Badpie Bakery

History Channel, You Just Blew My Mind

I recently hung out with two girlfriends for a night of girly fun, full of espresso martinis and chatting.  But the main reason we had gotten together was to watch this incredibly awesome documentary on The History Channel called Ancient Aliens.  I know.  We know how to party right?

The gist of the documentary was this:

What if life on Earth began in outer space? Millions of people accept the theory that intelligent life forms visited Earth thousands of years ago and were worshiped as gods by primitive man. Are monuments like Stonehenge and Easter Island the last remains of an ancient alien visitation? From unexplainable super structures, to knowledge of the solar system, mathematics, and even the ability to make electricity, this special explores evidence of super-human influences on ancient man and embarks on an around-the-world search for answers. It's an investigation into a theory some believe cannot be true, but many agree cannot be ignored.

I know what you're all thinking.  That this is silly.  I personally am a natural skeptic when it comes to this sort of thing.  I need  you to show me things.  I need data.  I need evidence and connections that are made not through leaps and outlandish theories, but through painstaking research and lots of sciency stuff (technical term).  I am however, open to the possibilities that we haven't figured everything out yet.  So I guess what you could say is that I want to believe (cue X-Files theme music).

In the past year or so I have become increasingly interested in this theory, this area of study and I have read many books and publications suggesting things similar to what you will find in this documentary.  It really is some amazing stuff, even just from a historical and anthropological point of view.

I highly recommend setting your DVR for this the next time it comes on.  It's thorough and fact-filled and kind of amazing.  Actually a lot of it is starting to sound like common sense to me (don't freak out, the Scientologists have not gotten to me, nor do they have anything to do with these theories).

Also, you can buy the DVDs at the link above...and again, my birthday is next month.  Just sayin'....JUST sayin'.

That Show Would Be Rad if it Hadn't Sucked

Finally! A REAL Earth 2!!  Only far more entertaining and way more scientifically accurate.

From Yahoo.  Click here for the full article.

  

HATFIELD, England – In the search for Earth-like planets, astronomers zeroed in Tuesday on two places that look awfully familiar to home. One is close to the right size. The other is in the right place.

European researchers said they not only found the smallest exoplanet ever, called Gliese 581 e, but realized that a neighboring planet discovered earlier, Gliese 581 d, was in the prime habitable zone for potential life.

"The Holy Grail of current exoplanet research is the detection of a rocky, Earth-like planet in the 'habitable zone,'" said Michel Mayor, an astrophysicist at Geneva University in Switzerland.

An American expert called the discovery of the tiny planet "extraordinary."

Gliese 581 e is only 1.9 times the size of Earth — while previous planets found outside our solar system are closer to the size of massive Jupiter, which NASA says could swallow more than 1,000 Earths.

Gliese 581 e sits close to the nearest star, making it too hot to support life. Still, Mayor said its discovery in a solar system 20 1/2 light years away from Earth is a "good example that we are progressing in the detection of Earth-like planets."

Scientists also discovered that the orbit of planet Gliese 581 d, which was found in 2007, was located within the "habitable zone" — a region around a sun-like star that would allow water to be liquid on the planet's surface, Mayor said.

So go ahead, humans!  Go ahead and ruin the one we have!  It's not like we can't just get another!  Awesome!  I've been going about this whole "Save the Earth" thing the wrong way!  "Get Another Earth!" is what we should be saying. 

In all seriousness how cool would it be to one day find a way to live on another somewhat similar planet.  I mean...I think "woot!" pretty much covers it.

NOOOOOO!

Stephen Hawking is "very ill"!!  NO!  This can't be!  From Yahoo:

 LONDON – Stephen Hawking, the British mathematician and physicist famed for his work on black holes, was rushed to a hospital Monday and was seriously ill, Cambridge University said.

Hawking has been fighting a chest infection for several weeks and was being treated at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, the university city northeast of London, the university said.

"Professor Hawking is very ill," said Gregory Hayman, the university's head of communications. "He is undergoing tests. He has been unwell for a couple of weeks."

Later in the afternoon, Hayman said Hawking was "now comfortable but will be kept in hospital overnight."

Read the full article at the link at the top. 

