Tonnies, 29, is unimposing - tall, thin, bespectacled - until he speaks, throwing out head-scratching, multisyllabic words with the ease of a college pitcher striking out eight graders.

My cover is blown . . .

The Submerging World

"Recent polling indicated that the single most salient issue for American voters in this year's election is not Iraq, not the deficit, but the price of gas. Too high, the price of gas. Faced with the high price of gas, why worry that Tuvalu has a culture that may date back four thousand years? Why worry that as we raise the temperature of the oceans we not only make them larger but we also -- inexorably -- kill off the coral reefs that surround these islands? Marine scientists have warned that this most benign and teeming of all ecosystems may not make it to mid-century. Already, widespread bleaching from higher temperatures has sterilized many reefs. Oh, and when the reefs die off and disintegrate, islands like Tuvalu's, with nothing to break the surf, are opened to increased wave action, which merely compounds the problem of rising seas. Why worry that mosquitoes carrying dengue fever are already spreading into places that have never known mosquitoes before -- parts of Bangladesh, for one -- bringing sudden hemorrhagic death?"

This just in:

Is Caffeine Withdrawal a Mental Disorder?

"Researchers are saying that caffeine withdrawal should now be classified as a psychiatric disorder."

I have a weird relationship with caffeine. It seems I can drink unlimited amounts of coffee/espresso at any time of the day or night without appreciable effect. More interestingly in light of the above headline, I've found that I can stop at any time without fear of the slightest "withdrawal" symptoms. No headaches. No more irritability than usual.

My craving for coffee drinks is purely habitual. I like drinking coffee not because I get a "fix," per se, but because I like drinking coffee. I like the feel of hot ceramic. I like the endearing way in which cardboard "java jackets" tend to slide off if not properly secured. I like the short-lived floral patterns on the surface of my latte.

I am not mad!

Take a look at Forth Media, the revised website of eWarrior's tech-savvy graphic design venture, featuring "MacBot Singularity," the increasingly appropriate digital portrait that appears on the back on my book, "After the Martian Apocalypse."

For related graphics, click here.

Carol, commenting on a prior post, writes:

"Mac, it sounds like you may be experiencing entoptics, a phenomenon I've been having increasing for about 10 years now. There's some evidence it is associated with a rise in theta brainwaves, and in my experience that includes a bit of psychic opening and a whole lot of synchronicities. There has been work tying it in with cave art patterns, possibly as a way of inducing the state as part of shamanic work."





Needless to say, I'll take a look at the links she provided to see if what I've experienced is related. Whatever it is, it hasn't let up. Imagine being surrounded by a vaguely glistening amalgam of flesh and metal; that's what it looks like. Also, I recently experienced a lucid dream so intriguing that I stayed in bed till past noon to see it through to its "conclusion."

Virtual windows have been a standard in science fiction interior design for a long time. Too long. Check out The Virtual Window Project:

"The Virtual Windows above consist of eight 15" LCD panels connected via custom-built cables to two nVidia Quadro PCI video cards, each with four DVI outputs. The LCD backlight inverters are driven by their own power supply (sitting on top of the PC) and the panels get their 3.3v power from the PC's ATX power supply. The total desktop resolution is 3072x2048. A small Visual Basic app cycles pre-cut images every 15 minutes and Windows manages the arrangement."

Astronomer David Darling was on late-night radio a few days ago. He was fascinating, every bit as articulate about anti-gravity UFOs and ET supercomputers as his book "Equations of Eternity" is about cosmology.

One of the ideas he discussed was his personal conviction that consciousness is a field "tuned into" and individualized by organic brains. In other words, we're tapping into a universal commodity with organs evolved to do just that. We (normally) perceive such a small piece of reality because the hyper-awareness implied by disembodied, "raw" consciousness is simply unnecessary -- and even potentially harmful -- to organisms such as ourselves. Our bodies require constant physical attention; if we could access the entirety of the universe, many of us would probably keel over from sheer information overload. Of course, this is a species that can't even handle Dish TV.

The transhuman imperative, as I see it, is to upload ourselves into this vast, barely tapped reservoir of awareness. I think advanced aliens have taken a similar evolutionary route, originating as carbon-based life on rocky, terrestrial worlds and eventually learning how to transcend gross matter while retaining something of their individuality -- whatever "individuality" might entail for nonhumans.

