GETTING A HAIR CUT

Here I am (above), about to get my hair cut at the local beauty school.

Friends think I get my hair cut by students because I'm cheap. Let me answer that. See the guy above? That's your barber. 

See the student above? That's my barber. 'Need I say more?

Hmmm, maybe the average is a bit more like this (above), but you see my point.

There are male students too, but so far I haven't gotten one of them.

It's a school so the haircut doesn't always turn out. That's the risk you take. Most of the time it turns out okay. 

I imagine that cosmetology students must acquire a lot of equipment. A lot of what you see here (above) is for cutting women's hair. 

If you want to cut men's hair then you have to add even more (above) to your kit. If you want to cut black people's hair then there's still more products and accessories to buy. Geez, cutting hair isn't cheap!

 What's a beauty student's life like? I'm guessing that it's dominated by the hip girls in class. Other girls must be in awe of them.

I've only known one beauty school teacher. She was elegant and sophisticated and spoke with an aristocratic East European accent.  Outside of class, in the bright sunshine, she might appear to be normal. In the mysterious world of the beauty school she was Pharaonic royalty.

Okay, I'm no expert on what goes on in beauty schools, but I know an interesting atmosphere when I see it. It's bracing to be around people who are getting started in life and are full of hope and energy.

SOME RECENTLY POSTED ASTRONOMY PICTURES

Above, the Horsehead Nebula as seen recently by The Hubble space telescope. Actually, it's a composite of several pictures taken at different wavelengths.

For comparrison, here's the same nebula as it appeared in the years before we had The Hubble. A big difference, eh?



 Here's (above) a fragment of a recent episode of "Through the Wormhole." It makes the amazing claim that gravity may not exist. If it does exist then where are the gravitational waves predicted by Einstein? An elaborate, well-funded search just concluded and it turned up nothing. According to this show what we call gravity might just be the same thing as the Strong Force operating through gluon pairs rather than individual gluons.

That's an amazing thing to say. In order to explain why gravity is so weak compared to other forces, we've come up with other dimensions, endless bubble universes, and M Theory. What if none of that was necessary to explain what we see? The demotion of gravity from force to something less would simplify things and overturn a lot of currently believed ideas. Who's right?

Above, a picture of gigantic spouting water ice geysers on Enceladus, a moon of Saturn. It took a while to figure out that the water was coming from within the world and not from canyons on the moon's surface. Now it's widely believed that there is indeed a liquid ocean under the surface, and comparisons are being made to Jupiter's watery moon, Europa. Could this world be a candidate for life?

Don't get me wrong...there's no evidence that Earth life began there. It's all fun speculation. It's easy to imagine the early Solar System where ejecta from impacts brought about an exchange of materials between planets and moons. Maybe life began on Earth and was transferred to Europa or Enceladus.

That's Earth above, as it's thought to have looked 4 billion years ago in it's "Hadeon" period. I'm guessing that Hadeon is derived from "Hades."

Another picture of The Milky Way.

THE TIME TRAVEL STORY (PART 1)

EXT. NEW YORK CITY: THE GIRL TIME TRAVELERS EMERGE FROM MACY'S WEARING EXPENSIVE CLOTHES:

ISABEL (VO): "That was fun. Where's Tony?

CLARE: "He's coming! I see him. Hey, look at this...a satin and tulle swing dress for only 5 dollars! And gloves for two dollars! That cleaned me out!"

KATHY: "I got this round collar jacket for 4 dollars. Can you believe that? But that cleaned me out, too. How about you, Irene?"

IRENE: "Mine cost a little more than that, but I still have lots of money left."

ISABEL: "That's because you Xeroxed your money. We had to buy old dollar bills at collectors prices, the kind that are silver certificates."

TONY WALKS INTO SC.:

TONY: "Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Irene, you Xeroxed your money!? I told you that everything we took back to 1952 had to be from that era. You said you understood that. If that fake money changes something in 2015, I could lose my job for taking you here. We could all be arrested!"

