It may sound obvious to anyone who knows me, but hazardous, tricky clean-up of nuclear sites is for me the single compelling reason to avoid nuclear power as a major energy source. I don't worry nearly so much about Chernobyl-style accidents as I do about subtle, continuous contamination of an ecosystem due to nuclear byproducts.
Note that this does not apply to cases where nuclear power provides a clear advantage, especially when the contamination argument is less prominent. Specifically, interplanetary spacecraft are a good use of nuclear power, because the need for a lightweight power source is so prominent. I tend to balk at the idea of using nuclear engines for propulsion -- at least in the long term -- but using a nuclear source for electric power makes perfect sense.
Enough of that, though; I'm boring myself.
Help me here.
It is an odd thing to have one of your favorite mythical worlds spun in an unpleasant way. I came across a mind-twisting article on Harry Potter, the capitalist pig. Nevermind that J.K. Rowling is richer than God now; the fantastical world she created was a lift to my spirit every time I entered it. Maybe it is because I have been raised in a competitive, capitalist environment all my life, and furthermore find competitiveness and also greed to be intrinsic to human nature in all but, as we would say, the most "saintly" among us (when thinking of the greed aspect), but I can't fathom how the competitive drive could be conquered on a large scale within the real world, and how that would even be healthy. Competition causes us to rise to greater challenges, and without the constant battle, we would be complacent and jaded.
Not that I don't tire of the battle to survive many days... especially when paying rent and other bills. In the U.S. the balance is probably shifted too much toward a "lord of the flies" mentality. And the consumerist aspect of our culture truly is poisonous. The latter and former things are somehow conflated, though, to make wholly "evil" the very process by which evil is battled in Harry Potter's world.
I welcome comments that address the mindset of the essay's author. (Does this explain the lukewarm reception of Lance Armstrong by the French and other Europeans? This year he has certainly approached Le Tour with the mindset of dominance.)
Apparently chimps are subject to contagious yawning just like humans.
The team played videos of chimps either yawning or exhibiting other open-mouth behaviours such as grinning to six adult chimps and three infants at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University in Japan.
...They argue that their figure of 33 per cent of adults showing contagious yawning compares well with humans since the chimps do not understand the purpose of the trial.
..."Our data suggest that contagious yawning is a by-product of the ability to conceive of yourself and to use your experience to make inferences about comparable experiences and mental states in others," Gallup told New Scientist.
I don't know how many times I wish I had a tripod along, even for my pocket-sized camera. Now that won't be a problem, because I can carry a home-made bottle-cap tripod and pop it on a handy water bottle.
To the Ace Hardware, Robin!
I ordered my copy of Outfoxed today, and it's left me feeling ornery. Here are some political quickies:
I randomly came upon a site called Cate's Garage Sale Finds: "'Teenagers' from 1954: Grooming and Body Issues". I haven't explored the rest of the garage sale finds, but this page offers grooming tips AND early work by Mr. Luke Perry!
WARNING: rant alert! Read on if you don't mind me ranting about idiots.
I'm still seething after reading a New York Times article about the Federal Marriage Amendment. You know how I feel about the stupidity of the proposed constitutional amendment, but this particular quote incensed me:
"Marriage does matter," said Senator Wayne Allard, Republican of Colorado and the author of the amendment. "It matters to our children, it matters in America. Marriage is the foundation of a free society and courts are redefining marriage."
I take issue with many aspects of that statement, but one part left me flabbergasted. "Marriage is the foundation of a free society." What?!? How exactly does that work? What aspect of freedom is provided by marriage? Which part of the Declaration of Independence called for marriage reform? Is free speech threatened by divorce, or is it search and seizure that's imperiled by pre-marital sex?
Seriously, now. Has it become vogue to claim that anything one doesn't agree with is a threat to freedom? Can I say that computers are the foundation of a free society and write an amendment banning Microsoft software? Or can I claim that intelligence is the foundation of a free society and call for the Pop Quiz Voting Act? Of course not. There are free Luddites, free PC users, and free senators from Colorado, just as there are free divorcees, free Shack-Up Honeys™, and free (gasp!) gays.
Getting right to it (because you knew I would), which freedom is it exactly that's being threatened by allowing gay people to get married? In fact, is there anyone who actually requires "protection" from a married couple? Let's see... other married couples? Nope... children? Nope... will governments topple? No... businesses? N... wait. Hm. That's interesting. Businesses might have to pay out additional benefits if more people can get married. Aha. So the statement should have read:
"[Restricting] Marriage [to as few people as possible] is the foundation of a free [market] society."
Hm. Or he could just be an idiot.
Cassini has just gone through a "gap" in the rings of Saturn where it still managed to be pelted with microscopic particles for a while. The neat part is that they made a sound recording of it all with a QT movie that I think is a simulation. Ah, the pebble-y sound of space (from inside, where it's safe).
This video is so cool I don't even have words to describe it. You'll just have to see for yourself.
Go on. You can do it.
If this blog entry on prisoner abuse in the name of Anti-Terrorism doesn't make you feel like you've been kicked in the stomach, then you're made of stronger stuff than I.
If The Onion hired Emo Phillips and Pee-Wee Herman to do their editorials, then it might turn out something like Fafblog. It's bizarre at first, but once you get past the odd characters and grammatic white noise the cutting political humor emerges, like the young lady becoming the old lady. Or something.
My favorite so far is from their interview with Ralph Nader:
FB: Now Howard Dean has criticized you for takin money from a Republican corporate lobbyist.
NADER: Howard Dean was an insurgent, now he's a detergent!
FB: Hohoho! I don't get that one.
NADER: Listen: it's all very simple. When Democrats take dirty corporate money from dirty corporations, it taints them irrevocably. When I take money from the same corporations, I eat it and then excrete it in the form of pure white energy which then is added to my aura of holy goodness which I will than use to fight those corporations.
FB: Wow! That's amazing!
Oh, and the optical illusion reference is because I found a new, disturbing illusion today. Mind-altering, man...
Please excuse me if this is a duplicate, but I honestly don't remember where I found out about it. (If it was you, let me know and I'll update this entry.) Anyhoo, Tales of Future Past is a cheeky site with lots of pictures and text from old sci-fi magazines, books, shows, and articles, with commentary from our post-ironic perspective.
I'm being obnoxious because with the release of my dad's new book, "Raised Christian Style: The Story of Betty" (the title is ironic - this is the story of a girl who was abused until she became a murderous psychopath and of the state teacher who helped her recover - based on true events), I am very proud of him.
While searching for a good link to the book to put above (which I didn't find, but see below), I stumbled upon my dad's blog (!!). Who knew? He turns 70 this month and is right there with the technology. Go Dad!
Finally, because I realized suddenly that many people I know personally are published authors (yay!), I decided to create an Amazon.com "Listmania!" list about it. If you can think of authors I know but don't know I know or forgot about or something, let me know. Um, yeah....
(written on the board 50 times)
I will not make predictions about space tourism.
I will not make predictions about space tourism.
I will not make predictions about space tourism.
Look what I just discovered: Green Fusion!
Guess where I'm going this weekend!?!
Wow! No description can top that headline, so here it is again: Hubble discovers 100 new planets
Oh, OK, here's a quote: "The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost every sunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets."