Schoolhouse Rock – I’m Just a Bill

Boy: Woof! You sure gotta climb a lot of steps to get to this Capitol Building here in Washington. But I wonder who that sad little scrap of paper is?

I’m just a bill.
Yes, I’m only a bill.
And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.
Well, it’s a long, long journey
To the capital city.
It’s a long, long wait
While I’m sitting in committee,
But I know I’ll be a law someday
At least I hope and pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Boy: Gee, Bill, you certainly have a lot of patience and courage.

Bill: Well I got this far. When I started, I wasn’t even a bill, I was just an idea. Some folks back home decided they wanted a law passed, so they called their local Congressman and he said, “You’re right, there oughta be a law.” Then he sat down and wrote me out and introduced me to Congress. And I became a bill, and I’ll remain a bill until they decide to make me a law.

I’m just a bill
Yes I’m only a bill,
And I got as far as Capitol Hill.
Well, now I’m stuck in committee
And I’ll sit here and wait
While a few key Congressmen discuss and debate
Whether they should let me be a law.
How I hope and pray that they will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Boy: Listen to those congressmen arguing! Is all that discussion and debate about you?

Bill: Yeah, I’m one of the lucky ones. Most bills never even get this far. I hope they decide to report on me favourably, otherwise I may die.

Boy: Die?

Bill: Yeah, die in committee. Oooh, but it looks like I’m gonna live! Now I go to the House of Representatives, and they vote on me.

Boy: If they vote yes, what happens?

Bill: Then I go to the Senate and the whole thing starts all over again.

Boy: Oh no!

Bill: Oh yes!

I’m just a bill
Yes, I’m only a bill
And if they vote for me on Capitol Hill
Well, then I’m off to the White House
Where I’ll wait in a line
With a lot of other bills
For the president to sign
And if he signs me, then I’ll be a law.
How I hope and pray that he will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Boy: You mean even if the whole Congress says you should be a law, the president can still say no?

Bill: Yes, that’s called a veto. If the President vetoes me, I have to go back to Congress and they vote on me again, and by that time you’re so old…

Boy: By that time it’s very unlikely that you’ll become a law. It’s not easy to become a law, is it?

Bill: No!

But how I hope and I pray that I will,
But today I am still just a bill.

Congressman: He signed you, Bill! Now you’re a law!

Bill: Oh yes!!!

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait…
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unravelling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!

Since the dawn of man is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and pangea
See ya, wouldn’t wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!

It all started with the big BANG!

It’s expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won’t be here, it wont be hurt
Our best and brightest figure that it’ll make an even bigger bang!

Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating out while here they’re catching deer (we’re catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!

Earth Time-Lapse View from Space

Population Inchworm
- Hans Christian Anderson’s Inchworm versus people growth by Population Connection

World Battleground, 1000 years of war in 5 minutes

A Time-Lapse Map of Every Nuclear Explosion Since 1945
- by Isao Hashimoto

The first and most important step to creating a “perfect world” is to restructure Education. For example, forcing straight-A students to have to sit through countless hours of classes teaching to failing students has got to go the way of the dinosaur. As for dinosaurs, I’m sorry, but T-Rex was not a vegetarian living alongside Adam and Eve.

While tracking in Education gains momentum, the second focus needs to be on acceptance of things different from ourselves with courses in ethics and dispelling xenophobic myths. The latter leads to violence at an early age when the former is nothing but an undefined word to students.

Concurrently, violent offenders including rapists and child molesters need to be exterminated like the vile wretch that they are. Add to that list those who would steal millions of dollars of people’s life savings in their selfish attempt at greed and gluttony. One simple means to this end is to walk a hottie through a prison and execute every “dog” that barks.

Lying to children must also stop. Just how many kids have balled a tear when they learned that Santa Claus wasn’t real? How many adults to this day still believe in Santa Claus so much they’ll force their children to sit on some strange fat man’s lap who’s dressed in some freaky costume? On that note, even freakier looking than Santa Claus are the most popular televangelists telling absolute lies about The Bible so that they can build their Crystal Cathedrals and such.

