Hungarian Revolt

 

Fifty-one years ago this November the people of Hungary revolted against the Soviet sponsored communist regime. Protests and mass demonstrations escalated into violence when Radio Budapest was seized by crowd after being fired upon by the police. The Hungarian military was ordered to respond and take control of the situation – they instead removed the red stars from their hats and sided with the crowd. The revolt spread across Hungary and the Soviet military responded apparently in the defense of the Communist Regime (and Soviet self-interest). Immediately the citizens armed themselves and setup barricades in the streets of Budapest and began to fight the Soviets. In a week a ceasefire was agreed upon by the new reformist Hungarian government and it appeared the Soviets might be willing to negotiate – six days later seventeen soviet armor/infantry devisions brutally crushed the uprising. Public discussion of the revolt was heavily repressed for over thirty years afterwards.

The Soviets made it clear what your fate would be if you attempted to withdraw from the Warsaw Pact.

The last official proclamation of the Hungarian National Government during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. The proclamation was written in the Parliament building as the author awaited arrest by the Soviet military.

“Russians go home”

Sugar in Space

Seven years ago “Scientists discovered glycolaldehyde, a molecular cousin to table sugar, in an interstellar molecular cloud.” It fell on def ears.

“Glycolaldehyde, an 8-atom molecule composed of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen, can combine with other molecules to form the more-complex sugars Ribose and Glucose. Ribose is a building block of nucleic acids such as RNA and DNA, which carry the genetic code of living organisms. Glucose is the sugar found in fruits. Glycolaldehyde contains exactly the same atoms, though in a different molecular structure, as methyl formate and acetic acid, both of which were detected previously in interstellar clouds. Glycolaldehyde is a simpler molecular cousin to table sugar, the scientists say. “

I have always felt the warm pond theory was foolish, any life form that evolved would rapidly reproduce and consume all available food and then be extinct. The idea that the building blocks of life and life’s fuel could exist in a space cloud large enough to stretch from our Sun to the closest star Alpha Centauri is incredible and that the proof exists is mind blowing. This leads me to suggest that life could have formed in warm space clouds of unimaginable size and than do to the nature of gravity the clouds contract into Stars and Planets, and life continues to survive trapped on planetary oasis-es unable to escape the bounds of gravity. Only until modern technological species such as humanity evolve. We may have a lot more in common with extraterrestrial life then I could have imagined.

Why haven’t you heard of a theory like this? I’m willing to venture that the majority of scientists do not want to abandon the theoretical work they have spent their lives developing – and I don’t blame them, starting over sucks. Sugar in space flies in the face of nearly all the primitive earth evolution of life theories. You haven’t heard this theory because old theories die hard, like the earth being the center of the universe or Creationism and Marxism. New theories take new generations and time.

Read the NASA Article about the discovery,

Picking up Hitchhikers

Besides being a great way to get action, you usually get a pretty good taste of strange. Last time I picked up a hitch hiker it turned out that I went to high school with her older brother who had since married a girl I dated in back in high school. He was a rather memorable guy, he was well known for scraping the bottom of life with his teeth – and he liked crystal meth a lot. His little sister who I picked up was rather pretty, she stole a credit card statement out of my stack of mail before she got out of the car.

My Youth Escaped

At school today I had just finished a class and I was walking past an outdoor fountain, the soft wind was blowing little droplets of water on me. I was finding it enjoyable, when some punk on a skate board going way to fast plowed into me – hard. I shoved him down on his head picked up his skate board and angrily stated “what the fuck are you doing – this is a university”. He lay on the ground looking at me, then I threw his skateboard into the middle of the fountain. I turned to leave and everyone was looking at the scene, I could see some smiles – I smiled too. I certainly enjoyed the fact that he would have to get really wet to retrieve his skateboard.

I’m not sure if I was more angry about him crashing into me or his punkness. I feel my youth slipping away – inch by inch day by day.

Stem Cell Research

After ten years of political hand wringing and regulation a new method for producing stem cells has been developed. Scientists have developed a method known as Cell Reprogramming which converts regular cells into a form equivilent to stem cells. Humanity could be entering a golden age of medicine uninhibited by dogma or cultural uncomfort.

Read the external article National Review Online – The Future Is Now

You are what you do.

It frustrates me when people tell me about themselves. More often then not they describe someone other than themselves, but whom they believe themselves to be. I always judge a person based on whom they associate with and by the decisions they make.

