Subliminal Seduction

Back in the 70s I read a groundbreaking book with the above title. It was groundbreaking because although some people knew about the movie-theater experiments where they flashed messages like "Buy Coke" or "Eat popcorn" or whatever; at rates too fast to be perceived by the conscious mind but absolutely picked up loud and clear by the subconscious, and half the the theater hit the snack bar at once, no one was really aware of how pervasive it was in everyday advertising.
 Many people have seen this classic Gilbey's gin ad. The word SEX is clearly visible in the glass. It goes way beyond that though, and I still remember how it blew my mind when I first saw it. There are several things going on I don't remember, but I know that the glass swizzle stick represents penetration. What's really crazy is the bottle cap lying next to the bottle. There's nothing about that, but if you look in the reflection on the table, something else pops up. I'll give you a sec if you'd like to try and find it for yourself. ...
 Give up? Look closely. It's a pair of legs and an erect penis. Of course it isn't photo-realistic, but to your subconscious it more than gets the point across. The glass reflects what looks like a vagina. Again it's not meant to be perfect. Then you'd see it and the game would be over. They can't make it obvious, although most things are once pointed out. I doubt anyone could miss the SEX lettering. I don't remember if Gilbey's or anyone else ever came clean about it, but I seriously doubt they tried to deny it. Maybe they did. I do remember one thing that happened. Once the story got out, the Advertising Council or whomever it was came out and said "Aw, shucks. We're sorry. We promise not to do it any more." What was crazy is that most people actually believed hem. All they did was just get better at it.
 It works so well for the very reason that we don't consciously notice these images and symbols. The subconscious mind actually plays a much greater role in how we think and act than the conscious. And symbols (and here, images) are much more powerful than any written language. We don't need to see the words STOP or ALTO to know that a red octagonal sign means "stop" or that any triangular yellow sign means danger. You can take a symbol and maybe blur or distort it a bit and place it somewhere in an ad, and 999 out of 1,000 people would never notice it, but all 1,000 will perceive it, and it can definitely act upon the subconscious.
 Some symbols are in the open. Bacardi uses the bat as a trademark. In fact it's trademarked as the "bat device." A device is something that is used for something. It's interesting what the bat device does in this case, and it's responsible not only for selling more Bacardi, but more of all alcohol in general. The bat is traditionally a symbol of death. Relating to the consumption of alcohol, it sends two different messages to two groups of people. The idea is that one group; let's call them the optimists, will see the Barcadi bat and think that by drinking Bacardi they can cheat death. The "pessimists" as it were will see it and that there's nothing they can do about it and they're going to die anyway, so they might as well drink alcohol. It's brilliant. It covers both sides of the equation. No wonder they call it a device.
 Most of it though is cleverly hidden. It's not just ads. It's in commercials, movies, TV shows, and yes, even well-known cartoons, which I find beyond deplorable. I won't elaborate, because all it would do is serve to shoot the messenger, and I didn't do that shit. I will say that people really might want to look into what their kids are watching a little more closely. I don't even have any kids and it infuriates me. You think this evil technique works well on adults? It works much better on children.

This Calvert ad is my favorite, although it by no means represents the sheer density with which these images and symbols are packed within a small space like a menagerie in some ads. Looking at this ad is like looking at "hidden pictures" in Highlights for Children magazine, only more difficult. These days people don't have the time to look at this image and try to find things, and it's incredibly well-blended anyway. The stuff jumps out at you once it's pointed out, but until then you only notice random shapes and colors, even though your mind is really buzzing.
 First off the the etchings in the bottom of the glass represent a volcano. I'll leave that to you to figure out what that might signify to a male. In the upper-left ice cube you should clearly see a gray cat. There's even "whiskers." His mouth is slightly offset to the right, but again they can't make it too perfect or you'll notice it right off, and it will have zero subliminal effect. In the cube below that there's a spherical shape and a black spot that resembles sort of an Alien skull.
 In the upper-right cube there's a white cat and several other faces and whatnot, but I won't point it all out. It would take all day. The easiest thing to see in that cube is the shark. See if you can spot it. ... Okay, there's a white stripe with a black triangle. Just to the left and below that is the curved mouth of the shark; complete with teeth. It's facing downward and to the left. I just blew up this image to have a quick look for myself, and I noticed the weird, reptilian "demon face." I had to grin because it's been a long time since I've see this guy. It's just to the left of the "shark." The head is sharply tilted to the left. A thin white brow goes directly into the long sharp nose. Just beneath that is a dark slit of a mouth. You should clearly be able to see (click on the image to enlarge) two deep-set eyes looking straight back at you. It's eerie.
 In the center cube you can see some sort of long insect. It has a head with antennae, a long thin body and legs. I forgot what the deal is with insects, but it's significant. There's tons of other stuff. In the bottom cube there's sort of a shark/prehistoric cartoon fish thing. He has a deep body that thins sharply at the "snout" and the "tail." You can see a fin on top, gills and another toothy mouth, and if you look very closely you can see that he's grinning and looking straight back at you. Maybe I should mention here that if it sounds like somebody slipped something into my coffee this morning, these were the original interpretations by the author of the book. I can give myself bonus points because I noticed the "SEX" in the Gilbey's ad long before I knew about any of this stuff, but some of the really small stuff had to be pointed out to me later. The author did suggest ways of relaxing and being patient when looking at the images, and letting things pop out on their own, and it worked very well. I clearly saw some of the crazy things in the Calvert's ad before they were pointed out.
 The best part of this ad, and what tells me that this is definitely deliberate, is the lizard crawling along the rim of the glass. He's hard to see but he's perfectly formed. If you're interested, and it's cool, you may need a magnifying glass, but he's right there. There's no way that could be random. That was put there on purpose. That has to do with all of the "reptile brain" stuff and I won't get into all that. He has a perfectly-formed head, feet with claws and a tail. He's perfectly drawn, but almost none of the millions who saw this ad worldwide ever noticed. It just about cracked me up when I first saw it it was so crazy. Who would put a lizard in a liquor ad? People who understand symbols apparently.
 All this is nothing revolutionary. It's simple. It's been going on since we first drew a zigzag in the dirt with a stick, and it certainly hasn't stopped. Nowadays they can do it with computers and make it really subtle, but back when these ads came out it took real artistic skills; not to mention a very highly-developed sense of pareidolia. They had to first take the raw image; look for things that might resemble faces or animals, and then airbrush them to accentuate the features, or outright paint stuff in. "SEX" is still ubiquitous today. It's everydamnwhere. I've gotten to where I can look at almost any major ad and see it. It just pops right out without having to look. I wish I had a dime for every time I've seen "SEX" somewhere. Same with videos. Artists sometimes add things to their paintings to try to induce people to buy them. It's in everything ad-related pretty much. It's nothing new under the Sun.
 So are we doomed to be mindless zombies with only one thing on our minds..."Buy...Buy...Buy..." or "Product...Product...Product..." or whatever? No. You can be aware of it and if you want you can even train yourself to be more aware of it and to actually see it, and then it has no effect outside of a pure emotional thing, and that's the conscious mind. Knowledge is power. The Bible says "My people shall perish for lack of knowledge," and with the amount of pure dumbfucks walking around these days I believe it. In this case, knowledge is a very good thing. As I mentioned, the book said to relax when you looked at the images, and to let things find you rather than necessarily trying to look for things. I've found that it helps to not focus so much on the flat plane of the image but rather let your focus blur a bit. There are lots of techniques, but being aware of it is a big thing. They want to sell you shit and they're playing dirty. That's not very nice.

