The history of the universe in ten minutes.

Amazing isn't it?

Of course this is only for those who are willing to accept the brutality, beauty, and unpredictability to nature.

For everybody else the go to explanation is, God did it.

I feel badly for those people.

After a day of reporting the kind of news that I reported today I think I will close out with what has now become my favorite "Moment of Zen."

Alaska Governor Bill Walker and President Obama flying to Anchorage.

High five.

It makes me very nervous to see the President sitting in a small plane in Alaska.

The children's President

How could he not want to come back?

It is not only the children of Alaska who love him.

Sorry, always going to be my favorite part of the visit.

Last one, my karma is all repaired now.

Somebody sent me a link to the White House site with these amazing pictures and all day long as I reported on Franklin Graham's plan to create a theocracy, Sarah Palin's beg-a-thon, burned Planned Parenthood clinics, and Chris Christie being a giant ass, I knew that this would be the tonic to quell my aggravation, and calm my frustrations..

And do you know what? It worked like a charm.

Here's a little inspiration to start your day.

More on Alan Watts.

"I don't think there is anything more beautiful than a woman holding a handgun." Says husband after photo of his wife is rejected by People magazine.

Courtesy of WBTV:

An Illinois couple is questioning People magazine's decision to reject a photo they sent in for a contest. 

"I don't think there is anything more beautiful than a woman holding a handgun," Bob Ferris said. 

Those feelings are the reason why one day last summer, when's Bob's wife Sandra came home from church looking especially fetching, he grabbed his camera and his .45-caliber Colt and started taking photos. 

"That was my husband's idea," Sandra Ferris said. 

So was entering the picture he took in a contest called "Real Beauty at Every Age", sponsored by People magazine. 

"It just so happens that the photo I liked the best has her holding a .45 automatic. I didn't think they'd reject the photo," Bob Ferris said.

 "Bob's wife Sandra came home from church looking especially fetching, he grabbed his camera and his .45-caliber Colt and started taking photos." There is literally so many things wrong with that sentence that I almost don't know where to start.

Bob then sent in another picture of his wife, also holding a gun and it too was rejected.

Bob sent in a third photo, this one sans firearms, and it was accepted.

This, to Bob, meant that was an attack on his rights.

You know, the "right to take a picture of your wife holding a handgun and having it accepted by a magazine for a beauty contest." I believe it is listed right after the amendment stating that "you CAN teach Creationism in public schools," and that "Christianity is America's official government sponsored religion."

You know amendments that only Right Wingers can see.

Of course most of us recognize that not everybody in America believes that happiness is a warm gun, or that holding a .45 caliber handgun makes a woman all that more attractive.

These people are gun fetishists and they need to recognize that they represent a small segment of the population, just like the BDSM community and the Furries.

I would imagine that People magazine would have just as likely rejected a photo of a woman in full on bondage gear or dressed up like a giant panda bear.

This is not about the 2nd Amendment, and only the MOST extreme gun nut would think that it was.

 And that is a statement that I cannot believe even needs to be made.

I want to fly like an eagle. To the sea. Fly like an eagle. Let my spirit carry me.

This should brighten up your day.

And isn't it MUCH more uplifting than the last eagle flying video that I posted?

A little Alaska beauty for you to admire as I bid you good night my friends.

I often wonder how such a beautiful place can attract so many ugly people. (I am referring of course to their insides, not their outsides.)

On this same topic I just received these from my friend Dennis Zaki showing the termination dust on the mountains which alerts all of us that winter is just around the corner.

Lazy Mountain

Eklutna Glacier

Pioneer Peak

I think we might be in for a tough winter.

For those who expressed jealousy over last night's camping trip.

Courtesy of the YouTube channel:

 Filmed over 2 weeks in Alaska's Denali National Park and the Inside Passage. The Mt. McKinley summit revealed itself on a lucky day - a massive white peak blanketed in clouds and snow. Rivers of ice curve around the surrounding peaks.

Remember, despite the ugliness of our politics, Alaska is really a magnificent country filled with awe inspiring scenery and incredible beauty in virtually every direction.

Website attacks Wendy Davis for being more attractive than she was in college in order to undermine her credibility. I'm sorry, what?

Too pretty to be taken seriously?

Here is a picture of Wendy Davis from 1991, when she was a student at Texas Christian University.