How would you judge your own actions from another’s prospective? You are not who you think you are – you are what you do.

Tyranny of the Unaccountable

It angers me when I see those with little power and even less authority slandering people with real accountability. It’s easy to slander and defame in a free country, you have no enforced accountability when it comes to the famous, rich and or powerful. Untrue allegations and vicious slander will make you a career but once in a position of authority, offensive statements will loose you your career – exactly why Micheal Moore wont make a Fahrenheit 9/11 sequel. God help you if you compliment someone or make generalizations, fear of offending someone will get you buried alive. We are wolves led by lambs, it is the tyranny of the unaccountable. This is a country of millions of tyrants not a country of a single tyrant.

I fear people who pride themselves on their respect for every life style and every opinion – they are the ones who will not respect your freedom to disagree.

Veterans Day – 11/11/1918

When I think of Veterans day I think of my Great Uncle whom I met as a child, he fought in the trenches on the western front. Veterans day originally commemorated the end of hostilities on the western front of the first world war. Eighty Nine years ago the Germans signed the armistice, fighting ceased on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. However older memorials across Europe date the end of the war to June 28th 1919. Many Germans would likely agree, they continued to suffer and starve until the allied blockade was lifted with the treaty of Versailles. Ferdinand Foch the Allied Supreme Commander and American General “Black” Jack Pershing wanted to continue the war. Foch proclaimed that the Versailles Treaty was only a twenty year cease fire, he was only wrong by two months – September 17th 1939 Germany invaded Poland igniting the Second World War.

I honor my great uncle who braved the trenches of the First World War, my Grandfather who fought the Japanese in the South Pacific during the Second World War, my Uncle who fought in Vietnam, my Cousins who fought in the First Gulf War and my Friends who fight there Today.

Total Commitment Applied

Twenty Five Hundred years ago the city states of Greece faced a massive Persian invasion. Many chose to ally with the advancing Persians rather than be enslaved and destroyed – no doubt the best solution in a desperate time. Some cities refused and lost everything. This option was unavailable to the Athenians because they had dealt such a blow to the Persians in the previous war.

The Athenians had two choices and the city was torn between them. Conscript and equip the men of Attica for a final land battle or a final sea battle – either way the city would be destroyed. The Athenians consulted the oracle at Delphi; they were told they would be destroyed to the last. The indecision consisted without end until that special time once a year when the people of Athens voted to exile a single citizen from the city. Like modern times the demagogues slandered one another until the day of the election. The Athenian people exiled the major proponent for a land based battle. The merchant marine of ancient Athens fanned out across the Aegean Sea in search of raw materials for which to build ships.

With her fleet Athens was evacuated, the city overrun and destroyed. The Athenian allies wavered, the Peloponnesians under Spartan leadership wanted to build a wall at the Isthmus of Corinth where they believed they could hold off the Persians indefinitely with the same spirit they showed at Thermopylae months before, essentially abandoning Attica. The Athenians reminded the Spartans that Thermopylae would have been impossible without the Athenians fleet keeping the Persians from transporting troops by sea behind the fortifications at Thermopylae and that a fortification at the Isthmus could only be maintained if the Athenian fleet remained. Remain it would not if the Peloponnesians abandoned Attica, for the Athenians threatened to board there ships and head for the Italian peninsula safe from the reach of the Persians thus abandoning the Peloponnesians to be overrun by the Persians from the sea.

The Athenian fleet fought and won at the battle of Salamis while the Xerxes and the people of Athens looked on. Xerxes distraught with another defeat at the hands of a much smaller Greek force left his army under the command of a subordinate and departed for Perspolis (the Persian capital, famously burned to the ground by a drunken Alexander the Great). Xerxes army was later defeated by a confederation of Greeks at the Battle of Platea. The Athenians committed to war with the Persians would later liberate the Aegean and Ionia from Persian dominion.

The Athenians were totally committed, are you?

Never Relent – Never Surrender.

Everything in Moderation

Everything in moderation, wouldn’t be moderation would it?

What a foolish saying, I don’t take advice from people who use this saying. In my experience they usually think they know whats best for everyone, but never have a clue about anything.

Fallout

“War, war never changes. The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower. But war never changes. In the 21st century war was still waged over the resources that could be acquired. Only this time the spoils of war were its weapons, petroleum and uranium.”

The opening dialog from the 1997 role playing game Fallout, one month and ten years ago.