Quote of the Day

"As our society unlearns masculinity and feminizes every stage of male life, boys pay a steep price. Instead of telling the truth that men and women are different, we try to turn men into women. There is nothing inherently toxic about masculinity. The feminization of everything doesn't just fail our boys; over the long run it will fail our nation. " - National Review

Quote of the Day

"People will fight to protect the very system that enslaves them." - Richie from Boston

Refresher Course for Women

I was watching an episode of the original Incredible Hulk TV series and I got a kick out of this scene. It featured the sargent guy from CHIPS; the show with Ponch and John on motorcycles. He was hitting on the damsel in distress; played by this woman who played the hot blond in everything back then. He wasn't playing nice and it looked like he was getting the upper hand. I was sure that mild-mannered scientist David Banner was going to see him molesting her and get really pissed and turn into the Hulk and severely kick his ass. I didn't expect what happened next at all. Talk about plot twists.
 Sally was in the next room so I rewound it and asked her to come in for a minute. I told her there was an short educational clip I wanted her to see. I hit play and the bad man unfroze. "Why am I watching this?" she asked. "Just wait" I said. The scene played and she smiled and said that she was well aware of that technique, but thanks for the refresher course. I said any time. I think it's important not to forget the little things, especially in these uncertain times. She shook her head and walked off.
 What happened was she ended up kneeing him in the balls and he went down like a clown. It took me by surprise but it was a textbook example of the situation, and how to remain calm under pressure and properly execute countermeasures. She did such a good job that David Banner didn't even have to Hulk-out to save her, but I bet the CHIPS guy got his ass kicked real good later in the episode. I didn't have the time to finish watching it. I'm glad I got to see the nut scene. It was a nice surprise, and dude had it coming. In the image above he was like "C'mon, baby...you know you want it. Don't fight it. C'mere."

She's like "You DISGUST me! I wouldn't wanna be with you if you were the last man on Earth! Get your hands off of me, you JERK!" He isn't deterred in the least. He's sure he's about to get some of her one way or another, and if his nice-guy routine doesn't work he won't hesitate to get nasty. It's time for calmer heads to prevail.

She knows her best shot is to get him to let down his guard, so she pretends to play along. She knows he won't figure it out until it's too late. She's got lots of buttons open. For a minute I thought I was watching something on the computer. I can picture the censors back then...advancing the video frame-by-frame; bent over the screen with a big magnifying glass looking for any tiny traces of nip. I think that's as close as I've ever seen. He's so sure he's about to tap it that he can already taste the afterglow cigarette...

...and then WHAM right to the nuts. "OOoof" goes the Chips guy. He won't be unbuttoning any more blouses for the next few minutes. Advantage: blond. The camera work was stellar.

He looks like he's in a world of pain. I guess the director said "Now give me your best 'broken balls' look." In real life he'd be trying to remember where he was, if not who he was, and he'd be trying to get his brain to fight through the searing pain and try to remember how to make him breathe again. Most guys get a little sympathetic feeling in their stomach when they see this. It's not just the incredible pain in your balls, although that's nothing to sneeze at; it's the fact that it basically shuts most men down pronto; worse than a taser. In real life, if she'd caught him square he'd be on the ground hollering for mommy...that is, if he were able to speak. As it was it got the point across.

The best part was when Joan Collins walked up a minute later and he had to pretend not to have just been kicked in the nuts. I guess it's lucky he didn't get a major blow, because then he'd have grabbed his balls right in front of Joan Collins. If you get racked hard enough to get taken down, you'll grab your balls in front of God and everybody and you won't care. You won't be able to care. I bet guys have accepted Jesus being in that much pain.
 If I'd been the director I'd have gotten makeup to give him a little pale chartreuse on his face, because that's what color it'd be in real life. Maybe since the Hulk was green they didn't want to make him green too. That's a minor complaint though and they did a really good job with the nut scene. I don't want to see guys get kicked in the nuts, but it came out of the blue and it got me good. Plus he was an asshole. This technique still works today. I haven't had it used on me in a while, but trust me, it really works. It's never a bad idea to bone-up on self-defense. Have a nice day.

Shamrock Progress

The shamrock plant that's come back from the brink of death a thousand times is recovering nicely. For a plant, it's been through hell, but it always lands on its feet. Roots. Actually tubers. Anyway it's healthy. I'm really glad I didn't toss it when I thought I'd drowned it or dried it up or recently when the cat turned it into a pot of stems. I've had this plant almost forty years, and I dig that. It's a fighter. It seems to like its new digs, with the killer dirt and compost and all. There's even a nice little yellow mushroom growing in the center of the left pot. I believe that's considered good luck. I'm Irish too. I'll take it.

Comment of the Day

I saw a comment from one Rossana A on Youtube. She said (all in caps): "BILL COSBY BEEN PUDDIN HIS PENIS WHERE IT DONT BELONG." Ha, that's a good one. I'm guessing she spelled "puttin'" that way on purpose, but who knows? Either way it's hilarious. I hear Bill Cosby loves puddin'.

