Away

I'm off to Cincinnati for a wedding - no more posts until June 5th.

In the meantime, visit http://www.rinkworks.com. It has games, text-based RPGs, two dungeons, monthly pvp battles, tons of jokes, word and number puzzles.. everything to keep you entertained. It's provided me with multiple years' worth entertainment so far. And, of course.. I'm sure all my hypothetical readers would be terribly bored without my blog otherwise.

Aww, who'm I kidding. Have a good week!

Invisibility Shield

Want to be invisible?

The only real reason I can think of for this would be military. Especially if it has to be extremely thick. Even if it wasn't, though, what would be a real and good use.. sneaking into work late?

I can think of plenty of criminal uses. Much easier to be invisible in that case. Though on seconnd thought, they could be useful in theaters as well for types of scene changes or special effects. That would be fun.

Escape

This was to be the prologue to something I got about four pages into.. again in my teenage years. This, however, I may very well fix up and finish some day, so the first few pages of the real story must remain hidden. .. Of course, it will need a LOT of work.

Somewhere, I'm sure, there must be something I wrote as a teenager that starts off in a more pleasant way. But who needs happy stories when you're fifteen?

Escape

Dark clouds raged endlessly over the night sky, the evening moon and stars dimmed and soon hidden by the onslaught of ominous thunderheads racing across the heavens. With them came the rumbling and crashing of thunder, and behind that, a darker noise. It grew steadily, seeming to follow the clouds, the pounding and rushing and clanging creeping and then outright sprinting toward the quiet village. As it grew closer the sounds switched, becoming the banging and cracking and screeching of metal and horrid cries that were not quite human in sound, and after that the pounding of feet and the crackling of fire from torches carried high and battered by the wind.

Swathes of fire spread across the outermost fields and buildings, burning with a nameless passion, turning night into a new day with its light as the hordes of creatures came upon the community. Tongues of flame licked hungrily at the wooden houses, reducing boards to mere ashes as the creatures rushed ahead, howling. Screams of the villagers joined the racket, each indistinguishable from the others as men and women tore out of their homes. Crying children and mewling babes were dragged along behind fathers or carried in the arms of mothers or older siblings, desperate to escape the unknown terror that attacked, the shadows with clubs and swords and nameless weapons who chased as the frightened citizens fled in terror. Too many were cut down as they ran, bodies trampled underfoot as the ghastly beings flung themselves at the buildings and people which the fire passed by, leaving nothing standing behind as they hurdled on.

Those who escaped disappeared screaming into the woods outside the village, no safer among the looming trees and thick underbrush than in the clearing where they left the unknown terror behind. Scattered as they were, families separated, children missing parents and wives missing husbands, not one was any safer as the beasts pressed on and the noise sounded ceaselessly behind them. Eventually the din lessened, fading off into the distance as the inhuman raiders finished their job, leaving only the remnants of the fire to burn and crackle and pop behind them, nothing left living within what had once been a peaceful village, nothing now remaining erect except for the occasional board rising from the ashes, not quite ready to claim defeat.

As the few who managed to escape cautiously returned to the edge of the woods, peering from behind the trees toward the smoldering ruins, the clouds above finally broke open. As they watched, the last remaining flames were doused by the sudden downpour. Raindrops pounded relentlessly on the bare ground, leaving the onetime village to remain as no more than cold mud among the charred remains. As the shower grew too heavy to see through, those still left turned toward the relative dryness beneath the trees, leaving their old lives behind forever.

Radio Waves From Space

About Seti, and the reasons for listening versus broadcasting.

I'm not going to argue. Listening seems a much safer bet right now. And while I think our chances of picking something up any time soon are extremely slim, I'm glad to know there's even a tiny chance. Assuming there's someone else out there. Assuming they're talking to others through space. Assuming, on however unlikely a chance, that we might just be in the right position at the right time to pick it up.

I wouldn't devote all or even most resources to finding aliens when we have so many needs right here at home, nor do I think that should even be the major space-related goal at the moment. Still, if someone is able to set up a few receivers.. why not? I'd love to meet an alien. The final book in the Rama series (Arthur C Clarke) captured my imagination for years and is one of the few books I've read not only once or twice but many times. By the way, if anyone read the first book and wasn't interested enough to pick up the next.. please, do. The others are co-written, the writing style and content changes a ton, and they're extremely interesting. Of course, if you loved the first book, also read the rest of the series! I enjoyed all four. And I can only imagine how amazing that would be.. will, I'm sure, keep imagining it as long as I live.

