Alcohol at Home

Well, this just makes sense. Teaching that alcohol is to be enjoyed, but not binged. [Link]

This is something that has needed to be said for some time:

“The best evidence shows that teaching kids to drink responsibly is better than shutting them off entirely from it,” he told me. “You want to introduce your kids to it, and get across the point that that this is to be enjoyed but not abused.”

He said that the most dangerous day of a young person’s life is the 21st birthday, when legality is celebrated all too fervently. Introducing wine as a part of a meal, he said, was a significant protection against bingeing behavior.

When I was younger, I got wine at special occasions. It was never a big deal. Once I turned 21, I rarely drank. I rarely drink now, but I still enjoy the occasional wine and beer.

Romanticizing Starvation

African countries won't use genetically modified crops, even if they would produce more food. [Link]

It’s interesting. In no other area are governments in Africa particularly concerned about hypothetical environmental risks. They know better than to invoke the precautionary principle when it comes to unsafe food in open air markets. They know that they need to first get rid of actual food shortages and raise income; then and only then can they afford to impose the same extremely high standards of food safety on open air markets that are imposed on supermarkets in Europe. Yet curiously when it comes to GMOs they adopt the highly precautionary European standard, which makes it impossible to put these products on the market at all. I take that as evidence that this is not an authentic African response, it’s a response imported from Europe.

reason: So the romanticization of bucolic farm landscapes unmarred by scientific advance has an American and European pedigree.

Paarlberg: It’s not what we do at home—only two percent of agricultural products in the US are organically grown. And many of those that are organically grown are grown on industrial scale organic farms in California that don’t bear any resemblance to small bucolic farms. But it’s the image we promote in our new cultural narrative. It’s something that affects the way we give foreign assistance.

and

reason: Isn’t it paternalistic to blame Europeans for the decisions of African governments? Is this something African elites are at least as complicit in?

Paarlberg: It’s a codependency. The African elites depend upon Europe for financial assistance, they depend upon European export markets, they depend on NGOs for technical assistance, it’s just easier for them to follow the European lead than to go against that lead. And to some extent the European governments depend upon having dependents in Africa that will, despite the difficult experience of colonization, continue to imitate and validate and honor European culture and taste.

reason: What exactly have European NGOs done to discourage productivity in farming? You quote Doug Parr, a chemist at Greenpeace, arguing that the de facto organic status of farms in Africa is an opportunity to lock in organic farming, since African farmers have yet to advance beyond that.

Paarlberg: Some of it is well intentioned. The organic farming movement believes this is an appropriate corrective to the chemical intensive farming that they see in Europe. In Europe, where prosperous consumers are willing to pay a premium for organic products, it sometimes makes sense to use a more costly production process. So they think, “Well it’s the wave of the future here in Europe, so it should be the future in Africa as well.”

So they tell Africans who don’t use enough fertilizer that instead of using more they should go to zero and certify themselves as organic. That’s probably the most damaging influence — discouraging Africans from using enough fertilizer to restore the nutrients they mine out of their soil. They classify African farmers as either certified organic, or de facto organic. Indeed, many are de facto organic. And their goal is not to increase the productivity of the organic farmers, but to certify them as organic.

I just find that to be lacking in moral clarity.

Stay Back! He'll whiten your teeth!

A foldable knife or a tube of toothpaste. Which is the threat? [Link]

First, my toothpaste was taken from me and thrown in the trash. The reason – it was larger than 3oz. I didn’t really care, I had forgotten about the new rule and I could buy another tube when I arrived. So, that seriously potential danger is ranked number 1 by the TSA. After all, it could be minty-smelling C4 explosive. I didn't argue, the screener looked at me like I was a moron for even attempting to bring it on board.

Next, my JBL portable speaker system for my iPod. This caused incredible confusion. It was in my carry-on bag, and as it went through the x-ray machine I heard a flurry of activity from the TSA screeners. They all rushed to the screen, making strange faces and pointing fingers. I was asked to accompany my luggage to a screening station, where they dusted for explosive traces and asked me to identify the object. When I explained it was a speaker system, they pondered and then let me through the gate.

Finally, my super-sharp and very handy lock-knife keychain. I had put my keys in my coat pocket and completely forgot about the dangerous weapon attached. I was surprised then that this object was never considered a threat. My coat went through the x-ray machine with no issues, and I left the screening area to board the plane carrying a deadly weapon. Make no mistake, this knife could gut a deer carcass (which I would never do, but you get the point).

Plus, the knife made it through security again! What line of CYA BS will the TSA blog shovel in response? Security theater at it's best.

Security theater are security countermeasures that provide the feeling of security while doing little or nothing to actually improve security.^[1] The term was coined by Bruce Schneier for his book Beyond Fear but has gained currency in security circles, particularly for describing airport security measures. It is also used by some experts such as Edward Felten to describe the security measures imposed after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center. Security theater gains importance both by satisfying and exploiting the gap between perceived risk and actual risk.

Who owns Superman?

Article about the ruling giving the Siegel estate rights to the content of Action Comics #1. [Link]

As you-all know by now, Judge Stephen G. Larson of the United States District Court, Central District of California, has ruled in favor of Jerry Siegel’s widow and daughter, Joanne Siegel and Laura Siegel Larson, in their suit to reclaim Jerry Siegel’s rights to the Superman material contained in Action Comics #1. Pursuant to the Copyright Act of 1976, the Siegel heirs had sued Warner Bros. Entertainment, Time Warner, and DC Comics.

The Copyright Act of 1976 gave authors and their heirs “a chance to retain the extended renewal term in their work and then re bargain for it when its value in the marketplace was known.” (Opinion, p. 62.) In passing the Act, Congress’ intent (quoted by Judge Larson) was to address the “unequal bargaining position of authors, resulting in part from the impossibility of determining a work’s prior value until it has been exploited.” Id (citation omitted).

Accordingly, on April 3, 1997, the Siegel heirs delivered notices of termination to DC which covered various agreements entered into between Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster, and DC and its predecessors (hereinafter just called “DC” for convenience). These agreements included the original 1938 assignment of rights, a 1948 stipulation which concerned subsequent litigation, and the 1975 agreement in which DC agreed to pay pensions to the two creators. Id. at 20. The central question of this litigation was whether those notices of termination were valid and enforceable.

Fitna - Satire in Action

A new film that is producing outrage in the Islamic world, Fitna claims that Islam is violent and incites hatred. Islamic spokesmen deny this vehemently, claiming that Islam is a religion of peace, and if the movie wasn't suppressed violence would follow. Do they understand the meaning of irony? European leaders were falling all over themselves to distance themselves from the film, to prevent the violence from followers of the religion of peace. [Link]

Geert Wilders's controversial film "Fitna" has now been posted online. Though the footage is familiar, the film is disturbing. In the film Wilders attributes the murder and violence committed by Muslims in the name of Islam to Islam and the Koran. The film therefore does not distinguish between Islam and Islamism, asserting that the distinction is false.

Taking issue with the film, and seeking to head off a wave of Muslim violence inspired by it, Dutch Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende felt compelled to weigh in at a news conference held at the Hague: "The film equates Islam with violence. We reject this interpretation.'' The Dutch Prime Minister says he rejects the interpretation, but he seems to do so because he fears that it has some merit. His comments put me in mind of the bumper sticker "Support mental health or I'll kill you."

The Internet - it'll never take off

Newsweek article by Clifford Stoll from 1995. [Link]

Visionaries see a future of telecommuting workers, interactive libraries and multimedia classrooms. They speak of electronic town meetings and virtual communities. Commerce and business will shift from offices and malls to networks and modems. And the freedom of digital networks will make government more democratic.