This juxtaposes the "afterlife" debate with the SETI debate in a most unfashionable manner. But that's part of the fun.

Will women outpace men in 2156?

"Women's times have been improving steadily faster than men's in recent years, they showed. If this trend continues, they calculate that a woman should be the fastest person in the world 152 years from now, give or take an ample statistical margin of 724 years. Women would triumph in a time of 8.079 seconds compared to men's 8.098, they report in Nature."

I think "gender" and "sex" will be mostly inconsequential by 2156, terms useful only in a formal sense. I foresee a burgeoning population of asexual "gender migrants," an idea sensitively explored in Greg Egan's novel "Distress."

Sex will still be available, of course. If you're into that sort of thing.

Toutatis Passes Without Incident

"According to some conspiracy theorists, the President was supposed to make an announcement on Tuesday night that the world was about to end. And the government supposedly shut down a website that dared to break this news. Toutatis was going to be captured by gravity and impact the Earth, ending all life."

I hadn't heard this bit about W making an emergency announcement. I feel cheated. A desiccated biosphere and mile-high tidal waves in Kansas seem a small price to pay to see W stumble his way through that speech.

Engineering God in a Petri Dish





"Advisers to Keats' organization, the International Association for Divine Taxonomy, include biochemists, biophysicists, ecologists, geneticists and zoologists from the University of California at Berkeley, the Smithsonian and other institutions of scientific repute. The mission: to determine where on the phylogenetic map -- the scientific tree of life -- to put God."

Who says "God" -- given that it exists -- is necessarily alive? I'd hire some information theorists and cyberneticists to compliment Keats' team of biologically inclined experts. More than likely, "God" isn't a "thing" at all, but a process. Then again, that's what life is: a self-perpetuating pattern in an ocean of disorder.

But if you're going to look for "God" in the biological domain, I think you're best off starting where our ubiquitous belief in it is most readily apparent -- our own brains.

To be read in your best William Burroughs voice:

I hereby found the Institute for Neurotheological Taxonomy. We seek to isolate this so-called "God virus" so that its effects can be studied, catalogued for the benefit of posthuman scholars, and ultimately eradicated . . .

Dr. Benway enters the laboratory wielding a bonesaw and a dismembered vacuum cleaner. He descends on the comatose patient's shaved skull with a wanton smile.

Back in Kansas City the laptop computer's keys have grown warm with captive electricity.

"I'm gettin' outta here, me."

A good retrospective of John Mack's impact on the close encounter research community by Whitley Strieber.

There's quite a bit of road construction going on near my apartment and I'm fascinated by the neon "pavement glyphs" the construction guys use to denote various cryptic functions. They're generally circular, with a line of some kind emerging from the center -- very similar to the pictograms that flourished near Stonehenge in the early 1990s. Indeed, these gaudy works of "found" urban art share a surprising kinship with English crop circles; I have little doubt that if I flattened a field in the shape of one of the quickly spray-painted markers on the street outside, the next morning would find quizzical bystanders marveling at the weirdness of it and offering to pay so they could enter the circle's hallowed circumference . . .

Mack's death didn't exactly capsize me, but it did take some wind from my sails on what otherwise might have been a very good day. I went to see "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow"; right as the movie started I developed stomach pains, which robbed some of the enjoyment from an excellent movie. Among other things, "Sky Captain" is the closest thing to a "steampunk" film I'm likely to see. I think mainstream critics are missing out with their predictable "the effects are great but that's about it" treatment.

Hey, here's something kind of weird: You know how when you screw your eyes shut you see vague geometric patterns? For the last couple days I've been seeing quite elaborate stuff -- glistening biomechanalia and trippy cross-hatching. I close my eyes and, more often than not, I've got this funky kinetic tapestry waiting for me. It was cool at first. Now it's getting annoying.

(Jeez -- I must sound like Philip K. Dick with his account of "violent phosphene activity." Actually, I attribute my "visions" to circadian fluctuations and disturbances in caffeine intake.)

So, are The Authorities lying about Toutatis? Does the world end today? If it does, there's one comfort to be taken: John Mack didn't miss out on a whole hell of a lot.