 Here is what the website, The Real Wendy Davis has to say about this picture: 

Somehow, during the past two decades she has been transformed from a frumpy, pleasant looking but plain-faced, flat-chested brunette with thick, messy hair, into a buxom blonde with excellent facial features and sleek, long, perfectly coiffed hair, like she stepped straight out of Vogue. 

For someone who in the early 1990s was a feminist activist in law school, and who is currently posing as a champion of women’s rights, standing up to men who seek to dictate the way women should live, she seems to have devoted an unusual amount of attention to her physical appearance.

Uh huh. You know somehow an attack from those who once supported Sarah Palin, on another politicians attractiveness carries with it a strong pungent odor of hypocrisy.

Oh, but it is not that Davis is attractive which seems to be the issue, it is that her attractiveness seems impossible.  

Current photos of Senator Davis depict someone who is not just more physically attractive, but who arguably seems younger than the woman in her yearbook photo, even though that photo was taken 22 years ago.

The website author then goes on to accuse Davis of using surgery or artificial enhancements to make herself attractive, assuming that if true it will undermine her star power.

Well I have news for them, while I cannot help but notice that Davis is indeed a very attractive women, that had virtually NOTHING to do with WHY I think she is a star.

She is a star because she singlehandedly halted a bill that, if passed, will have a devastating effect on a woman's ability to control her own body in Texas.

She is a star because she is bright, articulate, and courageous. NONE of which can be acquired utilizing push up bras or plastic surgery.

If Wendy Davis were a three hundred pound Jabba the Hut lookalike it would make little difference, because we are seeing the intelligence and heart of Wendy Davis, not the form in which it is housed.

If all it took was plastic surgery, and fake boobs to be a superstar, THIS woman would be running for President in 2016 instead of fighting for five minute increments of air time on Fox News.

(P.S. By the way if we were all judged by our appearance when attending college, I know a LOT of people who would not be taken very seriously today.)

Posted by Palin-bots with the headline, "Latest Photo Almost Too Hot To Publish!" WTF?

Chick-fil-A? Really?

More to be found here.

Update: It looks like the Daily Mail also has a picture to share:

Oh yeah, that is certainly "almost too hot to publish."

The Sexiest Woman alive has some words about women and the Republican party.

Mila Kunis, Esquire magazine's choice for "Sexiest Woman Alive."

Courtesy of Esquire:

The way that Republicans attack women is so offensive to me. And the way they talk about religion is offensive. I may not be a practicing Jew, but why we gotta talk about Jesus all the time? And it's baffling to me how a poor person in Georgia can say, "I'm a Republican." Why? 

Good question.

You know one of my guilty pleasures was to watch a certain TV program called the "70's Show."

At first it was just because I of course am a product of the seventies, and it was fun to relive those years and remember how ridiculous we all were. (They actually did a pretty good job of using popular catchphrases, like "What a burn," and demonstrating how he dressed and acted.)

But then I started to really like the main actor Topher Grace, and his character's relationship with the other actor's on the show. (Especially the dad, Red Forman. I LOVE that guy!)

To honest at first I found Mila's character, Jackie, to be completely annoying, but after awhile she grew on me.

However since Kunis has left the show she has demonstrated herself to be an incredibly gifted actress and I will now choose to see movies solely on the fact that she is in them. (She has also voiced the character of "Meg" in the Family Guy which has cemented her nerd goddess credentials.)

I have also listened to her voice her political points of view a few times and find her intelligent and well read on a variety of issues. (In other words somebody the complete opposite of her character on the 70's Show.)

Part of why I am posting this is that a years back there were several YouTube videos created comparing conservative women to liberal women, using Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter as examples of the "Sexy" conservative gals, and of course making the case that liberal women were unattractive and stupid.

Well apparently Mila Kunis is VERY liberal and is now considered the sexiest woman in the world. 

And HERE was the woman that inspired that conservative vs liberal comparison four years ago today.

I believe the word here is "checkmate."

And by the way let me just say that, as a rule, liberals appreciate women for more than their looks and ability to shut up and make babies for us. 

We also appreciate them for their intellect, and gladly join the fight to help protect their equal rights and control over their own bodies.

For any of you who believe that nobody who looks like Mila Kunis could possibly be intelligent as well, I urge you to read her full Esquire interview at the link, or if you don't have the time perhaps you can watch this video of her scolding a reporter for asking why her co-star in "Friends with Benefits," Justin Timberlake, is not focusing on his music career rather than trying his hand at acting. (Oh and did I mention that she answered that reporter's somewhat rude question in Russian?)