Baloney. Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.

Consider today's online world. The Usenet, a worldwide bulletin board, allows anyone to post messages across the nation. Your word gets out, leapfrogging editors and publishers. Every voice can be heard cheaply and instantly. The result? Every voice is heard. The cacophany more closely resembles citizens band radio, complete with handles, harrasment, and anonymous threats. When most everyone shouts, few listen. How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it's an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can't tote that laptop to the beach. Yet Nicholas Negroponte, director of the MIT Media Lab, predicts that we'll soon buy books and newspapers straight over the Intenet. Uh, sure.

Marvel's Secret Invasion Trailer

Cool.

Politics is messy

Latest in a set of posts about taking part in the Texas Democratic caucuses. It's messy, disorganized and sounds more than a little unethical. [Link]

I'm sorry they haven't done a better job making sure all the delegates have all the information they need. Part of the problem is that it's the job of the Delegation Chair in your precinct to let every delegate in that precinct know when and where the convention is. Looking at your precinct, I notice that you are a delegate for Clinton and the Delegation Chair in your precinct supports Obama. The same thing is true in my precinct--I'm for Clinton, and my Delegation Chair, who has never contacted me, is for Obama. It was actually the Obama Precinct Captain who told me, when I asked her a series of questions about the rules a few weeks ago, that it's the Delegation Chair's responsibility. To make up for this, I have made a point of personally calling and e-mailing all the Clinton delegates in my precinct (235), who would be out of the loop if it were left to the Delegation Chair.

Here's the problem: if the Clinton delegates who are in precincts with Delegation Chairs who support Obama (in other words, any precinct with an Obama majority, since those Chairs were voted on at the caucus) don't show up because those Delegation Chairs only contacted the Obama supporters, Obama will get delegates he didn't earn. The race is all about delegates, and those delegates will be determined by those who show up at the county convention, then determined by those who are sent on to the state convention. We can't let them win more delegates just by not telling us when the convention is!

Verbal Sparring in Court

This is great. Very funny. [Link]

A most extraordinary trial is going on in the High Court at the moment in which a man named Chrysler is accused of stealing more than 40,000 coat hangers from hotels round the world. He admits his guilt, but in his defence he claims that - well, perhaps it would be simpler just to bring you a brief extract from the trial. We join the case at the point where Chrysler has just taken the stand.

Counsel: What is your name?

Chrysler: Chrysler. Arnold Chrysler.

Counsel: Is that your own name?

Chrysler: Whose name do you think it is?

Counsel: I am just asking if it is your name.

Chrysler: And I have just told you it is. Why do you doubt it?

Counsel: It is not unknown for people to give a false name in court.

Chrysler: Which court?

Counsel: This court.

Chrysler: What is the name of this court?

Counsel: This is No 5 Court.

Chrysler: No, that is the number of this court. What is the name of this court?

Counsel: It is quite immaterial what the name of this court is!

Chrysler: Then perhaps it is immaterial if Chrysler is really my name.

Counsel: No, not really, you see because…

Judge: Mr Lovelace?

Counsel: Yes, m’lud?

Judge: I think Mr Chrysler is running rings round you already. I would try a new line of attack if I were you.

Read the rest. It gets better.

Florida has the dumbest criminals

Don't try to carjack in the jail's parking lot right after being released. [Link]

The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office called him stupid Tuesday. But Frank Singleton could almost write the book on how to turn a misdemeanor into a felony without ever leaving the jail's parking lot.

"This is one of the stupid criminals," Sheriff's Office spokesman Paul Miller said.

Singleton, 21, of West Palm Beach, got released from the county lockup Tuesday after being arrested on a misdemeanor trespassing charge.

He immediately ran out into the visitor's parking lot and, in an apparent effort to get away as quickly as possible, tried to carjack a 2006 Nissan 350Z, Miller said.

The woman who was driving it, Justine Lapierre, was just getting out of her car when Singleton ran at her saying, "I want your car," Miller said.

He pushed Lapierre out of the way, grabbed the keys and jumped into the Nissan. But it was a manual transmission and Singleton couldn't operate it, Miller said.

Hearing the commotion, Sheriff's Office Pastor Leo Krug walked up and, holding his handgun by his side, ordered the barely free Singleton to the ground so a deputy could handcuff him.

Singleton was booked on a carjacking charge.

"I don't think he wanted to go back to jail," Miller said. "I think he really wanted to get away and was looking for a car." When the detective was making the arrest, he asked Singleton why he did this.

"I didn't feel like walking," Singleton said.

Don't try armed robbery in a police station. [Link]

Two men walk into a building. They claim to have guns, and demand that the lady behind the counter hand over all her cash.

Now, I worked in banking for 3+ years. We're well-trained on how to handle robberies, so much so that I was never, not once afraid of being robbed (violent robberies, with teller-line takeovers, are very rare, but that would scare me shitless -- most bank robberies are fairly straightforward). Comply with the robbers. Give them everything they want. All the money is insured, so just let it go. Don't fight with them, don't talk back. Just give them the money and let them go. No biggie.

You are not supposed to do what this woman did, which is run for help.

Except these two robbers weren't robbing a bank. They weren't robbing a gas station or a liquor store.

They were robbing a police station.

There are times I feel like just living here makes me dumber.

Gum chewers happy for less gum at same price

Wow. [Link]

Sometime soon Wrigley's will start promoting its new Slim Pack packaging in select markets, and nationwide by 2009. It's slimmer! It's easier to carry! And it's got 15 sticks instead of 17—for the same price! A Wrigley's vice president told Brandweek that consumers wouldn't care that they're getting less product: "To them the value goes up because they're getting a better tasting product in a better package." Ha ha consumers sure are stupid, aren't they, VP of Wrigley's?

Giant Bus of the Future

I love this stuff. [Link]

Unique Bus of Future to Duplicate Speed of Railroads

RECENT developments in everything that moves has caused many flights of imagination. Thus the fancy conjures up a bus to keep pace with other transportation. The bus between New York and San Francisco will be equipped with airplanes for trips not on the regular schedule. For diversion, billiard rooms, swimming pool, dancing floor and a bridle path would be available. The pilot would be “enthroned” over his engines, with the radio above. Space for autos would be afforded by the deck.

Sort of like this. [Link]

The ultimate disaster film parody. A nuclear powered bus is going Non-stop from New York to Denver and is plagued by disasters due to the machinations of a mysterious group allied with the Oil lobby. When the driver is injured a washed up, down on his luck, but used to be great type, who as it happens, used to be engaged to the inventor's daughter is brought in to drive the giant bus which includes a one lane swimming pool and a one lane bowling alley.

The best Sci-Fi Fake Rumors

This is a great list of fake rumors. I would have preferred to see some of these instead of what actually got made. [Link]

Quentin Tarantino will direct at least one of the Star Wars prequel films -- which features a naked Natalie Portman. Meanwhile, Star Trek XI is all about the evil Captain Kirk from the alternate "Mirror Mirror" universe teaming up with an evil Picard and an evil Archer. If only every rumor in science fiction turned out to be true, just imagine how trippy your favorite shows and movies would have been. Click through for our roundup of the weirdest and most awesome rumors... that turned out to be totally wrong.

Advice for Superman/Batman team ups

Treat them as if they're Riggs and Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon. [Link]

Superman is the cautious one, the straight arrow who does everything by the book despite (or because of) his almost limitless power. Batman is the crazy, out-of-control risktaker who keeps dragging Superman into situations he's not equipped for. Batman is the guy who sends Superman and himself diving into a black hole on a spaceship with one dud engine. He's the one who drags Superman and himself into a nest of trolls, whose magic weapons can hack Superman to pieces. He seems to make impulsive, rash decisions, but always turns out to have a plan. Sort of.