Star of Bethlehem?

Around 6am local time this morning the people of Bethlehem (and many other places) saw a huge meteor. The object's brightness was estimated at magnitude -28, or slightly brighter than the Sun. That's some shit. They said it had a tail or trail, and then it broke up into fragments; each with their own tail and at a magnitude of about -23, or a little less bright than the Sun, which clocks in at -27. That's some shit too. A shooting star that was brighter than the Sun, and seen in broad daylight. It left the people somewhat shaken, and understandably so. Was the "Star of Bethlehem" really a meteor? Nah, it was Planet X.

Meteor Site Down

The livemeteors site is down right now. It was having serious buffering issues last night and people were commenting on it. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. It's down on the main site, which goes through Youtube, and the version with the chat room on Youtube. I thought the main site was current, but it was only a recording, and it ended shortly after I clicked on. Most curious. I clicked on the usual thumbnail but all it was was a video capture from some time earlier. They'd put up a bunch of similar videos overnight, but there's no trace of the live feed right now.
 Did the meth head, aka Network Man, really manage to merge his consciousness with the network and shut it down? I doubt it. Is so much shit coming in right now that they just don't want to show it live? Who knows. Is it nothing more than a glitch? Maybe, but I've never known the site to go down. I'll keep checking. The meteor mystery continues. Crazy. Stay tuned.

Fashion: Hair

This was my hair when I woke up this morning. I guess I'm old school but my first inclination was to smooth it down. Looks like Alfalfa or Buckwheat or whatever his name was from Little Rascals. Before I stopped to remember which side my hair is parted on and began to smooth it, it occurred to me as it does so many times that people pay good money to get their hair to look like this. Why don't they just not comb it and hit it with some kind of manly manspray hairspray or something and just go? I can't tell much difference in this and what people look like when they walk out of Great Clips or wherever. Am I missing something here? Does it have to be cut a special way to make it stick out just right? I guess so.
 Could I possibly be so unhip or uncool or unobservant or just plain stupid that I can't tell the difference between bedhead and an expensive haircut that's supposed to look like bedhead? Say it ain't so. I remember way back when the disheveled look first came in and thinking that if it had happened ten years earlier people would have just laughed and told them to go comb their hair. Somewhere along the way some forward-thinking trendsetter managed to make the bedhead haircut cool, and a sub-genre of hairstyle was born. Isn't fashion amazing? But seriously, what am I missing here? I must need enlightening.

Cosmic Coincidences #739,335,382,800,368,229,343

Last night something crazy happened. After we got back from our walk I clicked over to livemeteors. In addition to the people I've spoken with there are others I've come to know by name over the past month or so. They usually come into the chat room in shifts, depending on where in the world they are or when they're active.
 There's a young girl (supposedly) who's what I'd call a Jesus Freak. She comes on all the time and says stuff that's completely unrelated to meteors. Sometimes she and others carry on conversations entirely in emojis. There's the occasional troll but they aren't bad. There's mostly people into sky stuff, and there's some people I might call lunatics. It's best not to engage any of those people of course. They're just looking for someone to fuck with.
 I got on around 11pm and I saw a few people I recognized and one I've spoken with. Out of nowhere there was a new guy talking crazy shit, and I mean crazy. He was spouting all this quasi-religious stuff that did have some scriptural basis but made him out to be the main guy. I won't go into detail about what all he said but he started talking about getting ready to "go into the network and tap into 4G" and all this shit. He'd created his own Google assistant and he could control this and that. I figured he was either truly crazy, or someone pretending to be crazy and doing a really, really good job, or he was so high on something that he was a bit off the track, and I leaned toward the last option.
 Sure enough he said something about meth and how great it was. Figures. He referred to it as "methe," or "Me the," as if there was some cosmic significance in the word itself. He was out there. So he was gearing up to tap into the system and send out a "special tone" for everyone in the chat room. Okay. Meanwhile this one other dude who usually talks a bit like a goofball started saying all this satanic shit, and I don't think he was kidding. One of the other guys who seems to be a nice guy and a dedicated Christian was concerned for him, and they started going back and forth on behalf of the guy's soul. The meth head apparently had everything in place and he was about to send out a tone. Then he "transmitted the signal."
 Within a few seconds a weird hum came over the speakers followed by a series of percussive knocks or clicks. It was nuts. I've never heard those sounds before and neither has anyone else. Nobody much was paying him any attention before that happened, but then we sort of sat up and took notice. No one really thought a crackhead could actually tap into the network, but it was freaky. Of course the guy was going "SEE? I TOLD YOU!" A couple of people went "Damn." A couple of people commented on the nature of the sound and why it changed, and a couple used onomatopoeia. Here's what they had to say. Jeff the H said "Click click clicks," and then when it stopped, billy bob goes "BOOM BOOM GONE." Got that right, billy. Did anyone think for a minute that he'd really "gotten into the network" like Jeff Fahey in the movie Lawnmower Man? No. Did we think it was nuts? Oh, yes. You could call it an extreme coincidence.
 I had to laugh. Nothing much surprises me these days, as I find myself saying a million times a day. The conversations got quiet for a moment as everyone contemplated the weirdness. The guy kept on rambling and saying "I AM IN THE NETWORK" and stuff. Then he announced that his battery was low and he had to go get another one, but in order to keep away from "THEM," he'd had to move out into the "wildernes," where he had become "one with EVERYTHING." Alrighty then. Takes all kinds. Best of luck, Network Man. You may need it.

