Except for that photo I took of his work station, all the photos ARE from Gerard’s media library on this blog.
AnneMarch 3, 2023, 1:04 PM
Thank you for the info. Now, look at what you started– please read John Fleming and know that I for one am not smart enough to help carry on this conversation, but hope the others chime in–Gerard would have loved this!
Phil in Mount DoraMarch 3, 2023, 11:48 AM
Bizzaro world, indeed.. I imagine Gerard sitting up there, looking at the world from exactly this perspective. Thanks for posting from the Vanderleun Media Library.
John A. FlemingMarch 3, 2023, 11:49 AM
Hoo. I can imagine a mature Type II or young Type III civilization having some fun and going about reforming a planet into a Platonic solid. There would be many interesting planetary engineering challenges, especially at the edges and vertices, especially with ocean covering the edges. With challenges solved, one could truly sail off the edge of the world. Especially if the world had a moon, in which case there would be the craziest of tides, with true reversing waterfalls at the world’s edge. Inter-facet oceanic travel could only be accomplished at slack tide. Airplane travel across the facets would also be interesting, the air would be thinner at the edges, so when crossing the edge, a plane would just skim it and then dive into the next facet. Ooh, crazy.
I suspect such a world wouldn’t last too long, and erode back to a sphere over many millions of years, unless the builders used unobtanium and wishalloys to reinforce the edges. It will probably be very difficult to maintain long-term dynamic rotational stability with all that liquid sloshing around in the ocean basins of each facet. Yeek, imagine a world of chaotic rotation, where over a person’s lifetime the day/night cycles change, and you were born at the poles and then die in the tropics without ever leaving your facet.
I remember that picture from one of Mr. G’s posts. He always had a soft spot in his heart for outer-space topics.
Casey KlahnMarch 3, 2023, 5:21 PM
Me so happy. (Superman comic quote)
Richard G.March 4, 2023, 3:02 PM
“unless the builders used unobtanium and wishalloys to reinforce the edges”.
You are overlooking the possibilities of the vaunted upsidaisyium that Captain Peachfuzz recovered.*
*”Upsidaisium” is the first story arc from the second season of Rocky and His Friends. With 36 segments it was the second-longest of all Rocky and Bullwinkle story arcs, and concerns Rocky and Bullwinkle’s efforts to reclaim Bullwinkle’s Uncle’s Upsidaisium mine.
Bullwinkle receives a letter informing him that his uncle Dewlap has passed on, leaving him a mine located on Mt. Flatten. Rocky and Bullwinkle set out to find it, and soon discover that they’re being monitored by not only Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, but their old friend Captain Peter “Wrong Way” Peachfuzz, the new head of G-2. Peachfuzz has been sent to make sure Rocky and Bullwinkle find Mt. Flatten, as its ore, the anti-gravity metal Upsidaisium, is much sought after by the U.S. government. While under the guise of a pair of prospectors, Boris and Natasha manage to help Rocky and Bullwinkle locate Mt. Flatten, which floats high in the air due to the high amount of Upsidaisium within it. Once they reach the mountain, Boris and Natasha are joined by their intimidating superior, Mr. Big, who tells them that Pottsylvania also seeks Upsidaisium as a means to eliminate a traffic problem (by building cars with the anti-gravity ore). Eventually, thanks to Rocky’s ingenuity, Mt. Flatten is transported to Washington D.C., and the Upsidaisium is put under lock and key by the government. Unfortunately, Boris attempts to smuggle the precious metal out of the government’s reach, even going so far as to disguise himself as a U.S. general. Rocky and Bullwinkle are cornered by Mr. Big, but when they attack him, they find that he’s really a very tiny individual. Mr. Big escapes into an Upsidaisium vault, and Boris and Natasha are put under arrest. Seizing a bit of Upsidaisium and using Rocky as a hostage, Mr. Big attempts to escape but is carried into the air by his ill-gotten gains, never to be seen again, resulting in another happy ending for our heroes. “
RonMarch 3, 2023, 1:03 PM
I saw this in a superman comic it was the planet Bizarro.
Bizzaro world was a place where ugly was beauty, and stupid was smart, and everything was inverted, and backwards. DC Comics were terrible back then. Ironic that this one cornball notion should have predicted our future.
But, considering John A. Flemings musings: Maybe in a square world you could surf the giant wave of water flowing over the edges. COWABUNGA!
JWM
ThisIsNotNutellaMarch 3, 2023, 6:40 PM
Back in the real world, I got home to fun-filled Hong Kong, quondam NED playpen, after 6 weeks in Thailand to find that in my absence my part-time housekeeper has installed a giant #%^&ing potted Triffid in my living room. Don’t like the look of it at all. Has Cthulu appendage vibe about it. Used the plant ID app on it and it turns out to be Sanseveria trifasciata. Well if it’s all-in on Fasces (*), it might be a keeper, but any signs of autonomous locomotion by that pot and it’s going out the window faster than a boomer can write a check to the Cato Institute.