Cool Off For Summer

Anyone hoping to visit a beach or two this year? It never would have occurred to me to bother ranking them, but apparently it did to someone, as we have a list of top ten beaches for 2006.

My particular favorite (and the whole reason for posting this article) - Barefoot Beach Park in Bonita Springs, FL, made the list.

Why Our Future Is A Book

The shape of our culture/government/society in the future is a hard topic to touch on without sounding like you have either a conspiracy theory or else don't care at all. The line between realistic consideration and dystopian novel writer is obscured by common disagreement about what is actually realistic as well as ever-advancing technology and, with it, ideas people are already familiar with from past fiction or else re-think as things similar to the stories become capable.

Still, with the number of articles about anti-aging technology I've seen in the last few days and the discussion going along with it, coupled with the state of our government and other scientific breakthroughs, it's worth considering more aspects of anti-aging medication than the little I mentioned here.

I had only considered the possibility of immortality on a purely theoretical, or theological - I knew there was a reason for majoring in that! - basis. This article mentions the scientific likelihood of immortality, along with a few of the possible psychological aspects of longer lives, immortal or not.

Another article from a couple days ago mentions some of the scientific breakthroughs that have already been made with mice, although I agree that not many people would stick to a caloric restriction diet, nor, I hope, will we ever fall to breeding human beings in order to achieve longer life. As intent as they are to figure out some answer and with the knowledge of what causes cell breakdown in aging that they already have, it's still certainly possible that our scientists will come up with a medical treatment or pill. It also discusses a few of the ethical, err, "dilemas" that we would face. The idea of having siblings fifty years apart is interesting, however, as is the prospect of having ten generations alive at the same time. The job market would be an issue, but there are solutions. They would take time to implement (even to fully think out) but a population boom of this size won't be an overnight thing either.

This one, complete with quotations from a bioethicist and other.. we'll call them experts.. brings up many more of the possible ethical issues, with sometimes interesting and sometimes disturbing conclusions, including stating that we would have to rethink our stance on suicide and euthinasia if people had to spend a much greater percentage of life in pain.

So to relate back to my original paragraph, how about considering a few books that these issues and others not involved in the aging debate are similar to.

Tracking telephone calls, internet, and our satelite that is watching our own country with a possibility of clear resolution down to three feet (or was it meters?) of any given spot on the ground - vaguely reminiscant of 1984. (Big Brother! Anyone see that movie that involves tight government control while watching people all the time.. it had a really important scene involving a guy in an apartment and a TV.. was that 1984? The pictures from the BBC television show look familiar.. that movie is what this really reminds me of.)

A "designer" baby has already been created, and sperm banks (since they don't seem likely to go away) screen for possible diseases as well as baldness, IQ, height, and even certain non-genetical traits. - The caste system in Brave New World comes to mind, if we put a little more work into it.. and the government started regulating it instead of parents choosing.

Our bioethicist in the third article suggests "generational cleansing" to deal with the overpopulation problem that would eventually happen if people didn't age - Logan's Run, anyone (either book or movie)?

We could certainly take some ideas from Anthem in order to help with the job problem if too many people were competing for the same jobs.

The idea that only the rich would have access is something I am most familiar with from the Worthing Chronicles, though I recognize different interpretations of the results from other sources. In fact, other sources (if only I could remember names) show much starker differences than does this series of stories.

I'm surprised none of the articles mentioned anything similar to the Child Limitation Laws seen in Ender's Game (and, I'm sure, many other places). On the whole it would be a lot harder to control though, what with divorce/remarriages, children with multiple partners, the occasional child death.. who's two children count?

And then there's always the "ship the unwanted population off to different planets/space colonies" idea, something I most recently read in one of the Dorsai books.

Or colonization in general, if we work harder toward setting up a colony on the moon, Mars, or somewhere in orbit, which would provide a place for people to go when Earth does start getting overcrowded - and it's going to take long enough for that to happen that we have plenty of time to get something going. I refuse to name sources here, as I'd have to list nearly every science fiction book ever written.

Imagine how thrilled children who love history might be to have ten generations around at once, though.

If I ever get my own personal solution to the job competition fully outlined, perhaps I'll post it. Or just write a story about it. We'll see.

And The Winner Is...

Only a few times in my life have I ever gone to the Life Teen Mass at my parish. The first time was my very first time at any Mass ever. My second time was last fall, and I took issue with a few different aspects and resolved to stick to the regular Masses if at all possible. The third time, due to a series of circumstances and events, ended up having to be last night.