Song of the day: "Slippery People" (Talking Heads)

I've just discovered that Dr. John Mack, Pulitzer Prize-winning Harvard psychiatrist and author of two controversial books on the "alien abduction" phenomenon ("Abduction," "Passport to the Cosmos") has died in London, apparently the victim of a drunk driver.

Antarctic Glaciers Melting Faster -Study

"'If anyone was waiting to find out whether Antarctica would respond quickly to climate warming, I think the answer is yes,' said Theodore Scambos, a University of Colorado glacier expert who worked on one study."

Huge Asteroid to Fly Past Earth Wednesday





"The space rock, named Toutatis, will not hit Earth, despite rumors of possible doom that have circulated the Internet for months. Humanity is very fortunate there won't be an impact, as the asteroid is large enough to cause global devastation. Toutatis is about 2.9 miles long and 1.5 miles wide (4.6 by 2.4 kilometers)."

Still I wonder: If a space-rock capable of "global devastation" were to be heading ominously our way, would the Powers That Be let us know? The one study about this particular end-of-the-world scenario I'm aware of suggests they wouldn't.

So maybe Toutatis is in fact heading irrevocably toward a colorful collision with this increasingly toxic blue-green ball we call "Earth." Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Just think -- no more suicide bombings, muck-raking political campaigns or "Precious Moments" figurines. Best of all, no more Jack Chick.

Bigelow's Gamble

"The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company's heavily guarded facilities here."

This Bigelow guy is fun to watch, whether he's proposing trans-lunar tourist shuttles or pouring money into alien abduction research.

I've posted some new Mars material at the Cydonian Imperative. For anyone wondering why I've been so lax on the Martian front lately, it's because I haven't seen a good new anomalous image in a long while. However, I think the European Space Agency is supposed to photograph the Cydonia region by the end of the year, in which case I can again plunge into my typical obsessive what-if hypothesizing.

In the meantime, it's looking increasingly like we've detected the chemical signature of life on Mars. As in life on Mars right now. I can't claim I'm surprised, but it certainly is fun watching the evidence accumulate to the chagrin of wet-blanket Jet Propulsion Laboratory types.

GOP admits mailing anti-gay fliers

"On Thursday the Republican Party owned up to sending mass mailings to residents of Arkansas and West Virginia demonizing homosexuals and predicting liberals would ban the Bible if Democrats won in November." (Via CP.)

See, this kind of crap is why I don't give a fuck. Four more years? Bring it on. I have ceased to care; politics are for the terminally unimaginative. I refuse to play along.

I guess I'm "un-American." Damn.

Venture capitalist rewrites the starving-author story

"The Silicon Valley venture capitalist wrote his novel, founded a company to publish it and then launched one of the biggest and most colorful individual book giveaways ever."

In the not-so-distant future, the majority of titles on bookstore shelves will be written by pretentious assholes who can't write (which, now that I think about it, sounds just like now . . . ) Once reputable reviewers like Kirkus start reviewing self-published books for a fee -- which is already happening -- it's only a matter of time until a bigger "fee" wins the author a better review. Which means bigger sales to the lit-trend pseudo-intelligentsia.

Within a few years, authors who prospered (or at least made ends meet) under the old system are back to reading their work in ill-lit coffeehouses while the independently wealthy throw huge signings and cruise around in limos tossing free copies of their novels/memoirs to the sullen masses on the sidewalk.

Erickson. Pynchon. Womack. Gibson. Vonnegut. Who?

Hurricane Jeanne hits home





I was unable to read today's "Zippy the Pinhead" due to technical difficulties experienced by the Florida-based company that provides SF Gate with its daily roundup of comics.

This marks the first time I've been consciously inconvenienced by a hurricane, and I don't like it one bit . . .

Two cool things here:

a.) a rendering of Franz Kafka that would look good on a T-shirt

and

b.) a fascinating (if authentic) photograph of a "dirigible" taken in the early 1900s. Part of that secret Victorian aerospace war effort I've been hearing about?

The desert of the real

"In the medieval Christian tradition, the devil is a mimic, an actor, a performance artist, and he imitates the wonders of nature and the divine work of creation. Unlike God, he can only conjure visions as illusions, as he did when, in the person of Mephistopheles, he summoned the pageant of the deadly sins for Doctor Faustus and then seduced him with the appearance of Helen of Troy." (Thanks to The Anomalist.)