*Have been binge-reading the late Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. Highly recommended.
jdMarch 6, 2023, 4:56 AM
Intriguing that you live in Hong Kong, -Nutella. Just read about a romance-seeking elderly lady who is in prison there because she was tricked into bringing drugs, disguised as presents into the country. She expects to languish there for two years before a trial which could land her there forever!
ThisIsNotNutellaMarch 6, 2023, 4:23 PM
jd:
Low taxation (in effect 15% flat rate), native population mean IQ ~106 (means can get the point across in daily interactions quick fast), very low violent crime (East Asians like another nameless ethnic group tend to break bad with frauds and scams rather than engage in low IQ thuggery and physical theft), a balmy climate for all of two months of the year… What’s not to like? 😀
Poor old Bird. I wonder how it’ll go for her. The prison system is very well run. Little to no ‘Diversity’ so she’ll probably pop out the other end for her court date looking OK. Justice is a complicated thing. She might just get on remand time served plus a bit for being gullible. The problem is that if the system is too lenient to love-struck old biddies, then the criminal underworld will manufacture love-struck old biddies out of whole cloth and send in many more drug couriers in this guise.
At least she didn’t get busted in Singapore or Malaysia… Be looking at the long drop with little leeway for judicial discretion in sentencing.
CallmelennieMarch 6, 2023, 1:42 PM
Star Trek meme (Spock and Kirk viewing planet Earth)
Fascinating, Captain … it appears to be a planet ruled by pedophile elites who control the population utilizing fear of a moderately severe virus
Real World Address for Donations, Mash Notes and Hate Mail
Gerard Van der Leun
1692 MANGROVE AVE
APT 379
Chico, Ca 95926
Green Pants Interior by Klahn
Who Am I? by Carl Sandburg
My head knocks against the stars.
My feet are on the hilltops.
My finger-tips are in the valleys and shores of universal life.
Down in the sounding foam of primal things I reach my hands and play with pebbles of destiny.
I have been to hell and back many times.
I know all about heaven, for I have talked with God.
I dabble in the blood and guts of the terrible.
I know the passionate seizure of beauty
And the marvelous rebellion of man at all signs reading “Keep Off.”
My name is Truth and I am the most elusive captive in the universe.
Duty, Beauty, Liberty, Country, Honor, Family, Faith — Plus a few simple easy to follow rules for guys
Men saw the stars at the edge of the sea
They thought great thoughts about liberty
Poets wrote down words that did fit
Writers wrote books
Thinkers thought about it
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
Many’s the road I have walked upon
Many’s the hour between dusk and dawn
Many’s the time
Many’s the mile
I see it all now
Through the eyes of a child
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
Lost dreams and found dreams
In America
In America
In America
And close your eyes
Leave it all for a while
Leave the world
And your worries behind
You will build on whatever is real
And wake up each day
To a new waking dream
Take it where you find it
Can’t leave it alone
You will find a purpose
To carry it on
Mainly when you find it
Your heart will be strong
About it
[Chorus]
Change, change come over
Change come over
Talkin’ about a change
Change, change
Change come over, now
Change, change, change come over
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I’m gonna walk down the street
Until I see
My shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
I see my light
See my light
See my shining light
Gerard Van der Leun
Comments on this entry are closed.
This looks like something Gerard would have posted! Thanks for starting my day with a little humor!
Anne:
Except for that photo I took of his work station, all the photos ARE from Gerard’s media library on this blog.
Thank you for the info. Now, look at what you started– please read John Fleming and know that I for one am not smart enough to help carry on this conversation, but hope the others chime in–Gerard would have loved this!
Bizzaro world, indeed.. I imagine Gerard sitting up there, looking at the world from exactly this perspective. Thanks for posting from the Vanderleun Media Library.
Hoo. I can imagine a mature Type II or young Type III civilization having some fun and going about reforming a planet into a Platonic solid. There would be many interesting planetary engineering challenges, especially at the edges and vertices, especially with ocean covering the edges. With challenges solved, one could truly sail off the edge of the world. Especially if the world had a moon, in which case there would be the craziest of tides, with true reversing waterfalls at the world’s edge. Inter-facet oceanic travel could only be accomplished at slack tide. Airplane travel across the facets would also be interesting, the air would be thinner at the edges, so when crossing the edge, a plane would just skim it and then dive into the next facet. Ooh, crazy.
