A computer program writing & publishing AP news stories sure sounds a lot like #AI

And what happens when the program decides it doesn't like us anymore?

Bill Gates is worried about AI and he's a smart human, right?

Pope believes in evolution & Big Bang theory, also that the earth is not flat or the center of the universe

The first 2 (his beliefs regarding evolution and the Big Bang theory) this current Pope just let us know about as reported by Salon.com.  The last 2 (that the earth isn't flat or the center of the universe) one of his predecessors let us know about, I think in the 1950's.

The Voyager Probe May Have Left Our Solar System Last Year and Our Neighbors Are Not Happy

Great, hilarious comment to an article explaining that the Voyager probe might have left our solar system last year, making it the first human made object to do so:

ATTENTION RESIDENTS OF EARTH

In accordance with writ number 2.456.70225, you are in violation of the galactic littering ordinance. You are being assessed a fine of approximately 1,200 galatic phoquns. This is approximately equivalent to 9,000 trillion trillion Earth (US region) dollars.

You are given 30 of your days to A) retrieve the litter that has left your star's heliopause and B) Pay the fine in full. Failure to fullfil one or all of your responsibilities may result in planet wide relocation to the prison ring system in the galactic core. Galagov thanks you for your cooperation.

Photo of Earth From Rings of Saturn 900 Million Miles Away

The tiny arrow in the below photo is pointing at Earth.  The picture was taken by the Cassini space probe.  How cool is this that?


And here's close up picture from the same series of photos that shows both the Earth and the Moon:

Science Or Science Fiction? Faster Than Light Communication...

...albeit between two quantum entangled particles, the following has been proven:

"The results from the new experiment confirm one of the wildest predictions of quantum mechanics: that a pair of "entangled" particles, once measured, can somehow instantly communicate with each other so that their states always match."

No matter how far apart?  How about 310 miles apart?  The implications are amazing.  So if we can ever travel great distances faster than the speed of light, can this phenomenon be used somehow to communicate instantaneously across great distances?

Not science fiction: faster than light warp drive goes from "impractical to plausible"...

...according to a scientist as NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.  In fact they're going to do a small table-top experiment to test the theory, an "existence of proof" of the idea.  Life/science imitating art/science fiction much?

Palin Still Receives A LOT of Media Coverage. Why?

Again, let me get this straight, she quit her job as chief executive of her state in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression right? So again, why do people care what she has to say or "write"("write" is in parentheses because, come on, she, like any politician, had a ghost writer)? I know she has a new book out but, who cares and why? If someone could answer that I'd appreciate it and then maybe my head would stop hurting.

And check out Palin's rules for media at her book signing appearances. Apparently Palin doesn't like those non-English speaking media types.

Fake chapter titles from Palin's book (updated):

Chapter 1: The Beginning of the Universe, 6,000 Years Ago, When People Walked with Dinosaurs

Chapter 2: How NOT to Teach Abstinence to Your Teen

Chapter 3: The Differences and Similarities In Answering Questions in a Beauty Contest Versus a Presidential Campaign (Miss California, I Feel Your Pain)

Chapter 4: "How to Read ALL the Periodicals Released in Alaska

Chapter 5: A Guide to Shopping on the GOP Credit Card"

Chapter 7: I Hate Katie Couric and Tina Fey

Chapter 8: How to Tell the Difference Between a Phone Call From the Real President of France and a Prank Call From a Montreal DJ

Chapter 9: All My Terrible Interviews and Awful Decisions During the Campaign Were Actually the John McCain Campaign's Fault, Seriously, I Swear

Chapter 10: It was OK For Me to Exploit Levi Johnston During the Republican National Convention By Parading Him Onstage in Front of the Media with My Daughter Who Was Pregnant with His Child at the Time.

Chapter 11: I Don't Understand Where Levi Got the Idea to Try to Get Media Attention

Chapter 12: Why Quitting as Governor of Alaska Made Sense

Chapter 13: Palin/Beck 2012, Now That's a Maverick Ticket for Real America
Some past thoughts on Ms. Palin include but, are not limited to...

- Palin on Health Insurance Reform

- Palin's farewell speech (that I'm pretty sure she wrote all by her mavericky self)

- Shatner's spoken word version of Palin's farewell speech

- Cartoon about Palin's resignation speech (again, I'm pretty sure she also wrote this one all by her mavericky self)

- Letterman vs. Palin regarding the joke about her daughter

- Chapter titles in Palin's memoir (older and a little different than the above)

(Fyi, some/most of the above is from past posts and has been added to/updated with some new thoughts given recent events. What can I tell you, I've been busy.)