A True Higher Education

There's been an amazing side-effect from all this recent meteor activity- people are actually starting to pay a little attention to the real world around them. When I started going to livemeteors.com recently and seeing all of these monster meteors coming in, which was about five weeks ago now, at any given time there might be 5-6 people on the site, and now it usually averages over fifty and sometimes over a hundred. I'm pleased to see that.
 Except for a few of the usual trolls and general assholes, all of the legit folks I've chatted with are really cool. I've met people from Namibia, Ireland, the UK, Sweden, Germany, Canada and all over the place. Everyone has something in common, and that's an appreciation for shooting stars and other sky phenomena. I've been into shooting stars since I was a tot, and to finally meet a bunch of like-minded individuals is wonderful. Even better are the people who are new to the whole thing, and genuinely curious. As we speak I'm answering questions from a newbie. Also as we speak the meteors continue to roll in like Flynn. We're at around forty days at least of constant meteors. Based on the rate of meteors coming in, every single day has qualified as a strong meteor shower. This image is one of the Taurids from late May and early June. I saw one of these but it wasn't a fireball. It was very brief but intensely bright, and it matched up with images of other Taurids. I also got to see one from the tail of Halley's Comet.
 I always say heads up and I mean it. Of course no one much cares what anyone else has to say these days, and especially what I have to say, but people are hearing about all this and trying to find out what the story is for themselves, and that's what continuing education is all about. I hope I don't sound so gloom-and-doom as opposed to completely floored by all this activity, and as far as the danger level is concerned, to be honest it's higher than usual and some of these recent meteors are hitting Earth, but the vast majority are burning up spectacularly in the atmosphere. As I said people are seeing these beasts in broad daylight. One was just seen in these parts day before yesterday I think. It crossed Georgia and one other state at least. There's too many right now to keep track of.
 At least a few people are paying attention to something besides their phones and their dicks. Stuff like this matters. Pokemon Go doesn't. I can't say skywatching isn't without its own dangers too, because when I walk at night I'm constantly looking up, and I've blundered right into mailboxes. Fucking oops. That shit hurts, but it's not quite as bad as walking into traffic or off a cliff like those fools. Not surprisingly they say that this current generation is by far the most disconnected in history both to the world around them and socially, although most of them think otherwise. I think they're also the least prepared, and they don't know how to do that much or even think for themselves. The good news is that a few of these young people are looking past their phones. Judging by all the textspeak and emojis and lingo it's obvious they're kids, but at least a few of them are trying to learn something new (and real). Good for them.
 There's a classic story about some military leader who was selecting men for his army. He led a group of hot, thirsty men to a clear stream and observed them drinking. The ones who leaned their heads down and splashed their faces and paid no attention to anything but the water were disregarded. The ones who scooped up water to their mouths but remained observant of course were chosen. Same goes for today.
 As I write this the meteors are doing their usual daily ramp-up and they're going up sharply. A return just came in that lasted about three minutes. That's completely unreal. Some of the people who are saying that not all of these returns are meteors may have a point; especially in regard to the energy waves, but I still say that these are objects that have been dislodged from the Kuiper Belt. This is truly some shit going on right now. This hasn't happened in my lifetime. I can't help but take notice. I just saw something funny. I've been joking that I have Chicken Little on speed dial, and there's a guy who comes on the meteor site and his handle is ChickenLittleSaidSo. I love it. Suckers are flying in right now. I ain't nev. This is a heads-up.

The WTF Files #902,423,128

Yikes! What the hell is this? Your worst nightmare? Her worst nightmare? The monster from Greenscreen Hell? It creeps me the fuck out just looking at this image, even when I know what it is. Luckily most of my dreams are fun, but I have a feeling this image may show up again in some weird-ass dream.
 Actually it's not as sinister as it looks. The creepy green dude is a professional hair-flipper. No kidding. You know how you see those hair product ads where the model twirls her head around in ultra slo-mo and her hair flips perfectly about like a flag in the wind? You can thank the green dudes for that. They stand behind the model and as she swooshes her head back and forth he reaches out with a green stick and flips her hair. Bet you didn't know that. I didn't. I've always thought fashion was really creepy. I rest my case.

Energy Waves

The latest thing in the sky show saga are these "energy waves" coming in. They came in for the first time yesterday, as noted by MrMBB333 (MrMB3 for short) on Youtube. They're hard to see in this image, but they're peaking out the entire system. If you look toward the bottom of the line second from the right, you can see the blank spot where the system has redlined. Speaking of those lines to the right, they're unusual in themselves. They apparently indicate a return from something other than meteors. They even make a different sound. Instead of one of two high tones, they make a dark, buzzing sound. Most curious.
 Yesterday these waves were also showing up on other charts that show things like photon count and whatnot. They were matched by the time stamps. I'm sure it will be the same situation today. I'll keep talking about this stuff as long as new information keeps pouring in. This is something new. Stay tuned. Heads up. Have a nice day.

Jukebox in My Head (selection O-93)

"I Love Music" by the O' Jays. This tune is interesting to me because it often pops up in my mental jukebox right after I think about another song I like. I'll hear some tune and I'll think "Man, I'm so glad I love music" and then this song will pop into my head. It's great.
 I'm not going to say much about this tune, because people who know what's up will know all about this tune and its creators, the legendary O' Jays. What can you say? It's the O' Jays. It doesn't get any better. Bonus points for the conga intro. Enjoy. I love music.

studio version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_1s2UFc_z8

The Worst Jokes in the World #11,434,290

I was just settling down to see what was up on Youtube and I saw where Jimmy Buffet was doing a live show. Billy Gibbons was about to sit in and I had to check it out. I was reading the comments in the chat room and as usual there are some serious comedians out there in Tubeland. I really do wish I'd copied some of them.
 There was one guy with the handle of DocBox. That's actually a perfect combination of two of my nicknames. Someone mentioned Mardi Gras and how girls "showed their boobs for beads." This young girl came back and said something to the effect of "Sorry I missed my chance." To which DocBox replied "I have some Mardi Gras beads from 1983." The girl (I wish I could remember her name) said "lol" and she thought he was hitting on her in a friendly way. He replied "No, I'm serious," and then said he was two weeks shy of turning 60. Happy Birthday, DocBox, and many more!
 The girl still thought it was funny and made a point of telling him how young he seemed and all this stuff. Maybe she's into older guys. If I were DocBox (wait...I am DocBox...or, I used to be...) I might be checking into that little scenario. Provided she's legal. Next thing you know ol' Doc comes out with a joke. "What's the difference between a garbanzo bean and a chickpea?" What, DocBox? "I wouldn't pay $50 to see a garbanzo bean." Ba-Dop...PSSSSHHHH! That was a zinger! I bet ol' DocBox is going to have a great 60th. Hope so. I'd knock one back with him probably. Wish I could send him a Strippergram. Cheers!

