For those loyal readers, you may have noticed that the site was down for a majority of the day. Though I may have averted a domain loss earlier this year, my domain is hosted by a friend of mine who was unable to pay his hosting fees. Thus, when his site (http://www.otm-comics.com) went down, mine went as well.

Through some collaboration and money exchange, all of our sites are back online and active (at least until November 18, which is when his next dues are to be paid). Let's hope he's learned his lesson!

A few months ago, I wrote a blog regarding Texas' proposition to make it legal to carry weapons on campus (and within that an aside regarding the Governor's comment to secede from the US). Well, Texas is back in the news again! Anyone surprised?

This time, the southern state's Board of Education has decided that Thurgood Marshall and César Chávez don't belong in history books, essentially erasing them from history. Before I begin verbally attacking the board, let's review the history behind these two names for those who don't recall:

Thurgood Marshall - First African American to serve on the Supreme Court. Prior to becoming a judge, he was a lawyer who argued before the Supreme Court and for the victory in Brown v. Board of Education.
Without Him: Segregation could have been an issue for several years after and could have prolonged not only the first African American to serve on the Supreme Court, but the first African American to become president - President Obama.

César Chávez - Texan Mexican American farm worker, labor leader, and civil rights activist who, with Dolores Huerta, co-founded the National Farm Workers Association, which later became the United Farm Workers. Supporters say his work led to numerous improvements for union laborers.
Without Him: The UFW and the advancement of workers' rights would have almost certainly been prolonged.

Important, no? Mind you, this is from the same state who decided to weaken science standards on evolution and asked what a character was reading in a comic on a graduation qualifying exam (a newspaper)... and gave us W, but we won't get into that.

Now... let's take a look at the members of the Texas Board of Education's Committee on Instruction and their backgrounds:

(T/C Issue = Thurgood/Chávez Issue)
Republicans
Barbara Cargill, CHAIR - Founder/Director of Wonders of the Woodlands Science Camp, part of the United Methodist Church.
On the T/C Issue: Appointed "expert" Peter Marshall, who believes Amelia Earhart, Thurgood Marshall, and César Chávez should be removed from the Texas curriculum.
Belief on Evolution: Creationist
"...when evidence for universal common ancestry in the fossil record is taught (i.e. scientific strength), then the contradictory evidence showing the huge gaps of missing transitional fossils in the record must also be presented (i.e. scientific weakness). We must educate our students -- not indoctrinate them by letting them hear only one side of an issue."
(Only problem is, gaps in the fossil record isn't a weakness, it just warrants further research.)

Ken Mercer, VICE CHAIR - Master's in Business Administration.
On the T/C Issue: "Quiinn and his allies are attempting to steal the textbook process away from our 24 million Texans and indoctrinate students with their politically revised version of American history."
Belief on Evolution: Intelligent Design
"History is not kind to Darwinian evolutionists who push their theory as truth; no weaknesses and no questions allowed. In this 21st Century, scientific research that opposes academic freedom will never pass any “smell test.”"

Terri Leo - Master's in Educational Administration. Certified teacher for the visually impaired.
On the T/C Issue: "[The] reviewers have properly refocused the studies back to a mastery of the core essential elements of history, government, and geography,” Leo said. “TFN is apparently disappointed by the emphasis on actual knowledge and the de-emphasis on indoctrination."
Belief on Evolution: Creationist
"For the past twenty years, students in Texas have been required “to analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to the strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information.” This standard has been applied to all scientific theories. Pro-Evolution Advocates, however, want evolution to be singled out and taught differently from the other theories. They want evolution to be taught without including the weaknesses of this theory."
(Though she was a member of the board who rejected textbooks for not including weaknesses of evolution; however allowed textbooks that did not include weaknesses of other scientific theories.)

Geraldine Miller - MS in Reading, Real Estate Broker, Certified Academic Language Therapist
On the T/C Issue: Nothing found.
Belief on Evolution: Evolutionist
"There is nothing to stop a teacher from talking about other theories on how the world began, but those should not be the basis for a science class."

Democrats
Lawrence A. Allen, Jr. - Former Middle and High school principal, assistant principal, and teacher. Two Master's Degrees and a Bachelor's degree (areas not listed)
On the T/C Issue: Nothing found.
Belief on Evolution: Evolutionist
Voted against including the "strengths and weaknesses" clause in the 2009 standards.

Does anyone else see a clear bias against the proper teaching of evolution in this mess of officials? Of the five on the Committee on Instruction, 3 are Creationists/Proponents of Intelligent Design. In addition, 1 of those 3 works in a religious science camp, and another is unaffiliated with Education - other than being named to this committee.

How can Texas even assume that work can get done if religion is clouding the minds of their committee persons? Oh wait, their minds are clouded as well - perhaps this wouldn't have happened if Texas' Board of Education had actually done their job earlier and actually taught Science rather than covering up the parts that didn't fit their personal beliefs. Hmm... covering up history that doesn't fit - anyone else finding it odd that the "most American" of the US is turning out to be more like the most "North Korean"?

Just one more reason why Texas is on my "States Not to Teach In Even if I was Paid $1 Million"-List, I suppose.