And yes, I know that since Grant Morrison's JLA Batman has been portrayed as the uber-control freak who always plans twenty steps ahead in every situation. But he's also the non-powered guy who dresses up in a bat costume, with his face unprotected, and jumps off rooftops into gunfire every night of the week. He's the crazed, half-suicidal Mel Gibson to Superman's Danny Glover.

Every Superman/Batman storyline should start with Superman being totally on top of things as usual, crushing a rogue giant robot with one hand while using his heat vision to stop a falling satellite from crashing on a populated area. And maybe using his super-breath to avert a tsunami at the same time. And then suddenly, Batman comes zipping up in his Bat-plane and is like, "time to go, boy scout!" Superman starts to protest, but he knows Batman only resorts to asking for his help when it's a serious problem. The next thing he knows, he's lost control over his superpowers and Batman is sending the two of them in a tailspin into a magical soul-eating volcano. "This volcano is connected to a crime that happened in Gotham City, which means it's MINE," Batman explains helpfully.

Instead of looking at Batman and thinking, "I don't approve of his methods," or "He's my pal," or "Bruce, why are you so grim and dark?" Superman should be shouting "Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuce! What have you gotten me into this time?" at the top of his super-lungs, while Batman cackles.

I can see that working really well.

Suspended Animation in Mice

Now if it can be scaled up for human use,long term apce travel just got a whole lot more interesting. [Link]

"Hydrogen sulfide is the stinky gas that can kill workers who encounter it in sewers; but when adminstered to mice in small, controlled doses, within minutes it produces what appears to be totally reversible metabolic suppression," says Warren Zapol, MD, chief of Anesthesia and Critical Care at MGH and senior author of the Anesthesiology study. "This is as close to instant suspended animation as you can get, and the preservation of cardiac contraction, blood pressure and organ perfusion is remarkable."

Previous investigations into the effects of low-dose hydrogen sulfide showed that the gas could lower body temperature and metabolic rate and also improved survival of mice whose oxygen supply had been restricted. But since hypothermia itself cuts metabolic needs, it was unclear whether the reduced body temperature was responsible for the other observed effects. The current study was designed to investigate both that question and the effects of hydrogen sulfide inhalation on the cardiovascular system.

The researchers measured factors such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration and physical activity in normal mice exposed to low-dose (80 ppm) hydrogen sulfide for several hours. They analyzed cardiac function with electrocardiograms and echocardiography and measured blood gas levels. While some mice were studied at room temperature, others were kept in a warm environment -- about 98º F -- to prevent their body temperatures from dropping.

In all the mice, metabolic measurements such as consumption of oxygen and production of carbon dioxide dropped in as little as 10 minutes after they began inhaling hydrogen sulfide, remained low as long as the gas was administered, and returned to normal within 30 minutes of the resumption of a normal air supply. The animals' heart rate dropped nearly 50 percent during hydrogen sulfide adminstration, but there was no significant change in blood pressure or the strength of the heart beat. While respiration rate also decreased, there were no changes in blood oxygen levels, suggesting that vital organs were not at risk of oxygen starvation.

The Lynx, a suborbital plane that takes off and lands horizontally

We'll be seeing this in the air in two years. [Link]

US Company Xcor Aerospace revealed its plans for the new rocketplane at the company's headquarters, on the edge of the tarmac of the US's first certified private spaceport. SpaceShipTwo is under development just next door.

Xcor say Lynx Mark I will start flights two years from now. Funding from the Air Vehicles Directorate of the US Air Force Research Laboratory and additional sources not yet revealed will help develop the craft in time. Xcor says that 50 test flights starting in 2010 over a period of six months should be enough to ready Lynx Mark I for commercial operations.

The Ansari X Prize-winning SpaceShipOne and its successor SpaceShipTwo both need to be carried to high altitude beneath a specialized carrier airplane.

Taste of space

The Lynx, however, will take off and land from long airport runways, using its own rocket engines for power from the taxiway all the way to an altitude of 61 km. Unlike the US space shuttle, which glides to a landing without engine power, the Lynx will be able to abort a landing by switching its rockets back on ready for another attempt.

Lynx is fueled by kerosene – the standard fuel of jet aircraft – mixed with liquid oxygen. The relatively simple-to-handle fuel and oxidiser combination should help to give the craft a rapid turnaround time, says company president Jeffrey Greason.

"Our company's goal has always been to build rocket-powered vehicles that can be flown and operated like regular aircraft," he says. Lynx is even relatively environmentally friendly: "They are fully reusable, burn cleanly, and release fewer particulates than solid fuel or hybrid rocket motors," Greason says.

The two-seater can carry aloft either one passenger – seated next to the pilot – or a scientific or commercial payload. The whole flight will last about 25 minutes, providing a brief taste of weightlessness and the view of the jet-black, star-filled sky above the blue Earth. It is an experience that some surveys indicate thousands of people may be willing to pay hefty sums for.

Lynx FAQ. [Link]

Is the Lynx your first vehicle?
No. The Lynx is XCOR’s third rocket-powered vehicle. Our first, the EZ-Rocket, made 26 flights and set a point-to-point distance record for rocket-powered aircraft.

The second aircraft, now undergoing flight tests, has a more powerful and advanced rocket engine that uses XCOR’s proprietary technology. It is the first private sector manned rocket-powered aircraft to use a pump-fed fuel system.

The Lynx will not be our last vehicle. It is another step on a technology path that will lead to construction of cost effective fully orbital spaceships.

Going For An English

Very Funny. [Link]

D.B. Cooper's parachute found

D.B. Cooper's chute found. [Link]

36 years after he jumped from a hijacked plane with a bag containing $200,000 in ransom, D.B. Cooper's whereabouts remain unknown. But his parachute was discovered yesterday.

If it is Cooper's parachute, that will solve one mystery -- where he apparently landed -- but it will raise another, Carr said.

In 1980, a family on a picnic found $5,880 of Cooper's money in a bag on a Columbia River beach, near Vancouver. Some investigators believed it might have been washed down to the beach by the Washougal River. But if Cooper landed near Amboy and stashed the money bag there, there's no way it could have naturally reached the Washougal.

"If this is D.B. Cooper's parachute, the money could not have arrived at its discovery location by natural means," Carr said. "That whole theory is out the window."

Queen vs. Satan

I was listening to the Daily Source Code 737 and this was the first song played. It's a mashup of Another One Bites the Dust and a religious backwards masking sermon of the song. [Link] Beautiful.

How to buy a missile silo

For when you need to get away from it all. [Link]

Buying a missile silo for your very own is really like purchasing any piece of real estate. You need to scope out the property, see if you like the area and check out the neighbors. Well, chances are there won’t be ANY neighbors anywhere close by. Missile silos were built away from populated areas, behind miles of fenceline and under armed guard. Some people like the idea of all that solitude, and if that’s you, life on the (former) nuclear prairie could be for you. If you are in the market for one of these throwbacks to the Cold War, here’s some food for thought:

• Buying a missile silo means buying multiple acres.
• Silos are on decommissioned military bases or military annexes and are often far away from towns or cities.
• Your missile silo may be located near an EPA Superfund pollution cleanup site. Do your homework before buying.
• Have the site appraised by a real estate professional, but understand that your costs for the property may be inflated due to the unusual nature of the property. You may pay “seller’s market” rates for such a site rather than realistic prices.
• You may need a generator or a special arrangement with a local power company for electrical service.
• Certain features such as blast doors and other unique missile silo construction may require structural evaluation after 30 years or more of disuse.

