The Sensitive Cynic

2008-09-13T22:35:00.001-04:00

Entering with her family, she has a �throw the snowmobile keys into the fur hat� sled-dogging look to her. The naughty smirk of the killer librarian. There�s a whiff of baby oil and moose blood, a heady pheromone that rouses delegates to waggle their paunches at her.

2008-09-06T11:36:00.003-04:00

Wondering where everybody is? How about this scenario: among the countless spacetime continua of the multiverse, the following happens over and over again: some species in some continuum develops the necessary technological prowess to build an LHC, which immediately causes a decay of the false vacuum via bubble nucleation, destroying all life in that continuum. In each universe, somebody has to be first. In this particular one, it's us.

2008-08-15T21:00:00.001-04:00

Tired: H5N1 -- Wired: H9N2

2008-08-15T20:13:00.002-04:00

Sperm-based medical nanobots:

If the spermlike motor works, it could someday use the body�s own energy source�glucose�to do such things as run super-tiny medical devices designed to release anticancer drugs or trigger the breakup of potentially deadly clots.

But... but... how are women supposed to refuel?

2008-08-13T17:46:00.001-04:00

A 'Frankenbot' with a biological brain -- it's all fun and games until it starts building another robot and demanding more brain tissue.

2008-05-07T11:42:00.001-04:00

With an in-body network of in-body sensors, we're on the road to the Instrument of Obedience:

"The technology, which is being tested now in Portsmouth, could also be used if a patient failed to take his or her medicines. A pill dispenser would send an automatic reminder and, if the pills were not taken within a certain time, an alarm would sound and a message would be sent to the patient�s family or carers."

2008-04-28T10:24:00.001-04:00

Hey look at me, I'm in a video on the web: Motto Mash-up, By Jennifer Fuchel and Matthew Greif, 2007... starring some of my favorite aphorisms!

2008-04-02T15:52:00.001-04:00

Black holes may harbour their own universes:

"but those universes would likely contain their own black holes, which could contain their own universes � in an infinite loop."

2008-04-02T09:51:00.001-04:00

I read this 2 weeks ago and now I can't remember what it said: Toxic Effects of Depression on Brain Function: Impairment of Delayed Recall and the Cumulative Length of Depressive Disorder

2008-03-24T08:06:00.002-04:00

Life imitates art: Nerve-tapping neckband used in 'telepathic' chat -- sure sounds like an uvvy to me.

2008-02-22T15:47:00.001-05:00

Electron Caught On Film For The First Time:

�It takes about 150 attoseconds for an electron to circle the nucleus of an atom. An attosecond is 10^-18 seconds long, or, expressed in another way: an attosecond is related to a second as a second is related to the age of the universe.�

2008-02-18T08:22:00.001-05:00

Video: Camp Nirvana for String Quartets 2007. More info at ChamberMusicMadness.org

2008-01-31T09:51:00.000-05:00

An Atlas of the Universe illustrates scales from 12.5 light years to 14 billion light years -- 9 orders of magnitude!

2008-01-31T09:43:00.000-05:00

Listen to Studio 360: Nikola Tesla: Strange Genius, which describes Tesla's relationships with Edison, Marconi, Mark Twain, Dr. Strangelove and Death Rays. Thanks to Mike Daisey for the link.

2008-01-22T17:48:00.000-05:00

Tired: software methodologies. Wired: Crystal Methodology.

2008-01-21T16:34:00.000-05:00

Beethoven's "Fur Elise" and "Ode to Joy", transcribed for scanner.

2008-01-21T11:13:00.000-05:00

Looking to pick up some extra cash via professional guinea-pigging? Well, here ya go.

2008-01-08T13:37:00.000-05:00

Big Pharma Spends [Twice As Much] On Advertising Than Research And Development. Gee, do you think this could be a reason why the FDA approved just 19 novel drugs last year � the lowest number since 1983?

2008-01-06T12:54:00.000-05:00

Have you seen the new Bush coins? In gallon denominations!

2007-12-22T16:17:00.000-05:00

The Geek Guide To Low-Carbs. Words to (try to) live by.