Atmospheric Disturbance

Livemeteors.com has been going crazy all day. Forget three-minute meteors...we've been seeing steady streams lasting much longer. At least three of the main guys (who are into this stuff) put out videos about it today, including a live feed this morning. More and more people are picking up on this because of those vids, and where there were maybe 7-8 people visiting the site on any given day a month ago, now there's over a hundred sometimes. It's great people are starting to pay attention. I'm chatting with some of them now. Meteor people are very nice.
 Some of these guys are saying that these returns aren't meteors at all. I don't know what to think, but I know some of them are. Just this morning they had the biggest fireball on record in England. Something is up. I haven't had to call Chicken Little yet but I still have him on speed dial. Heads up!

Here's a link to one of MrMBB333's videos from this morning. It's amazing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eqyqsez6ti0

UPDATE: Another great vid from MrMBB333: watch?v=u0C_KPFHk7E

Quote of the Day

"Boy...I can keep you guys busy until the next screamer, lol."
 - SaerVonG

The Ant Farm Grows Up

All the Boomers who bought the original Uncle Milton's ant farms have grown up, and the ant farm has grown up with them. As far as I know Uncle Milton was the single pioneer in the early days of the commercial home ant-farming industry. The kits came with everything you needed including ants, but you didn't get them right away. There was a coupon you'd send off to Ant Central or wherever and they'd send you some ants.
 I doubt the ant supply company was extremely environmentally-conscious in those days so they probably sent whatever ants they had on hand. I wonder how many alien ants escaped. Probably quite a few. Also I wonder if the live ants came with a queen. If they did it seems like she'd lay so many eggs that the farm would be overwhelmed in a few weeks, but if there was no queen the colony would be disorganized and they wouldn't live past that generation. I wonder what the story is. I bet Uncle Milton knows, but he's probably ant food himself by now.

Here's a closeup of life on the farm in an Uncle Milton's kit. That ant climbing on the windmill is going "WTF? What's this shit? It's green but I can't eat it or cut it or anything." The other ant is going "White dirt? WTF? Where am I?" "Uh-oh, I think we're in one of those ant farms. See those giant, ugly assholes staring at us? The ones who step on our houses and burn us with magnifying glasses? They're keeping us now." "Oh, GREAT! Screw this...we bust out at midnight." That's what I'd say.

Some time went by and the original Ant Boomers got older and went on to cars and women and work and drugs and whatever, and maybe sales of the ant farms dwindled. So some clever high-tech nature lover came up with the gel system. It's definitely futuristic compared to the old units, but I think if I were an ant farm owner I'd be a traditionalist and stick with the original. I guess this would be okay if you were an ant farm collector and wanted to be a completist. The blue gel is not only construction material but it's also edible. Food and drywall at once...what a concept. I'm not sure I'd know whether to eat the stuff or cut a foyer out of it if I were an ant in a gel ant farm. They could do Hansel and Gretel for sure.

Here's some ants in the gel setup. One ant is going "WTF? What's this blue dirt shit? Looks like those sky-blue popsicles we love so much." The other ant goes "Hey, you can eat it. WTF? Where are we?" Third ant goes "I think we're in one of those gel ant farms. Like Uncle Milton's, only with this blue shit." "At least you can eat it." "Yeah."

This version is marketed to kids in Asia. I guess Uncle Milton's would have never gone over over there. Most Asian kids probably wouldn't know much about what an American farm looked like. Theirs would have to be rice paddies or something.

No matter what kind of ant farm it is, you could look at it all day.

This one's a bit creepy to me. Instead of a farm it has a factory motif. Oh, I get it...ants are workers. I went to the website and under features it said "Teaches kids to be responsible." Responsible what? Factory workers? If I had to have this one to complete my collection I'd keep it in the closet. It probably has a tiny movie theater that constantly shows "Metropolis," and the popcorn sucks. Yeesh. I'll stick with Uncle Milton.

Over the years many different versions and DIY ant farms came into being. Apparently the boomers still wanted their ant farms and wanted to get creative and go big. I like this picture frame version. Some people made big cubes out of plexiglass and turned them into ant-farm coffee tables. There's all sorts of images of some of these projects if you want to search.

One DIY project is this soda bottle farm. It looks cool but I wouldn't trust it for shit to stay intact. You know that guy who always knocks over the bong at parties? You wouldn't want to invite him over to see your new ant farm. The center of gravity is way too high. I'm all about DIY but I'll pass.

Ant farms apparently made a very serious impression on some people and they took it to the extreme. This is called the "Mant Farm." lol. There's a metaphor there.

For the tech-savvy ant lovers there's this system from AntsCanada. Apparently they make a good living selling modular ant farms. The proper term for ant farm is a formicarium, and I'm guessing these guys probably use that term. There are other companies in Japan that make similar stuff. I'm not surprised. They live in ant farms themselves.

Here they are going through all the crazy tubing. This is high-tech stuff. Again, the ants are going "WTF? Where the fuck are we?" It looks like they're running around inside a circuit board. This is a little clinical. They actually have a dozen specialized habitats made specifically for one type of ant. That's incredible. The AntsCanada guy has really carved out his own little empire.

They even sell these feeding stations. It says that it feeds and waters the ants and it also cleans waste. That I'd like to see. How it cleans little tiny ant turds is beyond me. I tried to find out how it works but I could only find the company's website. It had great photos and it explained step-by-step exactly how it works...in Japanese. I guess the question of how you clean up ant shit will haunt me for life. It does go to show how widespread ant farming is. If someone can make money selling such an exotic piece of equipment just to feed your ants...well, the AntsCanada (I love the name) place talks about "ant love" and they sell t-shirts that say it. They aren't kidding. Who knew?

No doubt...these people are serious. Good for them. Everybody needs a hobby. Ant love. If they made a t-shirt out of it then it must be real.