THEY CROSS THE STREET:

IRENE: "Calm down, Tony. Nobody said anything. They all took it and gave me change, so what's the harm? Even the gun store took it."

TONY: "Gun store? You bought a gun?"

IRENE: "Yeah, from that store. A cute little revolver. They're legal in 1952.

TONY: "Throw it away. Toss it in a trash can. Get rid of it. I could lose my job."

IRENE: "Stop with the job, already. Everything's fine. Don't be such a wimp."

THEY PASS A ROW OF PANHANDLERS:

TONY AND THE GIRLS WALK PAST THE PANHANDLERS, PRETENDING NOT TO SEE THEM. ONE OF THEM GETS UP AND CHASES IRENE. HE PASSES HER THEN BLOCKS HER WAY.

BUM: "'Just a dime. That's all I'm askin' for. Won't ya help a guy out?"

TONY: "Um...Irene, I have a dime. Here, take it."

IRENE: "I don't want your dime."

BUM: "C'mon, take it. Do a good deed."


.........CONTINUED IN PART 2  [this entire story and text (not photos) copyright Eddie Fitzgerald 7/30/2014]

THE TIME TRAVEL STORY (PART 2)

IRENE: "Why, you pathetic little fool. Get out of my way."

BUM: "Look, all I'm askin' for is a dime, lady. A pretty lady like you...it's not gonna break you."

KATHY: "Haw! It looks like you have an admirer, Irene."

IRENE: "Oh yeah? Well let him admire this."

BAM! BAM! SHE SHOOTS HIM, AND TOSSES THE GUN DOWN A SEWER.

WITNESS: "Oh, my God...she shot him!

A PASSING AMBULANCE STOPS:

AMBULANCE TEAM: "He's dead...a bullet through the forehead! 'Anybody see who did it?"

WOMAN: "I saw it! That lady over there did it. They argued about somethin' and she just took out a gun and shot him."

TONY (DISTRAUGHT): "Wh...why'd you do it Irene? You promised you'd be careful. YOU PROMISED! That's why I took you along. You promised you wouldn't speak to anyone in this time. You promised you wouldn't allow anything you do, no matter how insignificant, to influence anybody in any way. And now this."

IRENE: "Oh, there you go being a wimp again. Nobody cares about him. He was just a bum. And besides, most of these people lived their lives and died long before 2015. What you're seeing are just shades. It doesn't make any difference what you do to them. They're not real.

CLARE: "I don't know, Irene. They look pretty real to me."

 IRENE (CONT): "Anyway we'll be out of here in an hour."

IRENE (CONT) (VO): "There's our ride home now."

CROWD: "You ain't goin' anywhere, Lady! Somebody call a cop!"

IRENE: "Get your hands off me! Don't touch me!"

SHE TAKES SOMETHING FROM HER PURSE AND QUICKLY UNFOLDS IT.

IRENE: "Okay, people...let me introduce you to 2015!"

TONY: "IRENE! Where did you get...you weren't supposed to..."

ZZZZZRRMMM! A LASER BEAM THEN AN EXPLOSION THEN A SERIES OF NAPALM-LIKE PLUMES OF FIRE OBLITERATING HALF A CITY BLOCK: 

CROWD: (SCREAMS OF PANIC)

MORE DESTRUCTION AS THE BEAM SWEEPS ACROSS BUILDING TOPS:

CROWD: (MORE SCREAMS OF PANIC)

TONY DRIVES UP IN A CAR, SCREECHES TO A HALT, SHOUTS TO THE GIRLS:

TONY: "Get in! Get in! We've gotta get to the airport!"

This entire story and text (not photos) copyright Eddie Fitzgerald 7/30/2014)

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I'd need parts 3 & 4 to tell the whole story, where the "Cleaners" come in, but I think I'll end it here. Finding pictures to illustrate what I wanted to say took hours, and I still didn't get the photos I wanted. *SIGH*