Acanthostega gunnari

We vertebrates might not be as numerous as the insect world, but our internal skeletons let us grow big enough to squish them. Fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals all owe our spinal and notochords for making us the most advanced form of life on the planet.

You can check out the complete flickr set here.

Albert Martucci woke up at six AM sharp every morning. He put on his slippers and his robe and went into the kitchen to brew a fresh pot of coffee. He ate the same breakfast every morning. Two eggs lightly scrambled, three strips of bacon, and two slices of buttered toast. Albert enjoyed the routine. Routines kept life simple. The steaming plate of food and brisk cup of coffee set out on the kitchen table by six thirty. Now all he needed was the morning paper to complete the scene.

He tipped the paperboy an extra dollar every week for the luxury of having the paper placed on his doorstep every morning. He appreciated this, especially on a cold January morning such as today. Frost still coated the ground as the sun hadn’t melted it yet and his breath condensed around him in the tart air. Albert took two steps onto his porch and felt his skin tighten into goosebumps.

As coincidence would have it, at that very moment in space and time Albert’s front porch was occupied by an errant wormhole. He fell into this disruption in space and time and was transported to the mystical planet of Zerapimm two billion light-years away. A planet at war for the mere right to survive in the face of oppression by the galactic empire. A planet who it just so happened was in need of a savior, a hero, from beyond the stars gifted with opposable thumbs, sweat glands, and an anal retentive attention to detail that could unite the planet against their totalitarian rulers and spread peace across the galaxy once and for all.

Unfortunately the Zerapimm atmosphere consisted of a highly volatile oxygen sulfuric acid mix which vaporized poor Albert before he could even chance to marvel at this New World. There was a flash of pain, darkness, and he was no more.

But who watches the watchmen?
- Juvenal

To my shame, I must admit I have never read Alan Moore’s literary classic Watchmen, the graphic novel above all graphic novels, the book that is required reading in many college English classes, and the comic that made Time magazine’s 100 All-Time Novels. I totally lose nerd-points for never having taken the time to add such an important and influential work to my reading list.

1986 Watchmen T-Shirt

Last week I corrected this personal shortcoming. My plan was to read the book in a week, but, unable to put it down, I read it in a six-hour marathon session. All I can say is, WOW. I had previously read Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta and Promethea, the latter held my previous #1 spot for all-time-greatest graphic novel before Watchmen dethroned it.

Watchmen is a classic noir tale, opening with a murder, leading to a mystery, and a journey through a menagerie of classic noir archetypes. The psychotic killer, fem fatale, confidant, mobster, floozy, bad-cop, hard-boiled detective, and wealthy untouchable are all present and accounted for, only here they are all superheroes.

With one exception, Alan Moore’s superheroes do not possess super-human powers. They are merely athletes, inventors, or vigilantes needing costumes to protect them from the law. Watchmen takes place in an alternate history where the existence of superheroes has intensified the arms race between America and the U.S.S.R., where their intervention in Vietnam allows America to win that conflict, and allowed Richard Nixon’s re-election. The book is brimming with historical inside jokes, as when Robert Redford is mentioned as a possible presidential candidate, a character responds, “Who wants a cowboy actor to be President?”

I would consider Watchmen a fairly anti-superhero book, wrestling with the philosophical concept of valetism, hero-worship (“No man is a hero to his valet.”). Moore’s heroes are so humanly-flawed, like any authority, how can we imagine consolidating so much power in their hands?

Which of Moore’s superheros’ worldviews would we trust to care for us? Rorchack’s extreme social conservativism, Ozymandias’ extreme socialism, the Comedian’s nihilism, or Dr. Manhattan’s impartial omniscience? At the book’s conclusion, the characters are faced with a disturbing moral decision to make, but one that is brought about from all their meddling in the world.

Watchmen is a book that requires several readings to fully appreciate the complex characters, myriad plotlines, layers of symbolism tying everything together, and the depth of its philosophical issues, to which there are no clear answers. It’s a book about superheroes in the real world, and the good and the bad that comes of it.

A film version of the novel is scheduled for March 9th 2009, produced by Larry Gordon who has been working for 17 years to bring this novel to the big screen. It will be directed by Zack Snyder, whose previously directed the offensively bad film 300, and who I think lacks the emotional maturity to pull off Watchmen. A trailer for the film further squelches my enthusiasm, as it features all the stereotypical shots of people in costumes striking cool poses, which really goes against the spirit of the novel.

Awhile back I wrote a letter to the Babyboomer Generation, asking them to have the prescience and dignity to take responsibility for the National Debt in their lifetimes and not leave it to burden future generations.