This time was better - but there is still one story that simply begs to be told.

Last night was the final Life Teen Mass of the year; they do not do them during the summer. As such, part of the announcements at the end of Mass involved thanking every single person who was in any way involved over the course of the year, and having each person or group of people stand up so we could give them each a round of applause. The youth minister did each of these announcements except for the final one, since for that one, someone else had to come up and invite everyone to thank the youth minister.

It was a pretty long list. There are a lot of people who help out at our parish, including within the Life Teen program, which has quite a few teenagers. For each group on the list the congregation gave a short burst of nice, polite applause. Perhaps appropriately, yet still a bit odd, the youth minister finished his portion of the list by stating that we owe the most (of course) to God and invited a round of applause for the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The congregation complied, giving God also a quick round of nice, polite applause. I sat and, well, sat, saying a quick prayer of thanks to God and trying to hide my amusement.

I don't think I did nearly so well hiding my laughter at the absurdity of the whole thing when a moment later - after remaining seated to give God a nice, polite round of applause - the whole congregation gave the youth minister an enthusiastic standing ovation.

Birdies!

A new sort of world series.

So ah.. any bird fans out there? Could be fun. I can recognize a robin!

Speaking of birds....



These little ones only recently vacated their nest at the front of my house. In this picture, they're five days old.

Playing With Light

Light Travels Backwards and Faster Than Light

This could bring up some interesting possibilities in the future. I imagine it could someday be used to aid with, at the very least, power and communication. One step closer to the Ansible anyone? I can't work out how it would help human ships travel faster than lightspeed to reach other galaxies, though admittedly that was the first thing that came to mind at the mention of anything faster than lightspeed.

It also, strangly enough, reminds me of nerve signals jumping along healthy nerves.. oh what would I have ever done without that year of biology. That model could be used, though, if the signal breaks down over straight longer lines. Whatever we're using the light signal for.

Marquette, MI

I Believe In God...

Children's belief in God

This article talks about the level of confidence children have in the fact that God exists versus the fact that, say, germs exist. I only link to it because it mentions something that I've sometimes wondered about myself. How does it affect the way others think when we talk about God as though He isn't a fact, only something that we personally believe in but not necessarily everyone else should? Do we sometimes adopt the way the culture speaks of the things of God even when we don't agree with them?

I thought I had a brilliant article to write on this topic, but as I've thought about today, I've realized I need to think about it more. So for now I'll just bring up the idea.. and perhaps later on I'll come up with a brilliant post.

Exercising Elephants

The Alaska Zoo built a treadmill for their elephant in the interests of building it a better habitat. I can only imagine that the poor elephant was sitting around, day after day, depressed and longing for those treadmills its ancestors used to run on over in Africa back in the good old days.

Surprisingly, though, Maggie - that's the elephant - is not particularly excited about this design, and has not yet been convinced to use it despite being offered all her favorite treats. No doubt they will eventually train her to walk on it, just as we train our dogs to do agility courses. Then again, even I would run an agility course of sorts - think children's playground, obstacle course, ropes course - and be glad to do it. And various animals also play. Watch a kid (goat, not human) with an old tire, or a cat with a dangling string.

Only once or twice have I voluntarily run on a treadmill, and it got old very quickly. I know many people do it, and good for them if they can keep up exercising that way (or even, is it possible, enjoy it?). I can't do it. Running on a moving machine without racing, without even going anywhere, with no change of scenery to look at, holds no interest for me. And I used to run both track and cross country when I was younger, as well as entering occasional 5K races just because. I have nothing particular against running.

Only the human mind could convince itself to run so many miles without going anywhere at all, in the sake of health. No animal would naturally do this. They play, and run, and gets all sorts of natural exercise. It's what I prefer as well (and so far, I'm doing fine).

That said, I don't blame Maggie at all if she finally gets onto her exercise machine only to turn around and walk right back off.

As a side note, this brought to mind a short story by Orson Scott Card called Elephants of Posnan. I'd link to it, but it's no longer available as a free read on his website. It's about elephants dominating the earth; more than that I can't say without getting my hands on it once again, which means finding it somewhere and purchasing it, something I intend to do as soon as possible.


***Edit - I stand partially corrected. Case in point: hamsters and mice. Insane active little rodents.***

What Lurks Beyond

There is an eeeevil force out there, I know it. Slowly creeping up, shoving stars out of orbit, tearing galaxies in half, taking on the whole universe in a desperate battle between life and death. Soon, all will be CHAOS as not a single object in the universe is within lightyears' help of any other.

