Quantum Sagas

Lapsed...

I haven't updated in a while, mainly because I just got a new laptop to replace the home system, and I've been busy trying to port everything and moves files, etc.

I'll be back in a few days.

Scotty has been beamed up...

Sadly, James Doohan, otherwise known as the chief engineer "Scotty" from the original series of Star Trek, has passed away. He was 85, and had Alzheimer's. He will be missed.

StarTrek.com's "Remembering James Doohan"

This will be important...

This opposition isn't out of hatred for Republicans or the Administration, but out of supporting the rights of Americans and the American way.

SCOTUS nomination

Let the shitstorm begin...

Save Wampi!

To anyone with a soft spot in their heart for our furry friends, this cat was thrown from a 6-story apartment building and luckily survived. Unfortunately, Wampi sustained major fractures to his leg and had to have extensive surgery to repair it. Now the owners are stuck with hefty vet bills because of the fact and they are asking for people to help them out with a few bucks gained from recycling deposits, etc. They have a PayPal account set up for donations. For those of us who love our pets, the answer is always yes when it comes to making a decision to help them out, and no cost is too great.

The boys agree

Pulling the Wool...

It turns out that Bush may have been misleading us again in his address at Fort Bragg on June 28th, when he told us that Iraq is the new battleground for fighting terrorism. Where he misled us is in neglecting to mention that it is because of the US invasion of Iraq that this is now the case. But he of course knows this. The strategy is simple, really: construct a binary ideal in opposition to Islamic ideology, tell the world that what you're doing is the 'right' and 'just' thing to do, make sure that the extreme Islamic groups catch wind of this, keep the public updated on the fallen so that others come to the cause, eliminate them all in the name of security, and viola! No more Islamic ideologues. "Smoke 'em out." But not unlike when one might whack a hornet's nest with a 2 x 4, not all of them rush in to attack and/or die immediately. Some of these extremists will bide their time, rallying more groups of ever-angered individuals and resources, and strike in other manners when it is least expected.

So is the world safer? I think not. But perhaps it is just a slower process than we think. That is until yet another group of extremists decides it's time to pay the piper. I don't believe that what the US is doing will make us safer in the future, but quite the opposite.

This is what religion does.

Star Trek Shuttlecraft on eBay

Someone in California is selling a homemade ST:TNG shuttlecraft, made out of three Ford Aerostars. Not street legal, and it's not finished (it needs windows and to be painted). I wonder how it will turn out?

Super Intelligent, "Human-Brained" Monkeys

From a report on NEWS.com.au:

In cutting-edge experiments, scientists have injected human brain cells into monkey fetuses to study the effects.

Critics argue that if these fetuses are allowed to develop into self-aware subjects, science will be thrown into an ethical nightmare.

An eminent committee of American scientists will call for restrictions into the research, saying the outcome of such studies cannot be predicted and may in fact produce subjects with a 'super-animal' intelligence.
...

These procedures, known as 'human-primate chimeras', involve the combination of human and monkey cells, tissue and DNA to observe any effect and examine the possibility that such combination could actually exist.

While experimentation like this seems wildly unethical and rife with moral implication, there really is only one thing to be said: We'll never know until we try it. Isn't this how science makes determination? Through experimentation? Is it possible that the experiment subjects could outwit their laboratory creators and propagate out of control throughout the world and planning domination? It's possible, but not likely. Just imagine what the animal-rights activist idiots must be saying about this.

This could potentially lead to better understanding and resources for the human brain, ethical problems aside. With the capabilities we have today, however, we have to assume stuff like this is inevitable. People will contort the possible negative outcomes of this into all manners of wild science-fiction, but reality is never quite that bad. I expect this is just the beginning.

A Paperless School in Arizona

Vail Unified School District in Arizona has made the decision to go to an all-electronic curriculum. Students will be issued laptops instead of textbooks, allowing the teachers' lesson plans to be more flexible. It will also supposedly engage the students more, which is likely. Consequently, I had this idea when I was in my junior year at high school, but no one took me seriously. The cost of laptops has decreased significantly since then, so we may see more of this in the future. I think it's a great idea if it is executed properly and everyone involved is on the same page. While it's not as likely that the students will have trouble with the technology, some of the staff may.

This will be something to keep track of, for sure.

Another Star Trek Based Communicator Badge

Aside from the Siemens one recently mentioned, another company called Vocera Communications Systems has taken the comms badge idea to a personal communication level. It operates in principle the same way that the comms badges on Star Trek do: the user presses the button on the badge and says the name of the target person with which they want to speak, a powerful server-based app determines the target and opens the channel (VOIP), at which point two way communications can take place. The device uses Wi-Fi and a DSP chip for voice processing. I wonder what the audio quality is like with a speaker like that and whether or not you can connect an earbud or something similar? It seems a little bit bigger than it needs to be, but I see that the speaker and button take up half of the enclosure. Now if the operator could hold a conversation with the computer...