Month: September 2008
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American Natural History Museum: Milstein Hall of Advanced Mammals
When I look at the incredible wealth of biodiversity contained within just the class mammalia in its 164 million years of existence, it’s staggering what we don’t know. The immense number of species that weren’t preserved in the fossil record and stories that took place before homo sapiens arrived to witness them are fantastic example…
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Flash Fiction, Wage-Slave Avatar
A short short story where a human avatar for real life is confronted with another client’s superior robot avatar. Posted to 365tomorrows, you can read it here. Ng’s eyes were straining as far as they could go in their sockets to get a look at the brand new shiny avataris sapiens parked at the end…
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The Mosaic Meme
Following in the footsteps of bloggers TGAW and Chriggy. a. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr Search. b. Using only the first page of results, pick an image. c. Copy and paste each of the URLs for the images into fd’s mosaic maker. The Questions: 1. What is your first…
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Take a Child Outside Week 2008
0924 Last year I ran a series of photos and quotes in celebration of Take a Child Outside Week that purely rejoiced in nature. For this year’s event, running from September 24th through the 30th, I’ve chosen quotes emphasizing the importance of nature in education and understanding ourselves: Hawaiian Tree Fern Credit: brewbook “Sit down…
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Economists Got No Science
“The salary of the chief executive of the large corporations is not an award for achievement. It is frequently in the nature of a warm gesture by the individual to himself.” – John Kenneth Galbraith Is there any academic field more in desperate need of empirical standards than economics? Just consider the following statements: Quick!…
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One Web Day 2008
If I were to travel back in time 25 years and tell all the science fiction writers alive back then that the world of the future included an expansive network of computers circumscribing the globe, I probably wouldn’t be telling them anything all that surprising. If I told them that people would have access to…
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The American Natural History Museum: Primitive Mammals
Something that always sorta blows my mind about human origins is that one of the ancient ancestors to all mammals was something like this: Edaphosaurus Boanerges You can view the complete flickr set here.
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Flash Fiction: Biobaubles
Kira was still wailing in the background when Jillian dialed the web address tattooed on the lifeless kitten’s belly. She had to talk her way past two chatbots before finally being put in touch with a human being. “Good day Jillian Dillard,” the customer service rep announced. “My agents inform me you have an inoperable…
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Notes on John McCain’s Science Debate 2008 Responses
My personal notes on John McCain’s answers to Science Debate 2008: 1. Innovation. Depended on technology while in the Navy, former chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, guided Congress’ wireless spectrum policy. Will cut earmarks to free up funding to apply to science and technology. Will improve management of science and…
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From the Primordial Ooze to Galactic Conquest, a Review of EA’s Spore
I’m sorry to say that I was not able to beat Spore this weekend, as much as I should have. As a youth I would have kicked this game’s butt in a single day of playing, but as it is, I’m two days into it and only halfway through finishing the final stage, but that’s…
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The American Natural History Museum: Ornithischian Dinosaurs
I’m ambivilent about the names paleontologists give to dinosaurs. Anatotitan copei sounds really impressive, until you discover it translates to “giant duck.” Corythosaurus casuarius (“Corinthian-helmet reptile”) You can check out the complete flickr set here.
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The Nerd Harvest Up at 365Tomorrows
A short short SF flash fiction you can read here. “You’re angry.” “I’m not angry, I’m frustrated.” “If you’re frustrated, that usually means you’re about to learn something.” “Don’t quote Philo to me. You know I hate it when you quote Philo.” “I’m just trying to think this through like he would do. This was…