On the subject of church, THE CHURCH that started it all for the modern era is well know by many now to have been sexually abusing children for more than 1700 years, and yet they’re still consulted when it comes to politics involving ethics. (Again, ethics should be more than an undefined word for so many.)

Community Spirit needs to be instilled in not only our youth but our adult populations as well. In a small town, for example, people get to know everyone and get along well, but in the big city, people lock themselves away into their overpriced “jail” cells avoiding contact with anyone except who they feel they “have” to get to know. I need to distinguish Community Spirit from Community Action, though the two are intertwined. Countless rude people will pile up garbage in their yard and wage domestic violence and worse, bringing down the value of the rest of community around them when others choose not to step up and get involved. Burrying your head in the sand like the proverbial osterich does nothing to promote a perfect world.

Once these basic steps are taken, the snowball effect will take root, much as how the whole Jerry Springer snowball effect took root more than a decade ago helping lead to this current mess we find ourselves in.

We may also want to strive toward the example the nation of Bhutan presents, basing their nation’s strenghts and weaknesses not on how much money they make, but instead on how happy their citizens are.

I long held the notion that I’d need a prolonged nap
For the juices to start flowing, for the words for my crap
Shoot, I wrote a poem “Coma” the other day… ’tis true
About sleeping through history
And I’ll share it with you

Should be in your inbox
Some hours ago post haste?
It’s from angst ridden notions
And opinionated taste

I found it a “channel”
Like Hillary said
But *I’m* singing friendly
Where she was of dread

I’ve won awards for Government, Student Leadership, and Beer
I better remember to copy / paste this
Or I’ll be crying a sad tear

Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos!

Coma

by Skews Me
29 April 2009 (updated: 1/1/11)

Waking up from a long needed coma this morn’
I read into the news, and boy was I torn
When I blinked out some years ago with CIA full in charge
New war in the Middle East, and students at large

While deep in my slumber I thought I heard sounds
Like my favorite show The Simpsons’ alien clowns
Saying “Clinton,” “two party system,” “protein strings,” Kang
The lesser of two evils, and thought to myself “Dang!”

The more I heard voices while deep in my slumber
Another Bush, “burning steel,” bin Laden and plunder
But then a loud hush before 600 buck lumber
“Check’s in the mail” they kept saying to reverse Economic bummer

I thought, “Can this get any worse? And what have we done?”
The world rushing past quickly and not very fun
At least it seemed to me that my sleep wasn’t dumb
For if in a wakened state I’d have surely have run

To the Hill, up the Steps, and into the House
Crying what the Hell happened here? I tell you The Mouse!
Untruths being spewed to death like lemmings to the sea
All lies I implore you just wake up and read

But stuck in unconsciousness was all I could do
To try to keep track of things… “All these names are in twos?”
Why couldn’t I wake? What was keeping me down?
The pigs started killing us? Mother Nature would frown

And then I kept thinking it best I just die
For if I awoke now all I’d do is sob, cry
But then from the darkness appeared to me light
I sprang from the bed more than willing to fight
Unfortunately, though, in my long weakened state
My knees buckled, collapsing, is this my true fate?

If it wasn’t for someone I never had met
Taking action and quickly, and now in my debt
Holding me steady but a slap in the face
For my medical bill shown to me, Oh My God! the disgrace

I said “What the muck? Where’s The End? Crank up that dial!”
“I need some good music and need a good smile.”
And after some advertised chatter had cleared
Thought some of this music is still kind of weird

But lo and behold after raising some doubt
Some tunes started playing and making me proud
That people are listening and singing The Word
Without sounding like morons and totally absurd

Putting pen to the paper I then started to write
Handwritten horribly after such a long night
But watching the time pass feeling as rushed as can be
I must go to the library that helps the blind see

For not having worked a job in so many months
I volunteer services in digestible chunks
And now my last day helping people not me
I’m being told to do something and charge folks a fee
Write a book or a novel, a song, or a story
Alas, I would do so, but I won’t kill a tree

From YouTube: Flying robot quadrotors perform the James Bond Theme by playing various instruments including the keyboard, drums and maracas, a cymbal, and the debut of an adapted guitar built from a couch frame. The quadrotors play this “couch guitar” by flying over guitar strings stretched across a couch frame; plucking the strings with a stiff wire attached to the base of the quadrotor. A special microphone attached to the frame records the notes made by the “couch guitar”.

