OFF TOPIC - GOING POLITICAL!!! WILL RETURN TO FAT TOPICS AFTER 2012 ELECTION!

ATTENTION!!! I SHALL BE GOING OFF-TOPIC FOR AWHILE UNTIL AFTER THE 2012 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION AND THEN I SHALL RETURN BACK TO DOING  MY USUAL FAT-RELATED TOPICS AGAIN SOMETIME IN JANUARY 2013 AND I SO DEARLY HOPE THAT OBAMA WINS!!!

And by the way . . .

Yesterday, September 30,2012 was my 61st birthday. I was born
September 30,1951 up in Northern Minnesota.

Anyway . . . . . on to my latest topic.

MITT ROMNEY IS A FUCKING RETARD!!!

OK, before I talk about the recent Republican National Convention, and the more Recent Democratic National Convention, I have some books that I highly recommend for all of my interested readers.

Over the past few months or so, I have ordered these following books from Barnes & Nobel.

This one is by Chris Mooney published just this year in 2012, an excellent book! THE REPUBLICAN BRAIN - The Science of Why They Deny Science - And Reality. Brain scans have revealed that there is actually some structural and neurological differences between the brains of liberals and conservatives.

This book was published back in back in 2005 and the paperback edition was published in 2006, also by Chris Mooney, titled The REPUBLICAN WAR on SCIENCE. I haven't finished reading this one yet. I'm about half-way through it.

Here is another one of my all time favorites by Charles P Pierce published in 2009 titled IDIOT AMERICA - How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free. Yeah, many Republicans actually believe that the earth is only 6000 years old, and they would love to have their Creationist fairy tales inserted into high school science textbooks! 

Yeah, uh huh! Creationist fairy tales! Like, you know, the one about how a man was made from a lump of dirt, and a woman made from one of his ribs, and how dirt-man and rib-lady were placed in a magical garden with a magical tree bearing magical fruit that they weren't allowed to eat, and how they were tempted into doing so by a talking snake with legs! Uh huh! It all makes perfect sense! Doesn't it?

YEAH RIGHT!

And of course, my all time favorite fairy tale from the BUY-BULL is the one about the Genesis flood, and how Noah and his three sons traveled all over the world and brought back polar bears from The North Pole, penguins from The South Pole, and kangaroos from Australia, and that they put saddles on dinosaurs and rode them back to the ark!

Gee! Like, that also makes sense! Eh?

Sorry Republicans! But The Flintstones is NOT a documentary!!!

And these bed-wetting ignoramuses want to run this country???  Oh! Parish the thought!

Hell, there's not a dry pair of pants among them!

I propose, that the Republican party ditch the noble elephant as their symbol and . . . . .

 

. . . adopt this one instead!!!

Yeah! I think this would be a more appropriate symbol for the Republican party, a dinosaur with a horse's saddle on it's back!

And of course, another book I would like to recommend to all my readers. 

   

This is one of the latest books published this year in 2012 written by Sean Faircloth titled ATTACK OF THE THEOCRATS! How The Religious Right Harms Us All And what We can Do About it - A Harrowing True Tale Told By Sean Faircloth.

I highly recommend these books to anyone who is concerned about the future of America and the future of science education in our public schools. 

OK, now back to the recent Republican National Convention . . .

I no longer have Cable TV anymore because Time Werner keeps raising the cost of the monthly bills, so I had unsubscribe to Cable TV because their programming is mostly crap! So now, I can put that money aside, and save up toward building a new computer. Yeah, I'm a computer geek, and I like to buy the parts and assemble the computer myself. It's much cheaper that way.

So, I had watched BOTH the Republican National Convention AND the Democratic National Convention on the Internet instead. 

Actually, I watched the Democratic National Convention at the Democratic Headquarters here in El Paso, Texas. I have been hanging out there every Tuesday and Thursday, making calls to encourage people to support Obama and getting out to vote.

Anyway . . . . .

The Democratic National Convention was by far more interesting, and more informative, because, they actually talked about the important issues, like, the economy, education, women's health care issues, civil rights and civil liberties, and also, climate change, etc. etc. Yes, global warming is a well established scientific fact.

On the other hand (or wing) the Republican National Convention was as boring as watching paint dry! I actually fell asleep through it. Then it got to be more fun to watch, when Clint Eastwood got up, and talked to an empty chair, pretending that it was Obama.

I just got to say, that was the highlight of the Republican National Convention! It reminded me of  a song by Niel Diamond "I Am I said" an old song from 1970. 

Yeah! Good ol' Clint Eastwood must be getting senile in his old age. OK, it's perfectly normal for little children to go around talking to an imaginary invisible person. I'm sure we've all done this when we were just little kids, however, children eventually outgrow that sort of thing. But, apparently, Clint Eastwood has not!

OK, I use to enjoy watching Clint Eastwood movies. Of course, I have always known he is a Republican and a conservative, but I didn't realize how far he was to the extreme right he is, and just what kind of  a right-wing wacko he really is, until he made a jackass of himself, talking to a chair! WOW! What a total fucking retard! I have lost all respect for him that I might have had,  and I will NEVER  ABSOLUTELY NEVER watch another Clint Eastwood movie ever again for as long as I live. 

Sorry Jimbo! But you blew it! Actually, not only do your blow, but YOU SUCK!!!

Yeah! Clint Eastwood is in his 80s and still wearing diapers!

Clint Eastwood is probably so delusional that he hears chairs talking back to him!

But the biggest MORON in the Republican party is the one who's running for President, Good ol' Nit wit Shit-for-brains- Mitt Romney himself. 

Yeah, he is of the Mormon religion, and so, like many Mormons, he probably wears magic underwear, and no doubt, he wears diapers underneath his magic underwear!

So, good ol' Mittens is BOTH a Mormon AND a MORON! Yeah! There is only one letter difference between the two! Just drop the second M.

