ideonexus.com

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.

“I can’t believe you’re doing this,” I muttered, “leaving me so you can die in space.”

“Please don’t frame it like that,” the tremble in Phoebe’s voice exposed how traumatic this was for her too. “You know why I’m doing this. I want my children to–”

“Your great great grandchidren,” I spat.

“I want them to live in a solar system where there’s hope of visiting other worlds,” she sobbed once and my heart ached. “There’s no vision here.”

I knew she was making the right choice, the noble choice, and I was a bastard for making it so difficult for her. It’s just that she was so beautiful, especially with the streams of shuttlecraft lights behind her, all leading to and from the Intergalactic Ark.

The spacecraft practically dominated the starless portion of the sky where it orbited. A century in the making, for every year it did not depart three years were added to its voyage. I couldn’t believe the majority of our population would trust their lives to such a hastily constructed bureaucratic monstrosity, especially my wife.

Phoebe reached up with a tissue to dab at my cheeks. The cuffs of my sleeves were damp from pressing them against my eyes, and now my teardrops were outrunning my efforts to hide my sorrow.

“What are your ancestors going to do when this star fizzles out?” She asked. “Where will they go?” now there were tears in Phoebe’s eyes. “Where will you go for raw materials when you’ve used up this planet?”

“We’ll be a billion years dead before anyone here ever has to confront those realities. You’re just…” my voice failed then, spiting me.

The line moved, and we trodded slowly towards the docking bay. Suddenly Phoebe turned around, pulling herself into me. Trembling, I returned her embrace, all my resentment melting away. We stayed like that for some time, until it was her turn to board the shuttles.

Phoebe turned to me one last time, “Please come with us.”

I closed my eyes, squeezing more tears from them, and shook my head, “I can’t sacrifice the rest of my life to people who won’t be born for half a millennia.”

Phoebe nodded, “That’s why I have to leave you.”

I watched the shuttle doors slide shut behind her, and we stared into each other’s eyes through the window until it ferried her away. It only took a moment to disappear against the backdrop of the Ark now setting over the horizon.

The Milky Way was rising over the horizon behind me, and would vanish behind the imminent sunrise. There were over 100 billion stars in that warm spiraling cradle, and one infinitesimal blemish where our sun once nestled within it.

The rogue black hole that had hurtled our star out of the galaxy was invisible, but had left eddies in the cosmic dust. It scattered all the planets in our ancestors’ solar system and devoured enough of our star’s mass to halve the sun’s lifespan. The astronomical chances that our planet would survive such a catastrophic event only meant that it had to happen somewhere in the Universe.

A blanket of storm clouds were mercifully rolling in across the horizon. Hopefully they would settle in throughout tomorrow night so that I wouldn’t have to watch to Galactic Arc vanish into space with the one I loved. Either way, I would spend the rest of my days watching the starless skies from a lone planet orbiting a rogue star.