A missile silo site is what real estate types call “a real fixer-upper.” Some sites are flooded, need serious mold abatement, and will definitely require you to do a renovation.

The power of skepticism

Giggling while being cursed. [Link]

Pandit Surinder Sharma, a famous Indian tantrick (magician) was on a televised panel discussion when he claimed he could kill any man with black magic in under three minutes. Fellow panelist, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged the tantrick to kill him right then and there. Hilarity ensued as Sharma chanted the death mantra, and, when that failed, waved a knife and sprinkled water on him, as Edamarku laughed the entire time. After two hours of this, the show's anchor pronounced the attempt a failure. The tantrick said he must be under the protection of a very powerful god, to which Edmarku replied "I am an atheist". The tantrick claimed nobody could stand up to his extra-special death spell, but that could only be performed at night. The TV station promptly arranged another trial at night, with predictable results.

Bad IT staff, no biscuit

If you are sending automated email, do not set the reply to another domain, like say, www.donotreply.com. If you do, customers will send things that were not meant to go there. [Link]

If your company is in the habit of using a "donotreply.com" address in the "From" field of its emails, you might want to forward your IT department this entry from the Washington Post's "Security Fix" blog—when customers don't pay attention and reply to a "donotreply.com" email address, it goes to Chet Faliszek, a programmer in Seattle who registered the domain seven years ago.

With the exception of extreme cases... Faliszek says he long ago stopped trying to alert companies about the e-mails he was receiving. It's just not worth it: Faliszek said he is constantly threatened with lawsuits from companies who for one reason or another have a difficult time grasping why he is in possession of their internal documents and e-mails.

Wow. wouldn't donotreplay@mydomain.com make a heck of a lot more sense?

For the well dressed Man in Black on the hunt

Handheld burner. [Link]

Easy to carry from place to place, a weed burner solves the problem of clearing land. It throws a fan-shaped flame that mushrooms against the ground, stone wall or rock pile to “melt” every growing plant within its range. One model of the burner is self-contained for one-man operation. It has a tank that holds oil for one and one-half hours” work. The handle is constructed for attachment of a shoulder strap or webbing to facilitate carrying. Thetorch also can be used for sterilizing poultry houses, dog kennels and stables.

Right, dog kennels and stables. Not shambling zombies or rampaging triffids. Good cover story.

Vaccination Freeloaders

From Instapundit. [Link]

MICHELLE MALKIN DISAGREES WITH ME ON VACCINES: "Is there junk science on the anti-vaccine side? Absolutely. But you can’t address this issue without also addressing the problem with physicians who are unwilling to discuss the full risks of vaccines as well as the benefits." Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Steven Den Beste emails:

Vaccination refusal is an example of the free rider problem. That's because of herd immunity. If everyone except Bridget vaccinates their kids, Bridget's kids benefit from not ever being exposed to the diseases, but they don't share the (small but nonzero) risk of being vaccinated.

The problem is that like all cases of free riding, too much of it destroys the system. When a large percentage of the population refuses to vaccinate, then herd immunity no longer functions and the diseases return.

And that can negatively affect those who did vaccinate, too, because vaccination doesn't always work. People who vaccinated their kids, and thus accepted their share of the risk, might still have their kids become sick.

If no one free rides, the failure rate isn't high enough to be a problem. Herd immunity protects even the kids for whom vaccination failed.

There have been problems with some vaccines, but overall it is a good. Information about vaccines:

In my case, let people do what they want -- but shame them a bit for free-riding based on no actual science. Megan McArdle would be . . . a bit less laissez faire. And I still think McCain needs to take back his dumb remarks on the subject. You don't want to be making health policy based on Don Imus.

STILL MORE: A followup email from Dr. George Milonas:

For all those people who claim they have no risk factors for HPV (Gardasil) which causes cervical cancer or Hepatitis B which causes liver problems (and more), I have had plenty of moms in my office who have told me that their virgin husbands gave them these diseases on their wedding nights. Here’s a truth for all women: men lie, some men lie all the time. It is far better to protect your innocent daughters from preventable diseases than to blindly trust men.

Here are two links that I think are very useful in the vaccine/autism debate. Please note there is little disagreement amongst clinicians or researchers. The debate involves lay people.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15364187?dopt=Abstract

http://practice.aap.org/content.aspx?aid=106

DC Comic Pulp Annual Covers

This is a great gallery of pulp style covers done in 1997 for that years Annuals. [Link]

Back in 1997, DC Comics featured painted pulp-style covers on all of its annuals and called the event "Pulp Heroes." I wish this had become an annual event. I've done my best to gather an image of every issue in the series, along with links to the cover artist's site.

It's a trifecta of cool.

Galactica Season 4 spoiler roundup

All of them in one place. Don't look unless you to be spoiled. [Link]

Seeing the present from the past

Interesting look at life in 2008 from 1968. [Link]

The single most important item in 2008 households is the computer. These electronic brains govern everything from meal preparation and waking up the household to assembling shopping lists and keeping track of the bank balance. Sensors in kitchen appliances, climatizing units, communicators, power supply and other household utilities warn the computer when the item is likely to fail. A repairman will show up even before any obvious breakdown occurs.

Computers also handle travel reservations, relay telephone messages, keep track of birthdays and anniversaries, compute taxes and even figure the monthly bills for electricity, water, telephone and other utilities. Not every family has its private computer. Many families reserve time on a city or regional computer to serve their needs. The machine tallies up its own services and submits a bill, just as it does with other utilities.

Money has all but disappeared. Employers deposit salary checks directly into their employees’ accounts. Credit cards are used for paying all bills. Each time you buy something, the card’s number is fed into the store’s computer station. A master computer then deducts the charge from your bank balance.

Computers not only keep track of money, they make spending it easier. TV-telephone shopping is common. To shop, you simply press the numbered code of a giant shopping center. You press another combination to zero in on the department and the merchandise in which you are interested. When you see what you want, you press a number that signifies “buy,” and the household computer takes over, places the order, notifies the store of the home address and subtracts the purchase price from your bank balance. Much of the family shopping is done this way. Instead of being jostled by crowds, shoppers electronically browse through the merchandise of any number of stores.

Parts of this are dead on, and others, not so much.

10 Best Jackie Chan Stunts

Wow. Those are amazing.

New kind of lightbulb

This looks very promising. [Link]

You're a Heinleiner!

From Instapundit [Link]

SO I TOOK JOHN VARLEY'S STEEL BEACH with me for, um, beach reading as part of my reread-old-John Varley project, and I was struck by this passage, which I had forgotten:

"There's something else," he went on. "We know there are aliens out there. We know interstellar travel is possible. The next time we meet aliens they could be even worse than the Invaders. They might want to exterminate us, rather than just evict us. I think we ought to keep some fighting skills alive in case we meet some disagreeable critters we can fight."

Brenda sat up, wide-eyed. "You're a Heinleiner!" she said.

It was MacDonald's turn to shrug. "I don't attend services, but I agree with a lot of what they say."

Climate Change

Interesting piece that isn't getting much news. [Link]

Last Monday - on ABC Radio National, of all places - there was a tipping point of a different kind in the debate on climate change. It was a remarkable interview involving the co-host of Counterpoint, Michael Duffy and Jennifer Marohasy, a biologist and senior fellow of Melbourne-based think tank the Institute of Public Affairs. Anyone in public life who takes a position on the greenhouse gas hypothesis will ignore it at their peril.

