I've done a moderate amount of writing during this vacation trip. Sitting outside, with trees and plants in the garden nearby is most conducive to my creativity, I've found. Something about having life and nature nearby inspires more ideas in my head than bland office walls and florescent lights. Thunder rumbling, rain clattering, wind hissing …
Total eclipse on the way
On August 21 of this year, those of us in North America will get a total solar eclipse--the first in 38 Â years. And it's going right past my house! Well not really, but within driving distance. I'm seriously considering a road trip to Portland for the best view. I've never seen a sight like this …
Fixing humanity
Oryx and Crake is getting more interesting by the chapter. The cause of this apocalypse, seems to be some combination of human greed (the usual) and genetic engineering. But not, engineering of a virus (boring) or monster (less boring but still lame) but of new and improved humans. What would happen if we tried to …
Making Mistakes, an evolutionary advantage?
I was reading this article about the origins of multi-cellular life, and remembered a thought I had a while back. I was thinking about why we make mistakes. It seems strange, for example, when I'm typing this post out, that I several times hit wrong keys by mistake. Why do I do this? Why don't …
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The Martian (2015)
Ridley Scott's The Martian is an accurate, thrilling survival story that for ONCE portrays scientists as normal human beings (even cool, likable ones!), instead of amoral villains, sociopaths, socially crippled nerds, or emotionless robots. Problem solving is the hero of this edge-of-your-seat thriller, and realism is king. I don't have degree in any of the …
Jonas David 