Now it appears Roger Ebert has written a letter to the younger generations as part of his review of the documentary I.O.U.S.A.:

A letter to our grandchildren, Raven, Emil and Taylor: I see you growing up into such beautiful people, and I wish all good things to you as you make the leap into adulthood. But I have just seen a documentary titled “I.O.U.S.A.” that snapped into sharp focus why your lives may not be as pleasant as ours have been. Chaz and I had the blessing of growing up in an optimistic, bountiful America. We never fully realized that we were paying for many of our comforts with your money.

A quick, 600-words or less read you can take in here.

Harry K. Daghlian, Jr

On 21 August, 1945 at 9:55 PM, young graduate student Harry K. Daghlian, Jr was working on an experiment at Los Alamos determining the critical masses of plutonium. With a 6.2 kg sphere of plutonium cradled on a table, he was placing tungsten carbide bricks around it, reflecting neutrons released from the plutonium back into it, releasing more neutrons. As he was about to place the fifth brick around the plutonium sphere, a burst of clicks from the monitors warned him the plutonium was about to achieve critical mass and he should not put this fifth brick in place.

Then he accidentally dropped it.

Partially-Reflected Plutonium Sphere Credit: United States Department of Energy

A guard in an adjoining room reported seeing a flash of light. Daghlian reported seeing his hand enveloped in a blue light as he quickly reached into the assembly to retrieve the brick. He then took the time to disassemble the assembly to a more stable configuration, and another graduate student drove him to the hospital.

Over the next 26 days, Daghilian suffered nausea, blistering along his hands and arms, dramatic weight loss, organ failure, loss of the epidermis along his arms and chest, and finally dementia before he finally passed away on September 15th 1945 at 4:30 PM.

On May 20th, 2000, a memorial was dedicated to Harry K. Daghlian, Jr in London Connecticut that reads:

A BRILLIANT SCIENTIST ON THE MANHATTAN
PROJECT. HIS WORK INVOLVED THE DETERMINATION
OF CRITICAL MASS. DURING AN EXPERIMENT GONE
AWRY, HE BECAME THE FIRST AMERICAN CASUALTY
OF THE ATOMIC AGE. THOUGH NOT IN UNIFORM,
HE DIED IN SERVICE TO HIS COUNTRY.

Further Reading:

Harry K. Daghlian, Jr.:
America’s First Peacetime Atom Bomb Fatality.

(HT BMF)

For geeks, this is news is more tremendous than if archeologists were to discover Alexander the Great’s Tomb.

The Machine from Metropolis

I’ve previously written about Metropolis, a 1927 silent film that lost a full quarter of its footage to entropic forces; and, yet, still manages to be one of the greatest, most epic of science fiction films ever made. In 2003, a digitally remastered version of the film was released, with a newly recorded score and text describing what was happening in the missing footage, revealing a much more complex and profound plot.

Now the missing 20 minutes of footage have been found, and the next step will be to restore and release a new edition of the film.

So, having bought the film on VHS, DVD, and digitally-restored DVD, I’ll looking forward to getting my eager hands on a copy of the digitally-restored director’s cut DVD. : )

…and I didn’t even know it until I got the google alert.

This short story is one that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with publishing, but the webzine “cribbed” it from somewhere on my website, where I didn’t know I had posted/uploaded it. Since everything I do is Creative Commons licensed, this is pretty darn cool.

The story follows Jyl, an inventor working on time travel, who, when her invention works, accidentally unravels her life. Robbed of all her life’s accomplishments, she decides to wage war on all intelligent life on Earth, traveling back in time in an effort to extinguish our ancestors and the intelligent life that ascended from them.

Originally titled The Historical Annihilationist, the editors have re-titled the piece Extraction, possibly because, to my surprise “Annihilationism” is an actual word referring to a Christian doctrine where sinners are obliterated rather than condemned to hell–which makes no sense in the context of my story.

So a better title would be, The Historical Nihilist.

The story can be found here.

The most frustrating thing about dittoheadism (not to be confused with intelligent Conservativism), is that it takes no energy, research, or intelligence to mass-produce steaming bull-feces piles of fantastical proportions every Monday morning. While composing thoughtful accurate responses to their nonsense requires research, fact-checking, and a modicum of intelligence.

So last week, when Barack Obama suggested we properly inflate our tires as a means of experiencing immediate relief from high gas prices, John McCain responded with ridicule. Inflate our tires? That’s just silly! Obama is obviously caving in to pressure from the tire gauge industry, which has donated $7,000 to his campaign, for him to make the outrageous suggestion that there are personal actions we can take to defend ourselves against escalating energy prices instead of capitulating to the oil industry so they can take care of everything for us.

In suggesting the American people inflate their tires, Barack Obama is giving us something we can do right now to fend off high gas prices by 3.3 percent. That’s 3.3 percent savings RIGHT NOW. McCain’s plan to drill offshore for oil will save American’s $0.02 a gallon 10 years from now.