I'll give it to the AntsCanada guy...he's into it. This is one of his main formicariums. The tubes go out into all of his plastic gizmos and back. The main colony lives under the driftwood just to the left of center, but the ants roam all through the system, and as the colony has grown he's added some of his various habitat systems, and he has extra tubing running all over the place like ant habitrails. Uncle Milton would be green with envy.
 He has some great videos on Youtube. They're totally pro-shot and are fun to watch. Well, maybe not for everybody...I guess seeing ten million ants can make some people's skin crawl, but I love it. Ants rock. This colony is made up of Yellow Crazy Ants. Apparently they're a good kind to keep. I'd get those just for the name. This colony is growing by the day, and he chronicles the adventures on his channel. It's also called AntsCanada if you want to search Youtube. It's good stuff. Oh, and they, and presumably all other places, are members of an organization called I think the Global Ant Network, if you can believe that. I don't know the whole story but the stated purpose is to make sure people keep only native species in case of accidental release, like if you build one of those soda-bottle ant farms. That's very cool. It's sort of like Craigslist for ant people. If you need ants you can buy or trade with people in your area. This ant thing is way bigger that I could've ever imagined.

You can still buy an original Uncle Milton's ant farm in 2017. It's exactly the same. I guess they can't improve on some things. They lost the kids on the box and now they have an ant doing farm work instead. At least he's not in a factory. Look at what Uncle Milton started. His humble plastic ant farm didn't disappear...it just got bigger. It's an industry, with machined parts and acrylics and everything. Farm ants got it good these days.
 Uncle Milton started something I doubt he could have ever imagined. Once he made that first green plastic windmill he never looked back. Of course he was directly responsible for the relocation of billions of innocent ants, but that's another story. Other people took his idea and ran with it, and now you can watch ants run around under your coffee table if you really want to. The ant farm has come a long way from its humble beginnings. I guess Uncle Milton has gone on to the Great Anthill in the Sky. I wonder if they played that song about the rubber tree at his funeral. That would've been funny. RIP, Uncle Milton. They now have machines that clean up ant shit because of you, and that is just nuts. I wonder what Aunt Milton had to say about all those ants running around all over the house..."MILTON! I'm getting the RAID! Do you hear me?" "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo..."

March of the Meteors

Meteors are still pouring in at rates of between about 100 and 130 an hour, and there's no current meteor shower; minor, major or medium that they can say is responsible for these. I've been saying for over a month that I realize most people couldn't care less, but for someone like me or some of these people who've been into this stuff all our lives, this is definitey beyond shocking. I knew some of these things are massive; not to mention now up to three minutes in duration. I can't believe I'm typing this. A few days ago NASA issued an asteroid warning saying that there are large asteroid fragments within this debris field we're currently passing through. True to form a couple of days later an asteroid bigger than three football fields make a very close flyby. NASA's on it.
 This image is from meteorscan.com. I said it was in Canada but it's actually in the UK. My apologies to Canadian and British sky watchers everywhere. This site represents meteors differently obviously. It doesn't run continually like livemeteors.com. It refreshes every 45 seconds or so. It would be nice to see this run continually because you could see them appear and grow and then fade out. It's still a very cool graph though. It's colorful. It reminds me of those Magic Crystals.

This is an interesting image. The meteor on the right is coming in in a different frequency. I don't know if that means that it has a different type of composition than the others or what, but normally they all come in in one specific band. I've been seeing the same thing on the other site.

Here's another image of the same thing. This one was huge.

This one was nearly off the graph.

It's been surreal seeing basically a solid meteor shower for over a month now and to see these beasts keep rolling in. Outside or the freak out factor I've really enjoyed the visual representations. I love anything having to do with graphics, and these are good ones. I'd really like to have a few of these hanging on the wall as I said, and if I can get some high-quality images I'm going to do that. I think it's art. A little Armageddonish maybe, but art. Cosmic art. That's better. If you were tripping balls and looking at these images, I could see it turning into something like a deleted clip from Fantasia - The March of the Demented Candy Corns. Yeah. Ha ha. Heads up.

Comment of the Day

I was watching a video the other day and I saw this woman in a thumbnail over in the sidebar. Was I click-baited? Of course. I don't remember what the video was about but I definitely had to laugh when she said "There are two things that stick out here..." Got that right, sister.

