy the wishes of the payer—ultimately the wishes of the state—how can patients be truly confident in their doctors’ decisions? 

I submit that it all boils down to a question of professional ethics. 

The medical profession must decide—and soon—which ethical doctrine to follow: Are doctors to be agents of their patients or agents of the state? All of us should dread the latter choice—because we will all be patients some day.

Notable Blog Post Title Du Jour: Solar Flares

Gawker has this hilarious headline:  "There’s a Decent Chance the Sun Will Fry the Entire Internet and Lay Waste to Civilization."   Well, it's better than zombies, right?

Mea Culpa: School Has Been Insanely Doomtastic ... Plus DVD Review of "Stay" (2005)

Posting hasn't been up to my usual standards because I'm preoccupied with school responsibilities.  Um ... sorry?  I'm hoping things get better after Spring Break!  We'll get back to foreign policy, politics, science and tech, and things of greater import than Oscar night lunacy.  Too bad school has been insane.  Ugh.

On a related note about insanity: I made a big mistake (or else indulged in a darkly brilliant bit of unintentional, serendipitous irony) the other night when I watched the 2005 flick "Stay" while doing teaching prep.  That flick is sheer head-pounding madness of a completely David Lynchian type!  It was a medicated-like-House fever dream.  You  know, once when I was really, really sick, I took NyQuil, and the vividly bizarre, down-the-rabbit hole, fleeing-from-monsters dreams that resulted wouldn't have been out of place in this flick!  And no, I've never taken NyQuil again.  I'd rather suffer.  But as for this flick about such uplifting ideas as guilt, grief, self-destruction, the dissolution of reality, and the descent into madness?  Maybe not the best pick for diversion during a study binge? Too close to grad school?  *Sigh.*  (And so here I go, preferring to scribble this off the cuff as another form of procrastination.  I'd rather do this than the work that has a deadline in 2 days, you know?)

Reality Bites.

Hello Kitty Monstrosity of the Day: Hello Dentist

Isn't going to the dentist terrifying enough without this?  This madness is in Tokyo.

Star Trek Vs. Star Wars

Cracked.Com pits these two sci fi behemoths against each other to hilariously snarky effect. But would you go as far as to argue that "Star Wars" actually sucks?  Them's fightin' words in sci fi fandom ... not least because Han Solo is the coolest ruffian ever.