- Newsworthiness in "Lou Dobbs Land"

Here's more on Dobbs.

What's the Deal With SciFi Movie Dates?

I always wonder why those that make/write scifi movies/stories feel compelled to include a date certain in the not too distant (or distant, whatever the case may be) future when their story takes place. If you look at the list on the poster below there are some great movies by some great writers/filmmakers but, they all include a specific date when their movie/story takes place. First, to "date" their futuristic stories seems strange in and of itself. Moreover, when the story was supposed to take place in 2001, for example, and I'm watching it in 2009, the storyteller loses the some of the ability to persuade me to suspend reality, that's just me though. Why would the scifi writer not just say that the story takes place "in the (not too distant) future"? Or better yet, not mention the date at all?

The below is from danmeth.com. It's a poster showing scifi movie dates, including those that have come and gone and those still down the road:

Dr. Obvious, Scientifically Studying and Reporting the Obvious

A recent scientific study revealed that big/overweight NFL players are prone to high blood pressure. It's a real study, I swear.

here's what was revealed in other studies by the same group of scientists:

- marathon runners are prone knee problems

- the pope is prone to wearing a funny hat

- people are prone to thinking that marathon runners are crazy

- bears are prone to defecating in the woods

- people are also prone to thinking that puppies, kittens and babies are cute

- drunk pilots are prone to crashing their airplanes

- monkey are prone to throwing their own feces

- people are prone to drowning when attempting to breath underwater unassisted

- scientists are prone to studying the obvious.

So Sarah Palin Is Writing a Memoir

Gov. Palin (AK) has announced her plans to release her memoir in 2010. I'll let you pick the punchline.

a) It's going to be released in two versions, coloring book or pop-up book.

b) Chapter 2: "How NOT to Teach Abstinence to Your Teen ".

c) Chapter 1: "The Beginning of the Universe, 6,000 Years Ago".

d) Chapter 3: "The Differences and Similarities In Answering Questions in a Beauty Contest Versus a Presidential Campaign (Miss California, I Feel Your Pain)".

e) Chapter 4: "How to Read ALL the Periodicals Released in Alaska".

f) Chapter 6: "A Guide to Shopping on the GOP Credit Card".

g) Chapter 7: "I Hate Katie Couric and Tina Fey".

h) Chapter 9: "How to Tell the Difference Between a Phone Call From the Real President of France and a Prank Call From a Montreal DJ".

i) Palin: "Do you think Ann Coulter will write it for me if I promise to be her best friend?"

j) If there's no ghostwriter an anonymous source says, "If Palin writes it herself all the "chapters" in the memoir are likely going to be more like paragraphs, and by paragraphs I mean more like sentences, and by sentences I mean more like phrases or sentence fragments." The same source reports that without a ghostwriter Sarah Palin has confessed, "It's not going to be so much a memoir, maybe more like a 3-fold-pamphlet. Gosh darn, writing is hard."

Evolution vs. Intelligent Design/Creationism In Texas

Or alternate title, let's teach our children by showing them "Land of the Lost"

Or second alternate title, what if I believe that part of our intelligent design involves Galactus?

I am proud to be a Texan.  But seriously, some folks make it hard.  In Austin Governor Perry and his religious right supporters are trying to push intelligent design/creationism through the State Board of Education and have it part of every child's public school curriculum.  Where should we start?

First, what is scary is that Perry put Don McLeroy in charge of the state education board. McLeroy believes in a literal reading of the bible which is, from a public policy perspective, dangerous and scary for numerous reasons. Most bible literalists are (1) anti-gay and (2) believe the earth is about 6 thousand years old. Why is it dangerous to have a bible literalist in a public policy decision-making position besides those two above reasons?  Because if a person is really a bible literalist they should believe the following too: (1) that slavery is OK because it was in the bible and (2) that people's lifespans have decreased dramatically since people around the time of Moses lived hundreds of years.  Bible literalists forget that their English language bible was translated from other languages and that at least some of it, if not all of it, are stories, allegories, arguably not to be taken literally.  They also forget that men, not a deity, decided what went in the bible and what should be left out at a little meeting called the First Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, not a lot of the guys at that meeting spoke the Queen's English.  

