Zoomed in to the limit, things get so small that the thing itself isn't even a distinct thing with a distinct location and distinct boundaries. Instead it's a quantum-scale strange object.

Cool.

puts the whole gross vs net thing in perspective...

Is this thread is a double meaning-?

Only with a sense of scale (proportion?) can we sort out real controversies from nontroversies.

Reminds me of a fractal zoom, except they go much farther into the infinitesimal. And they are without any end at all.

Obama's bow : fate of the nation :: water molecule : coffee bean

re: #5 Cato the Elder

In Reagan's day it would have been jelly bean not coffee bean... Is that cultural shift Starbucks or Obamas doing? (I vote Starbucks)

I wonder if they'll do the reverse for the macro universe for astronomy start at a human being and move backwards showing planet Earth, some of the other planets, the sun, etc, etc, etc. Does make the mind wonder about the micro and macro.

re: #7 Idle Drifter

That would be really cool.

re: #6 Rightwingconspirator

In Reagan's day it would have been jelly bean not coffee bean... Is that cultural shift Starbucks or Obamas doing? (I vote Starbucks)

Starbucks is overrated.

This biology teacher heartily approves.

"His socks are the size of New Jersey and his t-shirts are as big as China!"

re: #9 NJDhockeyfan

I just want coffee flavored coffee.

/Channeling Denis Leary

re: #11 ralphieboy

Movie?

Awesome!

Now that is awesome.

Ah, University of Utah, I see. I guess their animation team had some extra time last night after they walked out of the TCU game after the first quarter.
zing!

Thats pretty cool, but why doesn't it zoom down small enough to show whats left of the U.S. manufacturing industry?

re: #17 ausador

Thats pretty cool, but why doesn't it zoom down small enough to show whats left of the U.S. manufacturing industry?

Or up enough to show Americans' inflated sense of importance in the scheme of things? I'm talking around thrice the size of Saturn.

I feel much larger now.

re: #19 Lawrence Schmerel

I feel much larger now.

Me too, but I just ate.

re: #7 Idle Drifter

I wonder if they'll do the reverse for the macro universe for astronomy start at a human being and move backwards showing planet Earth, some of the other planets, the sun, etc, etc, etc. Does make the mind wonder about the micro and macro.

Check this out...Powers of Ten

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

[Link: micro.magnet.fsu.edu...]

re: #18 Cato the Elder

WHAT? Only inflated to the size of Saturn? Have you failed to read the foreign press?

Does this mean instead of saying "take that with a grain of salt" we be saying "take that with a water molecule?"

/

The zooming thingie is Intelligently Designed.

re: #7 Idle Drifter

I wonder if they'll do the reverse for the macro universe for astronomy start at a human being and move backwards showing planet Earth, some of the other planets, the sun, etc, etc, etc. Does make the mind wonder about the micro and macro.

Check this "cartoon" version from XKCD.

[Link: xkcd.com...]

re: #24 Bagua

The zooming thingie is Intelligently Designed.

The term 'zooming thingie' has been intelligently designed. I like it.

re: #26 iceweasel

The term 'zooming thingie' has been intelligently designed. I like it.

Get your betrothed mind out of the gutter.

The original version of this sort of thing: Powers of Ten.

Made a huge impact on me back in junior high, and helped steer me towards science.

re: #13 Rightwingconspirator

Movie?

An old cartoon from´the "National Lampoon" ca 1972. It showed a preacher giving his sermon.

I like Jelly Beans...

OT:

I've posted two articles in the Linkviewer that explain why we can not win the war in Afghanistan and explain the tribal civil war that has been occurring in that hot dusty place for 300 years.

Question: How many Americans and Brits even know of the Durranis and the Ghilzai? Yet we are imposing the rule of one over the other and are taking sides in their ongoing civil war which predates the United States.

Why we will lose in Afghanistan - The Booker Column

Why we will lose (in depth analysis)

re: #28 SixDegrees

From Musashi..
From memory, & paraphrased...
The importance of a teacher is not that he can tech ten or one hundred, , it is that ten students can teach one hundred. one hundred can teach 1000.

re: #31 Bagua

OT:

I've posted two articles in the Linkviewer that explain why we can not win the war in Afghanistan and explain the tribal civil war that has been occurring in that hot dusty place for 300 years.

Question: How many Americans and Brits even know of the Durranis and the Ghilzai? Yet we are imposing the rule of one over the other and are taking sides in their ongoing civil war which predates the United States.