What do we do in the meantime? McCain doesn’t have any plan for that at all, and that’s the hypocrisy of his laughing at Obama’s energy plan.

Anyone who understands basic physics understands why properly inflated tires improve gas mileage:

• “You can improve your gas mileage by around 3.3 percent by keeping your tires inflated to the proper pressure. Under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.4 percent for every 1 psi drop in pressure of all four tires.” fueleconomy.gov (website maintained by the EPA AND DOE), Tips to Improve Your Gas Mileage
• “Keeping your car’s tire pressure at the optimal level is a small and easy eco-tip that would help save a lot of precious oil if everybody did it. The principle is simple: an under-inflated tire adds rolling resistance, so the engine has to work harder to move the car. Best way to understand it is to imagine pedaling on a bicycle that has almost flat tires. So it’s easy to see why we strongly recommend that you buy an inexpensive tire gauge and make sure to check once in a while if your tires are at the recommended pressure.” Discovery Channel, Treehugger, Proper Tire Pressure For Better Mileage, June, 18, 2005
• “Fuel efficiency goes down one percent for every three-PSI of under-inflation, so driving on weak wheels will cost you at the pump as well. I’ve tried to check my pressure every few months, and have observed a difference in my MPG after I reinflate my tires.” Wired Magazine, Pressure on to Check Tires, October 27, 2006
• “Operating tires at lower than recommended operating pressure further degrades a vehicle’s fuel economy, “Scientific American, Why is the fuel economy of an automobile worse in the winter than in the summer?, April 19, 2004
• “There are a number of driving hacks which allow hypermilers to increase their milage, ranging from over-inflating tires to extreme drafting behind large vehicles. It’s incredible, really, to think that by changing your driving habits, you can get better mileage in a standard car than is typically advertised for a hybrid!” Hackzine, Hypermiling: Hack Your Mileage, Mar 6, 2007
• Mother Jones, This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord, February 2007

By the time I post this, the raving dittohead cacophony machine will have moved on to its next deception, so no one will read it. : (

Further Reading:

McCain Blows Hot Air on Tire Inflation

EPA, McCain surrogates agree with Obama

Tire Gauge Controversy

Numerous science and enlightenment-minded blogs have recently posted links to the What’s the Harm? website, and I finally got the opportunity to give it some study. It sounded like a great idea, a website devoted to showing the deleterious effects people suffer for believing pseudoscientic claims. We need sites like that.

Unfortunately, the site immediately set off alarms for me, as it is entirely anecdotal evidence based, meaning there are only stories posted with no actual scientific studies posted to back them up. It’s interesting that someone died of dehydration in a sweatlodge, but that tells me nothing about the detrimental effects of believing in astral projection, as the site seems to mistakenly believe it is informing its readers.

Ironically, the site links to an article on anecdotal evidence and how it is used by pseudoscience to misinform people. The article gives the best explanation for why What’s The Harm? is just as bad as the pseudoscience it claims to debunk:

The primary weakness of anecdotes as evidence is that they are not controlled. This opens them up to many hidden variables that could potentially affect the results. We therefore cannot make any reliable assumptions about which variable (for example a specific treatment) was responsible for any apparent improvement.

The most grievous example of this is the site’s section on vegetarianism, where stories about vegetarians suffering horrible consequences of their dietary choices are presented completely without context, with only a solitary 1991 article meant to “debunk” Vegetarianism offered as evidence that vegetarianism is unnecessary. The page also claims “3,233 people killed, 222,977 injured and over $272,944,000 in economic damages” as a result of people being vegetarian or vegan, but then fails to cite where they got those numbers¹.

It would be easy for opponents of enlightenment principles to put together a What’s the Harm? site dedicated to destroying science. They could cite the victims of Hiroshima, the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment, and Thalidomide as proof that believing in science leads to terrible ends. Ben Stein is currently doing this in his film Expelled, where he argues that godless science spawned the Nazi party.

I understand completely the appeal of this website; however, in exercising my critical thinking skills, I suggest rational people reject it rather than lower ourselves to the same level of irrationality of our ideological opponents. Anecdotal Evidence does nothing to inform.

¹ It should also be noted that most of the vegetarians or vegans the site uses as examples are not vegetarians or vegans at all… just malnourished crazy people. I recently reviewed a well-researched book advising a mostly-vegetarian diet (note the “mostly”). Wikipedia cites numerous studies outlining the benefits of a vegetarian diet, which includes reduced incidence of heart disease and increased longevity. If What’s the Harm? was an informative website, it would not have made the mistake of lumping a vegetarian diet in with a vegan one.