Duffy asked Marohasy: "Is the Earth stillwarming?"

She replied: "No, actually, there has been cooling, if you take 1998 as your point of reference. If you take 2002 as your point of reference, then temperatures have plateaued. This is certainly not what you'd expect if carbon dioxide is driving temperature because carbon dioxide levels have been increasing but temperatures have actually been coming down over the last 10 years."

Duffy: "Is this a matter of any controversy?"

Marohasy: "Actually, no. The head of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) has actually acknowledged it. He talks about the apparent plateau in temperatures so far this century. So he recognises that in this century, over the past eight years, temperatures have plateaued ... This is not what you'd expect, as I said, because if carbon dioxide is driving temperature then you'd expect that, given carbon dioxide levels have been continuing to increase, temperatures should be going up ... So (it's) very unexpected, not something that's being discussed. It should be being discussed, though, because it's very significant."

Duffy: "It's not only that it's not discussed. We never hear it, do we? Whenever there's any sort of weather event that can be linked into the global warming orthodoxy, it's put on the front page. But a fact like that, which is that global warming stopped a decade ago, is virtually never reported, which is extraordinary."

Duffy then turned to the question of how the proponents of the greenhouse gas hypothesis deal with data that doesn't support their case. "People like Kevin Rudd and Ross Garnaut are speaking as though the Earth is still warming at an alarming rate, but what is the argument from the other side? What would people associated with the IPCC say to explain the (temperature) dip?"

Marohasy: "Well, the head of the IPCC has suggested natural factors are compensating for the increasing carbon dioxide levels and I guess, to some extent, that's what sceptics have been saying for some time: that, yes, carbon dioxide will give you some warming but there are a whole lot of other factors that may compensate or that may augment the warming from elevated levels of carbon dioxide.

"There's been a lot of talk about the impact of the sun and that maybe we're going to go through or are entering a period of less intense solar activity and this could be contributing to the current cooling."

Duffy: "Can you tell us about NASA's Aqua satellite, because I understand some of the data we're now getting is quite important in our understanding of how climate works?"

Marohasy: "That's right. The satellite was only launched in 2002 and it enabled the collection of data, not just on temperature but also on cloud formation and water vapour. What all the climate models suggest is that, when you've got warming from additional carbon dioxide, this will result in increased water vapour, so you're going to get a positive feedback. That's what the models have been indicating. What this great data from the NASA Aqua satellite ... (is) actually showing is just the opposite, that with a little bit of warming, weather processes are compensating, so they're actually limiting the greenhouse effect and you're getting a negative rather than a positive feedback."

Duffy: "The climate is actually, in one way anyway, more robust than was assumed in the climate models?"

Marohasy: "That's right ... These findings actually aren't being disputed by the meteorological community. They're having trouble digesting the findings, they're acknowledging the findings, they're acknowledging that the data from NASA's Aqua satellite is not how the models predict, and I think they're about to recognise that the models really do need to be overhauled and that when they are overhauled they will probably show greatly reduced future warming projected as a consequence of carbon dioxide."

Duffy: "From what you're saying, it sounds like the implications of this could beconsiderable ..."

Marohasy: "That's right, very much so. The policy implications are enormous. The meteorological community at the moment is really just coming to terms with the output from this NASA Aqua satellite and (climate scientist) Roy Spencer's interpretation of them. His work is published, his work is accepted, but I think people are still in shock at this point."

Full Circle to OZ

Related tangentially to our seeing Wicked [Link]

I spend way too much time, probably, thinking about superheroes and pop culture and so on. Tracing the arc of how things have gotten to where they are today and this weird cul-de-sac Marvel and DC seem to be trapped in: I mean that state of arrested adolescence between juvenile entertainment and actual adult literature, that vague fan-fiction vibe that seems to hang over all of mainstream superhero comics like a cloud.

This week, though, someone suggested to me that you can find an alarmingly similar evolutionary arc that has taken place with another pop culture icon, and that it’s actually just a natural cycle of popular fiction. So let me try this theory on you all.

You start with the original creative work. A charming children’s story that caught the public’s imagination.

Read the whole thing.

Wicked Awesome

Sarah and I just went to see Wicked at the Broward Center for the Performing Arts. Best Christmas gift ever. We had a great time.
Two things were annoying however. First, someone forgot to set their phone on silent, then let it ring more than 15 times. Second, a whole bunch of people decided that the time to leave was after the curtain went down, but before the cast came out to bow. Real classy.
Other than that, a great evening.

Video Formats of the Past

Let us have a moment of silence for the following. [Link]

This year is shaping up to be a year of technology battles-Microsoft vs. Google, iPhone vs. Android-but just last month, we saw the end to a momentous tech showdown. On Feb. 19, the high-definition disc format war was finally over. And when the dust settled, Toshiba's HD DVD technology lay beaten on the ground-left for dead by its former friends (Warner Brothers, Amazon, Best Buy) in favor of Sony's Blu-ray format.

HD DVD, someone had to go. Sure, your picture quality was every bit as stunning as Blu-ray's, your price point was mildly more tolerable and your multimedia functionality probably would have been pretty good if it had ever really had a chance to develop. Nevertheless, members of the buying public weren't going to go out and buy two machines, so the world had to pick one-and it just wasn't you.

But take heart. When you reach the sweet hereafter, you'll be in remarkable company, hanging with some of the most promising nonstarters in the history of video technology. Every one of these formats was a brilliantly engineered technological flop—and maybe Toshiba can reap some consolation from the fact that rival Sony's name shows up more than once, proving that for every sip of marketplace success, a company must swallow an ocean of consumer rejection.

Sex for Green Card

This is disgusting. Petty tyrants with a little power. [Link]

The calls from the agent started three days later. He hinted, she said, at his power to derail her life and deport her relatives, alluding to a brush she had with the law before her marriage. He summoned her to a private meeting. And at noon on Dec. 21, in a parked car on Queens Boulevard, he named his price — not realizing that she was recording everything on the cellphone in her purse.

“I want sex,” he said on the recording. “One or two times. That’s all. You get your green card. You won’t have to see me anymore.”

She reluctantly agreed to a future meeting. But when she tried to leave his car, he demanded oral sex “now,” to “know that you’re serious.” And despite her protests, she said, he got his way.

The 16-minute recording, which the woman first took to The New York Times and then to the Queens district attorney, suggests the vast power of low-level immigration law enforcers, and a growing desperation on the part of immigrants seeking legal status. The aftermath, which included the arrest of an immigration agent last week, underscores the difficulty and danger of making a complaint, even in the rare case when abuse of power may have been caught on tape.

Race and Crime

Very interesting article. [Link]

By my calculations, the black murder rate in 2006 stood at 23.7 per 100,000. The white murder rate stood at 3.1. (The links to the relevant sources of data are here and here. I allocated the cases in which the race of the offender is unknown proportionately to the relevant racial groups, as is customary in discussions of these data.) The belief that one of those two groups poses a greater risk of criminal violence is not racist; it’s rational—just as it’s rational to believe that a man of any race poses a greater risk than a woman: the male and female murder rates in 2006 were 10.7 and 1.0. The belief that race and sex have nothing to do with the risk of violent crime isn’t enlightened or virtuous. It’s just wrong.

While white fears of black crime are more reasonable than Obama admits, black rage at a discriminatory justice system is more justified than most whites understand. According to the best available data, blacks are 20% more likely than whites to use illegal drugs. But blacks are an incredible thirteen times more likely to be imprisoned for drug crime. (Data source here). In effect, Americans live under two sets of drug laws: the forgiving set of rules that mostly white suburbanites know, and the unfathomably severe rules that govern urban blacks.