I mean, is isn't called Dark Matter for nothing, right?

I could never turn that into my own story though - it reminds me far too much of Madeleine L'Engle's Time Quartet. Most people have probably at least read the first, A Wrinkle In Time. I was first introduced to it in fifth grade, in, of all places, the Ann Arbor Public School System. I believe it was around the same time that the school introduced us to Narnia. No amount of reasoning will lead me to believe that the allegory was as lost on them as it was on me at the time, though years later at age twenty-one it was easy enough to pick up on. The end of the series gets a bit strange in my opinion, but I'd still recommend the bunch for elementary age science fiction lovers.

Plus, she did a much better job portraying the evil element than I just did. Trust me on that one.

A Magazine for Ender

Because I have nothing better to write at the moment: check out Orson Scott Card's InterGalactic Medicine Show if you need some extra reading material. It's only $2.50 per issue and has some excellent science fiction short stories and articles.

And, of course, the real highlight - a new Ender world story in each issue!

Unfortunately, it's a quarterly magazine. I finished most of the stories in one day, with the exception of those that are added after initial release, and of course the more frequent articles.

Bear With Me, Will You?

DNA Tests Confirm Bear Was a Hybrid

Ever wondered what a polar bear/grizzley bear mix would look like? I think this quotation echoes my own thoughts on the matter... "Polar bears and grizzlies have been successfully paired in zoos before — Stirling could not speculate why — and their offspring are fertile."

..And we've tried this because....? Right, thought so.

Sooner or later someone is going to suggest that this is a result of global warming as the polar bears are forced south (ice melting; or, conversely, the grizzlies are forced north to find cooler weather), creating a new mixed breed that can survive slightly warmer weather. I rather hope this isn't a continuing trend, though; he's sorta ugly. Dinosaurs probably thought the same about mammals.

On second thought, he looks like he ought to be hooked up to a sleigh, or perhaps to a plow, in some weird fake-artic non-Earth city. I'm putting my order in for four as backups when my car falls apart.

Concord Party

These people are trying to create a new political party. I'm interested enough to watch it and see where they go with certain issues, because while they're still debating their platforms, I can understand their initial reason for trying it - that they're fed up with both current parties.

Likely their positions on major issues will not be close enough to mine to matter in that way, but while they're still fleshing it out, it does lead me to wonder. How difficult would it be to actually start another party, once that would stand more chance than any current third party of your choice? I've long held that we need more than the two options we currently have (because until any third party candidate does well, we really only have two options). This could partly be changed by the way many people vote, but while we're at it, why not have at least one more major party?

The problem here - and anyone who has every talked to me about trying to make some sort of nation-wide change in any form knows what I am about to say - is the number of obstacles involved in getting real change in a nation this size. Money aside (and that's a big aside, but let's assume that if everything else works out, the people involved can pool together the money to fund it), I'd have to find enough people who agreed with me on the major positions. Enough people that the whole rest of the nation would take notice. There could be some leeway for debate on minor issues, if we all agreed they were minor issues, where I could live with the outcome either way. But life issues, environment issues, others that other people would consider larger items, would all have to meet with enough widespread agreement to become an actual competitor against the Republicans and Democrats. At this point we can come back to the problem of money, but let's just say that we'd need a lot of it and it isn't easy to get. The harder part would be the money involved in actually getting the idea out there to begin with, unless you count on word of mouth instead of any sort of advertising. It's easier with the internet but, with the number of sites out there, still involves "word of mouth" online. A continous series of people caring enough to link to it, agreeing with it, and caring enough to be informed about the matters and help in small or greater ways. I think I might be just insane enough to try someday, if I decided I needed to - but could I really make it work, or could anyone else? Will these people manage? Whether or not I end up agreeing with the positions they take, it is an interesting test to see if this can indeed be done. And if it can, who knows.. perhaps I'll make my bid next.

Now if they would just listen to my ideas on how the whole system should change to stop giving preference to the main party candidates, the whole issue could be avoided.. but that's a matter for a different time.

You Look Like I Love You

Proof that love at first sight does exist: Women Get Paternal Clues in Men's Faces.

Then again, that would be taking the wrong understanding of love.

This does explain a few things, of course. Such as why so many women are attracted to certain men I know.

It also proves something else - women do know everything.

