Science & Space
« Previous EntriesParanoia Will Destroy Ya
Tuesday, May 20th, 2008DNA Collection Kit
Originally uploaded by MikeOliveri.
Our school is distributing DNA collection kids to elementary students.
My son’s will be promptly round-filed.
Like many a well-intentioned-but-flawed process, they’re doing this to protect the children. This kit will supposedly help the police locate your child should he be kidnapped, molested, or otherwise run afoul of some Great Evil.
Mm-hm. And [...]
Machinery of Death
Friday, May 9th, 2008Scientists have released more photos of the colossal squid I mentioned last week, and it’s not good. Hook-lined tentacles, sharp beak, ovaries capable of holding thousands of eggs… this thing was made to kill, eat, and breed, period. I’d sooner swim with a shark.
The ocean will kill us all.
It Will Swallow Your Head
Wednesday, April 30th, 2008Nay, your very soul!
CNN has a video of a giant squid that, fortunately for the dude in the tank with it, is dead.
At least I hope it is, for his sake. “Not dead which eternal lie” and all that.
Don’t Hold Your Breath
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008There are two stories today that may impact the future of gas prices. First, a huge oil field has been discovered in North America, and second, scientists have genetically engineered corn to break down its own cell walls. Well and good, but I’m not going to hold my breath.
The oil discovery is important because it [...]
Pansperminated (Redux)
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008A Columbia University professor has presented evidence that meteorites carried a payload of amino acids to Earth, thus delivering the building blocks of life to our planet. This reinforces the concept of panspermia, which I’ve blogged about several times in the past.
It has yet to be proven amino acids spontaneously developed into life, but if [...]
Poltergeist Children
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008In what I’m sure is an April Fool’s prank, New Scientist is reporting Italian scientists are speculating psychic emanations from children going through puberty is responsible for poltergeist activity.
Brovetto and Maxia hypothesise that the changes in the brain that occur at puberty involve fluctuations in electron activity that, in rare cases, can create disturbances up [...]
Human Ingenuity
Monday, March 31st, 2008In my aliens-as-religion post a couple weeks back I mentioned the way some people undersell human ingenuity. For example, there are those who believe aliens must have built the pyramids because they can’t fathom the primitive Egyptians being capable of assembling the blocks.
Then along come people like Wally Wallington. He’s rebuilding Stonehenge by hand, using [...]
Join the Space Cult
Monday, March 10th, 2008I glanced at a table near the bathroom in the local Borders store and found an Illinois MUFON application staring back at me.
I was in the mood for a laugh, so I snapped one up. It turns out for twenty bucks, I too can join the search for little green men in flying saucers. I [...]
Giving New Meaning to “Remote Start”
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008With three of my spawn already roaming the Earth, the Wife and I have discussed more permanent methods of contraception, particularly those aimed south of my navel. The idea of vasectomy is not particularly appealing, but given the reports from cousins, friends, and co-workers who have all had it done have been overwhelmingly positive, it’s [...]
The Psychology of Robotics (or Lack Thereof)
Tuesday, December 4th, 2007Robots can do some pretty cool stuff these days, but so far most of it is trivial in the grand scheme of things and I think we’re a lot farther off from true artificial intelligence than most people believe.
I read a Wired article about new robot hands, and it discussed the methods scientists are using [...]