Roger Heaton

Retired Aug '22 after a career in radio. Widowed Jan. 2021. Newlywed Oct '23. Ad astra per aspera. Wildcats|Chiefs|Royals.

[Roger Heaton @RogerTShrubber]

Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other "sins" are invented nonsense. - Heinlein

[Roger Heaton @RogerTShrubber]

@SoapSudsAss @Ruffinonjoeshow Days since ku beat K-State in football: 6,437. Don't bet big on the hawks.

[Saganism @Saganismm]

“When our genes could not store all the information necessary for survival, we slowly invented brains. But then the time came, perhaps ten thousand years ago, when we needed to know more than could conveniently be contained in brains. So we learned to stockpile enormous quantities of information outside our bodies. We are the only species on the planet, so far as we know, to have invented a communal memory stored neither in our genes nor in our brains. The warehouse of that memory is called the library.

A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still called ‘leaves’) imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance at it and you hear the voice of another person - perhaps someone dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.”

— Carl Sagan

[Roger Heaton @RogerTShrubber]

@catfan28 The Touchdown, Brothers, Mr K's, & Auntie Mae's.

[Roger Heaton @RogerTShrubber]

@miles_commodore There are many very good versions of the story, but for me, this is the definitive version.

[Physics In History @PhysInHistory]

So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You'd better rearrange your beliefs, then.
Because you certainly can't rearrange the universe.

- Isaac Asimov (1920 - 1992)

[Saganism @Saganismm]

“A fire-breathing dragon lives in my garage.” Suppose I seriously make such an assertion to you. Surely you’d want to check it out, see for yourself. . . I lead you to my garage. You look inside and see a ladder, empty paint cans, an old tricycle—but no dragon.

“Where’s the dragon?” you ask. “Oh, she’s right here,” I reply, waving vaguely.

“I neglected to mention that she’s an invisible dragon.” You propose spreading flour on the floor of the garage to capture the dragon’s footprints. “Good idea,” I say, “but this dragon floats in the air.”

Then you’ll use an infrared sensor to detect the invisible fire. “Good idea, but the invisible fire is also heatless.”

You’ll spray-paint the dragon and make her visible. “Good idea, but she’s an incorporeal dragon and the paint won’t stick.” . . . Now, what is the difference between an invisible, incorporeal, floating dragon who spits heatless fire and no dragon at all?

If there’s no way to disprove my contention, no conceivable experiment that would count against it, what does it mean to say that my dragon exists? Your inability to invalidate my hypothesis is not at all the same thing as proving it true.”

— Carl Sagan

[Judianna @Judianna]

🎶🙄

[reason @reason]

Vermont passed single-payer legislation in 2011 and abandoned the plan after three years of failure.

Why?
https://t.co/ErW2W9W5xl

[Eric Alper 🎧 @ThatEricAlper]

Same as it ever was.

[Todd Spence @Todd_Spence]

The idea for SNL's infamous "WORD ASSOCATION" sketch featuring Chevy Chase and Richard Pryor began with Pryor's personal comedy writer Paul Mooney and Mooney's dislike of Lorne Michaels. Pryor, who was set to host, demanded they hire Mooney to help write to Pryor's voice but Lorne was skeptical so he personally interviewed Mooney to see if he should hire him for the episode, which Mooney felt was more an embarrassing examination based on his race than talent. Mooney said, "After all the bullshit I've been put through to get here, the fucking cross-examination Lorne subjects me to, I decide to do a job interview of my own."
The sketch was ranked in Rolling Stone magazine as #10 for their 50 Best SNL Sketches of All-Time list.

[Rebecca 📖 @Avonleebythesea]

“Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl she used to be. But a great artist—a master—can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is…and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be…and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart…no matter what the merciless hours have done to her.
Look at her.”
~From Robert Heinlein’s ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’

[Judianna @Judianna]

😎

[Time Capsule Tales @timecaptales]

Vanilla Fudge in 1968 absolutely melting Ed Sullivan's stage with a psychedelic, borderline heavy-metal version of The Supremes Motown classic “You Keep Me Hangin’ On”

[Curtis Scoon @CurtisScoon]

The Criminalization of  Rap  https://t.co/H1VQbYRgXl

[Simon Maechling @simonmaechling]

I hate days when decades of science are dismissed with → I did my own research.