These flying quadrotors are completely autonomous, meaning humans are not controlling them; rather they are controlled by a computer programed with instructions to play the instruments.

Penn’s School of Engineering and Applied Science is home to some of the most innovative robotics research on the planet, much of it coming out of the General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab.

This video premiered at the TED2012 Conference in Long Beach, California on February 29, 2012. Deputy Dean for Education and GRASP lab member Vijay Kumar presented some of this groundbreaking work at the TED2012 conference, an international gathering of people and ideas from technology, entertainment, and design.

The engineers from Penn, Daniel Mellinger and Alex Kushleyev, have formed a company called KMel Robotics that will design and market these quadrotors.

More information: http://www.upenn.edu/spotlights/penn-quadrotors-ted

Video Produced and Directed by Kurtis Sensenig
Quadrotors and Instruments by Daniel Mellinger, Alex Kushleyev and Vijay Kumar

See also: OK Go – Needing/Getting

I’ve been waiting for months
Waiting for years
Waiting for you to change
Aw, but there ain’t much that’s dumber
There ain’t much that’s dumber
Than pinning your hopes on a change in another

And I, yeah, I still need you, but what good’s that gonna do?
Needing is one thing and getting, getting is another

So I been sitting around
Wasting my time
Wondering what you been doing
Aw, and it ain’t real forgiving
It ain’t real forgiving
Sitting here picturing someone else living

And I, yeah, I still need you, but what good’s that gonna do?
Needing is one thing and getting, getting is another

I’ve been hoping for months
Hoping for years
Hoping I might forget
Aw, but it don’t get much dumber
It don’t get much dumber
Than trying to forget a girl when you love her

And I, yeah, I still need you, but what good’s that gonna do?
Oh, needing is one thing and getting, getting is another

When?
When?
Why not now?
Why not me?
Why not me?
When?
When?
Why not now?
Why not me?
Why not me?

More lyrics: http://www.lyricsmania.com/needing_getting_lyrics_ok_go.html
All about Ok Go: http://www.musictory.com/music/Ok+Go

See also: Go Go Gadget Quadrotor

From youtube:

Water — just a liquid or much more? Many researchers are convinced that water is capable of “memory” by storing information and retrieving it. The possible applications are innumerable: limitless retention and storage capacity and the key to discovering the origins of life on our planet. Research into water is just beginning.

Join Oasis HD Facebook page for more exclusive videos

http://facebook.com/oasishdchannel

Follow Oasis HD on Twitter

http://twitter.com/oasishd

Beauty is in the heart of the beholder. — H.G. Wells

Elephant Painting

Nantes – L’Eléphant – robotic elephant holds fifty passengers

Shadow Hands

Hand Art

Kseniya Simonova – Sand Animation
(Україна має талант / Ukraine’s Got Talent)

Latte Art

3D Sidewalk Chalk Drawings

Man Made Art – Amazing things man has made with his hands

Typewriter Artist

Amazing Etch-A-Sketches! – FEATURED AT APPLE STORE!

How to paint the Mona Lisa with MS Paint

Brian Dettmer – Book Surgeon

HTML Art

Amy Shackleton – Painting Timelapse
Amy works entirely without a paintbrush.

Mountain Dew – Paintball Gun Street Art

Cymatics – Bringing Matter To Life With Sound (Part 1 of 3)

Bainbridge Island Naval Radio Station
5/14/1998 by SkewsMe.com

When Tokyo talked, Bainbridge Naval Radio Station listened.
– ‘East Wind Rain’; Bainbridge’s day in history: Dec 7, 1941, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 7 Dec 1971, 108(341).

Bainbridge Island, Washington

A vital link in the Navy’s communication system in the Pacific, [the Battle Point Naval Radio Station was] declared surplus by the Department of Defense and turned over to the General Services Administration. The 800 foot high steel transmitter tower,…some 200 feet taller than the Space Needle, reputedly once was the tallest tower in the world. The station is said to be the first point in the continental United States to receive word of the attack on Pearl Harbor. It intercepted coded Japanese radio messages during World War II.
– Charles Aweeka, 800 foot Bainbridge tower due to go down into history, The Seattle Times, 23 April 1972.