Also, just like so many Christian, or rather, Christard Funny-mentalists, he doesn't know jack-shit about science. A prime example:

Recently, Mitt Romney's wife, Ann Romney, had attended a  $6 million dollar Beverly Hills fundraiser in California. While she was flying, on board her plane there was a short which resulted in an electrical fire, and the passenger compartment began filling with smoke. The plane had to make an emergency landing. Ann Romney and some other passengers were overcome by the smoke and they had to be treated in a hospital emergency room. OK, she's fine. She and her fellow passengers have recovered.

But after the incident, Mitt Romney had publicly commented that passenger jets should have windows that can be rolled down to let in fresh air.

Yeah, Mitt Romney said the following . . . . . 

"When you have a fire in an aircraft, there's no place to go, exactly, there's no — and you can't find any oxygen from outside the aircraft to get in the aircraft, because the windows don't open. I don't know why they don't do that. It's a real problem."

YEAH RIGHT!

First of all, when you're flying at a cruising altitude of 32,000 to 35,000 feet, there is very little or almost no oxygen outside of the plane. Also, the cabin pressure inside the plane is much greater than the atmospheric pressure outside of the plane. So, even if you could open a window (which of course your can't) the air inside the plane would blow out through the open window.

Yeah, like . . . WWWWWOOOOOOOOOSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSHSH!!!

Also . . . if you happen to be sitting in a seat by the open window, and if you're stupid enough to not have your seat belt fastened, then you would get blown out through the window!!!

So, it would be, by by Romney! And good riddance! 

Of course, if the plane were to descend to a much lower altitude, like, perhaps 10,000 feet or down to about 7,000 feet, then opening a window would let in fresh air from outside. But that would not be wise either, because if you're flying at a cruising speed of over 500 miles per hour, a 500 mile an hour breeze coming in from an open window would cause stuff inside the cabin that is not secured down to go flying around inside the passenger compartment, and people would get clobbered by flying food trays and hand bags and what not!

So, there is a damn good reason why airplane windows are not made to roll down.

Oh! Yes indeed! Mitt Romney is a very innovative thinker!

I can hardly wait for him to come up with some more of his brilliant ideas!

Like . . . . .

 
  . . . . . Screen doors on submarines!

Or, perhaps . . . . .

 . . . . . Helicopter ejection seats!

Like, OH COME ON!!!

Not even Mitt Romney could possibly be that stupid!!!

Or could he?

Well, anyone who believes in wearing Mormon Magic Underwear can't be all that bright.

Hey Mitt Romney! Who needs the Secrete Service for protection when you have on your Mormon Magic Underwear? Eh?

Also, you need a special detergent to wash your magic underwear. 

And be sure to change your diaper before putting your clean magic underwear back on again. Yeah! There ya go, Baby!!!

And hey, Mitt! If you're a good little boy, you won't get sent to bed without supper!

Oh! And since my blog, THE BIGGEST FATTEST BLOG, is devoted to the love of food and gluttony, I should have something here concerning food.

Yeah! A nice heaping plate of Rice Moroni The Salt Lake City Treat!

Of course, if you're a Mormon, you can't drink alcohol, you can't smoke, and you can't even have coffee or anything with caffeine, so it must really suck to be a Mormon, and poor ol' Mitt Romney, not only can't drink, but he can't even think! That's because his a moron!

And, he also believes in wearing magic underwear because he believes it will protect him from knives and guns. YEAH RIGHT!!!

Uh huh! Like, we know! We know!

Sorry Mitt Romney, but again . . . . .
 

 

YOU FAIL!!!

Of course, when it comes to absolute moronic stupidity and major fuck-tardery, Mitt Romney is only just the tip of the ice burg.

And speaking of ice burgs . . . . .

This year, 2012 is the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic back in the year 1912 when the ship struck an ice burg.

  

And we all better hope like Hell that the Republicans do not win the 2012 Presidential Election, because, if that happens, the USA will surely go down in 2012 just like the Titanic went down in 1912.

Yeah! As I have said . . . when it comes to retardary, Mit Romney is only the tip of the ice burg.

I have been keeping a score card of all the stupid comments publicly made by Republican candidates all through out 2011 and 2012 and it's getting to where it's really not funny anymore.

For example:

 Michele Bachmann has said the black families were better off under slavery.

"A child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President."

YEAH RIGHT!!!

The fact is, that black families were not better off under slavery. Quite often, black families were broken up, husbands and wives separated, children taken away from parents, brothers and sisters separated, all sold off to different plantations, never seeing each other ever again.

Also, according to some Republicans, people who are on disability, poor people, families on food stamps and senior citizens are just stray dogs and scavenging raccoons, and according to former President Bush, I'm not a citizen of the USA because I'm not a christian.

Yeah! Sound really familiar, just like Mitt Romney's more recent comments he made about 47% percent of all Americans.

"My job is not to worry about the 47 percent of people who don't pay income taxes. I'll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives."

Mitt Romney does not know what the Hell he's talking about.

True, retired people on Social Security do not pay income taxes on their pension checks, but when they were working, they paid income taxes, and a certain amount was deducted from their pay checks which goes into Social Security, so, these retirees had paid into the system.

Also, college students don't have to pay income taxes. The 47% percent that Mitt Romney has been referring to are not freeloaders shirking their responsibilities. No, many of them re students, teachers, fire fighters, cops, etc. etc. middle income families struggling to make ends meet.

Oh! And there some more really good stuff.

Yeah, and then there was another fuck-tard, Foster Friess, who was campaigning for Rick Santorum.  

Foster Friess has said the following . . . . .

"On this contraceptive thing, my gosh, it’s so inexpensive. You know, back in my days, they used Bayer Aspirin for contraceptives. The gals put it between their knees and it wasn’t that costly." 

And of course, good ol' Rick The Prick Santorum believes that a college education is indoctrination.

"I understand why Barack Obama wants to send every kid to college, because of their indoctrination mills, absolutely. The indoctrination that is going on at the university level is a harm to our country."

So, Rick The Prick thinks a college education is indoctrination! Eh?

WHAT??? You mean, as opposed to religious indoctrination???

Yeah, uh huh! Students perusing a science degree is somehow harmful to America!

YEAH RIGHT!!!

And here in the state of Texas, we have another prick named Rick, good ol' Governor Good Hair Rick Perry of Texas.

He's another right-wing Christard Funny-mentalist who is opposed to science and the scientific method.

Allow me to introduce you to Governor Rick Perry of Texas.

Governor Rick Perry once allowed an innocent man to be executed, despite the fact that DNA evidence proved, that the death row inmate was not present at the crime scene. But Rick Perry rejects science, especially DNA evidence, because DNA also proves EVOLUTION!!!

Here in Texas, lethal injection is used. The inmate is strapped down to the gurney and the arms are strapped down to the armrests that extend straight out at the sides, and a needle is inserted into each arm, with one needle administrating a saline solution, while the needle in the other arm administers the lethal drug.

 

Governor Rick Perry loves it when they use the gurney to administer lethal injections to death row inmates. That's because, with the armrests extended out to the sides, it looks like a cross!!!

Glory halleluiah! Amen!

I could go on and on and on and on and on about how stupid and moronic the Republican party has become. 

Oh! Here's another really good one!

Some Republicans are so stucking fupid, Whoops! I mean, so fucking stupid that they can't tell the difference between a woman and a female duck!!!

Yeah! That's right! Some Republicans, like Todd Akin, can not tell the difference between a woman and a female duck!

This is concerning  some moronic comment that Todd Akin said about rape, the women do not get pregnant from rape.

In a recent interview, in which the Republican Senate candidate from Missouri, Todd Akin, had admitted that he believes abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape, because . . . . . 

"if it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."  

In another words Ladies . . .  if you say you got pregnant after being raped, you’re probably lying about the rape part! Yeah, at least according to Todd Akin.

But, he is wrong about the science concerning rape.

The scientific facts are far from being on Akin’s side. While it may be true that female ducks have evolved in such a way that they now have a biological anti-pregnancy response to forced sex, human beings most definitely have not. 

As the Washington Post’s Sarah Kliff notes, many scientific studies have proven that the you-only-conceive-if-aroused theory is complete bunk. In fact, one study from 2003 even showed that rape victims may be more likely to get pregnant than individuals on the whole.

So, either Todd Akin does not know the difference between a woman and a female duck, or else, he thinks that a woman has a duck's vagina! 

For more information on female ducks, and how they have evolved a protective mechanism that prevents the eggs from being fertilized in the event of forced sex from the male, check out the following article from Scientific American.

  

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN - An evolutionary battle against unwanted fertilization

OK, ya stupid Republicans!

Which one is the woman, and which one is the duck?

About 99 out of 100 republicans failed this simple test!

Well, I could go on and on about how stupid the Republican party has become.

But, it has not always been this way. There was once a time when the Republican party was a great institution. It was the party of Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S Grant.

Back then, the old Republican party was the progressive party that looked forward to the future. It was the party that abolished slavery.

If I have been living back in the mid to late 1800s, then I would have been proud to have been a Republican! I'm so grateful that The North won the civil war. 

The greatest Republican Presidents that America ever had were Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S Grant who later on was elected President Ulysses S Grant.

Of course, as President, he administration was rocked by some political scandals, but it was because President Grant had trusted the wrong people. A president is only as good as the people he works with, and if his administration is not fully co-operative then he can't do his job.

Now, I have found out some really cool things about Ulysses S Grant than I had never known before until recently, because, very little is mentioned of this of this in most school history textbooks, and I didn'k know about this, until I read about in in an on line NEWS article from AlterNet, to which I am subscriped.

Here is a link to said article, titled:

Five People Who Bravely Fought Christian Takeover of America

http://www.alternet.org/belief/5-people-who-bravely-fought-christian-takeover-america

It mentions five people who stood up and fought against past attempts against a Christian Fundamentalist take-over of America. But I'll only quote a part of the article, because one of those five brave people was Ulysses S Grant, and the reason why, is because of a speech the Ulysses S Grant had given on September 30,1875 about 137 years ago, and September 30 happens to be on my birthday!!!

========================================

Ulysses S. Grant: U.S. Grant is best known for being a hard fighting (and hard drinking) Civil War general and later a scandal-plagued president. His advocacy of church-state separation is less well known.

Grant had his share of problems during his presidency, but on the issue of church-state separation he showed true leadership. Sadly, this tends to get overlooked today.

During Grant’s presidency, the concept of tax-supported public education began to slowly spread across the nation. More and more states were adopting laws establishing public schools and even mandating attendance. But there was a problem: People could not agree on what role religion should play in the schools.

In 1844, there were riots in Philadelphia between Catholics and Protestants over what version of the Bible would be read in schools. Tensions simmered for years. Protestants insisted that since they were the majority in the country, the schools should reflect their theology. Catholics fumed that their rights were being violated and proposed that the federal government give them money to start their own schools that would inculcate Catholicism.

Grant had a better idea: No tax money for religious schools and no religious worship in the public schools. Keeping public schools secular, Grant proposed, would be in the best interests of the nation.

On Sept. 30, 1875, Grant addressed a gathering of former Union soldiers. He could have played it safe and offered some reminisces about the war. Instead, he decided to address the school issue.

“Let us all labor to add all needful guarantees for the security of free thought, free speech, a free press, pure morals, unfettered religious sentiments, and of equal rights and privileges to all men irrespective of nationality, color or religion,” Grant said. “Encourage free schools, and resolve that not one dollar, appropriated for their support, shall be appropriated to the support of any sectarian schools. Resolve that neither the state nor nation, nor both combined, shall support institutions of learning other than those sufficient to afford to every child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good common school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan, or atheistical dogmas. Leave the matter of religion to the family altar, the church, and the private school, supported entirely by private contributions. Keep the church and state forever separate. With these safeguards, I believe the battles which created the Army of the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain.”

Grant was ahead of his time. While some state courts adopted his vision and struck down laws mandating school prayer in the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. Supreme Court did not declare official school prayer a violation of the First Amendment until 1962.
 
=======================================

Yeah, Ulysses S Grant was very well known for drinking a lot of Whiskey and smoking cigars. 

But what isn't generally well know is his support for public school education. It's a damn shame that most of our school history textbooks don't mention more of this.  

So, Ulysses S Grant was a man way ahead of his time!

Yes, here are two of the greatest Republicans in our entire history.

President Abraham Lincoln and General, later to be Elected, President Ulysses S Grant, or two greatest Republicans in American history.

So, President Ulysses S Grant support public education, that is, public secular education, therefore, he supported science and math education, unlike today's Republican retards who wish to do away with science education, and instead, teach Creationist fairy tales!

If Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses S Grant were alive today, they would be shocked and appalled by what has become of the Republican party! No doubt, Ulysses S Gran would call them all fucking retards!

Anyway . . . . .

After reading more about Ulysses S Grant, and about the speech he had given on September 30,1875 to retired Northern Civil War veterans concerning public school education, then, I feel that my birthday being on September 30 is kind of special. 

I have come across even more articles after doing a Google search about Ulysses S Grant and his speech on September 30,1875 which was 137 years ago.

Now, that's why I feel that my birthday very special to me.

 
And so, I celebrated my birthday by having a straight double-shot of whiskey and I smoked a cigar.

That is what I will do from now on when it is my birthday.
 

Yes, from or on, I shall raise a glass with a straight double-shot of whiskey and smoke a cigar to honor Ulysses S Grant.

Salute!

ASTRONOMY - THE BIG FAT SCIENCE!

ASTRONOMY IS THE BIGGEST AND FATTEST SCIENCE THERE IS! NOTHING IS BIGGER AND FATTER THAN THE COSMOS!

As always, please click on the 

images for a much larger view

Astronomy has always been my most favorite science topic. My mother had taught me how to read before I had even started going to school and by the time I was only in the third grade, I could already read at high school and adult level. I was in the second grade when I checked out my very first Astronomy book from the school library, and it immediately sparked my interested. I wanted to know more, so I began checking out more books on astronomy until I had read almost every Astronomy book at grade school level.

I was living in a small town up in northern Minnesota, and both the high school and elementary grades were in the same building. The school library consisted of two rooms where one room was for grade level books and the other room had high school level books.

So, after having read all the Astronomy books at grade school level, the teachers allowed me to check out books at the high school level, and during the summer vacation when school was out, I spent most of my time in the public library, reading Astronomy books, and science books in general that were at adult level. I was only 9 years old at the time.

I also became interested in books on Paleontology, books on dinosaurs, and evolution, and books on Geology. I was fascinated by Geology. I had a thing for mountains and deep canyons. I also enjoyed books on evolution and was particularly fascinated by dinosaurs.

So, I was interested in the really BIG THINGS!

Yeah! Big things, like Geology, the mountains, canyons, and the oceans of planet Earth, and of amphibians and reptiles, and really big things like dinosaurs, and even bigger things as in the science of Astronomy.

And so, I got more and more into Astronomy, a major obsession of mine. I was overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the universe. As a kid, the world seem like a pretty big place to me. I remember how we would go from Duluth Minnesota, which is on the tip of Lake Superior, to Milwaukee Wisconsin to see Grandma, and it was a journey of about 300 miles. So, traveling at an average speed of about 70 miles per hour, it should have taken about four and a half hours to get there. But then, having to stop for gas, and having to stop to eat at a restaurant, and for restroom breaks, the trip usually took about six hours.

Well, the earth is about 7,920 miles in diameter and about 24,868 (I'm using round numbers) miles in circumference. So, if there was a tunnel through the earth, and if  we could drive through the 7,920 mile tunnel at a steady speed of  70 miles per hour without stopping for gas, or lunch, or restroom breaks, it would take about 113 hours, or 4.7 days to drive through the tunnel. And if we were to drive around the earth's equator, a journey of 24,868 miles at 70 miles per hour, it would take a little bit more than 352 and a half hours, or almost 14.7 days, just over two weeks to complete the journey.

Of course, we can't drill a tunnel through the earth, and we can't drive a car around the earth's equator. I'm just using this example to demonstrate how big the earth is and to get a feeling for its size. This is only just an illustration of how long it would take to drive all those miles.

So, to me, when I was just a kid, the earth seemed like a pretty big ball.

I became more curious about the world, and before I got into Astronomy, I was into Geography. I had a globe of the earth, and I loved to collect maps. When our family went on trips, every time we stopped at a gas station, I just had to collect road maps. This was back in the 1960s when you could get lots of road maps free from any gas station, and so, during our family trips, the car would get cluttered with lots and lots and lots of road maps! Thanks to me!!!

Then, I wanted to know what was inside the earth, and what was at the bottoms of the oceans, so I started reading books on Geology, and books about the oceans. I learned that the highest mountain on the earth is Mount Everest,  who's summit is 29,035 feet above sea level or almost 5 and a half miles tall.  

 

Mount Everest is 29,035 feet or almost 5.5 miles tall

Yeah! That's one really great big fat mountain alright! Then I learned that the Grand Canyon is about 277 miles long, about 18 miles wide, and over 6,000 feet deep.

 

The Grand Canyon is 277 miles long and 

it's 18 miles wide and over 6000 feet deep

Yeah! That's one great big fat canyon alright! Then there is the Mariana Trench, deep in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, the biggest and fattest ocean on our planet. The Mariana Trench is 1,580 miles long, about 43 miles wide, and 36,000 feet or 6.8 miles deep! So the Mariana Trench is about 5.7 times as long, about 2.38 times as wide, and 6 times as deep as The Grand Canyon! If Mount Everest were placed down in the Mariana Trench, it would take a dunking. It would be in really deep water way over it's head, about 7,000 feet over it's head!