I suspect such a world wouldn’t last too long, and erode back to a sphere over many millions of years, unless the builders used unobtanium and wishalloys to reinforce the edges. It will probably be very difficult to maintain long-term dynamic rotational stability with all that liquid sloshing around in the ocean basins of each facet. Yeek, imagine a world of chaotic rotation, where over a person’s lifetime the day/night cycles change, and you were born at the poles and then die in the tropics without ever leaving your facet.
I remember that picture from one of Mr. G’s posts. He always had a soft spot in his heart for outer-space topics.
Me so happy. (Superman comic quote)
“unless the builders used unobtanium and wishalloys to reinforce the edges”.
You are overlooking the possibilities of the vaunted upsidaisyium that Captain Peachfuzz recovered.*
*”Upsidaisium” is the first story arc from the second season of Rocky and His Friends. With 36 segments it was the second-longest of all Rocky and Bullwinkle story arcs, and concerns Rocky and Bullwinkle’s efforts to reclaim Bullwinkle’s Uncle’s Upsidaisium mine.
Bullwinkle receives a letter informing him that his uncle Dewlap has passed on, leaving him a mine located on Mt. Flatten. Rocky and Bullwinkle set out to find it, and soon discover that they’re being monitored by not only Boris Badenov and Natasha Fatale, but their old friend Captain Peter “Wrong Way” Peachfuzz, the new head of G-2. Peachfuzz has been sent to make sure Rocky and Bullwinkle find Mt. Flatten, as its ore, the anti-gravity metal Upsidaisium, is much sought after by the U.S. government. While under the guise of a pair of prospectors, Boris and Natasha manage to help Rocky and Bullwinkle locate Mt. Flatten, which floats high in the air due to the high amount of Upsidaisium within it. Once they reach the mountain, Boris and Natasha are joined by their intimidating superior, Mr. Big, who tells them that Pottsylvania also seeks Upsidaisium as a means to eliminate a traffic problem (by building cars with the anti-gravity ore). Eventually, thanks to Rocky’s ingenuity, Mt. Flatten is transported to Washington D.C., and the Upsidaisium is put under lock and key by the government. Unfortunately, Boris attempts to smuggle the precious metal out of the government’s reach, even going so far as to disguise himself as a U.S. general. Rocky and Bullwinkle are cornered by Mr. Big, but when they attack him, they find that he’s really a very tiny individual. Mr. Big escapes into an Upsidaisium vault, and Boris and Natasha are put under arrest. Seizing a bit of Upsidaisium and using Rocky as a hostage, Mr. Big attempts to escape but is carried into the air by his ill-gotten gains, never to be seen again, resulting in another happy ending for our heroes. “
I saw this in a superman comic it was the planet Bizarro.
Bizzaro world was a place where ugly was beauty, and stupid was smart, and everything was inverted, and backwards. DC Comics were terrible back then. Ironic that this one cornball notion should have predicted our future.
But, considering John A. Flemings musings: Maybe in a square world you could surf the giant wave of water flowing over the edges. COWABUNGA!
JWM
Back in the real world, I got home to fun-filled Hong Kong, quondam NED playpen, after 6 weeks in Thailand to find that in my absence my part-time housekeeper has installed a giant #%^&ing potted Triffid in my living room. Don’t like the look of it at all. Has Cthulu appendage vibe about it. Used the plant ID app on it and it turns out to be Sanseveria trifasciata. Well if it’s all-in on Fasces (*), it might be a keeper, but any signs of autonomous locomotion by that pot and it’s going out the window faster than a boomer can write a check to the Cato Institute.
*Have been binge-reading the late Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series. Highly recommended.
Intriguing that you live in Hong Kong, -Nutella. Just read about a romance-seeking elderly lady who is in prison there because she was tricked into bringing drugs, disguised as presents into the country. She expects to languish there for two years before a trial which could land her there forever!
jd:
Low taxation (in effect 15% flat rate), native population mean IQ ~106 (means can get the point across in daily interactions quick fast), very low violent crime (East Asians like another nameless ethnic group tend to break bad with frauds and scams rather than engage in low IQ thuggery and physical theft), a balmy climate for all of two months of the year… What’s not to like? 😀
Poor old Bird. I wonder how it’ll go for her. The prison system is very well run. Little to no ‘Diversity’ so she’ll probably pop out the other end for her court date looking OK. Justice is a complicated thing. She might just get on remand time served plus a bit for being gullible. The problem is that if the system is too lenient to love-struck old biddies, then the criminal underworld will manufacture love-struck old biddies out of whole cloth and send in many more drug couriers in this guise.
At least she didn’t get busted in Singapore or Malaysia… Be looking at the long drop with little leeway for judicial discretion in sentencing.
Star Trek meme (Spock and Kirk viewing planet Earth)
Fascinating, Captain … it appears to be a planet ruled by pedophile elites who control the population utilizing fear of a moderately severe virus