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.
“Are Jobs Obsolete?”
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 create anything you want for you, and everyone gets a basic allotment of credit regardless of whether they work or not.
That’s what I was strongly reminded of when I read this.
I don’t think our society is ready for that kind of economy yet, but I do think that it — or something like it — will happen sooner or later. Probably not in my lifetime, but I could be wrong.
And in other news…
…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 alarm system went off and apparently scared them away. A couple of our neighbors heard the alarm and came to investigate, but the would-be invader(s) had apparently already fled over the back fence.
I called the police non-emergency number and reported it, and after some confusion, they took the information about it and said that police analysts would use it to watch for patterns in the area, and try to match it to certain suspects.
I have to ask… what kind of idiot tries to break into a house with prominently posted alarm system signs, where they can see the very obvious alarm system motion sensors from the place they tried to break in? And where there wasn’t anything particularly valuable in sight? We don’t even have a flat-panel TV, only a ten-year-old tube TV, and not a particularly large one. I know your average thief isn’t an intellectual heavyweight, but this one must have been particularly deficient in that regard.
In any case, it’s a good thing we do have an alarm system, and that we always activate it when we go out. It’s the first time in the ten years we’ve had it that it has actually caught someone, but I added up all the money we’ve spent on it and its monitoring… if they’d gotten in and stolen just the easily-found and easily-moved computer equipment, it would have cost about three-quarters of that amount to replace, not counting the lost data (the off-site backup would have preserved the bulk of it, but not the last few weeks worth). If they’d taken our (very dated) game consoles, games, DVDs, or any other valuables as well, it would have cost us far more. And who knows how many other sneaks may have been scared off over the years by the advertised presence of the alarm system? Not to mention the peace of mind of having a monitored fire alarm as well. And the latch on that door could have used replacing anyway, though I’d have preferred not to be forced into it.
All in all, we came out of it pretty well.
“Gigantic KRAKEN fingered in prehistoric murder mystery”
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.
“Genetics and technology make Columbus Day a fraud”
Something to think about this time next year.
“Car-Crushing Vilnius Mayor Wins ‘Ig Nobel’ Peace Prize”
This is why I love the Ig Nobel prizes: this one has temporarily eclipsed even my favorite website in my affections.
“Violent videogames reduce crime”
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. 🙂
“Gay-bashing cult plans picket of Steve Jobs funeral”
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 for — would be the prosecution’s Exhibit A. Fortunately, they were irrelevant before they even existed, and history shows that they’ll fade to oblivion like every other hate group. Twenty years from now, they’ll only be a footnote in advanced history students’ term papers.
“Boffins invent miracle pill that counteracts effects of booze”
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 you stone cold sober and painfully aware of it,” if I recall his phrasing correctly. 🙂 It sounds like this one might not give you any noticeable after-effects. When you think about it, that might be dangerous… you normally pass out before you can drink so much that it will kill you. If this counters being drunk without countering the alcohol itself, that “feature” wouldn’t be able to protect you anymore.
Of course, if you didn’t get drunk after one of these, it’s an open question whether anyone would bother drinking.
“Earth may be headed into a mini Ice Age within a decade”
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 have climbed to by now. They’ve long wondered just where all the heat, that their models say should be there, actually is.
A few months ago, they may have found their answer. Our local stellar furnace seem to be headed into one of its cyclical periods of low activity:
According to a statement issued by the NSO, announcing the research:
An immediate question is whether this slowdown presages a second Maunder Minimum, a 70-year period with virtually no sunspots [which occurred] during 1645-1715.
As NASA notes:
Early records of sunspots indicate that the Sun went through a period of inactivity in the late 17th century. Very few sunspots were seen on the Sun from about 1645 to 1715. Although the observations were not as extensive as in later years, the Sun was in fact well observed during this time and this lack of sunspots is well documented. This period of solar inactivity also corresponds to a climatic period called the “Little Ice Age” when rivers that are normally ice-free froze and snow fields remained year-round at lower altitudes. There is evidence that the Sun has had similar periods of inactivity in the more distant past.
During the Maunder Minimum and for periods either side of it, many European rivers which are ice-free today – including the Thames – routinely froze over, allowing ice skating and even for armies to march across them in some cases.
If that’s the case, any human-made global warming may be irrelevant for the next few generations.