All Bets are Off

This is the middle of a three-minute meteor that came in yesterday. I didn't catch this one. One of the main Youtube guys caught it. I knew it was just a matter of time before they'd catch a huge one and I'd have to give up my crown as Meteor Guy, but I broke some ground and I got to see one of these snail meteors in person.
 I realize no one reads my blogs any more, but if, say, half a dozen people did, right now they'd be going "Hey, man...can't you leave the meteor shit alone?" In fact those are the very people who should be paying attention. It's not about fear or anything like that. It's about Hey man, there's more going on out there than you can see on your smartphone screen. We're all a part of something bigger than our Facebook status and all that shit; shit that in reality makes us LESS connected, at least in ways that are real and that really matter, than more. I love my devices too. Maybe I just want to keep one foot in the analog world. It's much richer. A friend in the hand is worth two on the 'Book. Not to mention a three-minute meteor.
 It's hard to get thoughts together about what to say about a three-minute meteor. I'll come back to it. Right now I have the meteor site on the taskbar as usual, and meteors are just pouring in at a steady clip that qualifies as a strong meteor shower, except that there's not a scheduled one going on. Of course they had to scramble to come up with some bullshit to explain this sky show that's been going on steadily for over a month. I think they're saying these are the Arietid meteors, and indeed they are coming from the constellation Aries, but according to the schedule the Arietids peaked on the 7th. You might see a few stragglers in the nights after a peak, but never, ever anything like this. Plus I looked on all the main sites and the Arietids wasn't listed on a single chart. I copy/pasted the lists. It's been putting out over 150 meteors per hour, and supposedly it takes place every year. No fucking way. If you want to tell me seriously that in half a century of meteor-watching I'd have missed something like that, well...I guess you can, but you'd be wrong.
 At least some sites are honest and they say they have no idea where these are coming from. Even the NASA site starts off that way, but in the next paragraph all of the sudden they change gears and say "Thee are from the Arietids." Okay, but how did it get from "We don't know" to "We do know?" It's right there on the site. It's nothing but more confusion. Most people, if confused, would rather just give up and say "It is what it is" that try to get to the bottom of it for even one second. It's far too taxing to their brains. It's easier just to let someone else do the thinking for them. If this sounds crazy...GOOD! Just do me one favor please. If you're going to call someone crazy, at least give them a fair trial. Is their view automatically bullshit just because it differs from yours? Your opinions aren't always right. Neither are mine. Neither are anyone's. That's what respect is about. Try to prove them wrong before you disagree out of hand just because something doesn't fit into your little box. There's a hell of a lot of territory outside your little box. You really might be surprised. More importantly you might learn something. What I'm saying is true.
 In any case a three-minute meteor changes the game. Actually the ones that started coming in last year that lasted ten, fifteen, thirty seconds and finally up to the single one last year that lasted two minutes were game-changers, but a three-minute meteor isn't normal. Most meteors hit the atmosphere hauling ass and they burn up in seconds if that. We've seen those. Maybe we've gotten lucky and seen a really big one that lasted five seconds. In years past that was a cosmic light show. I haven't seen one yet, but compared to the images in my mind of some of the really big ones I've seen that made me gasp, the idea of seeing one that lasts three minutes is hard to imagine. I'm looking.
 We're passing through a random debris trail like they've been saying since late last year. That's all there is to it. I've been watching meteors come in every day for the last five weeks at least. Now I'm only paying attention to meteors that last over a minute. A year ago I'd have laughed at that notion. Where are these bitches coming from? First off they said it was the Lyrids. Okay. I know that except for breaks of a few days in between there's some meteor shower going on all year long, but in the past they've usually been very minor events. Occasionally I've seen some good ones, but every year it's typically the Leonids and the Perseids that are the main showers, and it goes down in intensity sharply from there. One thing I like about livemeteors is that if I do know that one of these minor showers is coming up I can go to the site and see if it's a good one, and then maybe I'll go out and try to see some.
 So I went "Okay, the Lyrids. Don't keep up with those, but maybe they were just gnarly this year." Okay. Then we passed through the tail of Halley's Comet. Fair enough. Next up was one of the minor showers. This year it was massive. How about that. Two unheard-of huge ones in a row. Okay...odd are against it, but okay. Not to mention Halley's sandwiched in between, but shit happens. Now we just had the Arietids, which turned out to be the third usually-pissant-but-now-massive showers. Odds are highly against that, but okay. Then here comes a three-minute meteor. WTF? New one on me, bro. You can't write that off. BTW the guy who put up this video, one MrMBB333, who has an excellent and highly-informative channel, said that this one basically shut down the Canadian site for several minutes. It's not designed to handle meteors of that intensity. Livemeteors does a better job but they've been completely pegged a few times over the last few days. If this were to keep up for any length of time both sites would have to completely retool their systems and add more headroom to the graphs just to be able to record the data.
 If you've made it this far, congratulations. Next cup of coffee's on me. I think I know what the deal is on three-minute meteors. IN MY OPINION, there are only two things that could cause this. No...three actually, but I'm not going to pursue that choice at the moment. That would be that these are something other than meteors. One main guy flatly stated it. Some say it's Saucers. I say if it's Saucers, they're not having a very good time. Whatever these things are...meteors...asteroids...space junk...Interstellar flying pigs...Luke Skywalker...Arietids or whatever, they're blowing up. That can't be much fun. No, I'm going under the assumption that they're meteors. I love crazy shit, but three-minute meteors (3MM from here on out) are plenty crazy enough. It's every bit as crazy as UFOs to me.
 A meteor could only go so incredibly slowly if it were either huge, or just moving slowly to begin with. I think it's a bit of both, but mostly the latter. They're definitely much larger than normal, but if they were so huge that they survived the atmosphere they'd be hitting Earth all day long. Some of them are making landfall, including one day before yesterday in India maybe, and a massive one that hit Australia completely without warning a few months ago. Meteorites hit the Earth all the time, but the frequency is definitely going way up. It's on record. If these were all simply too massive to burn up in the atmosphere we'd know about it. The other choice is that they're moving much more slowly to begin with. That's the simplest explanation, and that's usually the best.
 Meteors usually hit the atmosphere at around 80,000MPH. That's quick. The slowest ones never go below about 55K. These obviously are much, much slower. The difference in speed between every single meteor I've ever seen and the one I saw two nights ago and the one last year would be very hard to even estimate. It's the hare and the tortoise. Your brain doesn't want to accept it as a meteor for the difference in speed alone. I hope someone will be able to calculate the speed of some of these creeping monsters. My best guess would be that they're easily 500-1,000 times slower than normal. How could a meteor violate its own specs and still be a meteor? I think it's because these meteors originate a lot closer to home.
 The Kuiper Belt sits about three planets away. It's a ring of debris that most people think was once a planet that was hit by another body. Objects range from the size of dust up to the size of small moons. In fact many people think Pluto was snagged from the Kuiper Belt by gravity. Meteors that hit our atmosphere every day presumably have been travelling for millions of miles and maybe millions of years or more. Some of them have been slingshotted along the way by the gravity of various bodies, and are going much faster than average, but the point is meteors usually go very fast. These don't. Something must be knocking objects loose from the Kuiper Belt. If something hit the Belt it would be like a break in pool. Objects would go out ahead of the impact in all directions in roughly a 160-degree arc, and some would head our way. They're not the same objects that have been sailing through space at insane speeds forever. They're from close by. They've been orbiting the Sun at a relatively slow pace so they aren't going anywhere near 80,000MPH to begin with. They're sped up by the impact, but they don't instantly start going 80K. They're going fast enough to burn up in the atmosphere, but they've come from close by and haven't even begun to build up speed by the time they get here. Momentum is conserved, so they're slow at first, and it might take another million years for them to get up to speed.
 These objects are our neighbors to begin with. During this long post (sorry) I've heard two reports so far of people seeing these meteors this morning in broad daylight. They say they're spectacular. I guess so. It's cloudy here now or I'd have a crick in my neck instead of blogging. If these meteors carried luggage, it'd have stickers that said GREETINGS from the KUIPER BELT. I'd bet my kit on it. Heads up. Might see one. Have a nice day!

