From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner, Drawer 1

So here is the center drawer of the desk, this time a bit more organised.
We find the usual desk drawer stuff: menthol candies, brass fasteners, and clippings of military rankings.
There's also the two seemingly identical rulers, one from a funeral home and the other from a pharmaceutical company.

The other thing to point out here is the introduction of James, whose name we find on the cover of Life magazine. Could this desk have belonged to him instead?









And here's a preview of drawer 2

From the desk of Mr. Paul Griebner

This is my desk at work.


I'm showing you this because it is a part of a new segment to be found here on my blog.
The desk you see above was found one day on the side of the road amidst piles of trash, which it only recently stopped smelling like.
Inside the drawers of this abandoned, trash-smelling, yet quite sturdy relic are the remnants of a stranger's life.



Basically, this segment will be something of a documentary of the pieces of this man's life I happened to cross paths with.

Gorilla Filmmaking

"Talking nonsense is man's only privilege that distinguishes him from all other organisms." -Fyodor Dostoevsky

By now you've probably heard something about the BBC Chimp movie. "The world's first film shot entirely by chimpanzees is to be broadcast by the BBC as part of a natural history documentary."

Up until now we've only seen what these primates can do with paint, which is kinda impressive (especially Micheal's portrait of his dog Apple).

Anyways, the prospect of their transition into motion pictures is an exciting one... except....

There's something of a gray area, and I can't help but wonder if this counts as them shooting it.
According to the film's producer, Ms Herrelko, "The apes are unlikely to have actively tried to film any particular subject, or understand that by carrying Chimpcam around, they were making a film."

This is where I hear myself saying, "Okay, so they 'technically' shot it, since they were the ones 'operating' the camera." But what do I mean by technically?

I don't mean to get into an argument about semantics here, but when someone uses the word "technically" it translates into, "My pattern recognition software mostly agrees with what you're saying, but somewhere, on some level, it doesn't, however, the impact this section has on the overall conclusion I've automatically drawn is negligible to the parts that tell me otherwise."

Anyways, aside from it being a Television first, it offers an interesting hypothetical situation.
Imagine what it would be like being these apes as they are presented with a movie that they had no idea they shot (actually chances are they'll just fling poo at the screen, which may or may not be a criticism on the film itself).

Timeline of the Inevitable

Recently I've been compiling a list of the different ways Humanity will be destroyed assuming we don't develop the technology to escape Earth.
The list is divided into two columns.
The first column contains all the ways in which we could theoretically be destroyed in plausible, but unlikely ways, like for example an alien attack.
The second column lists all the ways in which we will be destroyed inevitably somewhere down the line due to the reality of the laws of Universe we currently exist in.

This is why I'm a hit at parties folks.

Anyways, sometimes the items destroying us will land into both columns, asteroids for instance.
This has given me reason to rework the list (that and the theoretical list is notably larger in size due to late night contributions that really don't belong on there, i.e. Godzilla).

While reworking the list, and looking over literature covering the last five mass extinctions of the dominant species of the past, I was reminded that the Moon exists.
The Moon is solid, unlike the Earth which we all know has a solid inner core surrounded by a liquid outer core.

The thought of the liquid outer core cooling and solidifying enough to meet the mantle hadn't occurred to me, but now that it has, it's on the list.

However, there's a problem.
The complete cooling of the Earth's liquid core wouldn't happen until after the Sun evolved into a Red Giant, which would engulf our planet. With that in mind, does the cooling of the core actually pose a threat?

Keep in mind that these are events that are bound to happen no matter what. They are on the timeline of the inevitable.

The Merry Old Cyborg

Balthazar, 101, reached out with his less stiff hand and closed it around a cookie. As he brought it closer to his face he realised it was a stocking and not a malformed gingerbread man. Not that it mattered, it had been months since Balthazar could taste anything.
The doctors called it as Ageusia, Balthazar called it as Life, another item checked off on the long list of items one loses with age. Most of these items could be replaced or assisted; his teeth had been replaced by imitations, his eyes assisted by glasses, his memory by photographs.
Taste however...
Balthazar bit into the cookie and concentrated on the way it broke down and crumbled like a little civilisation swiftly eroded away by the elements of his mouth. He figured it was just as well he couldn't taste anything, he heard nothing but complaints from other "guests" about the food anyway.
His health assisted by pills, his movement by a cane, and his dwelling replaced by an assisted living center.
Balthazar was then struck by the thought of himself as a creature from a science fiction film.
The thought amused him. He pictured himself as a cyborg trapped on an alien planet.
These thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a needlessly loud knock at his door.
Balthazar’s eyebrows lowered in confusion over his sunken eyes like two large furry dragons descending in unison upon identical watery caverns.
The knocking persisted until Balthazar made eye contact with a pair of inquisitive eyes that gave away this girl being full of mischief.
Her name was Ivy, 11, the child of his old neighbors who he secretly gave knife throwing lessons to.
Her presence gave Balthazar an idea.
Quietly, Ivy and Balthazar made their way to the kitchen, all the while Balthazar's imagination narrated the adventure with thoughts of his cyborg navigating the treacherous alien planet with the help of a clever mutant.
In the kitchen they searched for knives.
Balthazar reached out with his less stiff hand and selected one he found suitable for throwing.
He lifted the knife parallel with his glasses and searched for something to throw at.
Ivy helpfully offered a stack of Christmas cards.
Balthazar pictured the cyborg again. Despite having lost most of its original parts, it still managed to retain a skill buried deep in its mind.

Help!

Imagine walking somewhere. The weather is generally acceptable and you're not in a hurry to get there, so your stride slowly changes into something more of a saunter.
Suddenly something across the street catches your attention.
It's a person.
For a moment the two of you make eye contact.
They appear to be in your age range, possibly younger but not by much. Despite showing no clear signs of illness or peril, you are somehow able to tell this person is in some sort of danger.
However, with no clear-cut indication as to whether or not this person needs your help you continue on to your destination.
The next day, after consulting your daily news source, you learn that the person you passed by the previous night was found dead less than half a kilometer from where you spotted them.
Details on the cause of death have been withheld.

Would you tell anybody that you saw this person the same night they died?
If you did, would you tell them about your sensing danger?

Dinner and a Movie

Dinner of Darkness
The Amazing Dinner Adventure
Scenes from a Dinner
Take the Dinner and Run
The Most Dangerous Dinner
A Fistful of Dinner
The 40 Year Old Dinner
What About Dinner?
Dinner Begins
Rosencrantz & Gildenstern are Dinner
The Seventh Dinner
No Dinner for Old Men