If drug crime is overpunished in black neighborhoods, violent crime is underpunished. Nationwide, police clear nearly 60% of violent crimes (meaning, they arrest the likely offender) in nearly all-white small towns and rural areas. In large cities, police clear fewer than one-third of violent crimes. (Data source here). Race-specific data are unavailable, but it’s a very good bet that black neighborhoods in every major city have clearance rates far below one-third, and most white neighborhoods see rates that are much higher. The bottom line is as simple as it is awful: When whites are robbed, raped, beaten, and killed, their victimizers are usually punished. When the same crimes happen to blacks, the usual result is: nothing. No arrest, no prosecution, no conviction. That is one reason why black neighborhoods are so much more violent than white ones.

I wonder how much TV crime shows help this distortion. Most never really cover drug crime, it's always violent crime, and justice is always served.

The VICE guide to North Korea

Fascinating so far. [Link]

Check out The VICE Guide to North Korea for a first-hand account of a group of journalists trying to get visas to visit North Korea and what happened after they got there.

The entire story is told in 14 installments here.

Getting into North Korea was one of the hardest and weirdest processes VBS has ever dealt with. After we went back and forth with their representatives for months, they finally said they were going to allow 16 journalists into the country to cover the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang. Then, ten days before we were supposed to go, they said, “No, nobody can come.” Then they said, “OK, OK, you can come. But only as tourists.” We had no idea what that was supposed to mean. They already knew we were journalists, and over there if you get caught being a journalist when you’re supposed to be a tourist you go to jail. We don’t like jail. And we’re willing to bet we’d hate jail in North Korea.

Revolution in aerodynamics from whales

Pretty cool. Looking to what evolution has already done. [Link]

It seems despite man's endless ingenuity and the incredible modeling power available to inventors through CAD systems, we keep looking to nature to find ever more effective ways of doing things. Millions of years of evolution's trial and error approach have resulted in some incredibly effective designs that are ready to be incorporated into human constructions if we can only identify, understand and replicate them. The random-looking bumps on the humpback whale's flippers have just inspired a breakthrough in aerodynamic design that seems likely to dramatically increase the efficiency and performance of wind turbines, fans, flippers and even wings and airfoils. WhalePower's tubercle technology seems like nothing less than a revolution in fluid dynamics.

The humpback whale can weigh as much as 13 Hummer SUVs - and its unexpected levels of agility in the water have puzzled scientists for many years. Dr. Frank E. Fish (believe it or not) was browsing through a gift shop, when he noticed a group of small bumps on the leading edges of the fins of a humpback whale statue. Thinking it an error by the sculptor, he commented that the bumps seemed to be on the wrong side of the fin, starting an argument that would eventually lead him to discover an entirely new way of looking at the role of fins and wings in fluid dynamics.

Current theory would state that the leading edge of a fin, fan or turbine blade should be absolutely straight and smooth for best effect - a 'fact' that has been taken for granted for decades. But the more Fish studied the odd leading-edge bumps, or Tubercles, the more it became apparent that evolution's work on the fin was far ahead of man's best efforts. Airfoils fitted with tubercle bumps showed much higher lift efficiency and greater stall resistance than identical airfoils without them. Turbines fitted with tubercles to the leading edges of each blade are able to produce more power at low fluid speeds, are quieter, and perform much better in turbulent fluid streams.

Shuttle SRB video

Very cool. [Link]

Updating the Greehouse Equations

Interesting if true. [Link]

Miklós Zágoni isn't just a physicist and environmental researcher. He is also a global warming activist and Hungary's most outspoken supporter of the Kyoto Protocol. Or was.

That was until he learned the details of a new theory of the greenhouse effect, one that not only gave far more accurate climate predictions here on Earth, but Mars too. The theory was developed by another Hungarian scientist, Ferenc Miskolczi, an atmospheric physicist with 30 years of experience and a former researcher with NASA's Langley Research Center.

After studying it, Zágoni stopped calling global warming a crisis, and has instead focused on presenting the new theory to other climatologists. The data fit extremely well. "I fell in love," he stated at the International Climate Change Conference this week.

"Runaway greenhouse theories contradict energy balance equations," Miskolczi states. Just as the theory of relativity sets an upper limit on velocity, his theory sets an upper limit on the greenhouse effect, a limit which prevents it from warming the Earth more than a certain amount.

How did modern researchers make such a mistake? They relied upon equations derived over 80 years ago, equations which left off one term from the final solution.

Miskolczi's story reads like a book. Looking at a series of differential equations for the greenhouse effect, he noticed the solution -- originally done in 1922 by Arthur Milne, but still used by climate researchers today -- ignored boundary conditions by assuming an "infinitely thick" atmosphere. Similar assumptions are common when solving differential equations; they simplify the calculations and often result in a result that still very closely matches reality. But not always.

It seems plausible, plus there is some corroborative evidence.

Selling Kidneys

I think people should have the option. [Link]

When we go to the doctor’s office for a checkup, most of us get annoyed if we have to thumb through old waiting-room magazines for a half-hour. Yet many people wait much longer for something much more important.

Sally Satel, a researcher at The American Enterprise Institute, waited for new life in the form of a kidney transplant, until an unexpected someone stepped forward. Since giving Sally her right kidney, Virginia Postrel, former editor of Reason, has thought a lot about how to increase the supply of kidneys for people like Christina Deleon. Like 75,000 other Americans, Christina has no living donor and has no choice but to endure dialysis and wait—she’s been on the list since 2003.

Postrel and UCLA’s Dr. Gabriel Danovitch take on some common misconceptions about kidney donation, but they disagree sharply on the most controversial proposal—paying people to donate kidneys.

Each year more than 3,000 Americans—a figure comparable to the death tolls from the 9/11 attacks—die waiting for kidneys. Is it time to legalize the sale of kidneys?

I think it would be better for most people waiting.

Lizard drinks through it's foot

Cool and funny. [Link]

This mind-bendingly cute thorny devil lizard is one of the most sought-after creatures in the engineering world because it has a special talent: drinking through its foot. Using cracks in its scales, this little guy can wick water up through its foot into its body. Materials scientists hope that by studying how the lizard does this, they can invent substances that absorb water in a similar fashion. And bioengineers might go further.

Now why I think this is funny is another story. A gaming story. A Star Wars gaming story about a jedi with a very poor knowledge of science. We were playing the old Star Wars RPG from West End Games. A player I'll call 'K' was playing the jedi of the group. We were attacked by bad guys with poison gas. K had a habit of extending jedi powers way past the logical limit, so he declared that he would 'breathe through his skin like a frog', thus preventing his poisoning. He couldn't understand why we all started laughing.

You probably needed to have been there.

DHS continues to blackmail states for boondoggle

The Real ID national ID that's not a national ID continues to roll along. [Link]

States have until March 31 to request a two-year extension, and DHS had said before Thursday it won't grant Real ID extensions to states who don't commit to implementing the rules in the future.

That meant Tuesday's letter looked like enough to join California to the small rebellion against the Real ID rules.

For Californians that would meant enduring the same fate facing citizens of South Carolina, Maine, Montana and New Hampshire.

They would have needed to dig out their passport, if they had one, every time they boarded a plane, or go through an extra level of TSA screening at airport metal detectors. Los Angeles and San Francisco airports could have had security lines stretching to the Sierras.

Californians without passports would also have been barred from buying certain medicine, entering federal court buildings or getting help at the Social Security Administration, unless they have a passport.

But after THREAT LEVEL provided Homeland Security spokesman Laura Keehner with the letter, Keehner said California's commitment to thinking about commitment is good enough.