 

The Mariana Trench deep in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean is 

1,580 miles long, 43 miles  wide, and just over 36,000 feet deep

Yeah! That's one really great big fat canyon down in the bottom of the sea! So, we have some really great big fat things on our planet Earth.

Oh, but wait!!! 

Mars is just a skinny little planet, only 4,220 miles in diameter, just a little bit more than half the size of the earth. But it has some even bigger and fatter things than you will ever find on the earth! The tallest mountain on Mars is Olympus Mons, a really huge volcanic mountain that is about 14 miles tall, or about 73,920 feet above the surround flat lands. It is about 2.5 times as tall as Mount Everest. In fact, it's the highest mountain on any planet in the entire solar system! The base of the mountain, Olympus Mons, is big enough to cover the entire state of New Mexico! 

Now, if Olympus Mons were on the earth, instead of on Mars, the top of the mountain would be way up there at 73,920 feet above sea level where the atmosphere is so thin that you would almost need a space suit to just climb to the top of the mountain. There would be no breathable oxygen at that height.

A typical commercial passenger jet plane flies at about 350 miles per hour and at a maximum altitude of 32,000 feet. I suppose they could fly higher, but then, that would be up there in military air space, so, civilian passenger jets are confined to altitudes of no more than 32,000 feet. A commercial jet liner would never be able to fly over the top of Olympus Mons. It would have to fly several hundred miles out of the way to get around the base of the mountain. Olympus Mons is more than twice the height that commercial jet liners are able to fly. You would need a rocket plane instead of a jet plane. 

Olympus Mons, tallest mountain on Mars, or any planet! It's 14 miles 

or 73,920 feet tall. Notice how much of the planet's surface it covers.

Yeah! That's one great big fat volcanic mountain alright! Then there is the largest canyon on Mars, named Valles Marineris, often referred to as "The Grand Canyon of Mars"! It is about 2,500 miles long, about 125 miles wide, and 4 miles, or 21,120 feet deep! It is the largest canyon on any planet in the solar system!
   

 

Valles Marineris, referred to as "The Grand Canyon of Mars" is 2,500 

miles long, about 125 miles wide, and about 4 miles or 21,120 feet 

deep. Also notice the really huge scar across the face of planet Mars!

Yeah! That's one great big fat canyon alright! Actually, the highest mountain and the biggest canyon on Mars are not just great big fat things! No! Olympus Mons and Valles Marineris, compared to anything on earth, these Martian features are absolutely obese!!!

WOW! How can such a skinny little planet like Mars, have such great big fat things that are much bigger and much fatter than anything on Earth? Yeah! Mars has bigger and fatter mountains and bigger and fatter canyons than the mountains and canyons on Earth! I actually think that it's unfair that such a skinny little planet like Mars should have bigger and fatter surface features than anything here on the Earth! Damn! It's so unfair! But whoever said that nature was fair? Right? Right!!!

And now . . . . .

On to even bigger and fatter things out there in the cosmos!

OK, let's start with the small terrestrial planets of the inner solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars, and of course, little Pluto in the outer regions of our solar system.

 The five smallest planets, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, and Pluto

Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, and it's average orbital distance form the sun is about 36 million miles, and it is 3,030 miles in diameter, much smaller than the planet Earth. Venus orbits around the sun at a distance of 67 million miles and it's about 7,520 miles in diameter, slightly smaller than the earth. Our home planet Earth is about 93 million miles from the sun and is 7,920 miles in diameter. Mars is at 142 million miles from the sun and is 4,220 miles in diameter, a little bit more than half the size of the Earth. And finally, we have little Pluto, the smallest and skinniest planet way out there on the edge of the solar system. Pluto is about 3,647,000,000 miles, that is, about 3 billion plus 647 million miles away from the sun. BURRRRRRR! Like, it's really cold out there!!! And it's just a little guy, only 1,480 miles in diameter, the smallest and skinniest plant of them all.

Now, on to some some much bigger and fatter planets, like, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, the Jovian planets, the big gas giants.

The four largest planets, the Jovian planets, or 

gas giants, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

Jupiter, Big J himself, he is the biggest and baddest dude in our neighborhood, the biggest and fattest planet in our solar system. He revolves around the sun at a distance of 483 million miles and he is 88,840 miles in diameter. So, he is big enough to swallow over a thousand earths! WOW! What a glutton! Also, he only take 9 hours and 55 minutes, a little less then 10 hours to rotate on his axes, so he's equatorial diameter is greater than his polar diameter. Another words, he's a little bit wider than he is tall. He is actually kind of pot-bellied due to his rapid rotation. So, as far as planets go, he's really obese! But because if his enormous gravity, he helps to deflect most comets and asteroids away from a possible collision course with the earth. If it wasn't for him, the earth would certainly have had a Hell of a lot more devastating collisions in the past, and life would be even more difficult here on the earth, So, he's really a gentle giant and offers us some protection. Yeah! It's really kind of  nice to have him around. Kudos to you, Big J!

The next planet is Saturn, about 1,429,000,000 miles, that's 1 billion plus 429 million miles from the sun, and he has a diameter of 74,890 miles, a little bit smaller than Jupiter, and he proudly displays his beautiful set of rings. Show off!!! But, why should we begrudge him? Eh?    

Saturn with his most magnificent rings!

I remember many years ago, back in 1979 as I was watching Saturday Night Live on TV.  They would always do a satire of the evening NEWS. One of the satirical NEWS commentators said, that radio astronomers had picked up on some kind of radio noise coming from the rings of Saturn, and recorded it as sound, and he said "Here it is! The the rings of Saturn!" and when the audio recording was played back, you could hear a kind of ringing noise, like, rrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnng! rrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnng! rrrrriiiiiiinnnnnnng! This of course was only a spoof. But then . . . guess what!!! About a year later, one of the Voyager space crafts, as it passed by Saturn, it did in fact, pick up radio noise from the rings of Saturn, and when it was played back, for real, it sounded almost like the radio noise parodied on Saturday Night Live! So, what had originally been a spoof, a satire, a parody of an evening NEWS broadcast, had turned out, about a year later, to be prophetic! WOW! What an amazing coincidence! Eh?

