the ancients had us beat, logically, on that one.

if there's anything in our consciousness, imaginary or not, that it makes sense to call 'god', it's the sun.

again, this is not a debunked theory, but an active research topic.

i've posted several studies at peer-reviewed journals. these are far more convincing than some idiot's opinion on tv, some moron's rant on youtube or some nonsense at somebody's blog.

i would invite you to do the research yourself, rather than rely on the authority of people that deserve absolutely no deference on this topic at all. this is potentially an important lesson in critical thinking, if you look into this properly. 

the reality is that the government is actually spending a lot of money right now in funding research to try to understand this better. that is the state of the current science: we don't understand this well and we're trying to figure it out.

but, there is enough evidence to suggest that there is something to this idea, and that, the more we study it, as we are doing currently, the more we'll understand it.

stated tersely: it is viciously rational to think this is the case. the history of this topic goes through some of the greatest minds in the history of science, most of whom intuited the obvious truth of the matter. if you reject this offhand, you're not thinking clearly.

obviously, you need to quantify the situation properly. there has to actually be enough mass involved to create an actual force. so, no - a butterfly flapping it's wings on pluto doesn't create a lot of energy. but, the sun is the cause of virtually everything around us, enough that it almost makes sense to worship it (almost), and it is certainly capable of creating enough gravitational force to rip us apart.

in fact, that will happen. literally. eventually.

the math is complicated. these are n-body problems. but, i'm in very good company when i suggest that it is in the realm of future science for us to better understand the role that planetary bodies play in earthquakes and volcanoes, enough that there could be predictive science underlying it.

but, we'll have to wait for all those tax dollars to do their work, first.

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/can-position-moon-or-planets-affect-seismicity-are-there-more-earthquakes-morningin-eveningat-a?qt-news_science_products=0#qt-news_science_products

alright, so the master document is built. at a mere 172 pages, before formatting, it is a much smaller document, and there is still some chance that it could get finished before the end of the year. we'll see.

no scripts & only 6 html files....

i'm going to stop for some more fruit and get to putting together the documents for the morning. i'm going to need to find somewhere to print them, which may be a bit of a concern. worst case, i'll need to wait. we'll see, soon enough.

and, listen.

beyonce sucks.

she always sucked.

and she never had any business in any best-of list.

and you know what?

kanye west sucks, too.

and, he always sucked.

and he never had any business in a best-of list, either.

do you know why they made those lists? do you know why those magazines put their names down? take a guess.

what is the reality right now?

there's eight records in my list.

1) floating points - white european male of unknown sexuality (and i don't actually care).
2) blanck mass - ""
3) control top - white woman, white male, white transfemale. american.
4) 1000 gecs - white male, white female. american. presumably fucking each other at least at some point.
5) fka twigs - presumably straight black british female.
6) holly herndon - white american woman of unknown sexuality that appears to be working in europe.
7) kelsey lu - presumably straight black american female.
8) vanishing twin - multicultural, multigendered group of european, american and japanese background, and with unclear sexuality.

so, like...i'm not interested in identity politics. and it's not an affirmative action program. and, these things have no influence on me at all.

but, what that means is that the list should be roughly proportional to the actual population in the end, if it's not constructed with any particular filter in mind. and, i don't think it's currently that off.

given that the sample size is small, some distortion would not be unexpected, but there isn't much at this point. if it stays roughly like this, it should actually be fairly representative of almost everybody.

almost.

i know the groups i won't be likely to connect much with, and there are reasons for it, and i'm not going to apologize for it.

remember: this is just a list of music that i like, kids.

if, at the end of this process, you look at the list and find a demographic that you think is unjustly unrepresented, i'd invite you to send me records by members of that demographic that you think were overlooked. i'll certainly entertain the request, even if i don't agree with the substance underlying your suggestions.

but, that's not going to work out in every case.

and, what i'd say to some of these unrepresented groups is that if they want to be in my list then they should write music that i like better. sorry.