Author: Dave

Timetable constraints

This morning over breakfast I came to a realisation that with my birthday tomorrow I had very little time in which to achieve all those things I had said I was going to do before I was thirty.

Running a marathon, as well as killing me, would probably also preclude me undertaking any of the other tasks…

Getting elected to Parliament could be a little tricky, given the lack of an impending election.

Making my first million would certainly take some effort, especially given the current economic climate, and

Taking over the world (or even just a continent) would require substantial enlargement of my secret lair, and some serious overtime by the guys in the “weather machine” and “giant death ray” divisions. That said, the mind control section reports excellent progress, so perhaps not all is lost. They’ve still got nine hours to get the last glitches ironed out…

Ah, the Apocalypse (I always thought I’d have a hand in it)

(With appropriate acknowledgements to Prof. H. Farnsworth)

I recently came across an interesting interview on a Canadian radio science show, where a group of scientists shared their visions of how the world might end.

You can hear the interview here. Interesting stuff, but not a Zombie scenario anywhere, which makes me wonder what kind of serious “Scientists” they thing they are…

Story time

For the last couple of weeks I have been sitting and waiting impatiently as the pages of the Penny Arcade Prince of Persia storybook are drip fed to my awaiting impatience.

The story is now complete, and all I have to do is figure if there’s some way to get a copy of the book (preferably without having to buy the game as well, since I don’t have any time to play it), because it’s such a cleverly subtle epic tale. I really did enjoy it a lot…

X-mas

Just a brief something to wish everyone out there a merry Christmas, wherever you may be. We are having a family Christmas at home, with Simone’s parents up as well.

Charlotte has (perhaps predictably) ended up with a rather enormous pile of presents and initially at least was also predictably more interested in the wrapping paper that the contents. Later on however she started getting into playing with things. Her favorite thing seems to be the ride on train toy she got from Mummy, although the shiny green ball that she pulled off the Christmas tree is running a very close second.

Anyway, something I found last night, for your amusement, is the story of Christmas in 30 seconds:

Background explanatory story here.

Stocking stuffers

In a last minute rush to find those last few christmas presents for those difficult to buy for (generally male) relatives? Wanting something a little special for the kids’ christmas stocking? Looking for a little festive season treat for yourself? How about a Space Shuttle? One owner from new. Meticulous service record. Careful, highly trained and closely monitored drivers only. Only US$42M. Practically a steal really.

Failing that I’m sure a nephew or brother would love a second hand Submarine! At only AU$4.9M even those limited to paper round pay cheques can afford this one, and will be launching their friends out of torpedo tubes in next to no time.

Science update

Recent things of note:

  • We’re going to have to wait until 2016 for our next lot of Space porn starring Jupiter. NASA will be launching the Juno mission in 2011, with the probe skimming above the cloud tops. It’s sure to make for some really pretty storm pictures.
  • Guys at Harvard have found a group of genes which seem to be involved in cellular aging in organisms from yeast to mice. Additionally, genetically engineering more copies, or providing drugs that activated the genes and the mice lives 24-46 percent longer. (Cue Morgan quoting “Of course I plan to live forever, but failing that a few thousand years would be fine…”).

And finally a nice little lamentation piece over at the daily galaxy, entitled “What Color’s Your Spaceship?” The problem with science education, from which I gathered the following very good quote:

For a new generation of graduate students the internet is an invaluable resource, a telephone, newsreel and the biggest reference in the world all in one.  But in many schools, where the internet is acknowledged at all it is painted as an evil source of cheating and laziness.  The problem is that kids are smart: for all its problems the internet is the greatest informational archive ever created, and if you tell a kid that using it is wrong then that kid is going to file you under “lying or stupid” and ignore everything you say.

Takeoff

Charlotte has now started crawling in ernest.

Initially we had to make sure she didn’t overbalance in the process and scone herself on the head. Now we’re having to put the cat’s food bowl out of reach. Next it’ll be putting things up on shelves. Eventually it’ll be finding wall space to hang her medals from the International association of athletics federations meets.

As an aside, because this entry has been a while coming I have had time to contemplate the title, and I felt that some of the other title options were worth sharing with you:

  • Per ardua ad astra (which is the motto of the Australian Air Force, translating as “Through adversity, to the stars).
  • Do the locomotion

Strange but true

I was listening to background briefing on ABC tonight and heard some interesting factiods.
Iran’s population has increased from 25 million to 60 million since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
60% of the population is under 30 years of age.
50% of that age group are unemployed.
Says some interesting things about the likely long term stability of the current religious establishment there.

Mobile Elements

Charlotte is about to start crawling and the family are having to get prepared.
Jack is getting practice at scooting away and hiding on the top of his scratching post, and Simone and I are investing in cupboard locks and gates to put in the various doorways around the house.
At the moment Charlotte can get up on all fours and move her knees forward as if to crawl, but hasn’t figured out how to coordinate in the hands yet.
Next thing I know I’ll be dropping her off to her high school ball…

Relative impossibility

I have recently taken to listening to podcasts via my ipod on the drive to and from work (depending on whether there is anything actually worth listening to on the radio).

This evening on my way back from the Gym I was listening to a podcast that I quite like called Futures in Biotech, and they had a physicist as the quest and he raised quite a cool concept.

He described there being three classes of Impossibility

  1. Things currently impossible, but probably achievable in decades to centuries, with the examples of molecular teleportation, invisibility, antimatter drives, ray gun, Starships, and telepathy (via technology).
  2. The currently impossible, but probably achievable in centuries to millenia, with the perceivable limitation being mainly due to the exorbitant energies required (and he was talking about projects requiring percentages of the energy output of a star) such as wormhole travel.
  3. Those things that are truely impossible due to them requiring violations of universal laws, such as precognition (seeing the future).

Overall I like the idea, mainly I think because of the number of really cool things that fall into the “Possible provided enough money/energy” basket. Be honest. Who wouldn’t want an invisibility cloak…