Topics on my particular interests.
Science is all about reproducible facts. Politics is all about who can fool the most people that he’ll listen to them long enough to get into office. The intersection between them is apparently as chaotic as the subject matter.
I once read a science-fiction book (Poul Anderson’s The Boat of A Million Years) about a dozen or so unrelated people with genetic mutations that cause them to never age (though they can die in other ways). Something like six or eight of them make it to a point in our future when technology will …
…someone tried to break into our house while we were out yesterday, in broad daylight. They broke the lock on our sliding glass back door, and were apparently trying to lift it out of the track (to get around the physical barrier of a stick we leave in the track for added security) when our …
I’m constantly amazed at just how weird the world actually is. If someone tried to pass off something like this as fiction, he’d probably be laughed out of print.
Something to think about this time next year.
So violent video games make people who play them more violent, but also absorb that violence, making society safer? A little round about, but whatever works. 🙂
Ever get the impression that some assholes will do anything for a little publicity? And that those same assholes generally have far too much time on their hands? If the First Amendment were ever put on trial, these people — who I won’t explicitly name because it would give them the undeserved recognition they’re trying …
Continue reading ‘“Gay-bashing cult plans picket of Steve Jobs funeral”’ »
More of science emulating science fiction: the “miracle pill” is similar in effect to one described in Harry Harrison’s Stainless Steel Rat series (as well as at least three other SF books I’ve read, though I don’t presently recall the names of the others). Harrison’s version is a little more poetic though: his pill “leaves …
Continue reading ‘“Boffins invent miracle pill that counteracts effects of booze”’ »
As far as I’ve been able to tell, most climate scientists — the honest ones — seem to agree that global warming should be happening, according to the data they have. They also agree that it isn’t, that the evidence just doesn’t support their models (i.e. their best educated guesses) of what the temperatures should …
Continue reading ‘“Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade”’ »
I wasn’t awake ten minutes this morning before I learned that Steve Jobs had died. I was never truly happy with Apple products — too expensive, not expandable enough, not complex enough to satisfy my geek soul — but even long before the iPhone, they had a major if indirect impact on everything I did. …