So I was watching a Martin Short comedy special (Let Freedom Hum) on TBS with my mom - who is deaf, and I noticed something in the closed captioning: TBS was cleaning up the language of their performers. At first, I thought the person typing the captioning was just a slow, bad typist (and they were) - but I did notice that, consistently, the captions would replace "unclean" words.

Although I wouldn't be ok with it in any case - it's especially dumb to do so in a comedy special, as sometimes the pun or story doesn't make sense without the right words in place. Here are some examples of the replacements I caught:

"What a jackass" = "What a weirdo"
"He would be drinking" = "He would be bringing"
"I got hair above my ass" = "I got hair above my butt"
"What the hell kind of trade off is that?" = "What kind of strayed off is that?"
"Good thing I have the hair above my ass" = -omitted-
"My ass looked good in those pants" = "My butt looked good in those pants"
"He comes waddling out" = "He came out"
"Men and women, how did we get together" = "How did we get together?"
"You could not handle testicles" = "You could not handle Tess"
"Are you with a whore?" - "Are you with a --"
"I could fart in that store" = "I could fall in that store"

Just plain funny:
"Our next comic" = "Our next economic"
"Tufts of hair" = "Toughs of hair"
"Everyone dreams of being a successful stand up" = "Everyone dreams of being a suck es"
"I thank god every day for the gluten in my life" = "I thank god every day for the flu gluten in my life"
"Warranty" = "Warrentee"

First off... is it that hard to find a typist that can type captions without falling behind (and just skips material to catch up) or who doesn't type so fast that the captions go off screen before any normal human being has time to read it? I noticed about halfway through that the first typist must have gone off duty, because the second typist was much faster.

Second... what is TBS trying to do by censoring the captions? Not only does it exclude the deaf community from what is actually being said - the entire purpose of captions, but it doesn't protect anyone. Anyone who needs to be shielded from the offensive remarks (which were few and far between) would have been under the television rating (TV14) anyway - and even then, hearing children watching the program would have heard the remarks.

So, then, why is TBS censoring the captions? It makes no sense to me, but perhaps the higher ups at TBS would care to explain it to me (and my mom) sometime.

Minor Announcement

ActualBlizzard was in danger of expiring this Saturday and I've been unsure as to whether I should go through paying for a new lease or letting it expire. Obviously, as evidenced by the title, I chose to extend AB's life by a year. It's anyone's guess as to whether this was a good decision or not. Let's hope it was for the better!

So I'm not a physicist... that doesn't mean I don't think about Physics - it's my favorite branch of Science. Regardless, as I'm watching this Science channel program I came up with this idea. This idea could be completely bogus... have already been presented... or dismissed... or, worse yet, be completely illogical and show my complete lack of understanding of Physics (which is a vast gap, I'll admit).

Black holes are mysterious objects in our universe. An infinitesimally small mass with infinite density and infinite gravity. Nothing can escape it, not even light. Even time has difficulty when it approaches the black hole, breaking down and eventually, possibly stopping. The black hole is a mass of extreme phenomena, even Hawking's formula that describes the black hole draws from nearly every branch of Physics.

Here's my take on things. At the center of a black hole is a point which I have already described. This mass, in the state we know black holes to be, has infinite gravity; however, we know that black holes have the potential to warp, and even break, certain laws of physics - but is it possible for the mass within the black hole to begin to stop following more fundamental laws?

Based on the theory of supersymmetry (yes - going back to the big bang), of the four fundamental forces, gravity was the first to break off. It is conceivable that the first to disappear, then, in this universe will be gravity itself. Why not through a black hole?

Consider this.

Black holes all over the universe form and absorb mass. According to current theory, black holes "evaporate"; however, it could be that this point of infinite mass and density no longer follows gravity - thus, an infinitely small, dense mass (as far as I know) lies where the black hole was - a black core, if you will. All the information of the particles that went within the hole continues to exist within this mass.

Eventually, even this black core will enter another black hole, and so on until there remains a single infinitely small, dense, mass whose temperature continues to approach absolute zero. Visible matter is reduced to practically nothingness; however, this only accounts for 4% of the universe. What happens next?

As the remaining universe begins to cool to 0 K, Dark Energy and Dark Matter contract so as to maintain a critical temperature; however, dark energy and dark matter are not immune to their own gravity. Once a limit is reached, a runaway process begins, collapsing the dark energy and matter in on itself, creating the last "black hole" of the universe - literally.

This Dark Hole, however, is different, compared to conventional black holes - it is infinitely hot. In this microverse for these microseconds, there now remain two infinitely massive, dense points. The Dark Hole's gravity is too much to overcome and the two particles crash. This massive thermal shock (infinitely hot object + mass near absolute zero) causes both materials to shatter and produce.... a big bang.

What's that? When do the other fundamental forces deteriorate? Technically... never: Dark Matter and Dark Energy (the final remaining particles in the universe) still have gravity, thus, it never disappeared - other than for matter itself.

Compression of these forces occur, and it is not inconceivable that the forces all deteriorate a fraction of a yoctosecond during the crash; however, I don't have the mental capacity to describe why this would occur.

So that's it... my big lamebrain theory on the universe. It may already exist, it may spark a revolution, or it'll be dismissed like every other uneducated person's theories... hopefully my explanation at least rings that I have some education in the realm of Physics... even if it is completely wrong.