It's. . . Science!

I've been catching up with my podcast listening lately. Today I was listening to an episode of Studio 360 from a couple of months ago where they were talking about the Large Hadron Collider over in Switzerland (which, a quick check of the news-sites reveal, is being switched on sometime tomorrow). As a science dilettante I find this interesting for the sense of perspective it give. Look at how far humanity has come in not only our knowledge and understanding, but also in our technical ability over the past 100 years. Of course, the other reason it's interesting is for the apocalyptic doomsayers claiming that it will bring about the end of the world. I mean, really, who doesn't like a good apocalypse?


Besides, doesn't it just look cool?

As an aside, Studio 360 included an interesting, speculative short story in their piece:



Am I worried? Of course not. While I personally don't have the knowledge or experience to evaluate the probability of some extinction event arising out of this machine, I'm reassured by the fact that those who do have that knowledge and experience have determined that the risk is infinitesimally small. It does raise and interesting question (at least in my mind), though. How large does a risk have to be before it becomes a concern? If you play it too safe, you'll never learn anything new, but if you're too daring the consequences could be quite far reaching. Where's the balance?

Personally, I don't know, but it is an interesting question to think about.

Save Superman's Birthplace

No, not Krypton, the house where Superman was first created needs to be saved. Here's a video about it:



It can be difficult to justify logically the historic preservation of places, but historic places have an emotional power, the ability to create a visceral connection between history and an individual. For that reason I tend to be a big fan of historic preservation, and the creation of Superman (and by extension an entire genre) seems pretty historic to me. Besides, if we can preserve the birthplaces of boring things (kidding) like Google and HP, surely we can preserve the birthplace of something cool like Superman (nerd-fight!).

200 Words: "Timelapse" Part 6

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

"Think big?" Jim asked. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well," Carla replied, "you said your character is ten years in the past, so think about disasters or atrocities that have happened in the last ten years."

"Oh," said Jim, becoming very serious.

Carla continued, "So, he could try to warn people about one or more of them."

"How?" Jim asked. "Would anyone believe him?"

"There's your story," Carla said smiling. "Answer that question and the thing'll write itself.

Carla noted that Jim's mind seemed to have moved elsewhere as he was now staring off into space.

"Well," she said, "I really should be getting back to work. Thing Two and I were going to check out that bar on Pearl tonight, wanna come?"

"Huh," Jim replied distractedly, "uh, no, I've got too much to work on." As an afterthought he added, "Maybe some other time."

"Oh, okay." Disappointed, Carla disappeared into the bookshelves.

Jim sat down at a table and pulled out paper and pen from his bag. He wrote:

To Whom It May Concern:

I know this sounds unbelievable, but I have advance knowledge of the next ten years. The following events will occur on or around the following dates:

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we've officially run out of ideas."

Fox has a new reality/game show coming this fall called "Hole in the Wall". The concept behind the game is that the contestants try to match the shape of their bodies to shapes cut into a big yellow wall moving toward them. If they're successful, they pass through the wall as it goes by, if not they get swept into the swimming pool behind them.

That's it. That's all there is to it. This is how Fox proposes to fill airtime this fall.

It's really hard to defend TV sometimes.

The Ache

For me, the best feeling in the world, and the one I end up devoting the most mental resources to analyzing, is the one that comes at the end of a near perfect story. I call it "the ache." It's that feeling that is at once joy at a well told tale, sadness that the story is over, and a desperate hunger for more. There's nothing quite like it, at least not for me, and it is far too rare. I tend to experience it the most with movies, though there have been books, plays, even one or two songs.

And so I consider this feeling, analyzing it, dissecting it, trying to pick out its secrets. There is nothing I'd rather be able to do that engender this feeling in others with a story of my own. Maybe someday.

This of course assumes that the ache is universal and not something unique to me. If it is mine alone, then I feel an enormous amount of pity for everyone else.

Random Video featuring Better Know A Lobby - Atheism

Just Answer The Question!

I had CNN on earlier today, and they were saying that McCain had pulled out of a scheduled interview because of this segment from last night:



The McCain campaign contends that CNN crossed the line with this questioning. How? It seems to me that the problem was that the spokesperson was evading the question that Campbell Brown was putting to him.

Well, actually, the problem was the spokesperson trying to assert that being commander, as governor, of the Alaska National Guard equates to significant military experience. That's just silly. Almost as silly as the assertion I heard earlier that the fact that Alaska is the closest state to Russia means that Palin is an experienced foreign policy hand.