The next of the Jovian gas giants is Uranus. I prefer to pronounce it You-rain-us instead of  Urine-us which I think is kind of gross! I would much rather be rained on than pissed on! Anyway . . . Uranus is about 2,871,000,000 miles, that's 2 billion plus 871 million miles from the sun and it's 31,760 miles in diameter.

And finally, Neptune is 4,496,000,000 miles, that's 4 billion plus 496 million miles from the sun, and it's diameter is 30,770 miles, just slightly smaller than Uranus.

So, we have two set of twins in our solar system. Earth and Venus are twins in size with Earth being 7,920 miles in diameter, and Venus being  a little bit smaller at 7,520 miles in diameter. And the other set of twins, Uranus and Neptune with Uranus being 31,760 miles in diameter, and Neptune being slightly smaller at 30,770 miles in diameter. Yeah! Two set of twins, Earth and Venus in the inner solar system, and Uranus and Neptune, in the outer solar system. Two sets of twins! Two skinny little twins, Earth and Venus, and two bigger and fatter twins, Uranus and Neptune. Yeah! Uh huh! Two sets of twins. The sun and all the planets, well . . . we're just one great big happy family! I love it! I love it!

And now, on to the biggest and fattest member of our solar family, The Sun himself!

 The Sun and all the planets compared

The sun is 865,000 miles in diameter. That bad boy is really huge and enormously obese! He could easily swallow a million Earths! Yeah! A super glutton! In fact, he could have all the planets in our solar system for lunch! Hell, it would still be only a light snack for him! It would be like me drinking some beer from a thimble, or eating just one potato chip! Remember the Lay's Potato Chips commercials from back in the 1960s? "Bet ya can't eat just one!" Yeah! The Sun can swallow all the planets and it would be like eating just one Lay's Potato Chip! Just look at how small all the planets are compared to the great big fat Sun! 

OK, now on to even bigger and fatter things out there in the cosmos!

If you think the Sun is so big and fat, let's just take a little gander at some stars out there in the universe. The sun is a typical yellow Class G  type of star, about average size as far as stars go. And of course there are smaller dwarf stars, but there are many stars out there that are much larger, much bigger and fatter than the Sun.

 The Sun, Sirius, Pollux, and Arcturus, stars much bigger than the sun

Here we see the sun as compared to some really big fat stars out there in the big fat universe. In the above picture, Jupiter is only one pixel in size and the earth is invisible, much too small and skinny to be seen, and you can just barely make out Jupiter. Arcturus is almost big enough to swallow a million suns! To him, eating the sun is like me drinking a beer from a thimble or having just one Lay's Potato Chip!

Oh! But it gets even bigger and fatter out there!

   Some even bigger stars, Rigel, Aldebaran, Betelgeuse, and Antares

In the picture above, Jupiter is now invisible, and the sun is only one pixel in size. Antares is the biggest and fattest star known to astronomers at the present time. There may be some bigger stars yet undiscovered, but there is a physical limit to how big stars can get before they become much too unstable. 

Also, the bigger a stare is, the shorter it's life expectancy. A star like the sun, a typical yellow Class G star will last on average about 8 to 10 billion years before it becomes unstable. The sun is already about 4.5 billion years old, so it's a middle aged star, not quite ready for the old folks home yet. The really super morbidly obese super giant stars can expect to live for less the a few million years before they are a finally a headin' fo the last round up!  Yeah! I gotta toss in a little bit of cowboy lingo because, I am, after all, a Texan.

But as you can see, Antares is so big and fat, that swallowing  the sun would be like an elephant, no, a whale swallowing an ant! Yeah! Where's the sun in all of this? Where the Hell is the earth in all of this? We are as nothing compared to what is out there in the universe.

And there are even bigger and fatter things out there, like galaxies. The Milky Way Galaxy is a typical spiral galaxy. Actually astronomers have uncovered some evidence that it's a barred spiral galaxy.

 A typical spiral galaxy

The Andromeda Galaxy is a typical spiral galaxy which is about 2.3 million light years away from us. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second, or 11,160,000 miles per minute, or 669,600,000 miles per hour, or 16,070,400,000 miles per day, or 5,865,696,000,000 miles per year. So, a light year is about 5.86 trillion miles. Our own Milky way Galaxy is about 100,000 light years across, and our next door neighbor, the Andromeda galaxy is a little bit larger and it is 2.3 million light years from us. We live on the edge of one of the spiral arms and we are about 2/3 of the way from the center. So, if you think of the Milky Way Galaxy as a city, we live out in the suburbs. Our galaxy has over 100 billion stars in it.

M31 The Andromeda Galaxy is our next door 

neighbor at 2.3 million light years distant from us.

The photo above is another typical spiral galaxy. These are the most common, averaging about 80,000 to 120,000 light years across, each containing over 100 billion stars. Individual stars are born, shine for a few million to a few billion years or so, and then, eventually die, but galaxies can last for many billions of years.

 A typical barred spiral galaxy

The photo above is a typical barred spiral galaxy, and astronomers have reason to suspect the our Milky Way Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy, and barred spiral galaxies are as common-place as spiral galaxies in general.

And now, on to even bigger and fatter, super morbidly obese, giant elliptical galaxies!

 The Sombrero Galaxy, a typical giant elliptical galaxy

Giant elliptical galaxies can be up to 3 million light years across and instead of having only a few hundred billion stars, giant elliptical galaxies may have up to a few trillion stars! Elliptical galaxies don't have spiral arms, and have an almost featureless smooth appearance. These are galaxies that may have been formed by collisions with other galaxies coming together to form one great big fat galaxy. Giant elliptical galaxies are really old galaxies, having used up most of their interstellar gasses in star formation, and so, there is very little left to form new stars. So, these galaxies are the old timers, the  senior citizens of the cosmos, now too old and fat to reproduce new stars anymore. Yeah! they just can't get it up anymore! These are the biggest and the fattest galaxies in the universe. 