Strange how this article fails to address virtual reality.

Today's musical purchase:

15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense





"Besieged teachers and others may increasingly find themselves on the spot to defend evolution and refute creationism. The arguments that creationists use are typically specious and based on misunderstandings of (or outright lies about) evolution, but the number and diversity of the objections can put even well-informed people at a disadvantage."

"Creationism" is indeed BS. What bothers me is that the various skeptics groups that help deflate Fundamentalist Creation mythology tend to attack UFOs with equal vigor -- and they lie, whether by intentional omission of data, willful ignorance or simple disingenuity.

There's no need to duck the "points" made by so-called Creation Scientists; they're intentionally fabricated by feeble-minded people for feeble-minded people. The UFO problem is much more complex. Debunkers typically attack the existence of unexplained objects in our skies by attempting to confuse the core phenomenon with the mythology it has spawned. This goes generally unquestioned by academe; you never read articles in science magazines decrying the limp, anthropomorphic biases that show up again and again in anti-UFO literature.

Ideally, politically inclined groups such as CSICOP would like to stereotype "UFO believers" as mindless dolts who also believe an omnipotent being created the world in seven days and molded humans in his own image. My own findings reveal a genuine -- but unfocused -- dissatisfaction with Darwinism among some "UFO types." But the issues under question are generally scientific, not metaphysical -- even if the controversy shares a common origin. It appears most of us share a common need to be part of something larger, whether that something is a bearded caricature of ourselves or a galactic supercluster.

For example, many in the UFO "community" advance the idea that Homo sapiens was genetically facilitated or modified by an extraterrestrial intelligence. To some, this sounds preposterous, little better than Creationist rhetoric. But at worst, it's mere bad science, even if the proposed explanation strives to turn the human legacy into something bigger than it really is . . . and, of course, to some, the idea that we're basically livestock at the mercy of superintelligent ETs seems downright degrading. (I personally haven't dismissed alien genetic intervention, and propose taking a long, hard look at the human genome just in case . . .)

Carl Sagan lamented Fundamentalists' distaste with the idea that humans were, ultimately, forged in the nuclei of exploding stars. Sagan found the idea awe-inspiring, eclipsing the sense of the numinous claimed by the religiously inclined. An agnostic, I share Sagan's sense of wonder. Which is partially why I wince at the tactics of so many self-proclaimed debunkers, who act not in defense of truth, but to deify contemporary paradigms at the exclusion of all else.

Sure, it's nice that they trash Creationists. But why the Pavlovian need to dispel legitimate unknown phenomena?

A great quote about conventional SETI by Stanton Friedman:

"Although SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) has been getting a free ride from the popular press and the scientific community, a closer examination of its assumptions (there is no evidence to examine) clearly indicates it is basically a cult movement with the acronym really standing for Silly Effort To Investigate. Ufology traditionally gets a very hard time from the press and the scientific community, but, in contrast with SETI, has facts and data that lead directly to the conclusion that some UFOs are alien spacecraft and that there is a Cosmic Watergate. It is useful to note the contrasting underlying assumptions of SETI and ufology. Unfortunately, it appears that SETI proponents are totally unwilling to review the UFO evidence and are suffering from the Crown of Creation Syndrome. Our current methods of long distance communication and travel seem to them to be in the forefront of those of all life in the galaxy despite the fact that we have only had advanced flight, electronics, and nuclear technologies for roughly a century and that there are sun-like stars just down the street which are a billion years older than the sun. It is time to realize that the emperors of SETI have no clothes."

DUTCH MEDIUM PHOTOGRAPHS MORE ENTITIES

"The ETI on the camera is an 'immaterial image'. With immaterial images there's a registration of the ectoplasm (a subtle living matter present in the body of a medium, and which is capable of assuming various semi-solid or solid states, which can be, and have been felt, and photographed) or a registration by means of psycho-inductive feedback (caused by the medium directly on the registration material). While these appearances only occur in the presence of Robbert - a person who is a renowned medium with paranormal gifts - is this a matter of a 'mediumistic immaterial appearance' in stead of a physical ETI. With these types of appearances it's understandable that the image itself strongly resembles something actual or archetypically, that means: the perception the medium has out of his memory how something should look like."

