I was looking on the blog of another Friday Fiver and saw the most amazingly beautiful picture of the Northern Lights. It made me remember when I was a kid and my dad was driving us home to Prince Albert from a day of music lessons in Saskatoon. Sometimes at night it would get so dark we could see out across our arm of of the Milky Way, the ocean of miniscule lights. One night, I don’t remember why, he stopped and I remember looking off into the haze of light far past the distinct points of light. I remember …
Category: WTF
Friday Five: From the Mouths of Babes
Gina asked: I don’t have children myself, but I love to hear the knee-slappers that my godson, his siblings, and my nieces come out with. Or, for that matter, the “logic” espoused by the adults around them when speaking to them. To wit, what are the most amusing things you’ve ever heard in a household with children? Well, to be honest I haven’t gone into a household of children in ages, but I have two sources to draw upon: my childhood, and life in Korea. As a teacher, I used to deal with kids every day, but I also sometimes …
Butterflies and Wheels
I am clapping my hands and quietly cheering… There is something a little breathtaking in a level of science-phobia that can see ‘negativizing’ disease, suffering and death, as harmful and repressive. One is reminded of Woody Allen’s retort to a character’s reproach, in ‘The Front’, that he really wanted success: ‘So what should I want, a disease?’ Does Marglin seriously think that disease, suffering and death (the death of other people, remember, as well as one’s own) would be a source of joy and pleasure if only it weren’t for the ‘scientific medical system of knowledge’? Has the postmodern left …
Global Warming and The State(s) We Are In
While I don’t agree fully with this article‘s seemingly skeptical take on global warming, I do agree that science and state need to be separate, with state reacting to science’s findings (instead of dictating them) and that politics in general have no place in science. If climate science is to have any credibility in the future, its pursuit must be kept separate from global politics. The affluent nations should support research programs that improve the theoretical understanding of climate change, build an empirical database about factors that influence long-term climate change, and increase our understanding of short-term weather dynamics. Such …
Good For You, People…
That’s right, it’s what I’ve been saying all along and now thanks to some scientists in Ireland, you’ll finally believe me: Sex is better for your health than no sex. At least, The best that modern science can say for sexual abstinence is that it’s harmless when practiced in moderation. Having regular and enthusiastic sex, by contrast, confers a host of measurable physiological advantages, be you male or female. And health is important. So there. Sob. Well, thanks for the link, Adam.
Chinese Space
I just read an article over at Salon about the Chinese space program. Did you know that they finally launched a man into space? No kidding: they did it in the Gobi desert today! Against a clear blue sky, China fired its first astronaut into orbit without any visible hitches Wednesday, becoming only the third nation capable of manned spaceflight. The government said the mission was going smoothly and its “taikonaut” radioed back: “I feel good.” Now, I predict that this will bring about comparisons about the poor kid who never got a bicycle till he was 14, and rode …
Birds, Language, and Man
We used to think that only primates could understand language, and that to other animals, it was just noises… even to parrots, who can imitate us. But that seems to have been wrong. Over at Edge there’s an article about “THAT DAMN BIRD”, which is an African Grey Parrot whose behaviour has led a researcher to claim he is actually understanding what he’s saying in tests. Which is absolutely fascinating since it challenges a lot of what we thought we knew about language and brains. But it’s also frustrating to some scientists, which is why the title of the article …
Art, Science, West and Rest
The American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research has posted an article called Measuring Achievement: The West and the Rest by one David Murray. The article is supposed to be an explanation of why, when Murray inventories “Great Achievements” in science and art, the West after 1500 came out profoundly ahead of the rest of the world. A snippet: Eurocentrism has in recent years joined racism and sexism as one of the postmodern mortal sins. The Left’s fight against Eurocentrism explains why students in elementary school are likely to know more about Mayan culture than French culture, and why liberal …
On Governor Ahnuld
Over at the Infinite Matrix, Eileen Gunn’s editorial #36 has some comments from various SF writers about the election of the ludicrous Governor of California. Mr. Schwartzenegger is still shocking me, and it’s been a few days. I think I mostly agree with Ursula K. LeGuin, though I lament the coming collapse a little less than she does; I don’t understand Womack’s comment… but Terry Bisson and Pat Cadigan are right on the money. Maybe I should read their stuff, huh? Thanks to Melissa of Use Your Words for the link, even if she got it at Bookslut…
Friday Five – Recommended Reading For A Child’s Development
Sorry this is late, I just had a very busy weekend. More about that in another post, as you probably will have seen above. The latest Friday Five topic, from Chris: People once thought that it was important for boys to study the works of the great Roman orators so that they would develop both their language skills and their sense of honor, duty and propriety. (This was a particular theme in the biography “John Adams,” as the love of these boyhood texts stayed with the honor-bound Adams all his life.) I often think about the books that had a …