This just cannot be.  Stephen Hawking is a super human and amazing brain.  We cannot lose him.  Who will talk to the aliens when they come down and convince them not to exterminate us?  What proof will we have that the human race deserves to survive if we lose Stephen Hawking?

I'm sure he'll be fine.  Here's wishing Super Genius Hawking a ridiculously fast recovery so he can get back to figuring out this whole Universe thing.

Well Now THAT is Interesting

 LOOK!  GOD IS WAVING AT US! 

Holy crap this is cool.  From CNN.

The image, taken by NASA's space-based Chandra Observatory telescope, shows an X-ray nebula 150 light years across.

It shows what appear to be ghostly blue fingers -- thumb and pinky clearly discernible from index, ring and middle digits -- reaching into a sparkling cloud of fiery red.

NASA says the display is caused by a young and powerful pulsar, known by the rather prosaic name of PSR B1509-58.

"The pulsar is a rapidly spinning neutron star which is spewing energy out into the space around it to create complex and intriguing structures, including one that resembles a large cosmic hand," NASA says.

The space agency says B1509 -- created by a collapsed star -- is one of the most powerful electromaginetic generators in the Galaxy. The nebula is formed by a torrent of electrons and ions emitted by the 1,700-year-old phenomenon.

The finger-like structures are apparently caused by "energizing knots of material in a neighboring gas cloud," NASA says.

Now THAT is cool for everyone, no matter what you believe.... although...it only has four fingers and seems to be reaching for a doughnut....GASP!  God is HOMER SIMPSON!

Little Grey Gods

So I foundn this website that's all about Extraterrestrials in Art through the ages and it's pretty cool.  I can't vouch for the rest of the information on the site.  I mean it looks a little tweaked out schizophrenic living in a trailer for my tastes, but THIS is interesting.

The idea that aliens have been visiting us for some time and it has been documented in artwork for thousands of years.  Granted a couple of these may be a stretch, but some of them it's just freakin' eerie.

Check it out.  It's kewl. 

Mind Officially Blown

 

So I've very recently been obsessed with The Universe and it's scientific/spiritual meanings and all that crap.  I rambled on about it incoherenty on my other blog.  Sarah and I have been waxing philosophically on and off for days now in between conversations about World of Warcraft, wine and vegan shoe shopping*.

I have discovered this:  The universe is big.  Real big.  Totes big.  And awesome.  And I am suddenly and inexplicably driven to dump every bit of knowledge about it into my brain.  It has become a spiritual quest and science is currently serving as God for me, my priests and holy people the doctors, astronomers and physicists that discover things.  Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan and Albert Einstein are my holy trinity and I'm itching to absorb the universe like a sponge.

I MUST FEED!  I MUST FEED ON KNOWLEDGE!  

*Why are they so expensive?!

Oh and I stole the picture from Burt's blog.  It's his astronaut brother.   The answer is yes.  I'm crazy. 

Kyle Reese Better Get His Ass Here Right Quick

Okay.  Now I don't wanna alarm anyone here.  We should all just remain calm, really.  I mean the worst thing we could possibly do is panic right?  I mean we are YEARS away from the kind of tehnology that can become self aware and destroy us all, right?  I mean so what?  There's a robot that can taste things and some that can hunt down humans like dogs.  And sure there's a guy who made some cute little robot soldiers and some robots have a knack for stealing children, but we're safe right?  Right?  

I mean we're like so many years away from creating any sort of human-looking, life-like, thinking, feeling, decision making kind of real robot that will one day turn on us and make us all dead.....right?

GUESS AGAIN MOTHERFUCKERS!  Some assclown Japanese guy from Canada (?) is fucking with your very future and getting away with it.     Le Trung, or as I like to call him, "Assy McSkynet" has created Aiko, a beautiful, lifelike Japanese robot gal who can do chores, balance his checkbook, read the paper to his grandmother, register pain and eventually destroy us all.  Here is a video of how your death will come to you.  In the form of a 20-something Japanese school girl.  Enjoy.  Or run.  Either way.

Anyone else think the next logical progression after "You hurt me, why did you do that?" is "now you shall die?"  Anyone?