Monday, July 6, 2009

News


Well, my story, Two Boys, is in the August 2009 issue of Asimov's.

In addition, I'll be at Readercon this weekend.

I'm only on a single panel this year. Below is the schedule and blurb information from the site. I'll add links as I encounter them.

Saturday 3:00 PM, Salon E: Panel

Is Darwinism Too Good For SF? Jeff Hecht (L), Caitlin R. Kiernan, Anil Menon, James Morrow, Steven Popkes, Robert J. Sawyer

This year marks the sesquicentennial of the publication of The Origin of Species and the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth. Considering the importance of the scientific idea, there has been surprisingly little great sf inspired by it. We wonder whether, in fact, if the theory has been too good, too unassailable and too full of explanatory power, to leave the wiggle room where speculative minds can play in. After all, physics not only have FTL and time travel, but mechanisms like wormholes that might conceivably make them possible. What are their equivalents in evolutionary theory, if any?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Evolution as Intelligence Indicator


(Photo from wikipedia, here)

I've been reading some right wing pundits for a couple of years now. By and large, I disagree with them wholly and in part. To quote my Dad when he listened to Limbaugh (something even I can't stomach), "you got to watch those bastards."

I also considered evolution pretty much proven. So far, every time evolution has been put to the test it's been shown to happen as predicted. Sometimes, it happens in a surprising manner-- which should not, actually, be surprising since life has been around a lot longer than we have. Evolution has been shown to function as reliably and provably as, say, the combustion engine, electricity and gravity. Probably more than gravity since we know more about evolution than gravity. We can actually observe evolution's intricacies in real time and often demonstrate them in the laboratory.

I find myself in recent years using accepting the fact of evolution something of an intelligence test. Not that I don't think people who don't accept it are idiots and dolts per se. It's just that anybody that can't accept the facts of something that shows itself more obvious and reliable than a light bulb have to show their intelligence in order for me to find it credible.

Enter the right wing pundits.

I regularly read Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan and Newt Gingrich. I also read, second hand, Rush Limbaugh since I find him objectionable. It's just easier to read him once the vitriol has been wrung out a bit. I don't read Coulter the same way since if you wring the vitriol out of her material there's not much left.

So far, Coulter (here and here), Buchanan (here) and Limbaugh (here) have come out not being able to find their butts with both hands. Gingrich has come out and can find his butt in that he understands that evolution is the best model of biology.

This means that Coulter, Buchanan and Limbaugh have shown that facts do not sway them in the pursuit of their ideology. I'd say they were idiots but idiots don't get to be millionaires. So I'm less forgiving. They're either liars or ideologues. Regardless, either category makes them uncredible. If they are liars or ideologues in one area, it makes them less credible in other areas.

Gingrich is more interesting. I don't like him. I don't like his politics. I think he's opened an evil gate in the heart of politics by attempting to remove the barrier between Church and State. Even so, though it's clear he would be more comfortable in a created universe he accepts the evidence. Consequently, I'm more inclined to listen to his rhetoric.

Not a lot more inclined. But Coulter, Buchanan and Limbaugh have shown themselves to be unfit for listening.

But they do present a question for human evolution. How does natural selection work if bozos like these survive and reproduce?
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Wall of Idiots
A visit to the Creation Museum and here
Dolphin Safe Tuna
US Bank.

Links of Interest
The Chaotic Brain
Hitler's Stealth Fighter
Losing Lousiana and here
Extinction Oscillation
Firefly biology
Development of the Spine
V: The Fiat Tank
Fireworks Toxicity
Papercraft Castle
Comets seeded earth's early atmosphere
Ant Megacolony
V: Ghost Videos
Timbrel Vaulting
V: Slow Motion Videos

DIY
V: Fat Man and Circuit Girl
Best Beef Ribs
V:Transformer Robot
Spoon Flower
Lithophanes
$50 Knife Shop
Pyrophoric Iron
Pobiano Chicken Burgers
Review: Folding Bikes
Review: Science Kits
Motors and Microcontrollers
Sunscreen
Getting Rid of Ants
Droning Machine
What to have in the medicine chest
Echolocation for Humans

Friday, June 26, 2009

SCOTUS now on the Wall of Idiots


As curmudgeonly as I am, I like people. Human beings are amazingly smart and we have been so for a long, long time. (See here.)

But (and there's always a "but"), I created the Wall of Idiots section for a reason.

Ideology makes fools of us all and, it turns out, the Supreme Court is no exception. (See here.) It turns out that SCOTUS is not only aiding and abetting environmental destruction when it appears before them, they even seek out opportunities above and beyond the call of duty to do so.

A good friend once said to me that life wasn't some sort of trial run. The natural world isn't either. It's the only one we have-- unless you believe in some fictional utopia that lurks just down the road.

Of course, if there is such a place, I bet it's a gated community and the SCOTUS justices own condos.

But the environment, like disease, doesn't recognize economic and national borders. You'd think smart people, like the justices, would understand that.

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Wall of Idiots
Eugenics
The Subprime Supreme Court
The AMA
Not so green companies

Links of Interest
Hitler's Stealth Aircraft
Early modern humans earlier than thought
1,000,000 H1N1 infected Americans
Conformists destroy civilization
Seeing a black hole
Ground zero
Future of Energy
Tunguska redux and here
Dung ecology
Chatham, Mass, RIP
Round the world solar aircraft
Solar technology
Poo on Poo: Toilet made of excrement
V: Pulse jet bike
V: Home made guitar
Not so empty space
Breaking glass frozen in time

DIY
Upside down earth box
Used tire garden
Storage
LED Room Lighting
LCD Screen Repair
Fretless guitar w/ glass fretboard
Pocket tacklebox
Fern nursery
Backpacker kitchen and here
Mexican discada
Paper beads
Rain water
Workbench magnification camera
Habanero chili sauce
Chevy S-10 conversion
Solar still
Sorbet bars
Potato gatling gun