2007-12-18T17:44:00.000-05:00

Looks to me like a Death Star (lower left) that can take out a whole galaxy (to the Death Star's upper right), not just one piddling little planet:
Don't let Darth Cheney see this.

2007-12-08T20:53:00.000-05:00

The Catholic League doesn't want you to see the self-censored (or is it crypto-secularist?) movie version of Philip Pullman's "The Golden Compass" (aka "Northern Lights") because it might tempt you to read the books. How very like the Magisterium.

But after all that, I found the movie disappointing. It ain't no Narnia, nor Harry Potter, nor LotR. The plot drifts unconvincingly, and the characters ramble about without being very involving. It's the same feeling I got when watching James and the Giant Peach. And I find the following, um, "eerie parallels" between TGC and Star Wars:
Lyra <-> Luke Skywalker
Marisa Coulter <-> Darth Vader
Dust <-> midichlorians
Iorek Byrnison <-> Chewbacca
Lee Scoresby <-> Han Solo

2007-12-05T10:11:00.000-05:00

Thank heaven! Jerry Springer: the Opera ruled not blasphemous:

Christian Voice director Stephen Green had hoped to overturn a previous ruling by a judge which forbade him from prosecuting [BBC Director General] Mark Thompson. [�] Mr. Green had said the show "clearly crossed the blasphemy threshold".

No climbdown seen from Mr. Greene, who unloads at length:

The 400-500 of us at White City alone prayed for God to have mercy and stop the [BBC TV] transmission. By letting it go ahead, it was clear God's heart was for judgment instead. [...] God was telling us to start polishing and aiming up a few round spiritual stones! [...] To allow insults against our Redeemer is cowardice. Rev 3:16 and 21:8 make clear that the apathetic and the fearful have no part in the Lord's purpose. [...] And by the way, to all of those liberal wiseacres who have said there is a deeply 'moral message' in 'Springer', get real. [...] Lord Scarman, speaking in the House of Lords judgment in the 'Gay News case', endorsed the definition of blasphemy found in Stephen's Digest of the Criminal Law, which defines blasphemy as "any contemptuous, reviling, scurrilous or ludicrous matter relating to God, Jesus Christ or the Bible, or the formularies of the Church of England as by law established."

Sigh. I'm more and more convinced that religions (all of 'em!) are psychotic disorders.

2007-12-03T13:34:00.000-05:00

Remember Voyager 2? It will be crossing the termination shock Real Soon Now:

University of California-Riverside physicist Haruichi Washimi, using a computer model simulation, has predicted the Voyager 2 spacecraft will cross the termination shock "within the next several weeks."

Is anything still working on the Voyagers, or are they just hunks of metal at this point? (Pending their transfiguration into V'GER, of course).

What I really want to know is when/if they'll cross the Milky Way's galactic bow shock, which runs before us on our collision course with Andromeda.

And speaking of shock waves, there's a really big one playing over in Stephan's Quintet... not to be confused with the cosmic jam session going on in the Perseus cluster:

Sound has been detected from another black hole in the Perseus cluster, which was calculated to have a note some 57 octaves below middle C. However, the sound in M87 appears to be more discordant and complex. A series of unevenly spaced loops in the hot gas gives evidence for small outbursts from the black hole about every 6 million years. These loops imply the presence of sound waves, not visible in the Chandra image, which are about 56 octaves below middle C. The presence of the large cavity and the sonic boom gives evidence for even deeper notes -- 58 or 59 octaves below middle C -- powered by large outbursts.

2007-11-29T18:02:00.001-05:00

Soon I must embark upon a Quest� for the Holy Grail� of beer:

Two American Web sites, Rate Beer and Beer Advocate, rank the strongest of Westvleteren's three products, a dark creamy beer known as "the 12," best in the world, ahead of beers including Sweden's N�rke Kaggen Stormaktsporter and Minnesota's Surly Darkness. "No question, it is the holy grail of beers," says Remi Johnson, manager of the Publick House, a Boston bar that has Westvleteren on its menu but rarely in stock.