Things I'll Burn in Hell For # 3,222: Meat...It's What's for Dinner (WARNING: NOT for Vegetarians)

Unless you're a strict herbivore (David D Martin) when it comes to diet, then check this mofo out. This open-face beauty is straight out of the oven and piping hot as pizza. And maybe better too. If Smell-O-Vision existed, this could make a hungry person cry. See what I mean by "burn in Hell?" I hate myself every time I touch meat...well, I guess that sounds a little funny, ha-ha, but seriously it's true, and for so many reasons I won't go into, but ethics, which I sometimes violate, is #1. Damn it, I eat meat once or twice a month. If there's anything I can say in my defense it that there are certain B-vitamins and a couple of other things that your body really needs, and they're found only in red meat or algae. Unless you happen to have some algae lying around, which I happen to, if you don't eat any red meat at all your body can't function at pure 100% peak.
 Some experts who are into no meat will say you can get everything you need from vegetables; i.e. protein from beans, etc. or fats and oils and lipids and such from this or that, but for those rather obscure Bs, it simply isn't true. Wish it were. What the experts say that's actually true is that algae, such as Chlorella and Spirulina, contain the complete B-profile. In fact algae is complete in virtually everything you need to live for a very long time. I buy organic algae by the two-pound bag and it's about a thousand times cheaper than buying ready-made capsules. It's also about a thousand times more of a pain in the ass to deal with, but it's ridiculously good for you. It's a "live food," which means that it's what it says, which is similar to buying a head of living hydro lettuce. Living food is incredibly good for you. Don't worry..."living food" won't crawl off your plate or try to change the TV channel or anything like that. It's just a term. It happens to be true, but it's more or less in suspended animation. Cool, huh? Sci-Fi food. Seriously, of all the superfoods it's the most super. I can feel it giving me energy ten minutes after I take it. Try it for yourself. It's pennies a dose in bulk. I'll try toremember to leave a link below.
 But how the hell did a post that started off talking about a criminally-good sandwich, switch to algae? Got me I guess...really I'm trying to give a possible (and a million times healthier) option to getting those elusive but essential B-vitamins. If you go the algae route, and good for you, don't expect the same flavor. I'll leave it at that. Talk about flavor...as the illustrious, boisterous and well-fed local food critic Dennis Washburn would say..."I MEAN!" That meant it was really good. Dennis was known for his eloquent reviewing style. This sandwich...I MEAN! Seriously, I mean it. It's damn good. Slap-your-mammy good. Home-cookin' good. Vegetarians, feel free to leave now. I'm sorry. I really am. I'll burn in Hell, but that's a rather tasty given. That said, read 'em and weep.

"WHERE'S THE BEEF?" That's a good question. A roast beef sandwich starts with the beef. Well, actually it starts with the bread, but you know. The beef comes from a 4-star restaurant that for lunch manages to serve elite home cookin' side-by-side with $26 "lunch portion" entrees. It's locally and organically raised, and it's slow-simmered with love. It's A#1, Prime-Ass beef, and it's grandma-good. And yes, it's fork-tender. When was the last time you heard that term? It's a shame you can't see the gravy. It's brown and badass and beautiful. Just like I like my women.

The bread is fantastic. It's organic sprouted multi-grain. It's a Publix brand. Since it's a store brand, it costs the same as other quality name-brand, non-organic bread. That's right..."organic" in no way resembles what it once meant, but it's still ABSOLUTELY worth getting if you can, especially when it's competitive in price. There's always some sort of bullshit, hidden ingredients, sugar, overpricing and the like in bread or anything else, but this is pretty legit stuff. First, it's made from sprouted grains, and that's an entirely different thing that non-sprouted. Sprouting converts the grains from a starch/sugar/gluten profile to a vegetable/plant energy thing. The nutrient levels go up by incredible amounts. I highly recommend taking a minute to search "sprouted grain." You'll be impressed. The sugar content is very low compared to most high-end brands. You can always add sweetness (and in healthier ways) to bread, but you can't take it away. I don't always want bread that tastes like cake. Too much sugar is a drag.

This isn't a very good photo, but this bread is actually very nice to look at. The texture is amazing. The flavor and aroma are the ticket. It depends on taste, and lots of people would miss the sugar, or maybe they like good ol' Wonder Bread, and that's cool, but this is seriously good bread. There have been some issues recently discovered with whole wheat bread; something about a long-chain molecule being hard to digest and actually bad for your stomach, although I might have that totally wrong, but whatever the usual wheat issues are, sprouting the wheat eliminates most or all of them. It's good and good for you.
 On top of the bread was a little mayo of course. I wish I could say I used some organic, "Grateful Dead" brand of small-batch mayo, or better yet that I made my own, but I didn't plan the sandwich to begin with, and I had no idea how good it would be. If I had I'd probably have made some. I used Hellman's "Real" Mayonnaise and it was no problem. Next up were several layers of thinly-sliced, organic Vidalia onions. You can't do any better. I MEAN! I thought about tomatoes, but that's such a flavor commitment. I absolutely love tomatoes and I can eat them on anything, but I really thought the onions alone would steer the meat in a more "primal" direction. The flavor profile on that was spot-on. They have a lot of sugar, but screw it.
 Next is the beef and a little gravy. Bubba. It's looking good. Gotta have pepper, so I used fresh-ground organic multicolor. Why not, right? I also added just a dusting of pink Himalayan sea salt, but that's entirely optional. Finally it's topped with a latticework of high-end gruyere and extra-sharp cheddar. It's cooked for about five minutes at 325 or so, then it's run under the broiler for a minute or two until it reaches a state of golden-brown motherfucking perfection. The caramelization of the cheddar makes you want to just rip it right off the sandwich and stuff it into your face. It would be too hot though. The gruyere underneath is only melted and not browned; just as it should be. It's worthy of a photo, which I took. It's holds heat like pizza, with the "cheese layer effect" or whatever it is, so you get to admire it for a while before you can think about eating it. At first that's cool because it really is nice to look at, but then the waiting game gets hard to deal with, so it usually ends up getting blown on. Hey, that sounds funny too. There's nothing funny about the sandwich though. It's a very serious sandwich. I'd serve it to anyone. It was worth the effort. I'll burn in Hell. Tasty, tasty Hell.

Organic Chlorella powder: https://www.amazon.com/Healthworks-Chlorella-Powder-Organic-Cracked/dp/B01G3ELGAY/ref=sr_1_22_s_it?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1497019515&sr=1-22&keywords=organic%2Bchlorella&th=1