McSweeney's Obscenities Uttered by Jesus Christ had me laughing.

Obvious humor, but still funny.

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Could there have been any possible doubt?

SCI-FI! - Neuromancy and technical wizardy! You are
compelled to write of the Future and what might
be a thousand years from now or next week! Is
it a visit to an Alien Culture? Or a
breathtaking new form of Technology? Isaac
Asimov and William Gibson are your guides.


What Kind of Novel Should I Write?
brought to you by Quizilla

(Via The Impenetrable LDH).

Posted by: JohnL at 09:32 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Most of the time around here, I try to avoid the sensitive issues of the day (which usually bring me little joy) and focus on the things that make my life fun to live: my family, music, science fiction, space, and many trivial little things that I find here and there on the internet. Of course, underlying all these is a strong appreciation for liberty together with the culture and legal environment that fosters my ability to enjoy these things.

One reason I really enjoy reading Stephen Green is that he seems to have a similar outlook on life as a joy to live. And, even though he tackles more political issues than I do, he does tend to avoid the hottest-button political issues. But in a late-night ramble tonight, he stakes out his position on three topics that tend to lead to holy wars: abortion, gun control, and evolution. So, lest I be dismissed as a lightweight, or at least as one too cowardly to state his views on the same subject, here are my thoughts:

Abortion: People's opinions on this issue are driven by their definition of human life. A mother has a right to liberty, which in my mind includes almost total control over her being. However, at some point before birth, a fetus becomes a human being. I tend to think "viability" is a bit of a red herring in the argument until the fetus is actually human. I believe human life begins (and ends) with a functioning (or not) human brain.

At some point around the end of the first trimester, the fetus' brain begins to exhibit steady brain-wave activity --call it "brain life" if you will. At that point, I think the the fetus' viability is more of an issue. I.e., since both the mother and fetus are now human, their rights must be protected. But the fetus is essentially parasitic on the mother's life. As long as the fetus remains non-viable, I think the scales tip heavily in favor of the mother's choice. And I believe that the balance always should tilt in favor of the mother's life (even if just a little) right up to birth. Based on the above, I also think that an anencephalic or gravely ill fetus could be terminated at any point before birth without any major ethical qualms.

Gun Control. Read the Second Amendment. Read it again. See what Steve said.

Evolution. It's just a theory. Yeah, just like special relativity or quantum mechanics. A very powerful predictive theory that underlies tremendous advances in biology and medicine. But "just a theory." Intelligent design and creationism are not theories, but beliefs. Much less powerful than a scientific theory. To be fair, I am intrigued by the anthropic principle (soft creationism, perhaps), as well as the need for an "observer" to collapse certain quantum waves (in theory), but do not think you can "prove" the existence of a creator. You have to believe.

One question for Steve, though: what about Apple versus MacPC???

Update: I made some edits to the above, which was pretty poorly-drafted in its original form. Even the title is pretty godawful, but I'll leave it as a monument to my incompetence. Just imagine that the title reads "Three Subjects to Avoid..."

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Thankfully, it appears that today's repair mission was a complete success, and the potentially threatening gap fillers were removed with minimal effort and without causing any damage to the thermal tiles. Read about it here.

Unfortunately, it now appears that a second spacewalk may be necessary to repair a thermal quilt outside the cockpit that may have been damaged by launch debris.

I wonder how many of these kinds of issues have previously gone unnoticed or uncared-about. Since NASA added additional cameras for the return-to-flight mission, Discovery has to be the most closely-studied orbiter in the history of the program. Perhaps our earlier ignorance really was bliss. I'm just surprised that this level of scrutiny wasn't applied to the earlier shuttle missions.

It will be interesting to see whether the safety-first culture at NASA will abate any after a few successful missions. It will have to in order to ever succeed in implementing President Bush's exploration initiative. It seems that repair spacewalks should be something that every crew of every vessel in space should be prepared to do.

Posted by: JohnL at 11:59 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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A couple of random, but loosely-linked posts:

Rocket Jones found (via Flea) a great video of a machine gun versus a Katana sword. The super-slow-motion of the bullets striking the blade is breathtaking.

At Troynovant, William H. Stoddard has updated an old book review of The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe. He observes the ambivalence of the residents of the 16th century toward the sword, and draws an analogy to our current culture's ambivalence toward handguns.

Posted by: JohnL at 10:06 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Well, after more than 400 votes, it was time to close down the incredibly close Incredibles poll. Results are posted here and in the Gallery.

With our new house, we finally got standard cable TV, including the Sci Fi channel. As a consequence, I've now gotten a chance to see a few episodes of Stargate Atlantis. Decent enough SF drama featuring a couple of nice-looking ladies, who feature in the new poll:

Teyla Emmagan (portrayed by Rachel Luttrell):

Dr. Elizabeth Weir (portrayed by Torri Higginson):

Results (Posted 1 December 2005):

Teyla 139 of 350 votes for 40%
Dr. Weir 211 of 350 votes for 60% -- WINNER!

Posted by: JohnL at 09:18 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Yobbo, who's been chronicling his ongoing debauched journeys through Asia (women, gambling, etc.) over the last several months arrived in Tokyo a few weeks ago, and soon embarked on a mission to find some whale to eat.

Read his account of the unique gustatory experience here.

Almost makes me curious to try it. Even the "lightly roasted" dish (more like whale sashimi), which I can imagine being palatable with some wasabi and ginger, chased by a large Sapporo.

Posted by: JohnL at 09:08 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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It may be that an intelligent race has to expand right up to its disaster point to achieve what is needed to break out of its planet and reach for the stars. It may always - or almost always - be a photo finish, with the outcome uncertain to the last moment. Just as it is with us. It may take endless wars and unbearable population pressure to force-feed a technology to the point where it can cope with space. In the universe, space travel may be the normal birth pangs of an otherwise dying race. A test. Some races pass, some fail.

- Jacob Salomon in I Will Fear No Evil.

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Kathy, Rob, and the Llama Military Correspondent all recounted tales of their "Lost Weekend."

I like the sound of that: The Lost Weekend. It has a kind of mystique to it.

My weekend included the following:

Saturday - Cub Scout bike ride, three hours of yard work, swimming and dinner with family friends. Kids to bed late.

Sunday - early music rehearsal with church band, performance in church service, baking a cake for oldest son's birthday, shopping, trip to see the Fantastic 4 (much better than the bad reviews it got, btw), sleepover birthday party for oldest son.

And it spilled over into today: handyman appeared at 8:00 this morning to put in some floor tiles, I worked a full day, and had to get eldest son to a church youth activity this evening at the same time my daughter was starting her birthday party at the neighborhood pool. It is now almost 11:00PM CDT and I am finally unwinding.

This is just a sample of our summer to date.

Based on the pace we've been keeping up around here, together with the prep and fallout of the house move, I think we'll look back at this and call it The Lost Summer.

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Professor Scott Spiegelberg has created a nice tribute to Harry Potter with this week's Carnival of Music, the ninth installment to date. Please drop by and leave a comment.

We need some more volunteers to host. If you're interested, it's an easy and fun way to gain some exposure for your blog. Please send an email here to volunteer to host or submit a post. If you have any other questions, visit the main Carnival Page.

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