Day: November 29, 2007

Sound of Silence

Chris 3 Comments

From Wikipedia:

“The Sounds of Silence” is the song that propelled the 1960s folk music duo Simon and Garfunkel to popularity. It was written by Paul Simon in the aftermath of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Simon conceived of the song as a way of capturing the emotional trauma felt by many Americans left by the sudden death of a vigorous and visionary leader. It was originally recorded as an acoustic piece for their first album Wednesday Morning, 3 A.M. but was later overdubbed with electric instruments and released as a single. The single slowly climbed the charts until it reached number one on New Year’s Day 1966. The song was included in the 1966 album Sounds of Silence.

The song features Simon on acoustic guitar and both Simon and Garfunkel singing.

The song was originally called “The Sounds of Silence”, and is titled that way on the early albums in which it appeared and on the single. In later compilations, it was retitled “The Sound of Silence”. Both the singular and the plural form of the word appear in the lyrics.

Star Wars Timeline

Chris 2 Comments

From Wikipedia:

Fans of the Star Wars fictional universe keep track of the dates of key events with a dating system (or calendar) reckoned at the Battle of Yavin featured in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. In this dating system, BBY stands for Before the Battle of Yavin, and ABY stands for After the Battle of Yavin, so 50 BBY comes before 5 ABY, as with BC and AD. Occasionally, the defeat of the Empire at the Battle of Endor (four years after Yavin) has been used as an alternate starting year, but has generally been phased out in favor of the current standard system. When Bantam Spectra held the license for Star Wars novels, they described their books as after Endor, but Del Rey, the current license-holder, exclusively uses ABY.

I’ll give you a small sample of what is in the timeline:

* c. 5,000,000,000 BBY
o The Star Wars galaxy forms.

* c. 100,000 BBY
o The planet Coruscant is now covered entirely by its principal city, later known as the Galactic City.
o The ancient Sith civilization begins to develop on the planet Korriban.
o The Jedi rise.

* c.95,000 BBY
o The lower 40-50 levels of (present day) Coruscant see the sun for the last time.

* c. 49,000 BBY
o The Infinite Empire of the Rakata is established. They bring hyperdrive technology to the galaxy, using technology that draws directly on the dark side of the Force.

* c. 30,000 BBY
o The Rakata’s Infinite Empire construct the Star Forge, using it to build their army.

* c. 28,000 BBY
o After a protracted civil war, a plague affecting only the Rakata causes the Infinite Empire to collapse.

* c. 27,000 BBY
o The first human colonists land on Alderaan.

Marine Research Facility Designed Using Star Wars Films

Chris Leave a comment

I wonder if he solved that problem of where to put the exhaust duct so that those pesky rebels won’t exploit it.

Using Star Wars films as one of the inspirations for his designs, a masters student at the University of Texas named Jason Mellard developed an aquatic research and housing facility to be located 50-100 miles offshore. Scientists studying marine and bird life would stay on the platform with their families in 6-13 month shifts and work in spheres consisting of laboratories, classrooms, computer labs, viewing platforms, holding tanks, offices and storage.

(via GeekPress)

Daily Dose of Ingersoll

Chris Leave a comment
RobertGIngersoll.jpg

In the reign of Henry VIII. — that pious and moral founder of the apostolic Episcopal Church. — there was passed by the parliament of England an act entitled “An act for abolishing of diversity of opinion.” And in this act was set forth what a good Christian was obliged to believe:

First, That in the sacrament was the real body and blood of Jesus Christ.

Second, That the body and blood of Jesus Christ was in the bread, and the blood and body of Jesus Christ was in the wine.

Third, That priests should not marry.

Fourth, That vows of chastity were of perpetual obligation.

Fifth, That private masses ought to be continued; and,

Sixth, That auricular confession to a priest must be maintained.

This creed was made by law, in order that all men might know just what to believe by simply reading the statute. The church hated to see the people wearing out their brains in thinking upon these subjects. It was thought far better that a creed should be made by parliament, so that whatever might be lacking in evidence might be made up in force. The punishment for denying the first article was death by fire. For the denial of any other article, imprisonment, and for the second offence — death.

Robert Green Ingersoll – “Heretics and Hericies”(1874)