Remember that one? It came from an episode of Lost in Space that I saw when I was maybe seven or eight, and it has stuck with me all these years. I even looked it up a little while back… apparently I’m not the only one it has stuck with.
Archive of posts filed under the History or Folklore category.
“Study links dim wits to conservative ideology”
“US, UK research: Thick kids more likely to become bigots“. Ouch. I’ve often thought that today’s conservatives weren’t the brightest bulbs on the whole, and wondered whether there was some causal link there, but to have it bluntly spelled out like that is pretty damning. Maybe these studies should be publicized a lot more. Nobody [...]
“National Popular Vote — Electoral college reform and direct election of the President of the United States”
As my US readers may remember from their mandatory high-school civics class, presidential elections in the US are kind of odd. Presidents aren’t elected by the people. Instead, their elected through the Electoral College — the people’s votes tell the Electoral College what candidate the state votes for, and each state has a certain number [...]
“Ten 100-year predictions that came true”
Considering the poor accuracy of professional science fiction authors even in “near-future” SF, this guy‘s track record is nothing short of amazing. Too bad he can’t be around to enjoy his success, but when you’re making predictions for a century hence, that’s a bit problematic.
“Dot-dash-diss: The gentleman hacker’s 1903 lulz”
Wow… it seems that hacking, and hacker pranks, got their start well before the first computers were created. I can’t imagine how Marconi could have thought any clear-text wireless signal was secure against eavesdroppers. Even if his patented tuning system worked to keep the signal on a very narrow band, all it would take to [...]
“Religious Expressions Are Rooted in Fear-Based Politics”
A “National Day of Prayer”? “One Nation Under God”? “In God We Trust”? I’ve heard people claim that they’re proof that America was founded on Christian principles. If the speaker acknowledges freedom of religion at all, he invariably means that everyone must be free to practice his religion. Thing is, all three of those were [...]
“Kids, the Internet, and the End of Privacy”
In the small mid-western hick community where my family spent the early- to mid-eighties, you didn’t dare let people know you were different in any way. Fifties McCarthyism was still alive and well, but no communists presented themselves, so it was turned on anyone who was different in any way. Kids who couldn’t fit in [...]
“The cure for US job woes: More immigrants”
I’ve been baffled by this for the last couple days. I’m not sure I follow their numbers, but I’ll accept them on faith for the moment. The thing that baffles me is the source: a very conservative think-tank. Political conservatives have railed against anyone who was different practically since the ink was dry on the [...]
“Paul Krugman: save the economy by staging an alien invasion hoax”
A nice idea, but I suspect the execution would be pretty difficult. Hollywood special effects are a lot better now than in 1938, but there are many more science-educated people who would be a lot harder to fool too. All it would take is one slip-up, caught and pointed out by some bright teenager, and [...]
“Moon *Not* Made of Cheese, Physicist Explains”
Just in case you were wondering. I don’t know the context of that quote, but I’m very concerned about the science deniers in the US. It seems that, despite mandatory science classes in high school, most people still don’t understand science. Conservatives seem to think that science is like religion: convince enough people of something [...]