‘SO Alone In The Universe.’ Archives
EXTRATERRESTRIAL CONTACT: PUT A SOCK IN IT
SEARCH FOR INTELLIGENCE: An Agreement THEM Hundreds of billions of stars in our galaxy. Hundreds of billions of galaxies. Lots of stars and lots of planets. Lots . How many restless alien souls are looking this way, wondering what's over here? US Meanwhile, we're looking for planets; we're listening to signals; and we're trying [...]
The Scientific Work Of Amy Bishop
"It didn't happen. There's no way ... they are still alive." - Amy Bishop, being taken to jail. THE DARK SIDE Amy Bishop (Assistant Professor Of Biology at the University of Alabama) figured out that her colleagues weren't gonna give her tenure. So she shot them. TOO assertive, we think. They say she also shot and killed her [...]
Harvard, Ice Cream, and Quantum Mechanics
MY PUBLIC A long, long time ago, Joel, Doug, and MISTER ScienceAintSoBad were in line for an ice cream cone in Harvard Square. I can't remember, exactly, why, but Joel said (not for the first time) that "People are morons." Mister (not at that time) ScienceAintSoBad sturdily defended you. "Not all of them." "That's what YOU think. [...]
Disgruntled Burglars Quitting The Trade. Can’t Compete.
Criminology: Economics Of Burglary. According to James Treadwell's research (University of Leicester), global price pressures - particularly "cheap labor in China" - are RUINING it for decent burglars in the UK. Commodity pricing in consumer goods such as DVD players has gotten so crappy that you can't even fence a good home [...]
Behaving Robotically
Jobs Jobs Jobs We need more jobs, right? Maybe General Motors and NASA are a little "off message" here. They're creating "Robonaut 2", a humanoid robot worker that any productivity - hungry, greedy corporation would LOVE to get its mitts around. See, workplace robots aren't easily mistaken for somebody you went out with last year. [...]
Stick Figures Have Lives Too
A follow up to my recent article on comic books as literature: Randall Munroe studied physics at Christopher Newport University and has worked for NASA. He also writes a sparse but very funny "webcomic" with sardonic observations on life as lived in the [...]
Scientists: Dolphins Are Persons
Image from Creative Commons:http://www.flickr.com/photos/nikonvscanon/ / CC BY 2.0 Biology: Dolphins are non-human persons. A scientific consensus seems to be emerging that Dolphin's are "non-human persons". This very surprising article in the UK's Times Online summarizes things. Smarter than Chimpanzees. Lots [...]
BIG FAT ARROWS POINT TO PLANETS (ALMOST)
SpaceScience: Stars Give Themselves Away How do you know if a star has planets? Tediously. In fact, it wasn't until 1995 that we nailed the first such planet (I'm not counting the one we're standing around on, or its neighbors, of course). Even "neighboring" stars are so far away and so bright that you can't [...]
… THE COMPANY THAT NEVER CAME ….
A cigar chomping alien, romping outside of its spacecraftThe only ones in the WHOLE universe..This might not be my best post. But what's the point of HAVING a blog if you can't rant about intelligent life in the universe. No need to indulge me. If it's boring, you can tune out. It's OK.Even MY cynical friends will have tears in their eyes when the [...]
