Sci-Fi Philosophical Ponderable

May 162012

A common enough element in science fiction tales is an elixir, a virus, a genetic therapy, a magic ray that will turn an old person young.

Now, if there were such a treatment, and it was reliable, safe and even remotely affordable for your average billionaire, it would be fabulously popular. Few enough people want to get old; many would want to live a long, long time young and healthy. But every now and then a sci-fi story about this youthenizing treatment has a wrinkle: the process wipes the brain clean.

So, assume this: a month in a tank of magical goop will turn an 80-year-old into a 20-year-old, free of all diseases and physical damage… but with all memories erased, and the brain sorta “reset” to a blank stage. Maybe retaining the ability to walk and talk and eat and such, but the person is *gone* and irretrievable.

Discuss: who the hell would go through with this? What would be the advantage of restoring yourself to youth if in the process, “you” go away?

History lesson for today

blather, history No Responses »

May 162012

Cracked.com has a really interesting article up:

6 Ridiculous Lies You Believe About the Founding of America

Central to these is the little reported but apocalyptic plague that struck the Americas right around the time of the post-Columbus European colonization. Most likely this plague was smallpox brought by the Europeans, coupled with some native hemoragic fevers and other diseases from Europe and the Americas. Rather than the Europeans wiping out the Injuns in wars of conquest, the Europeans arrived in lands that had been modified and improved by the natives, and depopulated shortly before the Europeans arrived.

This wasn’t news to me, but the sudden explosive growth of forests in the New World after the death of 90+ percent of the extant population leading to a substantial drawdown in atmospheric CO2 and a resultant mini-ice age was news to me.

I fricken' knew it...

AARRRGH, Gah., blather, news, science, science fiction, spacecraft No Responses »

May 152012

2,000 Apply for Jobs Building Asteroid-Mining Robots

I was first, damnit!

Of course it ends with this:

“We have received over 2,000 applications since our April 24th press event, and we are not currently accepting applications for full-time employees, summer internships or student co-ops,” reads an update on the company’s website.

Water War

Obamazombies, news, politics No Responses »

May 152012

The source is World Net Daily, so, caveat emptor. But if the story is even remotely accurate, this is a dandy way for the US FedGuv to spark a civil war.

‘Existential threat’ to Western U.S. states

Water rights are something you just don’t mess with out West.

Reminds me of something…

Political theater

news, politics No Responses »

May 152012

FBI may charge George Zimmerman with hate crime

I think the federal prison system would have a hard time handling the extra population if these laws were prosecuted consistently on the same level of apparent evidence as in this case.

But then there’s this, too…

Zimmerman Medical Report Shows Broken Nose, Lacerations After Trayvon Martin Shooting

Psychopathic children

AARRRGH, Crazy, blather No Responses »

May 132012

Read the article:

Can You Call a 9-Year-Old a Psychopath?

and you’ll say YES.

Mike and “L” sound like a scream. And like screaming, you’ll want to avoid them.

US Army Lunar Lander

art, drawings, history, projects, rockets, spacecraft No Responses »

May 132012

In the late 1950′s, before NASA was created, the USAF, the US Army and even the US Navy each thought that they might lead the American manned space program. The Army produced studies for Project Horizon, a manned Lunar base for military purposes (not just research and exploration, but also offensive nuclear capability). Horizon would have used early versions of the Saturn I to send men and equipment into space. To land on the Moon, large landers such as the one shown below would have been used. This multi-stage monster would have had the Earth return capsule up top (the downward-pointing cone inside the nose), a feature carried forward on early NASA Apollo concepts until Lunar Orbit Rendezvous became the baseline.

Well, THAT took long enough...

AARRRGH, blather No Responses »

May 132012

College sweethearts to wed after 60 years apart

Aw.

And as Fark put it:

That cute girl sitting next to you in college 60 years ago? Maybe it’s time to finally ask her to marry you

One of the best non-snark comments there:

brug

2012-05-13 10:14:25 AM

We can all hope to have someone to love us when we’re old and saggy.

A great aunt of mine had a similar story. She was forbidden from marrying her sweetheart by her parents due to some religious difference. But many years later, after their spouses had passed away (and their parents too), they reunited.

Once they were married, they celebrated every month as an anniversary because they knew their time together was limited and they didn’t have many years.

"American Gothic" house

art, awesomeness, blather, news No Responses »

May 132012

The LA Time ran a story a little while back about the house from Grant Wood’s 1930 “American Gothic” painting. It still stands in Eldon, Iowa, and is being rented by one Beth Howard… for $250 a month. Ms. Howard was previously a denizen of high population density urban regions, but has come to appreciate the better life offered by small town rural America.

At home in a piece of history

Who knew?

blather, news, nukes, science No Responses »

May 132012

Radioactive man? Milford resident pulled over by state police

Short form: a feller in Connecticut has some high blood pressure, so goes to the doc for some testing. Included is “nuclear stress testing,” where he gets a small amount of radioactive material injected into his bloodstream. Later in the day, he gets pulled over by a state trooper… because the radiation detectors in the troopers car went off when he went by.

A) Who knew that the radiation detectors carried by the cops are that sensitive?

B) Who knew that cops carried radiation detectors?