Alien Jesus Collective

UC Berkeley researchers say red giant star Betelgeuse mysteriously shrinking

The red supergiant star Betelgeuse, the bright reddish star in the constellation Orion, has steadily shrunk over the past 15 years, according to University of California, Berkeley, researchers.

Long-term monitoring by UC Berkeley’s Infrared Spatial Interferometer (ISI) on the top of Mt. Wilson in Southern California shows that Betelgeuse (bet’ el juz), which is so big that in our solar system it would reach to the orbit of Jupiter, has shrunk in diameter by more than 15 percent since 1993.

Nobody’s 100% sure if this is a normal size variation, or the beginning of the end for Betelgeuse. Red supergiants are older stars, living out their retirement and telling comets to “stay the hell off my orbit!” Shrinkage could just be the next step on the way to the supernova grave. So raise a glass of Metamucil to Betelgeuse, in case this is the beginning of the end.

Goldwater: you know he's right!

That seemed to prove to me that UFOs were a fact, and do exist. But, are they all aliens? I highly suspect a majority are! Hell, they are no doubt far ahead of our level of intelligence. TheUnited States Air Foce knows the truth, but will they ever reveal it to this nation?

“The Bohemian Grove, which I attend from time to time–it is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine…” – Richard Nixon

Found at If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, home of an extensive Bohemian Grove gallery.

Amazingly enough, the Alien Jesus Collective is not the only source of Alien Jesus art on the Internet. Found a collection of Alien Jesus art by all sorts of artists (including one by yours truly). Unfortunately, there’s no attribution, which makes it kind of hard to track down more work by the same artists. Here’s one of my favorites from the collection:

If anyone can identify the artist, please post a comment.

Here’s a picture from the surface of Mars, taken by NASA’s Spirit rover in 2006. The photo shows a rock resembling a head. The Daily Telegraph has a non-story of sorts, not much useful info available yet. I’m a little surprised Richard Hoagland’s site doesn’t have any thing up yet. So what’s the deal? An ancient statue of the Space Buddha blown up by the Martian Taliban? Optical illusion? Doctored photo? Leave your guess in the comments.

“For there are eunuchs, that were so born from their mother’s womb: and there are eunuchs, that were made eunuchs by men: and there are eunuchs, that made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He that is able to receive it, let him receive it.” – Matthew 19:12

(Image via Jesus Is Love.)

(Via Miasma Protege.)

What’s setting the Internets ablaze today? Seems everyone is all a’twitter about swine flu. In addition to actual news coverage, there’s a lot of discussion about how this is being discussed online. One commentator calls swine flu discussions on Twitter unnecessary:

The panic has spread using social networking website, Twitter, which is almost unnecessary to the same degree as the Large Hadron Collider “destroying the Universe” back in September last year. Nevertheless, people have a right to be concerned and worried.

So remember kids, it’s ok to be concerned and worried, just keep it to yourself please.

Also weighing in is self-described Internet communications expert Evgeny Morozov with a piece titled Swine flu: Twitter’s power to misinform. It seems that everyone’s twittering about swine flu due to peer pressure:

Thus, Unlike basic internet search – which has been already been nicely used by Google to track emerging flu epidemics – Twitter seems to have introduced too much noise into the process: as opposed to search requests which are generally motivated only by a desire to learn more about a given subject, too many Twitter conversations about swine flu seem to be motivated by desires to fit in, do what one’s friends do (i.e. tweet about it) or simply gain more popularity.

So I guess twitter is like a giant global high school. Morozov’s suggestion? A real hard-ass vice principal:

In moments like this, one is tempted to lament the death of broadcasting, for it seems that the information from expert sources – government, doctors, and the like – should probably be prioritized over everything else and have a higher chance of being seen that the information from the rest of one’s Twitter-feed, full of speculation, misinformation, and gossip.

Morozov goes on to discuss the trend of corporations using Twitter to shape the conversation about their brands:

A recent New York Times piece highlighted how a growing number of corporations like Starbucks, Dell, and Whole Foods are turning to Twitter to monitor and partially shape conversation about particular brands or products. What the piece failed to mention was that conversations about more serious topics (like pandemics- and their tragic consequences) could be shaped as well.

He may be on the money there. Let’s try some searches on Twitter:

• Twitter search: Tamiflu
• Twitter search: Roche (the makers of Tamiflu)
• Twitter search: Relenza
• Twitter search: GlaxoSmithKline (the makers of Relenza)

A little explanation is in order. The CDC recommends two drugs for treatment and prevention of swine flu: oseltamivir or zanamivir. Tamiflu is the brand name of oseltamivir, an antiviral marketed by Roche Pharmaceuticals and created by Gilead Sciences. You may have heard of Gilead Sciences and Tamiflu during the bird flu pandemic a few years back. You’ve also probably heard of a couple of their shareholders and former board members: George Schultz and Donald Rumsfeld. They made out all right on avian flu, and I bet they’ll do ok this time around too.

Posting a bunch of Ziff-Davis comics covers on Internet451.com. Here’s a taste:

All posts here.

Apollo 14 pilot Ed Mitchell capped his speech at X-Conference 2009 with an appearance at the National Press Club on Monday, and CNN has picked up the story:

Mitchell, who was part of the 1971 Apollo 14 moon mission, asserted Monday that extraterrestrial life exists, and that the truth is being concealed by the U.S. and other governments.

“I urge those who are doubtful: Read the books, read the lore, start to understand what has really been going on. Because there really is no doubt we are being visited,” he said.

“The universe that we live in is much more wondrous, exciting, complex and far-reaching than we were ever able to know up to this point in time.”

Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi has a new blog chock full of gems.

From The peasant mentality lives on in America:

It pains me to say this as an American, but we are the only people on earth dumb enough to use a nationwide campaign of “teabag parties” as a form of mass protest, in the middle of a real economic crisis.

What’s next? The Great Dirty Sanchez-In of 2010? A Million Man Felch?

From the wonderfully titled article Teabagging Michelle Malkin:

When you read Ann Coulter, you know you’re reading someone who would fuck a hippopotamus if she thought it would boost her Q rating. That’s a rare quality and it commands one’s attention.

And scary bible stories:

what does it mean when my own parents tell me, with a straight face, a story about God asking Abraham to sacrifice his only son? You’re a little kid, listening at bedtime in your pee-jays to the story, expecting that Abraham is going to tell God to go fuck himself because he loves his children so much, and be rewarded for doing so. Instead it’s exactly the opposite, the father in the story is rewarded for being willing to carve his innocent son up with a knife, the moral of the story somehow being not that God is an insane murderous psychopath, but that God is just and wise and should be obeyed. When the story is over, Dad tucks you in to bed and says he’ll see you in the morning. Now that’s realism for you.

Quite a few long pieces up there, mostly focused on US economic woes and bailouts. Good place to spend an hour.