Sweet Dreams

I was looking at bits of writing last night, things that I created years ago, and came across many items that I either can't or just probably won't ever do anything with. Even the original creations would need to be improved in order to stick into a newer (read: better) story. However, after digging these out of the woodwork, I thought to myself, well, might as well post bits of them and see what sort of reaction I get. So to begin with - this is half of a short story that I wrote for an RPG character (my first character on Ansible MOO, an RPG based on the book Ender's Game). Criticism welcome (if anyone is actually reading this yet), but remember - I was in my mid-teens at the time I wrote this. Be nice.

Sweet Dreams

It was dark. So dark. In the pitch blackness of the area, Myth could see nothing. She didn’t know how she had gotten here, or where she was. Just that it was dark, stretching forever in every direction, no boundaries, no stopping.. and something was wrong. She could feel it hanging in the air, she could taste the wrongness on her tongue, a sharp bitter taste that was like nothing else. Silence draped the night…she assumed it was night.. like a thick curtain, shutting out all else.

Myth crouched down and squinted into the blackness, trying to see anything at all, but not even the tiniest hint of light existed. Her hand hit the floor as she reached down to steady herself and found it cold, hard. Cement, or tile, she didn’t care which and it didn’t tell her where she was. Myth lowered her other hand, felt it come in contact with the same surface. She stood up quickly, eyes straining for the briefest glimpse of anything. She was inside, she was sure of that now, but where? It didn’t seem like anywhere she knew.. if she had to guess, there was nothing alive anywhere around her. There was an inhuman air to the place, contributing to the awful feeling it gave her.

Myth took an uneasy step forward, then another, each foot following the other slowly and testing the ground before she put any weight on it. Her arms were raised, held out in front of her to keep from bumping into anything. Though there certainly didn’t seem to be anything except open space. She walked like this, kept walking, for what seemed like forever.

And then her hands hit something solid in front of her. It hadn’t been forever, after all. Just seemed like it. This whatever-it-was had been rather close to her. She examined it, ran her hands over the surface cautiously. There was a crack, then it continued, and another on the other side of it.. a door. This was a door, and a wall. Which meant she was in a room. And if the wall was that close, however long it had taken her to actually get to it, then all the others might be that close, as well... She’d never been claustrophobic, but suddenly the room seemed to press in on her, suffocating her as the walls and ceiling approached out of the dreadful darkness. She pushed once against the door, then again, harder. It wouldn’t open, and her hands found no knob to turn and no keyhole.

Myth took a deep breath and turned around. With no pause for caution this time, she jogged in the opposite direction, searching for the back wall. Though she could feel her feet pounding the hard ground, the steps made no sound. She didn’t consciously realize the lack of sound, she hadn’t heard a single sound yet since she found herself here, but it still added to the eerieness of the situation. Myth stumbled into another surface and stopped, fingers examining the details of the wall, searching desperately for an opening. There was none. She turned to her right, running her hand along the wall as she walked in that direction. All to quickly she came to a third wall, still finding nothing. After a brief search of that wall - still nothing! - she turned yet again, went back to the wall opposite the door, then felt her way to the final wall. Nothing anywhere. She was trapped.

As if this fact by itself wasn’t bad enough, the sense that there was something terribly wrong was growing stronger. The feeling was increasing rapidly, so rapidly that the sheer mental weight of it pulled the breath from her throat until the air only came to Myth in quick, short gasps. Still silent, of course. She stood in the back left corner, facing the wall, not wanting to look around any more. The room was empty, she knew that now, but there was something...

A creaking noise from behind Myth broke the silence for the first time. Gulping, she reluctantly turned to the sound. The unopenable door was swinging open, almost in slow motion, letting in just barely enough light to outline the two shapes who were revealed behind it. They were both tall, towering over her, and well built. Human-looking, but it was still an inhuman place, their presence felt wrong. Nothing about the feeling indicated that other people were around… only dead, or undead, or some horrible monster trying to pass for a man.

They were standing one next to the other, the second trailing behind the first by a step or two. The door remained open, casting the room into a dim grey light, hardly bright enough to see by. But the two Things showed up clearly as black, faceless shapes slowly advancing.

Myth stepped back, stiffening as her foot encountered only the wall behind her. She leaned back into the corner, willing it to absorb her, cringing as the Two came nearer. The door was still open but it was past them, she’d never make it past them, she knew that even without trying. She pulled back even farther, but there was no more room to do so, she felt her head press against the cool surface behind her and it shook. Shook, except that after a moment she realized the room wasn’t moving, it was her, she was trembling. And the Two kept coming forward, and God wasn’t it taking them a long time, the wait was as agonizing as the fear that boiled within her at their sight.