Why we will lose in Afghanistan - The Booker Column

Why we will lose (in depth analysis)

Sooner or later we'll hit another thread that focuses on Afghanistan, esp
without blending it into Iraq war. I hope I have a coherent opinion sorted
out by then.

re: #31 Bagua

You may be right. I'm not sure what you mean by "win". If wrecking the Taliban and Al Qaeda is winning, then its largely done. If by win its betting Osama, we are one location and one bullet from a win. Nation building is something else, as a separate task and a separate "win". If we as a nation can not agree what "win " means we have already lost.

PIMF!

Getting Osama.

re: #35 Rightwingconspirator

PIMF!

Getting Osama.

Good, I was confused as to what we were 'betting' about.

Julian of Norwich (1300s) experienced the whole universe as being the size of a hazlenut:

"In this vision he (the Saviour) showed me a little thing, the size of a hazelnut, and it
was round as a ball. I looked at it with the eye of my understanding and
thought "What may this be?" And it was generally answered thus: "It is all that is
made." I marvelled how it might last, for it seemed it might suddenly have
sunk into nothing because of its littleness. And I was answered in my
understanding: "It lasts and ever shall, because God loves it."

-- Julian of Norwich

Some information about Julian of Norwich

Happy Sunday.

re: #36 ausador

I think I need a Windows "are you sure?" box when I click post...

re: #34 Rightwingconspirator

You may be right. I'm not sure what you mean by "win". If wrecking the Taliban and Al Qaeda is winning, then its largely done. If by win its betting Osama, we are one location and one bullet from a win. Nation building is something else, as a separate task and a separate "win". If we as a nation can not agree what "win " means we have already lost.

Interesting take & I mostly agree, but I doubt that Osama if alive is in Afganistan.

Not likin' how this Eagles game has started . . . hummm

re: #39 brookly red

Thanks. He may be in Veracruz for all we apparently know. I just hate to see nation building lumped in for the 'win". Nation building is a whole other goal, and is vastly secondary.

Our main & only objective should be to make sure that Afghanistan is no longer able to be used as a base of operations or training for forces who would attack the US or its allies. Anything above & beyond that is nearly impossible anyways.

One of FOX News Channel's best reporters, Jennifer Griffin has been diagnosed with Stage III breast cancer.

[Link: voices.washingtonpost.com...]

Jennifer is a class act and we should all send out much positive energy and prayer to Ms. Griffin and her family.

re: #31 Bagua

I've posted two articles in the Linkviewer that explain why we can not win the war in Afghanistan

Wow, a completely undefeatable enemy. Afghanistan might be the first country in history that can't lose a war.

re: #41 Rightwingconspirator

Thanks. He may be in Veracruz for all we apparently know. I just hate to see nation building lumped in for the 'win". Nation building is a whole other goal, and is vastly secondary.

Osama's best career move is to die unfound. I would hate to have him
sleeping under a mountain with Arthur, Barbarosa, Hus, and other
"future kings".

re: #42 ralphieboy

True. We can do that by helping build a sensible nation there, or just destroying hostile camps ad infinitum from the air. If the two groups in Afghanistan are so determined to fight over it, hey, split it. Let them have it the way they want. Who set those borders? Not the Afghans.

re: #44 Killgore Trout

Wow, a completely undefeatable enemy. Afghanistan might be the first country in history that can't lose a war.

well it could lose, it could for the sake of argument, be destroyed completely... but let's not go there it's not an option.

re: #1 lostlakehiker

Zoomed in to the limit, things get so small that the thing itself isn't even a distinct thing with a distinct location and distinct boundaries. Instead it's a quantum-scale strange object.

My blog's sitemeter stats are down there someplace...

re: #44 Killgore Trout

Wow, a completely undefeatable enemy. Afghanistan might be the first country in history that can't lose a war.

You have to be a real country to lose a real war. That's why we can't agree
on what to do with the Gitmo clowns.

re: #22 J.S.

WHAT? Only inflated to the size of Saturn? Have you failed to read the foreign press?

America's allies: always there when they need us.

re: #43 _RememberTonyC

She's a good one. I hope she's okay.

re: #51 TheMatrix31

She's a good one. I hope she's okay.

i saw her in the Pittsburgh airport back in June lugging her kids and her hubby through the terminal. they looked a a really nice young family. it sounds like she is going to have a major battle on her hands.

Now that was a truly enlightening experience.

re: #6 Rightwingconspirator

In Reagan's day it would have been jelly bean not coffee bean... Is that cultural shift Starbucks or Obamas doing? (I vote Starbucks)

Ew, Staryucks. Worst coffee around. If I have to go there I get a cup of tea instead.

Willia

very interesting

The powers of ten video did this better.

re: #9 NJDhockeyfan

Yes, it is! I prefer seeking out local coffeehouses who either roast their own, or who obtain their beans from smaller regional roasters.

Way cool.