Some random graphic thoughts about faith

Posted on October 11, 2012 by The Old Wolf

From various artists and not-artists.

With thanks to Schulz and Frog Blog

Can you think of anything stupider to fight about?

Wiley is one of the best cartoonists out there.

At one time an actual product (tongue-in-cheek, of course). I have one of these in my files.

From Wikipedia. There are people who will happily exclude their neighbors from heaven (as if they had the authority to do so) for believing in the wrong flavor of millennial doctrine – and these are all mainstream, evangelical faiths.

Mormons couldn’t possibly be Christians – they think God has a body and still talks to people.

“Don’t be a Dick”

A good way to observe your religious holidays – courtesy of Stan Lynde

“For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.”

Pure religion

Not pure religion – Pat Bagley

A thought for all ages.

The Old Wolf has spoken

Technology: Making the world more interesting.

Posted on October 11, 2012 by The Old Wolf

First the brontosaurus, then the galaxy

Posted on October 11, 2012 by The Old Wolf

When I was a kid, the biggest dinosaur was the brontosaurus. Later scientists declared that there was no such beast, and renamed it apatosaurus, the post office notwithstanding.

Well, you can argue until the cows come home, but the bottom line is that scientific knowledge is always advancing. Except that Pluto is still a planet, dammit.

We’ve known for a long time that our galaxy was a spiral, similar to the great “nebula” in Andromeda, but over my lifetime, our knowledge of our home has increased exponentially, and it’s hard to keep abreast of all the changes.

(Image found at Nature.)

First off, we now know our galaxy is a barred spiral, with an elongated central core. Moreover, instead of being a lone unit in space as was once thought, our galaxy is only part of a large dynamic neighborhood of at least 26 dwarf galaxies (some of which are being torn apart and consumed, like the Saggitarius star stream), 157 globular clusters, a massive halo of stars with almost the mass of the main disk itself which may extend as far as the Magellanic clouds, powerful x-ray and gamma-ray bubbles issuing from a central black hole, and a dark-matter halo with a radius of 100 kiloparsecs. And that’s just today; just imagine what we’ll know tomorrow.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

The World’s Most Expensive Rubik’s Cube, 7rl

Posted on October 11, 2012 by The Old Wolf

The Rubik’s Masterpiece, also dubbed “The world’s most expensive toy.” Created by Fred Cuellar, founder and CEO of Diamond Cutters International.

“Cuellar’s Rubik’s Masterpiece will be the centerpiece of the 40th anniversary exhibit. Valued at over $2.5 million, the fully functioning Rubik’s Cube required 8,500 man hours to be crafted in 18 karat yellow gold with 25 precious stones per panel set in invisible settings. Cuellar used 185 carats of rubies, emeralds, sapphires, and white diamonds to create the classic colored panels of the Rubik’s Cube puzzle with one small difference. While the original Rubik’s Cube is colored red, green, blue, orange, yellow, and white, Cuellar—himself a lover of puzzles and codes—decided to replace orange with purple for a variety of reasons both clever and protective.” (Full article at PRWeb)

Other oddities in the Cube world include Oskar van Deventer’s “Over the Top”, a 17 x 17 x 17 cube which was produced on Shapeways‘ 3D printer.

There have been some really tiny cubes made as well, also from 3D printers:

These 6mm wonders were made by Tony Fisher based on a Callum core.

Nowadays with software it’s possible to work puzzles of this nature in more than three dimenions and with insane matrices.

I loved my cube puzzles; I have a standard cube and a 2 x 2 x 2 mini-cube, and at one point owned a 4 x 4 x 4 Rubik’s Revenge which I sold on eBay recently because I could just never solve it. When I was younger I had more patience for such things. Puzzles of this nature were sort of like the “Angry Birds” of the 80’s.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Some things never change

Posted on October 10, 2012 by The Old Wolf

Healthy? No way. Delicious? Nothing beats a well-made doughnut. As a kid, I would read McCloskey’s Homer Price over and over again, just because those doughnuts looked so darn good. Even today, I’d be hard pressed to find something I like better when I’m looking for a sugar fix.

The Old Wolf has *burp* spoken.

She chose… poorly.

Posted on October 10, 2012 by The Old Wolf

That cute little plastic thing in the filter looked cool, but it did absolutely nothing to reduce the harm being inflicted on her body.

The wordiest cartoon ad of all time.

Posted on October 10, 2012 by The Old Wolf

Winston Rowntree (a pseudonym for a breathtakingly perceptive and gifted cartoonist) advertises over at Subnormality! that he has provided “Comix with too many words since 2007.” One of my favorite examples is “The Mission.”

His creations are almost always terribly verbose – and worth reading, every whit, every jot, every tittle.

But I think this advertising copy for Colgate goes over the top – and while clever, as its only purpose is to hawk product and not entertain or inspire or prod people into thinking about the reasons for their existence or how to make the world a better place, it doesn’t measure up to Subnormality’s standard of excellence.

But here it is, just because it’s weird.

The Old Wolf has spoken.

The Tele-Party

Posted on October 10, 2012 by The Old Wolf

The desk upon which my computer sits doesn’t have casters, but it’s from exactly the same era – red formica top and all, and has a set of matching red vinyl chairs. I love retro stuff like this. If my wife’s younger son ever gets out here with a truck or something, it’s his. Until then, I get to enjoy it.

The Old Wolf has spoken.