the search for meaning is itself meaningless…but I’m okay with that.

TIAGod himself only knows how it was that a poor, overworked and obviously demented search engine, perhaps tired of finding the answers to only the most meaningless questions, reached out with the fragile query “Church etiquette for teenagers” and came up with my blog.

Other search engine items that led here:

and the immortal

Let it not be said that we at the ol’ raincoaster blog fail to come through for you, however righteous, gastrically distressed, scientifically curious, or obscene you may be.

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the REAL problem with physics

Ain’t this always the way? Math’s worse. By Chris Heilmann.

The REAL problem with physics

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when sea serpents fart

Gassy Sea Serpent 

Once again we at the ol’ raincoaster blog can only shake our heads in dismay (I have five, and they rattle when they really get going) at the sad ignorance displayed in this report from Latvia.

Locals initially reported seeing “strange things” in the area.

One girl said that she had seen “a small bright object with a silver ring around it”, while other witnesses reported seeing up to six symmetrical beams of light emerging from the pond.

It seems a large hole has appeared in the ice of a heretofor-frozen lake, and the sudden appearance thereof, andof other bizarre phenomena, has put local yokeldom to speculating about the possible arrival and submersion of a UFO, or the possibility of a large chunk of blue ice falling from such an object (aliens, presumably, being no better at disposing of their wastes than a dirty Boeing) and creating said hole.

These theories are, naturally, so ridiculous and indicative of backwateryness that we need hardly raise an eyebrow before dismissing them with a snort.

Let us look at the facts instead; verily, let us turn to science which, as always, has all the answers if indeed only a subset of the questions at any given time.

What are lakes made of? That’s right, dihydrogen monoxide. And what covers frozen lakes? Correct again, ice covers frozen lakes, by definition and by gosh and by golly. And what happens when a large bolus of heated gas escapes its deep-water containment in a body of water which is covered by ice? Three for three, my friend: the gas rises and breaks the surface, either melting or blasting its way to freedom.

Otherwise, can you imagine the stench from all those saved-up fish farts at the Spring break-up?

Deep One, mid-transformationObviously, this strange hole is an indication that somewhere in the depths of this Unnamed and Unnameable Lake lies an active and populated (and gastrically distressed) settlement of Deep Ones, if indeed it is not itself the fabled Lake of Hali in the Frozen Wastes (and, I mean, not to put too fine a point on it but, have you ever been to Latvia? Exactly) and, thus, home to far greater horrors than these mere servants of Great Cthulhu.

Ia! Ia! Latvia fh’artagn!

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for the cat who has everything

Including an owner who’s big on that living vicariously thang, obviously. via Fark. Thanks to Random FlyBy, who led us to the Calgarian source, Jeff deBoer and the full gallery. The Samurai Cat is particularly cool.

this is gonna be HUGE with the D&D crowd

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flashlights of the deep: The Giant Squid hunts with headlights!

Al Beeb's images of the squid flasher! 

A ten-tentacle salute to Juvenal for the tip. The BBC has obtained video and still photos of a beautiful Taningia danae attacking its prey. Its balletic movements are surprising in such a large creature, and its speed really rather frightening. 2.5meters per second is 150 meters per minute, which is really quite a lot faster than I can swim, which is why I and all sensible people like boats so very much. Also, they like to circle their prey like cats circle their beds before pouncing, presumably just to freak it out a bit or something. And, much like kangaroo and deer hunters of our upper world, they know that a powerful headlight is a hunter’s best friend.

Jack Sparrow got off easy!

Alas, the video is uncapturable so you’ll have to watch it on the site, or watch this pretty Vampire Squid light show instead.

…the intense pulses of light that accompanied the ferocious attacks surprised the research team.

Dr Tsunemi Kubodera from the National Science Museum in Tokyo, who led the research, told the BBC News website: “No-one had ever seen such bioluminescence behaviour during hunting of deep-sea large squid.”

The footage reveals the creatures emitting short flashes from light-producing organs, called photophores, on their arms.

Writing in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the team said: “[The bioluminescence] might act as a blinding flash for prey.”

The light would disorientate [sic!!!! asshole semiliterate BBC writers!!!] the squid’s intended prey, disrupting their defences, they added.

It could also act, the scientists commented, “as a means of illumination and measuring target distance in an otherwise dark environment.”

And, say the scientists, presumably assist the squid to find a mate in the dark depths of the ocean. God knows when you’re on the prowl, the right lighting is crucial: just ask the Gabor Sisters! Or, come to think of it, any common or garden flasher.

Also useful for telling ghost stories to the calamari piccolo.

Ghost Cthulhu Pirate!

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