Let's take bible literalism to its logical conclusion.  If the earth is, according to a bible literalist, about 6,000 years old and most literalists believe that people lived and walked among dinosaurs, then, why don't we just show the kiddos re-runs of "Land of the Lost".  "Land of the Lost" can be termed a re-creation of our ancestors walking among dinosaurs.  I'm being facetious, kind of.  If you begin teaching this stuff there are questions kids are going to ask and the logical answer to those questions leads to talks about religion and a deity or deities.  

For example, no matter what anyone says, we have some semblance of separation between church and state.  We do not teach that there is a great designer/creator to or behind our existence for a reason.  If we did then the next question to be asked is who or what that designer/creator is.  The religious right will tell you that it's their version of their deity.  Well, that's great for them.  What if someone wants to teach their kid about their own version of a deity. Oh wait, that's why we have freedom of and from religion and we all get to choose which church we go to or if we go to church at all.  If the religious right wants to teach about intelligent design/creationism they are free to do so, at their church, not in a public school. 

The answer to who or what designed/created (if anything did) everything is a theological one and really a matter of faith (if you believe in a God)/guesswork (if you don't) that differs from person to person, church to church, faith to faith etc.  And what if a person believes that Galactus is part of intelligent design and is going to someday come and eat our planet, can we teach that?  Or the father and son deities a person believes in are Odin and Thor?  Or that the "Force" is an energy field created by all living things that surrounds us and penetrates us and binds the galaxy together?  Can we teach all those too?  No, because it's dangerous to teach myth or theology side by side with science.  In doing so you are endorsing one type of theology instead of another.  You can't teach about all the different types of deities otherwise you would have to teach about Odin & Thor, amongst others, and that's silly.  Very simply, if the state teaches creationism/intelligent design it's endorsing that there is/was a creator/intelligent designer.  That, in and of itself, is endorsing a deity, and it really doesn't matter which deity it is.  The state has no business, constitutionally, endorsing any deity.  Period, end of story.

Do we have to go over the whole "Scopes Monkey Trial" with these people?  If Perry and his religious right cronies get their way and try to have creationism taught here in Texas there will be a lawsuit to stop it.  We'll be forced to have another "Scopes"-esque trial or series of hearings here in Texas, then the case will make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.  Of course maybe the Texas Supreme Court could rule against Perry's would-be creationism cirriculum but, I doubt it.  By the way, the Scopes Monkey Trial occurred in 1925.  Are we regressing?  What millennium are we in?  When we should be looking forward to 2025 we're being forced to look back to 1925 for lessons.  Hopefully, the whole, "learn from history or doomed to repeat it," will come into play and we will demonstrate they we have learned from history.  I hope.

http://www.star-telegram.com/state_news/story/1046804.html

Opening Thoughts Regarding This 2008 Presidential Election

I've been talking to and emailing numerous folks about different aspects of this presidential campaign for awhile. I've been sharing links to articles or websites generally and talking about issues/opinions with friends quite a bit. I decided to centralize all that here.

For example this first post is essentially a message I sent to an old friend fleshed out some.

Why does John McCain come across as "The Penguin" played by Danny DeVito in the second "Batman" (Tim Burton's) movie?

Bottom line, these debates don't matter to Democrats. Democrats are puzzled why there are still undecided voters because if any of the following had been revealed to be true about Senator Obama or his running mate Senator Biden the campaign would be over:

1) the candidate has a teen, unwed daughter.

2) the candidate had not been out of the country or held a passport until two years ago - http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/30/us/politics/30veep.html

3) the candidate had been personally blessed against witches and witchcraft by some type of priest on camera - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwkb9_zB2Pg&feature=related

4) the candidate's spouse had been a member of an organization that at one time advocated that their home state secede from the United States of America. - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26524024/

5) the candidate allegedly believes that the earth is literally six thousand years old and people like you and me walked alongside dinosaurs. - http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-palinreligion28-2008sep28,0,3643718.story?track=rss

6) the candidate had attended a sermon, again on camera, where a guest preacher, preached that those that follow the Jewish faith need to be converted to Christianity. - http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0908/13098.html

7) the candidate had not been able to name one newspaper or magazine the candidate reads on a daily or regular basis, and bailed out on the answer by saying “all of them”. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9go38MgZ4w8

One has to wonder what the Republican reaction would have been had any of the above been true of Senator Obama or Senator Biden.

But of course all the above is supposedly true, as reported by various media outlets, about Vice Presidential candidate Governor Palin, picked by Republican Presidential nominee Senator McCain.