Noble Nobel

For all of those doubting his merits worthy of this award, I'd like to know from you an answer to the following question.

Who do you think is more worthy than he for this "peace" prize?

I'm not trying to start a heated debate, but only asking for your opinions about candidates purportedly "more worthy" for consideration for the Nobel Peace Prize than President Obama.

Personally, I'm surprised about the announcement, but when I first heard it on today's show, I reminded myself that this prize is for a person's efforts in global peace not scientific research or discovery. Those efforts are separate Nobel awards.

As far as his efforts in peace, I do think that President Obama has influenced the world in a mostly positive and peaceful manner and in numerous dimensions of impact for consideration for the award including being more thorough in his approach for world peace, having a far-reaching world-effect for peace and the collaboration of disparate peoples for peace, and most notably by breaking cultural, religious, philosophical, and political barriers throughout the world, far beyond the borders of this globally powerful nation, that he is the chief executive.

Yes, most of his "work" has been more or less just the sheer impact from his persona, charisma, and oratory performances, but this alone has changed the minds, opened the hearts, and actually made a difference to one degree or another. Coupled with his actual power, plans and actions for diplomacy, complex and ethically challenging executive decisions, and his efforts to make real the vivid narratives of peace that he has spoken about, I think that his promises for peace and general good will should have been acknowledged on a world forum and none other more satisfactory for this level of acknowledgement than the Nobel Peace Prize.

I'll cite Obama's inauguration speech with the "we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist" remarks, his Cairo speech to the Muslim world (of which 25% of the world's population is Muslim), his "Tough Love" speech toward the African nations, people and continent, and his recent speech to US school children about responsibility and hard work as a few examples of his oratory expositions' simple, but influential impact upon the world with peace and understanding at the core of the ends of his means.

I'm sure not everyone will agree with me, but I do see the logic that the Nobel Prize Committee used for their decision, but unless I hear of someone else that has had a greater impact or greater merits of attempts for peace in the world than President Obama, then I do believe that the committee made the right decision and chose the best candidate for the award.

La Canada Fire Time-Lapse

Amazing time lapse photography of the recent wild fires in California in stunning HD!


La Canada Fire Time-Lapse
Originally uploaded by anosmicovni

The Big Bang Explain in Roughly 2 minutes (HD)

This is a good short explanation of the Big Bang in a quick two minute video. Until recently, I did not understand the lack of spacetime before the "Big Bang" and I also fell victim to the vernacular of a bang translating to an explosion, which in reality is a misnomer.

The Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

No words are necessary to describe the significance of how profound this imagery is to humankind. Just watch, meditate, ponder and wonder, and realize your role in the universe.

Glacialality

Glacialality, originally uploaded by Jason A. Samfield.

An abstract fractaline photo-digital art that I created for fun.

I hope that you enjoy it!

Vortices of Perspective Totality: Absurdity, Nihilism and Hope

I just read a quite interesting short article discussing recent psychological studies conducted with the conclusions that most normal people view things in life such as people, events, and even themselves in a rosier light than individuals exhibiting abnormal psychology such as depressed, obsessive-compulsive, and other similar types of disorders.

Here is the original article:

http://www.damninteresting.com/the-total-perspective-vortex

I find this very interesting and quite sobering if you consider the topics of absurdity, nihilism, and other deep existential concepts.

What is a life? What is certainty? What is something? What is nothingness? What gets you through the day and through your life on a daily, weekly, monthly, seasonal, or annual basis? Do you have more despair or more hope at any one moment in time? Do you think that your perceptions are distorted in such a way that presupposes a rosey picture in front of your mind to avoid the nagging absurdity of this life and existence? Is it possible that you create and manifest angels and saviors to prevent your intuition from completely giving up in the face of meaninglessness much like that of Sisyphus from The Myth of Sisyphus and originally greek mythology? Do you project hope upon yourself and onto others for your mutual survival as an evolutionary tool even though your mind is strong enough to understand the nothingness and absolution of reality?

All I have today are questions. I have recently read many answers, but I have none to postulate today towards a potential reader, even if that includes my future self! I am however full of questions and hypothetical thought experiments that should suffice in the absence of answers. Good luck with the philosoophic dialogue!

Antarctica Time lapse: A Year on Ice

This is quite a stunning visual journey of Antarctica through amazing time-lapse imagery.

