Rynn's Egocentric Melodrama

astronomypictureoftheday:

Red Sprite Lightning with Aurora

What’s that in the sky? It is a rarely seen form of lightning confirmed only about 25 years ago: a red sprite. Recent research has shown that following a powerful positive cloud-to-ground lightning strike, red sprites may start as 100-meter balls of ionized air that shoot down from about 80-km high at 10 percent the speed of light and are quickly followed by a group of upward streaking ionized balls. The above image, taken a few days ago above central South Dakota, USA, captured a bright red sprite, and is a candidate for the first color image ever recorded of a sprite and aurora together. Distant storm clouds cross the bottom of the image, while streaks of colorful aurora are visible in the background. Red sprites take only a fraction of a second to occur and are best seen when powerful thunderstorms are visible from the side.

Image Credit & Copyright: Walter Lyons (FMA Research), WeatherVideoHD.TV

I fucking love red sprites. I am obsessed with lightning general, but red sprites are badass awesome. :D

stfuconservatives:

aknightlight:

jackpowerx:

acornfarm:

defilerwyrm:

AHAHAHA NOT QUITE, OP, NOT QUITE

FUCKING NAILED IT

A+ commentary!

THANK YOU

I had seen the original making the rounds. Glad to see it got a proper rebuttal.

(Source: flowers-for-mr-ukki)

motherjones:

americasgreatoutdoors:

A gorgeous view down river from above the Grotto in Zion National Park.

Photo: Tom Morris

Yeah, we sort of get the “Zion” part now.

Obligatory reblog of southern utah gorgeousness. :) God, I’d love to hike Angel’s Landing again. I ran down the whole thing after the last climb, splashing through waterfalls and freaking out foreigners on the lower areas. It was great. :)

(via cael-lilikoi)

thatfunnyblog:

Funny Stuff you like?

this is terrifying

(Source: apolloablaze)

(Source: feralnyxen, via furryfeet)

muchyphony:

asexyderp:

skepticalavenger:

atheismforthewin:

So relevant.

So fucking relevant.

-Victor

VERY fucking relevant!

Still unsure of how I feel about islamophobia. I mean it’s obnoxious and can be the vehicle for a lot of sensationalist false information. On the other hand, the ability to scrutinize ideologies, even harshly, is something I also believe in. Thoughts?

Islamophobia is usually racist because it treats Muslims as one homogenous group, synonymous with ‘Arabs’, which they aren’t. In the UK, Islam is the 2nd most ethnically diverse religious group after Buddhism, and it’s way ahead of atheist/agnostic and Christianity (using the Simpson Diversity Index).

Even when criticisms of Islam aren’t racist they’re usually insulting in some other way, like the white saviour crap that assumes Hijabis are all oppressed (Muslim Women Against Femen do a good job of responding to this). When talking about oppressiveness of Islamic customs and states, it seems to be that everyone’s voice should be heard except the one that counts: that of Muslims.

Engage Media Awareness noted how since 9/11, the most newsworthy words to associate with Islam are: extremist, oppression, terrorist, violence, anti-British, threat, etc. Words like charitable, British, creative, and so on, are much rarer. Of course, whites like Anders Behring Breivik get called crazed loners, isolated, gunmen, misunderstood, rather than terrorists. Breivik isn’t rare or mentally ill though: his beliefs are everywhere, thanks to media that validates the far-right across Europe.

Atheist groups have a tendency to be indistinguishable from neo-fascists when they talk about Islam, and probably basically agree with how Breivik and other fash like the English Defence League sees them: the enemy within. But then atheist groups also tend to only focus on the criticism of religion, ignoring social context and whinging about political correctness when their arguments are exposed as harmful. It’s more about freedom to speak and not be criticised than freedom of speech.

As for communistophobia, yes, that’s been a real problem too. What do you think the McCarthyist red scare was? A rational critique of anticapitalism? The way American liberal media talks about socialism suggests it’s still how people are thinking, and South Korea still has anti-communist laws left over from this era. But who cares about social context eh.

Another semi-relevant thing I wrote

Good response; I’ll have to mull over it a bit. I had the feeling there was something logically/ethically wrong with the above argument (possibly oversimplification), but couldn’t put my finger on it. 

skepticalavenger:

atheismforthewin:

So relevant.

So fucking relevant.

-Victor

VERY fucking relevant!

Still unsure of how I feel about islamophobia. I mean it’s obnoxious and can be the vehicle for a lot of sensationalist false information. On the other hand, the ability to scrutinize ideologies, even harshly, is something I also believe in. Thoughts?

skepticalavenger:

kmanovaere:

Very true.

I feel that this needs to be re-blogged over and over again. Healthcare should not depend on your income or status. It should be a universal right.

Thanks.

http://kmanovaere.tumblr.com/

Very much agreed

(Source: daxxxx)

my flirting technique.

(Source: 4gifs, via skepticalavenger)