And now, for the biggest and fattest thing of all, the universe itself!

The universe is about 14 billion years old. That is, the most distant quasars we can observe are at least 12 billion light years distant. And the universe is rapidly expanding, and the astronomers have discovered that the rate of expansion is also increasing, so, even as we speak, the universe itself is growing bigger and fatter at an ever increasing rate! Of course, the galaxies, or rather, the clusters of galaxies are getting further and further apart as the space between them continues to expand.

When astronomers say the universe is expanding, it does not mean that the planets, stars, and galaxies are getting bigger, but that space itself is expanding and galaxy clusters are getting further apart. 

And so . . . space itself is growing bigger and fatter.

Oh yes indeed! It's a really great big fat universe out there!

 ~~~ THE END ~~~

*******

OFF TOPIC - Observing The Transit Of Venus Across The Face Of The Sun, June 5,2012 CE

HERE I HAVE POSTED SOME PHOTOS OF ME WITH MY GALILEO TELESCOPE ON THE PATIO AT A STARBUCKS OBSERVING THE TRANSIT OF VENUS ACROSS THE FACE OF THE SUN ON JUNE 5,2012 CE

OK, this article is way off topic, a departure from the usual theme of this blog. Well . . . in a way . . . it's not a departure, because, I enjoy talking about what is really BIG, and Astronomy is another favorite topic of mine, so, you can't get any bigger than the cosmos! Right?

Yeah! It's a great big fat universe out there, immensely ancient and IMMENSELY HUGE, beyond our wildest imaginations! The sun is big and fat, about 865,000 miles in diameter, and that big boy can swallow a million earths! And there are even bigger and fatter stars out there that could swallow a billion suns, and galaxies are really great big fat things out there. Our own Milky Way is a typical spiral galaxy, about 100,000 light years across. Actually, astronomers have recently discovered that our galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy.

Then, there are giant elliptical galaxies out there much bigger than spiral galaxies, made up mostly of red giant stars, and these big fat galaxies have used up most of their interstellar gasses in star formation, so these giant galaxies, now old and fat, won't be producing very many new stars anymore.

Yeah! It's a big fat universe out there!

Anyway . . . . .

Now, getting back closer to home . . . 

Getting back to our tiny little home planet, a pathetically skinny little planet, only 7,920 miles in diameter. Venus is our twin sister in the solar system, only slightly smaller than the earth, but she is our twin in size only. Other than that, she's a screaming hot tempered bitch with an atmosphere of mostly carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas which raises her surface temperature up to over 900 degrees Fahrenheit, with sulfuric acid storms. WOW! Talk about some acid rain! Eh? Also, the atmospheric pressure at the surface of Venus is about 90 times as great as the atmospheric pressure at sea level here on the earth. So, in addition to being a screaming hot tempered bitch, she will literally hug you to death, and fry you, both at the same time! Yeah! She's not a very nice lady at all.

Ah! But sometimes, she is fun to watch, on those special rare occasions when she passes in front of the face of the sun, an astronomical event called, a transit, when the planet Venus appears as a small round black dot.

Here is a recent photo of the transit of Venus which had occurred back in Tuesday of June 5, 2012 CE.

 

In the above photo, you can see the planet Venus as a small black dot in front of the sun. A transit, is sort of like a solar eclipse, but unlike the moon, because Venus is millions of miles away,  it appears much too small to cover the face of the sun as the moon does.

Anyway . . . . .

About a couple of weeks before the transit was to occur, I was at a Starbucks having my usual tall Dark Roast Coffee, and I told the lady manager there about the upcoming transit of Venus. I asked her for permission, if it would be OK for me to set up my telescope out on the patio so that customers coming in, or going out may be able to observe the transit or Venus.

Well, first, she asked me if I would be charging admission, and I said "No, that would be unethical." after all, it doesn't cost anything to look up at the sky, so why should it cost anything to look at something in the sky through a tube? Right?

Then, she said, in that case, it would be OK.

I also explained to her, how my telescope would be set up, that since I don't have a proper sun filter, people won't actually be looking through my telescope, but, instead, I will project the sun's image onto a white screen so that people can look at the projected image as they walk by, instead of getting in line to look through the scope.

The next picture below is a drawing of how my telescope was set up to project the sun's image.

Click on image above for an easier to read view.

Notice, that a sun shade is mounted onto the focusing tube of the telescope to cast a shadow. Then, instead of using an eyepiece, I had ordered a 2x Barlow lens that is inserted into the focusing tube instead of an eyepiece, which effectively extends the focal length of the telescope, so that the sun's image can be projected onto a white screen. Then, you adjust the focus until you see a nice sharp image of the sun, and you can even see the sunspots. Then, the further you hold the white screen from the Barlow lens, the larger, and less bright, the image appears, and you can get a nice image of the sun about 4 to 6 inches across.

This is the safest way to observe the sun with a telescope if you don't have a sun filter.

WARNING!

NEVER! ABSOLUTELY NEVER, LOOK AT THE SUN THROUGH A TELESCOPE WITHOUT A PROPER SUN FILTER!

Anyway . . . . .

The transit of Venus was to start at about 4:05 PM, my local time here in El Paso, Texas.

On the evening of June 4th, the day before the transit was to occur,  I needed to know how many degrees difference there was between truth north, and magnetic north here in El Paso, Texas. I had done a Google search, but the latest information I could find was for the year 2008, and I needed the latest information, because the earth's magnetic poles shift around from one year to the next. So, I called the airport, and according to them, in the year 2012, magnetic north is 8.31 degrees east of true north, here in El Paso, Texas.