It's breathtaking to see the natural wax and wan of the seasonal cycles from a cosmic perspective that we do not ordinarily witness in such great contrast because as humans we are bound to our mammalian timeframes, but by placing the scope of a year's time under a microscope and shrinking it into 5 minutes the details emerge and surface in our imagination.

HOME (English with subtitles)

You owe this 1 hour 33 minutes of your time to the planet Earth. Watch it and learn about your place in the cosmos and how your individual decisions are so important and impact the Earth so profoundly.

Liquid Metal

Slowly we are beginning to control every facet of the universe.

World War 3

The Definition Of World War

The definition of war is not disputed much until non-traditional wars became prevalent in the news such as recent culture clashes combined with the infamous guerilla tactics, terrible terrorism or within sub-state organized crime syndication against civilized societies. However, what constitues "World War" could be disputed on a philosophical and terminological level. Is it war that reaches around the globe? Is it war that includes all major nations be involved on some level? At what point of conflict does a battle become a "world battle" such as war amongst the world?

The specific word that is very vague or grey in the usage is the "world" in World War. Why was Napoleon's conquests or other such expansions of power using brute military force and strategy such as Genghis Khan's empire considered to be "world" events worthy of a title of World War? Is it the technological advances in warfar? Is it the speed at which information is disseminated to the masses through the news wires? Was it the sheer world impact of the first World War had upon the global status quo or was it the fact that a globalized world finally existed at the time that the first battle began during this so-called Great War, the War To End All Wars? Or is it just a mere creation of the concept of what a World War is that caused the term to come forth into our nomenclature of conflicts?

I do not know the preclusions of the etymology of the usage of "World War," but I do know that the future global conflicts may evolve into a new type of conflict encompassing our previous meaning of World War much like the Cold War and the aftermath of the Cold War did in bringing ideological warfar and culture clashes to the forefront. So, will World War 3 even be called World War 3? Doubtful, but if such a succession of events were ever to arrive at nearly the same micro-timeframe synchronization in human events that would push us to label it as a World War, then it would be labeled as such and be very deadly as such. World War 3 will involve terrorism, guerilla, biological, and chemical warfare and will most certainly involve a nuclear blast. World War 4 or 5 would be much more likely to be fought against or with artificially intelligent machines capable of near psuedo-sentient behavior, but World War 3 will definitely happen much too soon for AI to play a major role in the warfare. Nonetheless, WW3 will be devastating, real, and severe if it were to happen. The question lies not when or if World War 3 will happen, but whether or not humankind has overcome the inevitability of human tribal nature through the use of organized conflicts for power. Are we at a point where the laws of MAD will always force us into a Cold War, or will we actually press the fire button this time and thusly eliminate the mind, body, and soul of another person armed with the ability to also press that button?

The Premoniton Of The Premises For World War 3

This is a premonition and a possible prediction, but I hope that it does not come true. This is merely a way of expressing my thoughts and opinions on current political conflicts from around the world. In my opinion, all of these conflicts are at their near breaking points for becoming full blown military engagements that will destaballize the world even more.

Most of these conflicts are already in flux and have reached certain boiling points. Others are reaching these boiling points day by day. Many of them are under the radar of western news other than a quick story here or there, but these conflicts have been brewing for many years.

Alliances

Allied Western Powers:

EU, USA, Japan, South Korea, Israel, India, Australasia (AU and NZ), Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, Canada

Allied Anti-Western Powers:

North Korea, Iran, Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Pakistan's new regime when the current one falls apart, Syria, Venezuela, Cuba, Russia, possibly China, Vietnam, and Mexico

Conflicts of Interest

Conflict #1:

North Korea, Russia, China vs. South Korea, Japan, USA (Nuclear)

North Korea lauches attack on South Korea, Japan, and possibly HI, or AK, or CA. The USA responds vigorously and Japan/SK move their military into positions for a full blown offensive. China remains stagnant on the issue, but is arming its border with North Korea ready to either fight on NK or the allies sides. With internal pressure within the CCP to resist the west, China could go against the grain and take sides with North Korea as an ally in a passive aggressive move against the west and mostly the USA in an attempt to grab more power away from the USA, this time mostly politically instead of economically.