The first one stopped, suddenly, close enough to reach out and grab her. The second figure came to a halt beside the first, and both stared menacingly down at her. If they’d been tall before, now they stood at a gigantic height, as though they’d grown with each step, and Myth wondered how the ceiling was high enough for them. They way the Two stood was itself a command for respect, but that respect came in the form of another wave of terror, and she sunk to the floor, cowering under them as the first opened his mouth to speak.

"We have come for you, Myth." The voice was low and harsh, grating out each word as if was an effort, yet with a sense of pleasure hiding behind each syllable. An evil sense of pleasure, one that only meant bad things, one that made Myth sink lower yet and whimper softly, not even knowing she was doing it. "You are on your way to a worse place, much worse. We have come to take you there."

The words echoed in the silence after, and the Two both reached out for Myth, reached down to her. She raised her arms in front of her face, shielding herself from them, and squeezed her eyes shut, dreading their touch. There was a cold, tight pressure, their hands like bands of metal encircling her arms...


(As I said, the first half. Of a nightmare. And, yes, this is the character I later took my general online identity from, as evidenced by the name and title on this blog.)

What Aging Means to Me

And a bit of theorizing I'm copying from my other site from about 2.5 months ago, in case I ever need to recover it. It was in response to reading an article discussing anti-aging medicines and having isolated specific causes of aging:

So is anyone else actually scared by talk of anti-aging medicines? I read an article the other day outlining the work already being done, what they've found that causes cell death that seems to cause aging, and suggesting that by the year 2050 people will regularly be living to around age 150. Now looked at one way, slowing that type of cell breakdown would seem to mean we'd be healthier. It would also mean I haven't already lived a whole 4th of my life, and having not spent most of that very well, it might be nice to think there'll be more of it to spend right. However, looked at the other way, I keep thinking about all the sci-fi theories of one day enabling people to live forever. On Earth I mean, in this life. And that there seems to be something wrong with that, trying to cling forever to this and never move on to (hopefully) heaven and a life most completely united with God. Ignoring the fact that such an extreme is probably impossible and would never happen in my lifetime anyway, I wouldn't ever want to be faced with that choice. Nor would I want someone to make if for me, changing things so that I would never be able to die naturally. But what I wonder now, and what's more relevant now, is this: where does prolonging life another fifty years fall into things? What if it was another hundred or two? Another thousand? If the first is becoming possible, aren't they going to work for the others next, and how far could we push it with our own treatments and medications? Is it okay if it isn't forever, or is this something we should leave alone? People lived hundreds of years in early Biblical days. Maybe it's a disease that developed, one of the many things that has kept getting worse since the Fall, like other diseases we've now found cures for. That makes the most sense, to me, perhaps because it also implies a definite ending to the number of possible years.. we could eventually cure the disease that shortens our lives this much, but could never push life to beyond the couple hundred years we originally got after the Fall. After which, having lived a natural lifespan, we would still go to meet God.

Bird! Plane! ...Alien?

Three sites to keep in mind for dealing with UFOs:

To read (and make!) reports.

More reports.

This one's fun. And has a video of boys tormenting guards at Area 51.

My own position on UFOs, I'll leave it up to you to guess for the moment. But hey - all those Top Secret documents have to be about something, right? ;-)

So I Lied

I've changed my mind. After leaving this to sit useless for months, I'm going to start posting items that will probably be of absolutely no interest to anyone but myself. Namely, for writing (if I ever get to the point where I've anything worth posting), random science items, and anything else that catches my interest but that I don't want to flood my other sites with. Mainly, it will allow me to keep track of these items when I want to find them again, as I invariably lose track of where they were and forget my thoughts. I don't exactly expect others to be really interested.. although, if I'm wrong, have fun!

Without posting a long commentary on this article, Research Aims for Lawns That Never Need Mowing, I think we're working towards editing out a few good things that won't be noticed until far, far in the future. Honestly, doesn't anyone else enjoy the smell of cut grass? I can only imagine a place where everything that grows is an exact copy of every other of the same type of plant, everything is always green (oh wait, that's Florida!), no change, no new growth, just green, full grown plants forever. This is not necessarily a comment on genetic modification of plants, which I have no intention of getting into anytime soon, merely an observation about my own "utopian" world.