If the images are genuine, I doubt the phenomenon is ET in origin. It seems more likely that the minimalist "alien" is a construct plucked from the collective unconscious . . .

Then again, maybe "they" are saying the same thing about us.

Morphine Apparently in Your Head

"'Without doubt, human cells can produce the alkaloid morphine,' Zenk wrote in the paper. 'The studies presented here serve as a platform for the exploration of the function of 'endogenous morphine' in the neurosciences and immunosciences.'"

I have a lurking suspicion that the brain, properly triggered, can produce just about any psychoactive substance or its functional equivalent.

Researchers Discover 'Hole' in Global Warming Predictions

"Using a detailed regional climate model, these researchers estimate summertime daily maximum temperatures will not climb as high in a Midwestern region -- centered on the Missouri/Kansas border -- as anywhere else in the United States. The hole stretches for hundreds of miles and includes Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska and Oklahoma."

Hey! Lucky me!

John Shirley writes:

"When I was having thyroid problems, I began having visions of suicide and a feeling of 'do it, do it'. When I got thyroid medication, those suicidal images and urges went away. Certain people (often teens) taking certain antidepressants, paradoxically get suicidal urges. Men who are very territorial and possessive of their families often--when their chosen mate decides to leave them--fall victim to a 'I must kill my family and myself' syndrome. It seems triggered by a specific set of circumstances. This pattern of self destruction, prompted with such cerebral automaticity, suggests that suicide is designed into us by nature. There may be a 'suicide program' wired into the brain, which is triggered at times, sometimes accidentally. This to me also argues that nature is up to something--that it has intention. It is willing to make us kill ourselves if we don't get with the reproductive program. It is more winnowing."

I bang my head against this issue all the time; am I a merely a convenient receptacle for selfish DNA molecules or am I a sentient individual fortuitously perpetuated by the machinations of DNA? Both, quite possibly. If so, which is the more important aspect of my being? What's the raison d'etre of intelligent carbon-based life?





Maybe it's a yin-yang sort of thing. Life and death; the solace of the inanimate waging perpetual war against the sense of individuality and purpose (however ill-defined) taking place inside our skulls -- and, just possibly, elsewhere.

Like Shirley, I've wanted to cash it in. At times there's an almost palpable drop in what can only be called "life energy" -- a sort of subjective energy-level maintained by the subconscious. Think of it as one of those little glowing meters that accompany characters in video games. You take so many bullets, or lasers, or punches to the face, and the meter drops to zero and you "die."

To Freud, the psyche was ruled by the immutable laws of Sex. I suspect the mind cares less about actual sex than it does the perpetuation of DNA. Superficially, of course, they're one and the same, but the ensured output of viable genetic material is far more abstract and depersonalized. It's as if we share our bodies with mechanistic genies with their own purely selfish agendas -- and when our own agendas begin to conflict with the deoxyribonucleic overmind, our "life meters" start to plunge -- maybe just a little bit, enough to produce a bit of existential unease -- or maybe a considerable fraction all at once, like blowing a tire.

It's then that the genetic overmind plants its roots in the fertile soil that once housed your volition and identity. You become a husk, loping android-like from once task to another until effectively lobotomized. As G.I. Gurdjieff stressed, we are literal machines. And although he didn't specifically invoke biochemistry, he may as well have harped on Richard Dawkins' inspired notion of the "selfish gene," had the idea existed in his time.

The irony is that a being constructed (and in certain critical respects defined) by genes bent on self-preservation can be lured to (or actually programmed for) self-destruction. I wonder if other planetary ecologies have produced intelligent creatures to whom suicide is a physiological impossibility; such creatures may exist among us in coming decades, and we will know them as robots.

Maybe that's the answer. Perhaps we are larvae, subject to incurable neuroses that will cease to exist only when we ourselves cease to exist, supplanted by something new, and -- in strictly Darwinian terms, if nothing else -- fundamentally better. Maybe Shirley's "winnowing" -- seemingly psychotic from our narrow vantage on the evolutionary bridge -- is an essential instrument in the betterment of our species, or at least a lens through which to glimpse where we're headed.

Cool site of the day: The Open SETI Initiative





"But SETI is nothing more than a badly-contrived myth. It seeks legitimacy through claiming membership in the larger scientific community, which itself is a collection of old myths that have outlived their usefulness."

