Ponder Fox News

By virtue of proximity and despite two dedicated news sources of our own, Canadian businesses favor CNN. Without exception, hotel bars, financial institutions and corporate offices display muted CNN backdrops. Fox is a non-issue, Canadians shun twisted babble contrary to the fibre of our collective identity. In 2010 while working at a Hilton hotel two American businessmen entered the bar. Immediate disdain for CNN enveloped the room, protestation vocalized as “Communist News Network” preceded their first sip of Jack Daniels. As manager on duty it fell on me to politely explain Fox wasn’t an option.

Communist News Network, a disquieting statement spoken with ease of a baseball score. Right wing America had my attention, those three words delivered a epiphany – dismissive scorn for all things Fox was lazy, conduct no different than knee jerk conservative condemnation of CNN. Distasteful as it might be, Fox loomed as a necessary evil. The only way to defeat an adversary is to know them.

Thus began sporadic exploration of the world according to Fox. Not for the faint of heart, Fox immersion requires fortitude.

Tonight, ten Fox minutes was all it took to glean the following –

Democrats are the bane of America. By refusing to work with Trump on issues of commonality, the left undermines America’s future. Democrats are behind the “war on culture” – despite Trump having the highest approval rating of any president in U.S. history, left wing cultural attacks such as Stormy Daniels erode the institution of democracy. Democrats had the audacity to think a sex scandal could crack Trump support.

Trump economic reforms have resolved race issues in America. Al Sharpton is a publicity seeking headline hunter whose appearance at Stephon Clark funeral in Sacramento proves a desperate attempt to fuel racial discord.( Clark was a unarmed black man killed March 18 by Sacramento police, officially in self defense. Clark’s family hired an independent pathologist, that report stated he was shot 7 times in the back and an 8th time in the thigh after falling to the ground )

Hillary is crooked as ever. Crooked as they come for fees related to speaking engagements.

AR15 rifles are no different than shotguns, both fire precisely the same way. March For Our Lives student activists are puppets of bleeding heart Hollywood elites.

Fox commands propaganda. Much as revulsion calls for snickering guffaws, each and every one of us needs to suck it up long enough to experience first hand manipulation of collective sentiment. Trump’s America is a reality, Fox propaganda aims to keep it that way. Stop laughing at absurdity, it isn’t funny anymore. Scrape your mind off the wall. Fake news is alive and well at Fox – experience it, acknowledge it, call it out, demand legislation to regulate it.

 

Welcome to the Revolution

March For Our Lives delivered unprecedented protest history. Today, 800,000 young Americans marched on Washington, cementing their voice as the largest protest since November 15, 1969 when 600,000 anti-war voices denounced the Vietnam War.

March For Our Lives served notice to Congress and the NRA – “Let us pray with our legs, let us march in unison to the rhythm of justice, because I say enough is enough,” – Dimetri Hoth, senior at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

“To the leaders, skeptics and cynics who told us to sit down, stay silent and wait your turn, welcome to the revolution,” Marjory Stoneman Douglas student Cameron Kasky.

Welcome to the revolution indeed. 11 year old Naomi Wadler delivered one of the most powerful speeches in protest history –

Student after student stood at the podium, children forced to step up for all the adults who let them down. Welcome to the revolution.

NRA lug-nuts scoffed at revolution, tweeting –

“Stand and Fight for our Kids’ Safety by Joining NRA,”  “Today’s protests aren’t spontaneous. Gun-hating billionaires and Hollywood elites are manipulating and exploiting children as part of their plan to DESTROY the Second Amendment and strip us of our right to defend ourselves and our loved ones.”

Welcome to the revolution marks a turning point in U.S. history, the moment in time young voters called bullshit on NRA fear mongering. The future of America won’t back down. Welcome to the revolution.

Very Large Telescope Timelapse

Look up, way up. Ponder the majesty of a VLT (Very Large Telescope) timelapse.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Very_Large_Telescope

Right?

notestoponder

A few minutes ago these words arrived as a text message from my daughter. Found on Twitter, she wasn’t sure of author or origin.

“How about we treat every young man who wants to buy a gun like every woman who wants to get an abortion – mandatory 48 hour waiting period, parental permission, a note from his doctor proving he understands what he is about to do, a video he has to watch about the effects of gun violence, an ultrasound wand us his ass (just because). Lets close down all but one gun shop in every state and make him travel hundreds of miles , take time off work, and stay overnight in a strange town to get a gun. Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy…

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A New View Of The Moon

Stumbled upon A New View of the Moon a few hours ago. I can’t stop watching, its like opening a gift.

Never doubt the power of a simple spontaneous idea capable of spreading joy to all it touches.

Happenstance

Late night, weekend off. Ponders of happenstance called out – we are made of stars.

Remember To Look Up At The Stars……

News of 76 year old Stephen Hawking passing away March 14, 2018 arrived without point of reference. Hawking was timeless, his age inconsequential. A man who graced humanity with wonder, infectious wonder emanating from resolve to understand the universe.

“I believe the simplest explanation is, there is no God. No one created the universe and no one directs our fate. This leads me to a profound realization that there probably is no heaven and no afterlife either. We have this one life to appreciate the grand design of the universe and for that, I am extremely grateful.” – Stephen Hawking

Stephen Hawking was born January 8, 1942 – exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo. Interesting snippet, but not nearly as satisfying as the day he returned to the cosmos. Hawking enjoyed a good laugh, I choose to believe he slipped away with a smirk of ironic awareness – born on Galileo’s birthday, Hawking died on Albert Einstein’s birthday and International Pi Day.

March 14, 2018 – a day of mathematical reverence, Einstein accolades and Hawking reflection ended with an extravagant gesture of cosmic wonder. Powerful streams of solar wind flowing from a wide gash in the Sun’s atmosphere culminated in geomagnetic storm perfection.

“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist. Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at. It matters that you don’t just give up.”

Send Your Name To The Sun

Ponder your name on a microchip aboard a car sized solar probe traveling 692,000 Km/hour around the Sun. Imagine that probe entering the Suns’ atmosphere. How cool would it be if the first mission to trace how energy and heat move through the solar corona carried your name. Would you see the Sun with fresh eyes knowing your name was part of an endeavor to explore solar wind?

The Parker Solar Probe begins a seven year, seven gravity assist Venus flyby, 93 million mile journey to the Sun in summer 2018. To commemorate humanity’s first visit to a star, NASA issued an open invitation – send your name to the Sun. Deadline, April 27, 2018. Get on board at  –

http://parkersolarprobe.jhuapl.edu/The-Mission/Name-to-Sun/

Learn more at – https://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/parker-solar-probe-humanity-s-first-visit-to-a-star

Tale Of Two Nations

A tale of two nations, comparative lunacy from the desk of John Oliver-