Beautiful, intelligent, feisty, and oh so liberal.

Just a final thought.

Remnants of supernova.

“How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, “This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?” Instead they say, “No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way.” A religion, old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the Universe as revealed by modern science might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths.” ― Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space

A little beauty to cleanse our palate before we toddle off to dream land.

Downtown Cordova, Alaska

A bunch of delicious Silver Salmon

The area around town is quite scenic

Cordova at night

The harbor, also at night.

These pictures are once again courtesy of my friend Dennis Zaki, who just finished filming a commercial in Cordova.

He thought you would all enjoy these amazing pictures.

I thought you might as well.

“The earth has music for those who listen.” ― George Santayana

In Alaska on days like this which drain us of our vitality, and leave us empty and feeling inconsequential, it only takes a moment to cast our eyes upon the beauty that surrounds us to remind us that we are part of something amazing and breathtaking.

Despite what you might hear from some this place is not here to serve the needs of man, it is here to humble man with its presence, and inspire us to overcome our petty troubles and strive to achieve our potential.

At least that is how I have always seen it. And how it has always worked for me.

P.S. Yes these are also pictures from my friend the very talented Dennis Zaki.

The miraculous is not found in the pages of an ancient text, it is literally all around us, and inside of us.

“Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” ― Carl Sagan

Good night my friends. Stay miraculous.

Just a reminder to take a moment to allow your breath to be taken away by the universe. You're welcome.

This close up, false-color image of the Eagle nebula captures one of its stellar nurseries. The Eagle nebula is about 6,500 light-years from Earth, making it one of our closest stellar nurseries. The XMM-Newton, imaging X-rays, worked in conjunction with Herschel’s far infrared seeing capabilities to capture this stunning image.

Part of why I sometimes share these incredible pictures of our world, and the universe that surrounds it, is to remind us that we do not need to view everything through a religious filter to admire its beauty. In fact, at least in my opinion, its beauty is only diminished by assigning a supernatural force to explain its existence.

(Source)

She's alive...She's home...Protect her.

(May I suggest full screen?)

Courtesy of the YouTube page:

This is a non-commercial attempt from http://www.sanctuaryasia.com/ to highlight the fact that world leaders, irresponsible corporates and mindless 'consumers' are combining to destroy life on earth. It is dedicated to all who died fighting for the planet and those whose lives are on the line today.

No matter what our differences, whether political, religious, or geographical, they are barely perceivable when compared to all that we have in common. Together we can save our home. But ONLY if we work together.

From a distance we are beautiful

To see larger image click here.

This is an image from space looking at our planet. Aren't we gorgeous?

I often lament the fact that once up close that the beauty tends to diminish and the ugliness is far more apparent.

We live in an amazing place, among amazing creatures, and at our best we are an amazing species.

We should remember that and fight for what is worth the battle, embrace that which needs comfort, and love with the faith that love can solve all of the world's ills.

We should also remember that we are temporary residents on planet earth, and to make our stay as memorable and productive as possible.

Namaste

Today was a GREAT day in Alaska, so I thought I would post these pictures from Dennis Zaki to share what we love so much about our state.

Ground squirrel tracks

Independence mine

Palmer

Hatcher Pass

Some local vegetation

Hatcher Pass again

The sun was out, the sky was blue, and the domestic terrorists were convicted.

Days just don't get too much better than that, don't you agree?

I thought I would leave you this evening with a sample of the BEST that Alaska has to offer.

This last Sunday my friend Dennis Zaki, myself, and a few friends went for a hike out near Girdwood. We had been hearing about numerous bear sightings, but I wasn't worried because I'm pretty sure I can outrun Dennis.

It was a somewhat cloudy day, but like always there was beauty everywhere.

The above photo is of Falls Creek, which is a photographers dream as it is almost impossible to take a bad picture there.  As you can see for yourself from these next two photos.

We kind of made a game out of finding new angles from which to take pictures. Yeah, like THAT was hard.

The one great thing about Alaska is that no matter HOW stressful your day has been, just a few hours out of the house and immersed in our beautiful surroundings will almost always brighten your day and chase those doldrums away.

Now if only we could bottle it.

Namaste my friends.  

Time for a mental health break.

This a preview for a film called TimeScapes" which you can learn more about here.

I don't know about you but just watching that gave me a sense of serenity and peace.

Namaste, my friends.