One of my biggest flaws is my desire to be approachable and accommodating to strangers. The trouble, simply, is that I'm not discerning enough, and the Crashing Bores of the world universally see this as a select opportunity to take advantage. I'm burdened by this naively Mr. Roger-ish view that because I perceive myself as fundamentally decent, everyone else must be, too. I want to be liked. And I pay dearly for it.

This was pounded home a couple months back when I was signing books at Borders. It was a weeknight and the turnout was far from outrageous, but I found myself signing more copies than I'd expected and basically enjoying myself. Enter two Crashing Bores: a young married couple with this inexplicable -- and in hindsight, totally spurious -- interest in Martian archaeology. They nodded over my book, commending my intelligence. That should have been the tip-off; strangers don't go around attempting to boost someone's ego unless there's something in it for them. In this case, all I could offer was a signed copy of a book they'd never heard of which, to my surprise, they actually purchased.

But not before dropping veiled references to a lucrative "work from home" scheme they thought would be up my alley.

"What's involved?" I asked, politely skeptical.

"It's basically e-commerce," the male Bore replied.

"What's your email address?"

The Bore conceded that he didn't have one. Strange for someone supposedly making big money in e-commerce, I thought, but since he and his wife were talking Mars and making to buy my book, I let it pass and let the husband hand me a very unimpressive business card with the original address in Lawrence, Kansas scribbled out and the new one scrawled in its place. Finally they departed and I resumed my evening.

A few days later I get a message on my answering machine. It's the male Bore wanting to discuss his business and requesting a call back. I groaned and promptly deleted it.

Then one morning the phone splinters my sleep. I answered groggily, defenses in limbic shambles. It's the Crashing Bore again, wanting to meet me at the Borders where he bought my book.

"Can you explain what, exactly, this is . . . ?"

The Bore informed me that it was "mostly visual" in nature and that it "wouldn't make sense" over the phone. Half-asleep, I didn't summon the will-power to question this absurdity. Instead, I agreed to meet him and his wife to hear out whatever they had in mind -- furious at myself but placated by the thought of strolling the aisles at Borders after they'd finished their spiel.

I met them as planned. The spiel was indeed "mostly visual," consisting of the male Bore drawing crudely annotated diagrams in a spiral notebook. I smiled over my coffee and said "no." He persisted. So did his disturbingly Stepford-like wife, who I abruptly felt like kicking forcibly in the shins. Again, I politely declined to no avail.

The husband, with a tepid show of good cheer, handed me a CD and color leaflet. I looked at it briefly: lots of condescending stock imagery of guys 'n' gals conducting "business" in the privacy of nicely furnished living rooms. Lying, I said that I would be happy to peruse it and contact him if interested. No good; the leaflet and CD, it seemed, were quite valuable materials that needed to be returned as soon as possible -- preferably that very Saturday when a local work-from-home/e-commerce convention was to take place. Bing!

Then the guy tries to leave in a hurry, letting me know that he wants his materials returned and that he'll see me Saturday. I finally had to virtually shove the fucking brochure into his hands: "Take it now, please; this isn't for me and I'm not going to able to return it."

The two of them stalked off, visibly discomfited, and I watched them conversing from the cafe as they walked rapidly to their car.

Then I looked at books.

THE SKY IS ALWAYS FALLING





"The human brain appears to have a receptor for such stories, as for opiates, because the neo-doomsday crowd never lacks an audience. Just now, a lot of people again imagine the world ending very soon." (Via The Anomalist.)

This is tricky territory. Because yes, there's a ton of bullshit "end of the world" memes swarming all over. But the risk exists that while discerning neo-eschatologists chortle knowingly, we might miss an authentic threat. Worlds do end, after all; take a good look at Mars or Venus.

Also, who says the world has to end with a bang? Our planet is being recklessly poisoned, and the effects can seem innocuous enough until a critical threshold is reached. It's quite plausible that we'll go out with a whimper. No pyrotechnics necessary.

I realized that I just blogged about politics.

Well, not so much politics as much as image-manipulation and the questionable application of tax-dollars. But in any case, stuff that's suffocatingly boring and ultimately pointless.