Conflict #2:

Iran vs. Israel (Nuclear)

Israel vs. Hamas, Hezbollah, Al Qaeda, Syria (Terrorism)

Lebanon vs. Hezbollah (Regime Collapse, Terrorism)

Iran takes the opportunity to attack Israel to further it's power increase amongst Arab states and to take advantage of the nuclear chaos in the Pacific to make it's nuclear move. Israel responds with a nuclear retaliation. The Arab states surrounding Israel such as Syria and possibly Egypt coupled with Hezbollah and Al Qaeda make moves on Jerusalem, West Bank and other Israel settlements. A war between Israel and Arab allies against Arab enemies rages on in terrible bloodshed across the central areas of the Middle East region. Lebanon falls to Hezbollah terrorists and because of the USA's stretched military forces, the Iraqi border with Syria and Saudi Arabia become less stabilized and terrorist forces migrate towards the conflicts in Israel.

Conflict #3:

Pakistan, Afghanistan, USA vs. Taliban, Al Qaeda (Regime Collapse, Terrorism)

Pakistan vs. India (Nuclear)

Afghanistan, USA vs. Al Qaeda, Taliban (Regime Collapse, Terrorism)

Pakistan falls victim to the Taliban and the Taliban uses the nuclear chaos on two hemispheres to decide to launch a nuke at Pakistan's longtime nuclear neighbor India who makes a nuclear retaliation. Various terrorism occurs within India's borders and a nuclear arsenal has fallen into the hands of terrorists that are outspoken friends with Al Qaeda looking to assist them in an effort to attack other western interests in a future clandestine act of terrorism. Many nuclear weapons disappear among the chaos.

Conflict #4:

Honduras vs. Venezuela (Regime Collapse)

Honduras, USA, EU vs. Venezuela, Cuba, Russia (Cold War)

Venezuela makes a military action into Honduras looking to steal more power away from the USA from the historically strong alliance between Honduras and the US. Other nearby Central American powers are now weaker because of this bold move by Venezuela. Cuba quickly asserts its decidedly vocal alliance with Venezuela. Cuba also simultaneously asserts its position against the US as a sole western communist power. In concordance with its sudden vocal polarization against the US, Russia sees an opportunity to rekindle its Cuban amigos.

Conflict #5:

Russia, Moldova, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Georgia, China vs. USA, Poland, EU (Cold War)

Russia makes blatant chess moves against western interests attempting to bring more Kremlin control into Moldova, Cuba, Kazakhstan and Georgia. Russia asserts its continuation of communism advocacy and allies with Iran, North Korea and even Venezuela as strong oil powers with a superpower backing. Russia's recent economic rise has led itself to form a stronger force than during the Cold War. This time, Russia is for real, not quite as much as a show that it was during CCCP days. In its realization of a great opportunity with China and China's realization of a great opportunity to make waves in the world and emerge as the strongest of the strong, China and Russia become allies and China makes its decision against the western powers in North Korea for multiple reasons including angst against the Japanese from the second World War surfacing amidst the tensions.

Conflict #6:

Mexico, Drug Cartel vs. USA, Mexico (Drug War, Terrorism, Regime Collapse)

Amidst all of the world chaos, the gangs and violence within Mexico destabillizes the internal mechanisms of the corrupt government. The drug cartel takes a strong voice in border politics influencing even upper echelons of politics by forcing the Mexican president to declare the US as an enemy of the state because of it being a vast supplier of the arms that are causing bloodshed within its borders. Mexico decides to care less and less about border security and let's whoever cross whenever they like to cross. The USA tries to police its borders, but because of numerous political and government failures to keep the border safe, the military is called in to back up the border patrol. With a building military presence, the drug cartels feels pressured by the US and decides react with more violence & bold tactics instigating a war of terrorism and street-gang-guerrilla warfare against the US by striking everyone from civilians to law enforcement and the US military.

Conflict #1 and Conflict #2 independently occuring could easily trigger any of the other conflicts including whichever of #1 and #2 that does not occur first. Conflict #3 would grease the wheels of the machine of World War and would easily act as a great catalyst for #1 and or #2, but in itself would not necessarily lead to the World conflict. The only other conflict of interest that is sufficiently high-profile enough to set forth events and place chess pieces on the chessboard in a checkmate position would be Conflict #5 which might turn for the worse or smolder and simmer for a long time in a second Cold War. All of the other conflicts are containable and slightly preventable through many different means such as diplomacy, secret operations, and wielding of global power from the UN, USA, or a meeting of the G(x) minds to bring about a resolution averting a serious engagement. So, in summary, #1, #2, and #5 are the most significant and volatile situations that are not just flammable, but moreso explosive for forming the foundation of a World War to put into the great book of history of the first Holocene epoch.