Be still, my heart!

You wake up, you think it's going to be just another ho-hum day, and suddenly the news hits you in the head.

Popes John Paul II and John XXIII will be declared saints on April 27, 2014. 

Could anything be more exciting? Doubtful.

Francis had announced in July he would canonize two of the 20th century's most influential popes together, approving a miracle attributed to John Paul's intercession and bending Vatican rules by deciding that John XXIII didn't need one. 

Meh, miracles and rules. Who needs them? We've got saints to make.

John Paul made Jorge Mario Bergoglio — the current Pope Francis — a cardinal. Francis' immense popular appeal has also been likened to that of John XXIII, dubbed the "good pope." 

I guess the "good pope" monicker was meant to distinguish him from the many bad popes, such as (to choose a contemporary example) Benedict the Nazi. It makes me wonder what Obama would do if he could make saints of previous presidents. Who would he choose? I figure George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. Who do you think Obama would anoint with the magic Sainting Scepter?

Random thought

I think any congress-critter who votes to cause a government shutdown should automatically lose access to all his or her financial accounts, credit cards, etc. The accounts should remain frozen until the shutdown is averted -- and if it goes on longer than 30 days, all money in the accounts should be forfeited and given to charity.

These people are living in a bubble. They have no clue about the effects of their actions. Let's give them a dose of the pain they so gleefully hand out to others.

Sochi's gay scene

There is an interesting AP article about the gay scene in Sochi. I kid you not. Russia is an odd country.

Reassuring readers

I've received hundreds -- if not thousands -- of emails from concerned readers of this blog. They're worried that I may "misuse" my new Lid. This post is intended to reassure those readers.

Have no fear. When I blog, I will never wear the Lid. If I did, I would be infallible, for all intents and purposes -- and we can't have that. Infallible bloggers just won't do. The very thought is unseemly. No, bloggers must be fallible and I assure you that is what I will continue to be (when I'm not wearing the Lid).

There is no reason to worry that I will break this self-imposed rule. I will wear another top hat while blogging. This is a mere hat, not a device from another galaxy. So readers can rest assured that I will continue to make mistakes on this blog and I will on occasion say things that make no sense at all. I will remain a mere human hairless monkey of Earth while blogging.

That's a promise!

More proof that god doesn't exist

Former President George W. Bush says he's feeling "pretty good" after undergoing a heart procedure last month and able to go mountain biking and play golf.

My greatest stroke of luck

I am so glad I wasn't born to a rich family. I'm thankful that I went out into the world on my own -- to succeed or fail without help from anyone. Parachutes don't build character; real life experiences do.

The bubble that surrounds every extremely well-off person frightens me to death. It "protects" them from reality, from people, from learning about life. They may thank their lucky stars for the hand that fate dealt them, but I thank mine.

It's good to try something, to go out on that high-wire and see if you can make it to the other side. It's rewarding to test your strengths and try to avoid the pitfalls of your weaknesses. It's good to learn from failure and gain confidence from success.

To me, this seems more meaningful than coasting through life on an eternal shopping trip. Bringing all that loot home and playing with it might while away a few hours. But it leaves nothing in its wake but emptiness. I don't want that sort of a life. It's too hollow. I want sustenance, not reassurance.

I lived. I did what I wanted to do and was lucky enough to experience success on several fronts. And as a direct result of living my life this way, I ended up being a very satisfied human being. Like anyone, I have regrets -- but they're not big ones. Mostly what I have is happiness, my own kind of happiness, a strain I basically invented while living my life. And it rewards me every day.

I don't regret my humble beginnings; I treasure them. And I feel sorry for rich people who never had the opportunities I had -- because they were "protected" by their money. It's like a closet they never stepped out of. An empty life like that makes me shudder.

I really lucked out. I hope you did, too.

Gays a major threat to human existence?

If it didn't bring harm to gay Gambians, this would be very, very funny:

The president of Gambia is using his address to the United Nations General Assembly to attack gays and lesbians, calling homosexuality one of the three "biggest threats to human existence."

President Yahya Jammeh on Friday said homosexuality, greed and obsession with world domination "are more deadly than all natural disasters put together." 

C'mon, that's funny. And the weird thing is that he got two out of three right. Greed and "obsession with world domination" are indeed killing humanity. But gays?

Then again, maybe there are gay death squads focusing on toppling regimes all around the world. Could be. You know how we like to dress up in drag, grab our assault weapons and annihilate people. So I guess he has a point.

Seriously, what happened to these people's brains? Gays a threat? Could there be any less threatening group on the face of the planet? It's like insanity has become a transmissible disease, and it (not gays) is spreading over the Earth. That might be the third threat he's looking for. Hint to Jameh: you'll see the true face of evil the next time you look in a mirror.

Turning light into matter

This is really bizarre. (Some re-paragraphing ahead.)

"Most of the properties of light we know about originate from the fact that photons are massless, and that they do not interact with each other," Lukin said. "What we have done is create a special type of medium in which photons interact with each other so strongly that they begin to act as though they have mass, and they bind together to form molecules. This type of photonic bound state has been discussed theoretically for quite a while, but until now it hadn't been observed.

Lukin also suggested that the system might one day even be used to create complex three-dimensional structures – such as crystals – wholly out of light.

"What it will be useful for we don't know yet, but it's a new state of matter, so we are hopeful that new applications may emerge as we continue to investigate these photonic molecules' properties," he said.

I can't believe they did this. It's both bizarre and intriguing. And it's yet another reminder that we are an infant race, just discovering the nature of the world around us. And yet we think we know it all and have the right to ruin the planet for future generations. We know next to nothing.

Pope writes letter to atheist

I heard about this the other day but I couldn't find an English translation of his letter, which was printed in Italian in La Repubblica. I still haven't. However, there's this:

In comments likely to enhance his progressive reputation, Pope Francis has written a long, open letter to the founder of La Repubblica newspaper, Eugenio Scalfari, stating that non-believers would be forgiven by God if they followed their consciences.

Responding to a list of questions published in the paper by Mr Scalfari, who is not a Roman Catholic, Francis wrote: “You ask me if the God of the Christians forgives those who don’t believe and who don’t seek the faith. I start by saying – and this is the fundamental thing – that God’s mercy has no limits if you go to him with a sincere and contrite heart. The issue for those who do not believe in God is to obey their conscience.

“Sin, even for those who have no faith, exists when people disobey their conscience.” 

I think that's a great response. Remember, when he first said that atheists can go to heaven, there were those in the church who screamed "no, all atheists must go to hell". Well, I guess the pope cleared that up. I also like the idea that he thinks sin is something anyone can commit, including non-Christians, by not following their conscience. That's almost a humanist way of thinking, especially when combined with his outreach to the poor.

Not bad for a pope, especially considering the evil depths of his predecessor. (Speaking of which, now that Benedict is in "seclusion", I wonder if he wears more make-up. He couldn't get it from the nuns that hang out with him but perhaps a friendly prelate lent him some. Let's hope so. A little make-up could improve his disposition by letting his true self emerge.)

It seems we're not so special

Cotton-top tamarins whisper to each other.

To better understand how the tiny monkeys use mobbing calls, the researchers recorded sounds a group made when a known threat entered the vicinity—a supervisor that had been part of the team that had captured them in the wild. Prior to the study, the monkeys had used mob calls whenever the supervisor came into their view. Neither of the researchers noticed anything unusual as recordings were made, but later during playback analysis they discovered the monkeys were engaging in vocalizations that were at such low amplitude that people in the area couldn't hear them—they were whispering to one another.

How do ya like them apples?

Image: Wikipedia Commons