I generally approach the political landscape in much the same way some people approach fantasy baseball or model railroading, only without the fervor. Political grumbling is at best a distraction, potentially more masturbatory than disk-golf or incessant cellphone use.

Frankly, if you're interested in the so-called election, you're better off reading the latest by Michael Moore or Rush Limbaugh; they're both eminently useful idiots, certain to distract. Most Posthuman Blues readers know this perfectly well. But maybe you're the new guy. And I'm here to help.

How my taxes are helping finance Bush's "re"-election campaign

A long time ago I impulsively ordered a free DVD called "Up From Zero" from a U.S. government website. "Up From Zero" is a drippingly patriotic documentary on the events of 9-11-01 and the subsequent courage and fortitude of the American people. We Will Never Forget. All that crap.

My apartment manager slipped the disc under my door a few hours ago after at least a year of -- what? Shipping? I'm convinced no one should expect prompt or efficient service from the government -- regardless of context -- but the grossly belated delivery of "Up From Zero" was anomalous even by bureaucratic standards.

Then I realized what was, in all probability, really going on: "Up From Zero" is Bush administration campaign propaganda masquerading as sappy patriotic docudrama.

The timing is perfect:

Thousands of Americans will watch "Up From Zero" right in time for the election.

They'll see a quaint, by-the-books retelling of 9-11, replete with lavishly edited footage of Bush doing his best to look solemn and paternal.

They'll remember those post-attack days of "coming together" under W's steely, competent watch.

More importantly, though, they'll vote for Bush.

If "Up From Zero" had arrived on time -- say, after two or three months -- the 2004 election would have seemed remote. Certainly no one would have been talking about John Kerry. People would have dutifully watched the DVD, perhaps thrown it out with that week's bushel of AOL CD-ROMs, and quietly forgotten about it.

But the suspiciously long delay between order and receipt seems conveniently timed to coincide with the upcoming electoral farce. The image of Bush that proliferated in the weeks and months after 9-11 is one of power and abiding leadership in the face of massive uncertainty. It was never more than a media artifact, of course, just as W's current TV ads are perilously subjective renderings of the (P)resident's psyche.

"Up From Zero" is a tax-funded attempt to exhume the W of old. A self-declared "War President," Bush stands to benefit substantially by the DVD's delayed release. It captures him at his teleprompted best, as a man of action not yet committed to a backfired war of "liberation." No flight suit footage here.

If you find yourself glazing over while watching "Up From Zero," don't be alarmed. That means it's working.

Green, leafy spinach may soon power more than Popeye's biceps

"Baldo and other researchers from MIT, the University of Tennessee and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, including electrical and biomedical engineers, nanotechnology experts and biologists, collaborated on the world's first solid-state photosynthetic solar cell. The work was reported in NanoLetters, a publication of the American Chemical Society."

Yes, I know this one is making the rounds on the "weird news" circuit. But I couldn't resist.

Yes, but will it run Netscape? ;-)

Bruce Sterling cites Natasha Vita-More as the source for this delightful list of technological predictions:

"Computers in the future may weigh no more than 1.5 tons."

--Popular Mechanics, forecasting the relentless march of science, 1949

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."

--Chairman of IBM, 1943

"I have traveled the length and breadth of this country and talked with the best people, and I can assure you that data processing is a fad that won't last out the year."

--The editor in charge of business books for Prentice Hall, 1957

"But what ... is it good for?"

--Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.

"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."

--President, Chairman and founder of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

"This 'telephone' has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us."

--Western Union internal memo, 1876.

"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"

--David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.

"The concept is interesting and well-formed, but in order to earn better than a 'C,' the idea must be feasible."

--A Yale University management professor in response to Fred Smith's paper proposing reliable overnight delivery service. (Smith went on to found Federal Express Corp.)

"Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?"

--Warner Brothers, 1927.

"I'm just glad it'll be Clark Gable who's falling on his face and not Gary Cooper."

--Gary Cooper on his decision not to take the leading role in "Gone With The Wind."

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research reports say America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."

--Response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields' Cookies.

"We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."

--Decca Recording Co. rejecting the Beatles, 1962.

"Heavier-than-air flying machines are impossible."

--President, Royal Society, 1895.

"If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this."

--Spencer Silver on the work that led to the unique adhesives for 3-M "Post-It" Notepads.