I needed to know that, because, my telescope has the German style equatorial mounting with the polar axes for hours, minutes, and seconds right ascension to track the sun with a single sweeping motion of my telescope, and it has the north/south declination axes for degrees, minutes, and seconds north and south of the celestial equator.

So, using a magnetic directional compass and a protractor, I was able to adjust the polar axes of my telescope, so that the polar axes would be pointing toward Polaris, the North Star, had it been visible. But of course, being daylight, it would not be visible, and I would probably not be exact, but close enough so that I could track the sun with a single sweeping motion of the polar axes for right ascension, and only having to make small adjustments up and down on the north/south declination axis. Also, here in El Paso, Texas, the polar axis has to be set for approximately 31.75 degrees north latitude.

Anyway . . . . . on the afternoon of June 5th, I had arrived at Starbucks at 3:30 PM, about a half hour before the transit was to begin. I left my telescope on the patio, and the first thing I did was to come into the Starbucks to order a nice tall cold Chocolate Coffee Frappuccino for about $5 dollars, then I went out to set up my telescope.

It was about 4:07 PM when I could see Venus starting to take a small bite out of the edge of the sun, and I sat there, out in the hot sun until 7:45 PM. It was about 98 degrees that day, so I was really sweating in the heat, but it was worth it.     

While I was sitting in my JAZZY Power Chair, beside my Galileo telescope, one of the Starbucks customers took some photos of me and my telescope with an iPod, and asked me for my E-mail address so that she could send me the photos as an attachment.

Sometimes the employes would come out and ask me if I needed anything, and mostly I just asked for cups of cold ice water. One of the customers bought me a nice cold red passion fruit ice tea.

When it was about 7:45 PM, I had to get ready to leave because I had to get home on the bus, so I went into the Starbucks one last time, to order my usual tall Dark Roast Coffee, and as I was getting out my debit card to pay for the coffee, the lady told me to put my silly card away, because it was on the house! And she thanked me for sharing my observations of the Venus transit with everyone there.

I finally came home sometime after 8:30 PM, and I was hot, and tired, but I was very happy.

Then I booted up my computer, and checked my E-mail, and sure enough, I got the photos of me and my telescope as attachments.

Of course, the photos were more than 3000 pixels wide, so I had to use my Photo Base 3 software to make reduced sized copies 800 pixels wide to post them anywhere on the Internet.

Anyway . . . . .

Here are my copies of said photos.

Here I am adjusting the focus on my Galileo telescope and projecting the sun's image onto a white screen. Notice the black foam-board circle mounted onto the focusing tube to cast a shadow onto the white screen.

In this photo, you can just barely see the small dot of Venus on the face of the sun. I'm not using an eyepiece. Instead I'm using a 2x Barlow lens in the focusing tube where an eyepiece is normally attached.

Once I get the image in sharp focus, I then move the white screen further away from the 2x Barlow lens so that the image will appear larger, but less bright. 

While I could see the sun spots and the dark circle of Venus, it can't be seen in these reduced photos.

Here, I cropped out a small section from the larger photos originally 3000 pixels wide.

Notice, that in the close up, the planet Venus can be more easily seen as it moves across the face of the sun.

These photos were taken with an iPod and when they asked for my E-mail address, they immediately sent the attachments which would be ready for me to view when I got home and logged into my computer.

I had to do some work on my telescope to get it properly set up.

When I got my 2x Barlow lens from High Point Scientific, it was too big to fit into the focusing tube, so I had to make an adapter to connect the 2x Barlow lens to the focusing tube. I went to a Home Depot, bought a 2 foot length of white PVC water pipe, which was longer than I actually needed, but it was the shortest length I could buy. Then I cut three inches off of it.

Of course, the inside diameter was a little bit too large, so I had to use some duct tape around the end of the focusing tube and around the end of the 2x Barlow lens tube for a snug fit which would be inserted into the other end of the three inch section of PVC pipe. Then before I assembled it, I spray painted the short three inch piece white PVC pipe with glossy black spray paint, then I let it dry over night, before putting it together. Spay painting it made it look much nicer, like it belongs there. I also put a small hole in the side of the PVC adapter close to the end that went over the focusing tube so that the set screw would hold it in place and keep it from slipping off.

Here is a close up of the focusing mount on my Galileo telescope.

My Galileo telescope is an old used telescope that was given to me by a friend who is also my therapist. We have been friends since November of 1997. It's a pretty good telescope with a 60 mm objective lens having a 900 mm focal length. Of course, I have to order some eyepieces for it, and the small finder scope that attaches to the side.

So, I still need to do some more work on it.

Anyway . . .

I had a really great day on June 5,2012, and there won't be another day like this until until December 11,2117 about 105 years from now.

So . . . . . talk about striking while the iron is still hot! Eh?

Past and future dates for Venus transits

AD 1631 Dec 07
AD 1639 Dec 04
AD 1761 Jun 06
AD 1769 Jun 03
AD 1874 Dec 09
AD 1882 Dec 06
AD 2004 Jun 08
----------------------------------------
AD 2012 Jun 06
AD 2117 Dec 11
AD 2125 Dec 08
AD 2247 Jun 11
AD 2255 Jun 09
AD 2360 Dec 13
AD 2368 Dec 10
AD 2490 Jun 12
AD 2498 Jun 10
AD 2603 Dec 16
AD 2611 Dec 13
AD 2733 Jun 15
AD 2741 Jun 13
AD 2846 Dec 17
AD 2854 Dec 14
AD 2976 Jun 16
AD 2984 Jun 14
AD 3089 Dec 18
AD 3219 Jun 20
AD 3227 Jun 17
AD 3332 Dec 20
AD 3462 Jun 22
AD 3470 Jun 19
AD 3575 Dec 23
AD 3705 Jun 24
AD 3713 Jun 21
AD 3818 Dec 25
AD 3956 Jun 24


I shall have some really fond memories of this day for the rest of my life.

 I really appreciate the really BIG things in life.

Yeah! It's a great big fat universe out there!

***** THE END *****