Xma$ Strikes Again Dustin over at OddThings has a great Black Friday rant that ties in to what I've posted here recently about Xma$ - or, to be more accurate, eXcessMas. Good job, Dustin!
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LAWDNKI – A Notational Review Title: Life As We Do Not Know It . Subtitle: The NASA Search for (and Synthesis of) Alien Life . A non-fiction book by Peter Ward. First published in 2005 by Viking Penguin. About the author: “Peter Douglas Ward is professor of biology, professor of earth and space sciences, and adjunct professor of astronomy at the University of Washington in Seattle.” (Cover jacket, inside back flap.) -- Glacial metabolism? We might be slow to notice it as life. In discussing the concept of Silicon/carbon clay life (pages 77 – 80), Ward mentions that such a life-form might exist here on our planet, but its changes are stretched over long periods of time and so we wouldn’t think of it as being alive. I like how our limited human perspectives – in this case, our perception of time – can keep us blind to the reality around us. -- If it don’t work in da lab, then it don’t work at all. On page 80, Ward talks about plasma life, a life form existing as the fourth state...
SWillings: Dubious Statements Heard On Shortwave Radio Abhor the Pope? I don’t, but if you do, you can find like-minded bigots on shortwave radio. Major governments used to dominate shortwave radio: the Voice of America, Radio Moscow, BBC, etc. But in the USA there has been the rise of domestic broadcasters, stations funded by private enterprise. Some of these stations offer superpatriotic / superreligious views way outside the mainstream. I caught one such broadcast last night – or I should say early yesterday morning, after 5 AM. I came in late to the broadcast. The reception sucked, fading and noise, but I was able to hear most of it. The host was going on about one Pope who molested kids back in his home country when he was a younger man. Apparently this pre-Pope molester used to volunteer to watch the kids of fellow workers at a factory. But the word soon got out and the other workers threw oily rags at him. The anti-papist host went on to imply that the Vatican was the Fou...
Sagan’s Folly We all make mistakes. Even the late, great Carl Sagan. I’m reading the non-fiction book, Life as We Do Not Know It , when author Peter Ward talks about Cosmic Carl’s disappointment when the equivalent of Martian polar bears didn’t stroll into view of the first Viking lander back in 1975. The Viking’s camera, designed to detect large critters, didn’t even find footprints. (Chapter 10, Mars.) Carl had a “recurring fantasy,” as he called it, that footprints would be found after the sun rose on Mars, evidence of nocturnal animals visiting during the night. (Maybe he thought such animals would be marking their territory on the Viking lander.) The total weight of the space probe set limits on what could be included. Choices had to be made. Carl wanted lights to detect beasties making their nightly rounds and so other equipment, small but sophisticated, was left off. But the night lights had nothing to illuminate in the way of Martian polar bears. Barsoom was bust for ...
XMA$: The Meme of Materialism Back in September a few stores had Xma$ crap on display. Then more stores joined in a week before Halloween. Pushing that Holiday $pirit. Tomorrow is Black Friday, so-called because most stores make so much money that it puts them in the black for the year. Actually it’s a black day because human lemmings, all suffering from commercially induced mental illness, throng to the malls like greedy rats. The doors open early; shoppers race in, trampling the less quick underfoot. They fight over that Perfect Toy that Johnny or Jane needs or the kid will feel completely unloved. Mind-controlled consumers who put into practice the themes of the season: Peace On Earth; Good Will Towards Others. And as shoppers spend beyond their means, they become poorer while the rich just rake in more loot. It’s OK not to like Xma$. In fact, it’s a sign of sanity to hate it. Don’t be a lemming. Or a rat.
From The MailboX: No NUFOC This Year I received another “confidential” postcard from that ufological gadfly Jim Moseley, perpetrator of the zine Saucer Smear . He only reads my thoughts via my snail mail zine, The Ray X X-Rayer , eschewing the "Dreaded" Internet. Since Jim can say it best in few words, this is what he had to share. (NUFOC refers to the National UFO Conference.) = = = 11/1/06 BLOG THIS OR WHATEVER! Dear RX: I really enjoyed your [Ray X X-Rayer] #50 more than usual, especially as it was mostly about UFO-related things, with a little sci/fi thrown in. Too bad Kimball lost $'s with his con; As U will see in the next "Smear," The San Diego NUFOC has been mercifully cancelled. I called the hotel awhile back + was told that 100 rooms had been set aside. I asked how many had been taken so far, + and the reply was none ! (That was a clue !) I wish I could hold a con with U as the featured speaker. You could appear with a bag over your head i...
Sleep Too much. Or too little. Fighting off the logy fog hanging over me. I can sleep eight hours straight but not feel completely rested. I can sleep most of the day and still need recharging. I have a few hours of activity, followed by the strong pull to take a long nap. Sometimes I have insomnia. It’s as if I have to make up for all the lost time I’ve spent being half-awake or dead asleep. Actually, I don’t mind the insomnia that much because I can get a few things done. I know what the problem is. Actually, I should say problems. It’s that time of year with short daylight periods and even then those periods are usually dismally overcast with innervating cold saturating the air. I need light and warmth. It’s easier to get out of bed in the morning when the bright sun is beckoning through your window. But the main problem is sleep apnea, a condition that keeps me from getting a good, deep sleep. I had one doctor who prescribed a C-PAP machine, a unit that increases pressure...