"So we went to Atari and said, 'Hey, we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we' ll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said, 'No.' So then we went to Hewlett-Packard, and they said, 'Hey, we don't need you. You haven't got through college yet.'"

--Apple Computer Inc. founder Steve Jobs on attempts to get Atari and H-P interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily in high schools."

--1921 New York Times editorial about Robert Goddard's revolutionary rocket work.

"You want to have consistent and uniform muscle development across all of your muscles? It can't be done. It's just a fact of life. You just have to accept inconsistent muscle development as an unalterable condition of weight training."

--Response to Arthur Jones, who solved the "unsolvable" problem by inventing Nautilus.

"Drill for oil? You mean drill into the ground to try and find oil? You're crazy."

--Drillers who Edwin L. Drake tried to enlist to his project to drill for oil in 1859.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."

--Professor of Economics, Yale University, 1929.

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value."

--Professor of Strategy, Ecole Superieure de Guerre.

"Everything that can be invented has been invented."

--Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899.

"Louis Pasteur's theory of germs is ridiculous fiction".

--Professor of Physiology at Toulouse, 1872

"The abdomen, the chest, and the brain will forever be shut from the intrusion of the wise and humane surgeon."

--British surgeon, appointed Surgeon-Extraordinary to Queen Victoria 1873.

"640K ought to be enough for anybody."

-- Bill Gates, 1981

NASA Awards Jupiter Icy Moons Mission





"NASA has chosen Northrop Grumman Space Technology to build its upcoming Prometheus Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter (JIMO) spacecraft, and awarded them a $400 million contract to cover costs up to 2008. JIMO will use a nuclear-powered ion engine to go into orbit around each of Jupiter's icy moons: Callisto, Ganymede, and Europa. Once in orbit, the spacecraft would be able to examine each of the moons in great detail with a suite of instruments to try and understand their composition, history, and if there could be conditions for life."

Unfortunately, however, NASA's not accepting any human passengers.

I just watched "Crop Circles: Quest for Truth," an excellent documentary on the "crop glyph" controversy by Oscar-nominated director William Gazecki. I hardly ever see a documentary on paranormal/esoteric phenomena that's worth a damn; "Quest for Truth" is an exception, providing voices and perspectives from a broad cast of human participants. This is must-watching. And I haven't even begun perusing the special features . . .

Here's the film's official website. Take a look.

I've been invited to join the Society for Planetary SETI Research, a group I've admired for a long time. SPSR's involvement was central in getting NASA/JPL to acquire images of the Cydonia region (site of the Face on Mars) with the Mars Global Surveyor orbiter, and they've done an admirable job of applying scientific method to what seems, at first, the stuff of New Age wet dreams.

For books on the Cydonia controversy, click here.

Pylons suspected in deaths of unborn babies

"There are electric pylons along Ereka Road and some of the blocks of flats are directly under these pylons. Gumede believes that there is a connection between the miscarriages and the electric pylons." (Via The Anomalist.)

Take the quiz:

"What Kind of Soul Do You Retain?"


Free


"You have an open heart and open mind and you chose not to let anyone get to you and the way you want to live."

I can't believe how optimistic my diagnosis is. I was expecting something much, much worse. That little elf chick doesn't exactly scream "macbot." (Via CP.)

A Traveling-wave Engine To Power Deep Space Travel

"A University of California scientist working at Los Alamos National Laboratory and researchers from Northrop Grumman Space Technology have developed a novel method for generating electrical power for deep-space travel using sound waves. The traveling-wave thermoacoustic electric generator has the potential to power space probes to the furthest reaches of the Universe."

It looks like my speaking engagement in scenic Sedona, AZ will be on the third Friday of January, 2005. Can't wait. I think the name "Sedona" is interesting because, phonetically, it's similar to "Cydonia" -- the region on Mars that I'll be discussing. It also resembles "Sedna," the trans-Neptunian object recently discovered orbiting the Sun past Pluto.





I just returned from the bookstore, where I bought two trade paperbacks I've had my eyes on: "Altered Carbon" and the hugely acclaimed "Light" by M. John Harrison.





Considering the nonfiction "prize package" I received from appearing on Dr. Bob Hieronimus' show, I think I'd be quite happy locked in a vault right now provided I had sufficient illumination and an espresso machine.