"For right now, there is nothing that says they will not comply with Real ID," Keehner said.

Even though California just said it might not comply with Real ID, Keehner said that's fine since there was an ongoing process that might lead to compliance.

"It is different than saying we are not complying with Real ID," Keehner said. "If they were saying that, they would not get an extension.

At issue are long-delayed rules that require states to collect, verify and store birth and marriage certificates for nearly all citizens who have state-issued licenses or identification cards.

That means almost every driver's license holder will have to get certified documents and go into the DMV to get a new license -- and many will likely have to go in more than once.

The rules also require the nation's DMVs to interconnect their systems to prevent duplicate licenses and conform to federal standards for the physical cards themselves. DHS estimates the changes will cost from $4 to $20 billion, but is only offering some $80 million in direct funds.

This is bad on so many levels. It adds questionable improvements at great cost. It creates a national ID system that will still be open to fraud, and is so obviously an expensive waste of time and effort that the DHS has to blackmail the states to comply.

Caprica Lives

The Battlestar Galactica prequel set on Caprica 50 years before Galactica has been approved as a pilot. [Link]

Sci Fi Channel's "Battlestar Galactica" will live on with "Caprica."

At its upfront presentation Tuesday in New York, the cable channel said that it has greenlighted a two-hour back-door pilot for the prequel, which had been in development for two years.

Best Space Battle Trash Talking

Pretty cool. [Link]

The greatest tacticians in space don't just use high-energy beams and force shields, they use psychology. And the best interstellar smack-downs start with the trash talking before a single shot is fired. Whether it's Kirk mocking Khan's superior intellect or Adama growling into the space-phone, nothing improves a shootout in space like a good calling-you-out speech. Watch our medley of clips, and then read our list of the greatest taunts and shouts of defiance in interstellar combat.

Although I would have included Delenn's speech from Severed Dreams

Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives…be somewhere else. - Delenn

Remakes that don't need to be made

Dune

Peter Berg is attached to direct another big-screen adaptation of Frank Herbert's classic SF novel Dune for Paramount Pictures, Variety reported.

Kevin Misher, who spent the past year obtaining the book rights from the Herbert estate, will produce.

Herbert's 1965 novel is a sweeping, futuristic tale set on the remote desert planet Arrakis, which is the interstellar empire's sole source of the spice Melange, which causes immortality and facilitates space travel.

The beloved book, which is the first in a series of novels, also spawned David Lynch's 1984 film and SCI FI Channel's 2000 miniseries, starring William Hurt.

Both flawed works, but both enjoyable as well.

The Seven Samurai

Screenwriter John Fusco told SCI FI Wire that he now feels ready to adapt and update the 1954 Akira Kurosawa classic The Seven Samurai after turning down the project several times.

Fusco, who has a lifelong interest in Asian legends, said the idea of updating Kurosawa's masterpiece was daunting when it was first proposed to him by producer Harvey Weinstein.

"Harvey offered me the project a couple of times, and I didn't think it was a good idea for obvious reasons. It's hallowed ground," Fusco said in an interview at Wizard World in Los Angeles over the weekend. Fusco also wrote Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and The Forbidden Kingdom.

"Finally, we met and explored the idea of setting it in a more contemporary setting among contractors like the Blackwater guys," Fusco added. "Suddenly, it felt very relevant and real."

Great. They'll probably be defending the village from the evil soldiers of the U.S. Army.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Joss Whedon is doing an online musical. [Link]

Joss Whedon's dance movie may never get to first position, but he's got something much, much better on the way: A serialized online musical, starring Nathan Fillion from Firefly as a musical superhero. Captain Tightpants sings! Click through for details.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog will be a series of three 10-minute webisodes about "a low-rent super-villain, the hero who keeps beating him up, and the cute girl from the laundromat he's too shy to talk to," Joss revealed on Whedonesque, his fansite. Neil Patrick Harris will play Dr. Horrible, Nathan Fillion will play Captain Hammer, and Felicia Day will play Penny. Plus "a cast of dozens!"

Arthur C. Clarke has died

That's too bad. He was a great writer. [Link]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who co-wrote "2001: A Space Odyssey" and won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s, died at 1:30 a.m. in his adopted home of Sri Lanka after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

Co-author with Stanley Kubrick of Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey," Clarke was regarded as far more than a science fiction writer.

He was credited with the concept of communications satellites in 1945, decades before they became a reality. Geosynchronous orbits, which keep satellites in a fixed position relative to the ground, are called Clarke orbits.

He joined American broadcaster Walter Cronkite as commentator on the U.S. Apollo moonshots in the late 1960s.

Generics not always the same

They are supposed to be identical in effect, but sometimes they aren't. [Link]

Over the past decade or so, public acceptance of generics has increased. Many people want to get the generic equivalent. But now there are questions about the validity of the testing done to ensure bioequivalence. As reported in the LA Times:

FDA standards for generics are questioned
By Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
March 17, 2008

In carrying out its mission to ensure that generic drugs are "the same medicine" with "the same results" as the pioneer drugs they follow, the Food and Drug Administration rigidly applies a standard of what is called "bioequivalence." Measured in laboratories and in simple, small-scale human trials, a generic must deliver the same active ingredient to the bloodstream of patients in virtually the same amount at virtually the same rate as the pioneer drug.

The FDA considers "bioequivalence" a good surrogate for "therapeutic equivalence" -- the equal ability of two drug formulations to ease symptoms or cure disease. Physicians and pharmacologists say that for some copycat drugs, showing bioequivalence to the original is not proof enough that the "same medicine" will yield "the same results."...

The authors point out that the testing done to ensure bioequivalence tends to be very limited: only a small population of persons are studied, and that population tends to be composed of young, healthy persons. Plus, a drug is considered to be satisfactorily bioequivalent if the absorption of the drug is within 80 to 125% of the original.

80% - 125% seems like a pretty broad range of effect.

Scotland Yard: 5 year olds are a criminal threat and need to be fingerprinted

Life once again trumps satire. [Link]

Primary school children should be eligible for the DNA database if they exhibit behaviour indicating they may become criminals in later life, according to Britain's most senior police forensics expert.

Gary Pugh, director of forensic sciences at Scotland Yard and the new DNA spokesman for the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), said a debate was needed on how far Britain should go in identifying potential offenders, given that some experts believe it is possible to identify future offending traits in children as young as five.

'If we have a primary means of identifying people before they offend, then in the long-term the benefits of targeting younger people are extremely large,' said Pugh. 'You could argue the younger the better. Criminologists say some people will grow out of crime; others won't. We have to find who are possibly going to be the biggest threat to society.'

Pugh admitted that the deeply controversial suggestion raised issues of parental consent, potential stigmatisation and the role of teachers in identifying future offenders, but said society needed an open, mature discussion on how best to tackle crime before it took place. There are currently 4.5 million genetic samples on the UK database - the largest in Europe - but police believe more are required to reduce crime further. 'The number of unsolved crimes says we are not sampling enough of the right people,' Pugh told The Observer. However, he said the notion of universal sampling - everyone being forced to give their genetic samples to the database - is currently prohibited by cost and logistics.

If you thought being in the 'slow' class was stigmatizing, how about being in the 'youthful offender' class?

Comic Copy

Comic artists use reference material and that's fine, but they should broaden their library. [Link]

At the 4thletter blog, contributors Hoatzin and David Brothers spot something awfully familiar about Greg Land’s cover art for Uncanny X-Men #500, unveiled this weekend at Wizard World Los Angeles. Specifically, the artist appears to be reusing faces and bodies for several characters — in some cases, on the same cover.

