I just overheard one Greener tell another, in apparently genuine horror and outrage, how "NASA launched a spacecraft just to crash it and blow a five mile crater in the Moon." It seems that they have been suffering terribly from the astrological fallout of this, despite even the vital restoration of their wooey, radiant, touchless energy massage

From a letter by Bruce Sterling to John Kessel in 1985,
quoted in Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology, pg. 226:

"My feeling is that the time has passed in which SF, in its predictive mode, can successfully utter jeremiads and point out the hazards of the road ahead. This has now become a pointless act from which all meaning has been drained, for ( Read more... )

Somewhere in this morning's surfing I came across 5 Atrocious Science Clichés to Throw Down a Black Hole from Wired.

I heartily recommend that everyone take a few minutes to read through all the comments, as they are extremely, delightfully nerdy.

Spurred by certain maddeningly complex social predicaments, I have begun to cook for myself and others quite a bit. This is an exceedingly pleasant and positive development, first because it is cheaper and healthier, but also because it is relaxing and allows me to exercise new skills in a regular, structured manner. Chief among the new things ( Read more... )

From "Stranger" by The Presidents of the United States of America:

Carla the stripper,
straight from L.A.
You seem cool for a naked chick in a booth
Let's be pals some day
In other words,
Put some clothes on and call me

From: Jankowiak, W., and T. Paladino. 2008. "Desiring Sex, Longing for Love." In Intimacies: Love and Sex Across Cultures, pp. 1 ( Read more... )

I was all sputtering fury when I read this article, which seems to honestly suggest that choice and free will are the result of the indeterministic randomness of the universe ( Read more... )

Reasons I Love Maple Trees:

• the beauty of their twisted, gorgeous trunks and limbs, textured and knotted with wise, sinuous character
• their forms, so perfect for climbing; low branches so handy, long and sturdy for lateral movement, crooks perfected for lazy perching
• their leaves for autumnal romping
• their seeds (the samara!), so educational, in youth ( Read more... )

This one entitled Has the mystery of sex been explained at last?.

Luckily I'm too tired for a proper, full-length rant, but suffice it to say that this article exemplifies the infuriating tendency of science journalists to exaggerate the dissension within the scientific community, undermining the credibility of science in the public's eye...

Programs to empower sex workers are starved for support, but Bill Gates just gave $50 million to make sure all the men in Swaziland and Zambia get properly circumcisedHonestly, did no one stop to scratch their head and wonder "huh, I wonder why carving up men's penises should make any difference to the HIV?" Because I feel like this should really ( Read more... )

New Scientist reports a new study regarding the number sense of newborn infants that should seem parsimonious to anyone who has read Devlin's The Math Gene. The gist of it is that babies seem to have an abstract numerical sense just about as soon as they can be tested postpartum, further banishing relativistic notions of math's cultural origins to ( Read more... )