featuring: A Brazen Dork

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

How To End War & Fighting

Support The Mime Troupes

Friday, March 18, 2011

Supermoon on Saturday, March 19, 2011? - Not Really

The average distance from the Earth to the Moon is 384,400 km. On Saturday, March 19, 2011, the Moon will be 356,577 km away. It will of course maintain it's diameter of 3,474 km. Using the small angle formula, we can determine how much bigger the moon will appear.

Here is the small angle formula: (angular diameter in arcseconds times the distance of the object) divided by (206,265) equals the diameter of the object.

Entering in the appropriate figures, we find that normally the Moon's angular diameter in the sky is 31.07 arcminutes or about half a degree, or what a dime would look like at a distance of 2 meters. On Saturday, the Moon's angular diameter will be about 33.49 arcminutes, bringing in that dime about 15 centimeters closer.

That difference of 2.42 arcminutes, by the way, is equivalent to what our dime would look like at 25.5 meters; or to put it another way, if the Moon looks like a dime at 2 meters, a difference of 2.42 arcminutes is less than the thickness of a dime from that same distance. So add that on to what the Moon normally looks like, and you begin to appreciate what a wondrous celestial event awaits us on March 19.

You will love the Supermoon on Saturday if you are impressed by the size of a dime from 1.85 meters away, but for most of us, we won't even notice the change...no pun intended.



Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Whiplash Exercises

I was involved in an automobile accident about three months ago. I was stopped behind a car when I was rear-ended by some inattentive young arse who I think was yacking on his cell phone. He said he did not even apply his brakes when he hit me...the speed limit on that road was 50km/hr, so he banged into me quite hard.

When I got out of my car I was fucking furious. I took a look at his vehicle with it's front end smashed in and his windshield cracked all to hell from his airbags going off and berated him by saying, among other things, "Look at this piece of shit car your driving, you shouldn't even be on the road!". Of course it looked like that because he had just rammed into me, but being in kind of a daze from the accident I wasn't really thinking straight.

At any rate, I suffered a whiplash injury. I could still move my neck so I wasn't too concerned about it and as a result I didn't seek any treatment. Now here it is three months later and my neck is still sore.

I finally started some proper stretching exercises with a physical therapist a couple of weeks ago. The treatments also involved applying moist heat to my neck.
Theratherm small (7x15) model 1030

All of the exercises that the physical therapist advised me to do are in the helpful video below, which includes some other beneficial stretches as well. I also wrap a Theratherm digital moist heating pad around my neck a few times a day for about 25 minutes, which is quite soothing. It has a velcro strap on it to keep it securely in place.

(The heat pad wasn't cheap, the one I bought cost almost $100, but the insurance company of the person who hit me paid for it, so that was alright.)



PMG Rehab Self-Help. Chapter 3: Whiplash Exercises from Premier Medical Group Ltd on Vimeo.

Take my advice. If you have suffered an injury in a motor vehicle accident, kick the living shit out of the person who hit you right away...no that's not what I wanted to say. What i actually meant was, even if you don't feel your injury is that bad, seek medical help as soon as possible before it becomes worse. This is after all your own well being we're talking about here, so take care!

Thursday, March 3, 2011

God Hates Figs

Jer 24:2  The other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten, they were so bad.
Jer 24:8  And as the evil figs, which cannot be eaten, they are so evil; surely thus saith the LORD, So will I give Zedekiah the king of Judah, and his princes, and the residue of Jerusalem, that remain in this land, and them that dwell in the land of Egypt:
Jer 29:17  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will send upon them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like vile figs, that cannot be eaten, they are so evil.
The Reverend Fred Phelps proudly displays a sign expressing God's contempt for the foul fruit.
Mark 11:12  And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry:
Mark 11:13  And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if haply he might find any thing thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet.
Mark 11:14  And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter for ever. And his disciples heard it.
Amen.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

The Crested Saguaro

A rare example of a crested saguaro along the Sweetwater Trail in Saguaro National Park just west of Tucson, Arizona. Cresting occurs in approximately 1 in every 200,000 saguaros.
 From Wikipedia
Fasciation (or cresting) is a condition of plant growth in which the apical meristem, normally concentrated around a single point, producing approximately cylindrical tissue, becomes elongated perpendicularly to the direction of growth, producing flattened, ribbon-like, crested, or elaborately contorted tissue. The phenomenon may occur in the stem, root, fruit, or flower head.
Fasciation can be caused by a mutation in the meristematic cells, bacterial infection, mite or insect attack, or chemical or mechanical damage. Some plants may inherit the trait.
Fasciation is rare overall, but has been observed in at least a hundred different plant species, including members of Aloe, Celosia, Delphinium, Digitalis, Euphorbia, Forsythia, Primula, Acer, Prunus and many genera of Cactaceae (cactus) and Salix. Cresting results in undulating folds instead of the typical "arms" found on mature Saguaro cactus. Some varieties of Celosia are raised especially for their dependably fasciated flower heads, for which they are called "cockscomb".