The second link provides an animated image that illustrates, among other things, how Emma Frost’s body has previously been used by Storm and Ultimate Invisible Woman, and how Pixie played the role of Scarlet “O-Face” Witch.

Fair and Balanced

No, not FOX News, NPR. [Link]

National Public Radio is funded in part by federal tax dollars. The last time I checked, both liberals AND conservatives are required to pay federal taxes. So what’s wrong with having four seven-minute segments out of the year where conservative ideas are brought forth? You know, throw them a Milk Bone once in a while to pretend you care about them while you spend their money on things like Garrison Keillor’s “Prairie Home Companion.”

The problem with many liberals is that while they say they espouse tolerance, love for your fellow man, and discussing problems instead of resorting to fisticuffs, when they’re actually expected to “walk the walk,” things get ugly. To them, just listening to conservative ideas is akin to Dracula finding out about a nationwide tainted blood supply. It’s painful when liberals realize that not everyone thinks the way that they do: that there are unenlightened souls out there who don’t recycle, who go to church once in a while, who respect our military, and who don’t think that the sun shines out of Barack Obama’s nether regions. So, being the enlightened, progressive types that they are, instead of listening respectfully to what the other side has to say — and possibly learning something new — they stick their fingers in their ears, chant “I can’t hear you,” and complain to the person in charge about how awful the experience was.

It’s sort of like the people who believe that vandalizing and bombing military recruiting stations is a great way to get their message of peace out to the masses.

They also institute “speech codes” at universities — ostensibly so that no college student will get his widdle feewings hurt — but in reality limiting students’ First Amendment rights in the name of keeping certain “unwanted speech” off campus.

And the response from listeners was predictable:

The Washington Times reports that for daring to air the views of conservatives on its morning drive show during the final four days of February, NPR fielded “more than 60 angry e-mails and phone calls … calling the programming ‘shameful’ and a ‘lovefest with radical, right-wing nuts.’ There were only a few … that praised the series as ‘refreshing’ and ‘articulate,’ among other things.”

Robot Mule

Pretty cool. [Link]

It looks like something out of a James Thurber illustration, with its headless body and backward-dog legs, but the Big Dog is real and autonomous. This video, by the Big Dog development team at Boston Dynamics, shows just how lifelike the bot is. It can carry over 300 pounds, and its engines make an alien whining noise. It can also, apparently, recover its balance after being kicked by its owner, in a scene that that is disturbing on a number of levels.

We'll be seeing these things deployed in the next few years.

Taking your music with you

Into space. [Link]

BattleBots returns to TV thanks to ESPN

Pretty cool. And no more wedge bots. They were boring. [Link]

For the new show, Roski has made it clear: "I'm not going to allow wedgers," he says. He hasn't worked out exactly how, but one option is to modify the arena. Half-in.-thick plates, for example, could be added to stop low-clearance models in their tracks. And newer, more powerful arena hazards could influence robot designs. "The ramps in the past were pretty slow," Roski says, referring to the compressed-air-powered panels that could spring open, tossing an unlucky contender. "Now, these ramps could throw Toro five feet in the air." Toro, the winner of the super heavyweight class (up to 340 pounds) in 2001, was one of the most popular robots on the show, with its own ability to launch targets with a pneumatic arm.

Limiting wedgers could inject some carnage back into robot combat, but the new show will also have a radically different pace, closer to the BattleBots pay-per-view events than the Comedy Central series. Although Roski is grateful for the exposure the network provided, he believes that by largely avoiding the pits, where teams had to perform repairs on their bots before sending them into the next match, the original show missed out on some the best drama. Although episodes were aired weekly, the competitions were a grueling, nonstop brawl, running as long as 10 days straight, and forcing some teams to make repairs in as little as 30 minutes. Now, the cameras can follow the engineering side of the competition, as teams representing their colleges (Roski is estimating as many as 150 participating schools) race the clock to fix their battered gladiators. And when a robot suddenly becomes unresponsive in the middle of a match, viewers might understand why, instead of listening to the commentators level zingers at its comatose frame.

On Political Do-Overs

Redoing the Florida and Michigan primaries is a dumb idea. [Link]

"Our votes should count!" "We're being disenfranchised!" "We want to have our say!"

Folks, the time to bitch was before you voted.

The Democratic National Committee set its schedule -- as is its right -- for the primaries. The state parties all had their chances to argue before it was set, and even after. You folks are represented by those state parties, and they are the ones who decided to ignore the rules and play "chicken" with the DNC.

Guess what? They didn't blink. They said, up front, what the price would be if you didn't play by their rules. And the penalty was "your votes don't count, because you didn't agree with the rules beforehand."

You got a problem with that? Take it up with those who decided to ignore the rules -- your own state parties.

Both Clinton and Obama agreed -- in writing -- to not participate in either of your primaries, in accordance with the DNC. Clinton, naturally, didn't keep her word, but that's only to be expected from her. Obama did, naturally, because he's a newcomer and didn't realize that rules don't matter to Clintons when it means they might lose.

The arguments being made now for counting the results anyway and seating the delegates -- or holding a "do-over" -- all boil down to a few points:

"We didn't know the process would still be going on this late!"

"We didn't know our votes would make such a difference!"

"We thought the DNC would wimp out!"

Well, campaign season ain't over yet.

John Crichton Returns

Farscape may be returning as online webisodes. [Link]

Farscape star Ben Browder told SCI FI Wire that he looks forward to reprising the role of astronaut John Crichton in a much-talked-about proposed Web revival of his critically acclaimed SF series, which originally aired on SCI FI Channel.

Executive producer Brian Henson and creator Rockne O'Bannon are talking about how to revive Farscape on the Web in a series of 10 webisodes.

"At the moment, that's Rockne and Brian's job, and I'm aware that they're figuring out what they're going to do with it, but I don't know how far along in the process they are," Browder said.

The recently settled writers' strike put a damper on the plans, and Browder said that it's too early to figure out to what extent he would be involved. Browder said that he spoke with Henson about the Web series at last year's Comic-Con International in San Diego.

Starship Sitcom

A sci-fi sitcom coming from FOX. [Link]

The network greenlit Boldly Going Nowhere, a new comedy from the creators of It's Always Sunny In Philadephia, which deals with the mundane lives of a starship crew. Says one of the creators, "We grew up watching shows like Star Trek, anything having to do with the future, and it was always about the adventures they'd go on. We thought it would be funny to watch what goes on in between those adventures, when they're waiting for the next big thing to happen."

Bick Rogers returns to comics

Cool. I used to have a book that had strips from each decade it ran. It was neat to see the look and feel of the art and technology change over time. [Link]

Flint Dille, a prominent animation and videogame creator as well as the grandson of Buck’s originator, John Flint Dille, oversees the Buck Rogers franchise. "My family and I have always considered the Buck legacy a sort of ‘sacred trust’," Dille says, "and we are absolutely confident that this collaboration with Dynamite honors that trust."

Nick Barrucci, Publisher and President of Dynamite Entertainment, is very enthusiastic to be working on one of his "dream projects since childhood," and to be working with Flint and his family legacy in that process. Barrucci proudly confirms that fan favorites, Alex Ross and John Cassaday, will be integral to Dynamite’s Buck launch, with both Alex and John providing character designs, Alex providing a cover to issue #1, and John serving as regular series cover artist starting with issue #1. "Dynamite’s job right now," Barrucci says, "is to find the writer and the artist who share my and my team’s respect and affection for Buck Rogers, and who can help bring Buck, once again, into an exciting new future."