At 1:28 a.m. Dec. 7, 1941,…a Navy radio man stationed at the southern tip of Bainbridge Island near Seattle intercepted a final message from Tokyo to Japan’s ambassador in Washington, D.C. The message told the ambassador to state Japan’s final position to the U.S. by 1 p.m. Washington time. One p.m. Washington time was 7:30 a.m. at Pearl Harbor. So Bainbridge Naval Radio Station plucked from the air waves…the timetable, if not the target, for Japan’s attack.

The island…housed one of the most effective and least known…spy operations of World War II.

On Nov. 19, 1941, Bainbridge intercepted Japan’s plans for the famous “winds” code in which a weather forecast would signal the end of diplomatic relations. [From] “Building eleven” at Bainbridge,…the contents of those…dispatches…[were then] forwarded…to Washington by teletype for decoding.

The very existence of such a place as Building Eleven, a two story brick structure housing an operation called “security group” or “supplementary radio,” was and remains one of the best kept secrets of the war.

Some of Bainbridge’s undercover role was revealed by the Navy in 1946 during Congressional investigation of Pearl Harbor events. There is no apparent reason for secrecy today.

Secrecy haunts the veterans of “Station S,” the code name for Bainbridge. Over on Bainbridge,…people still say things like “loose lips sink ships.”

The Naval Radio Station was built in 1939 on the abandoned site of Fort Ward, an Army facility. The station handled communications for the 13th Naval District, broadcasting on a 50,000 watt transmitter. Station S was control center for a Pacific Coast network of radio direction finder (RDF) stations used to track both friendly and hostile craft. Bainbridge copied all of the Japanese government messages between Tokyo and San Francisco, and guarded the radiotelephone band of the same circuit for voice transmissions.

It was Bainbridge’s secret assignment, as much as the nearness of the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard at Bremerton, that led to the sudden evacuation of 225 Japanese Americans from Bainbridge on March 30, 1942. It was the first forced evacuation of its kind on the West Coast. Few knew at the time of the evacuation that the Navy on Oct. 27, 1941, translated messages sent by a Japanese agent “Sato” from Seattle to Tokyo, describing warship repairs at Bremerton.

[Some] operators at Bainbridge Dec. 6 and 7 were diverted to a strange new assignment –…somebody in Washington wanted badly to know about the wind direction. In case Japan U.S. relations were in danger, the code words would be…“east wind rain.” For Russia,…the signal was “north wind cloudy.” For Great Britain, the words were “west wind clear.” (Navy Commander Laurence F. Safford later insisted in the face of official denials that the U.S. had received all three wind code signals on Dec. 4 or 5. Japanese agents in Hawaii said they did not hear the “east wind rain” signal broadcast until two hours after Pearl Harbor was attacked.)

The message setting a 1 p.m. timetable to break off talks war completely intercepted at Bainbridge by 1:37 a.m. Relayed to Washington by teletype, the code was instantly recognized as “purple,” Japan’s toughest crytographic system. At 11:30 a.m., the message was in the hands of General George C. Marshall, Army chief of staff. At the same moment the Japanese Zeros were tearing through the sky 200 miles north of Pearl Harbor. Marshall’s last minute alert message, warning of the Japanese ultimatum due at 7:30 Hawaii time, reached Honolulu at 7:33 a.m., and even then was not immediately delivered to military commanders.

In Building Eleven, Station S, Bainbridge Island, the diplomatic circuits were still, as if dead. But there was noise, lots of it, from the Japanese Navy. In the sky over Pearl Harbor, Cmdr. Mitsuo Fuchida looked down from his high level bomber, saw that complete surprise had been achieved, and radioed the words “Tora, tora, tora.”

Years later, when the tide of war had turned…a signal from a Japanese radio man in the Kurile Islands …stopped, and suddenly, in plain language, he was sending the words: “They’re coming, they’re coming they’re coming.”
– Walter Wright, Building 11 and the fateful Japanese message, Seattle Post Intelligencer, 7 Dec 1971, 108(341), p. A17.