Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "TED-Ed" channel.

  1. When I was a kid my friend and I would sometimes spend Saturday afternoons walking through cemeteries reading headstones. We made a game of it. Whoever found the oldest grave won. I remember feeling bad for the really old ones, some dating back the 1830's. I thought, here's someone nobody even remembers let alone visits. I made up my mind at that time to never be buried. I didn't want to end up as some old forgotten soul no one cared about hanging around a graveyard. But as I move closer to the end of the ride my thoughts have started to shift. My parents were both cremated and we spread their ashes at sea but now we have no place to visit them. I'm not sure who will visit me but perhaps having a little marker showing that you existed isn't such a bad thing.
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  2.  @dancingtrout6719  There were two old graveyards within a couple miles of the house I grew up in. The one with the graves from the 1830s was the oldest in the area. There was another old one a bit closer that dated back to the 1850s. That one had the most beautiful headstone I've ever seen. It was made from a tree stump about four feet high. The woman's husband carved her name into it then placed a rope around it. I don't know what sort of finish he used (some kind of lacquer) but he coated the entire stump, rope and all, and it has held up for more than a hundred years. I went back through the old neighborhood a couple years ago with a friend. We drove through that cemetery and the marker is still there, a beautiful tribute from a husband to a wife who was dearly loved and died young (she was in her early 30s when she passed). I should have taken a picture of it, being that is so unique but it didn't dawn on me to do so. Like I say, I always felt sad for the people who passed and are eventually forgotten as time marches on. They haven't buried anyone in either cemetery for a long time. Old monuments to another era.
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  3. I am an adherent of the scientific method and while I don't have a subscription to Skeptic magazine I'm pretty far from the tin foil hat crowd (sorry gang, Lee Harvey acted alone). That said, I witnessed something that is pretty damn close to the textbook definition of telekinesis. Years ago I shared a house with six other roommates. One had a pretty bad temper when you got her riled up. Anyway, something pissed her off one night and she shot several of us one of the nastiest glares you will ever see before calling us all a few choice names and storming out of the room. After she left we noticed this big thick ashtray was split in two. It was whole and in perfect working order prior to her tantrum. I know this because I used it just minutes before. If I was the only person who witnessed it you could call me out but four other people were present and we all stared at each other in disbelief. There was no rational explanation for the thing splitting in two the way it did. There were no smoldering cigarettes in it, no one bumped the table, there was no door slammed. It just broke. We still talk about it to this day from time to time. I'm telling you, whatever energy she was putting out it snapped that big old thick glass ash tray clean in two. It sounds crazy, and to be honest I'd have a hard time swallowing that tale if I hadn't witnessed it but there it is. We are beings of energy and there is no telling what forces can be unleashed under the right circumstances. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
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  4. I'm a Detroit Lions fan. Something tells me if I managed to fire up the flux capacitor, jump in the DeLorean, ramp it up to the speed of light and emerge in the year 9000, we would still be waiting for our first Super Bowl appearance. Some curses are eternal.
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  5. Sorry, I don't buy it. It seems like theorists spend more time creating new theories instead of proving the ones already exist, like they're all fighting to be the next Einstein. Then, once something is out there, it takes on a life of its own and because someone takes the time to write it down it becomes fact. It reminds me of the story that Mike Nesmith put out concerning the Monkees. In 1967 he told a reporter he was going to make up a story just to prove that the press will report anything and claim it as fact without really looking into it. Then, in a later interview, he said that the Monkees had sold 30 million records that year, more than double what the Beatles and Rolling Stones sold over that same time period. It was all BS but that myth still lives on to this day and is reported as fact in articles and documentaries. I stopped watching the Science Channel because they engage in the same practice, presenting theories as though they are fact. The truth of the mater is, this nonsense about multi-universes is impossible to prove, making it a convenient myth to propagate. How did it gain traction and why does it receive the attention it does? Because somebody with too many letters behind their name spoke it into existence. String theory was all the rage for a time. What's next? Stay tuned campers.
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  6. I was a child of the age of Apollo. A lot of us bought into everything Star Trek was selling. Of course the universe is teeming with life; how could it not? However, as I started looking at the issue with more of a critical eye and less of an emotional lens I discovered just how difficult it is to replicate what we have here. Sadly, I don't see ET contacting us anytime in the near future. Can I say intelligent life doesn't exist elsewhere? Of course not. We made it, that is proof enough that it can be done. Will we find them or will they find us? Unless we can figure out to break the laws of physics I've gotta say no. Then again, maybe it's set up that way for a reason. And no, finding microbial life on some moon or space rock in this solar system isn't going to make me all gushy inside. Quite frankly, I think even looking for it is a waste of time and money but that's me. Get back with me when you figure out how to open a REALLY BIG worm hole for longer than a nanosecond. Beyond that, happy hunting SETI and more power to ya...I guess.
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  7. I remember when a couple weekend warrior's took their F-16s supersonic over the beach as a way to impress the bikini-clad young ladies below I guess. I didn't get the particulars on what happened until I read about it in the paper the following day but I Ivied fairly close to the event and I remember hearing a big thump when they pulled that stunt. I thought maybe a tree limb had fallen on my roof. Needless to say, the boys were dealt with and word was they were assigned desks until that stopped being fun for them and they resigned from the ANG. I think the future of getting there faster will involve sub-orbital flights. As for me, after years of flying, I like the sky right where it is, up above with me looking up at it.
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  8. So what's the Reynolds Number for back-to-back meals at Taco Bell? 🤔
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