It’s the worst.

Science is hard. It takes proof, testing, and reproducibility.

Pseudoscience? Easy. Just make it up, add fear, and watch it spread.

Am I the only one? ♻️ Pass it on.

[Judianna @Judianna]

This is why I don’t bother arguing online. 🙄

[Math Files @Math_files]

A mathematician walked into a small restaurant, craving something simple, a 9 inch pizza. He placed the order and quietly imagined the perfect circle of melted cheese.

After a while, the waiter arrived carrying two smaller pizzas. He said that the 9 inch pizza was not available and that he was giving two 5 inch pizzas instead, adding confidently that the mathematician was getting 1 inch extra for free.

The mathematician paused, not upset but curious. He politely asked the waiter to call the owner.

When the owner came, the mathematician picked up a napkin and began to explain.

He wrote the formula for the area of a circle, A = π r², and said that π is approximately 3.1415926 and r is the radius.

He then explained that a 9 inch pizza has a radius of 4.5 inches and an area of about 63.62 square inches. A 5 inch pizza has a radius of 2.5 inches and an area of about 19.63 square inches.

He continued calmly, saying that two 5 inch pizzas together give only 39.26 square inches, which is far less than a single 9 inch pizza. He added that even if he were given three such pizzas, the total area would still be less.

Looking at the owner, he asked how this could be called an extra inch.

The owner had no answer. After a moment of silence, he agreed to give four pizzas instead.

The mathematician smiled, satisfied.

Take mathematics seriously. It never lies.

[Greg Lukianoff @glukianoff]

Larry Bushart spent 37 days in jail for posting a meme on Facebook.

I’ve been doing this work for 25 years, and I can honestly say this is the worst First Amendment case I’ve ever seen.

Not because Larry threatened anyone. He didn’t. Not because he committed violence. He didn’t. Not because this was a close call. It wasn’t.

He posted a political meme — the kind of thing millions of Americans do every day — and local officials decided to treat it like a crime.

And because they had badges, prosecutors, jail cells, and the terrifying machinery of the state behind them, they got away with it for 37 days.

Larry is a retired police officer and National Guard veteran. The meme he shared quoted Donald Trump’s “we have to get over it” comment after a 2024 Iowa school shooting. Whatever you think of Trump, the meme was plainly political commentary. Perry County officials knew what it referred to. They knew it wasn’t a threat against a Tennessee school.

They arrested him anyway.

In the middle of the night.

They set his bond at $2 million.

He lost his job. He missed family milestones. He sat in jail for more than a month before the charges finally collapsed — because, of course, there was no crime here.

Today, @theFIREorg secured a measure of justice: Perry County agreed to pay Larry Bushart $835,000 for violating his constitutional rights.

This case should scare the hell out of people across the political spectrum.

Because if the government can jail you for a meme by pretending not to understand obvious political commentary, your rights are only as secure as the good faith of the most authoritarian official in your town.

That is exactly why we have the First Amendment. Not for speech everyone likes. Not for opinions that flatter the powerful. Not for the bland, safe, committee-approved stuff.

It exists for moments when fear, outrage, politics, and authority all line up and say: “Surely this is the exception.”

No. It isn’t.

I’m incredibly proud of @theFIREorg’s legal team. And I’m even prouder of Larry Bushart for refusing to let the government get away with treating his constitutional rights like a suggestion.

But despite the correct verdict, I'll probably always get angry every time I think of this case.

Let’s make this the last time anyone in America is arrested — let alone thrown in jail — for a meme.

Celebrate your independence. Defend your First Amendment.

https://t.co/7ADQTxeHsL