Home
Science at the Edge
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Books
- Hits: 1847
And so at long last I finally finished "Science at the Edge". Which was interesting, a compilation of essays by leading scientists on what they think are important issues.
It was interesting, and not least because it reaffirmed my belieft that science, in some measure, has become a bit of a religion. And as in any religion there are zealots. They have no problems disagreeing profoundly on just about everything, in almost every aspect those adherents of a particular theory will defend it almost unto the death. While they acknowledge there is the possibility they may be wrong, none will believe it. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence. And, lest you think that by some quantum "viewer creates their own reality conundrum" they're all right, by their own admission and insistence they can't be. Someone must be wrong. Just not the scientist writing this essay.
But it was a book, and the problem with books is that it takes time to edit, proofread, set the presses, distribute, market, etc.
And for books on technology that's a bad thing. Principally because by the time the book makes it to a shelf near you many of the subjects and topics are already out of date. No, there's no general unified theory as of yet, but great strides have been made that answer and raise new questions. And that information can be found online. All of it.
For this, the internet is perfect. Information can be distributed and disseminated instantaneously. For science and technology especially, as information distributed by older means is far too slow to the mill.
So I'll end this by saying, if you want to know what the current top issues in science are today, and get the breaking news, don't read a book. Books are for literature, poetry, plays. And when I say this, bear in mind I am prejudiced in favour of books. A book is, in my mind, far superior to staring at a digital screen. But not for this.
Links to Ezines on Science and Technology:
Links to Video Media on Social, Science and Technology Issues:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=Google+Techtalks&emb=0#
Kids nowadays are spoiled
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2177
Kids nowadays are spoiled. I tell them but they don’t believe me, about the chicken livers sautéed with onions I had to eat when I was a child, about the year straight of overcooked spaghetti and meat sauce when my father was learning to cook. We went for dinner maybe once a month. They think I’m making it up. I don't think they've ever even tried a brussel sprout. Or a chicken liver. Nowadays, if the pizza has mushrooms on it it’s a lousy meal…
Google Approval
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2278
I've noticed my page-rank is dropping. Odd, that, for a long time while my blog sat inactive without a single post I was #1 in searches for "Rod Boyle". But as of late I'm number #9. People with Linked In Profiles are beating me. And people with You Tube videos. Who are these other Rod Boyle's who run golf courses, IT management firms in the UK, I wonder? Bastards, every one of them, I'm sure. Maybe I need to start doing some promotions. I'm not looking for much, really, just #1 in my name. Perhaps I should post a clever You Tube video with me as the star. No one would ever see it because I'm not really a star, not even of my own video. But it would drive up my ranking. OR I could hide hidden links to my site in other sites I build.....
But really, what I should be wondering is why I'm so desperate for Google's Approval....
RIP - Hammy
- Details
- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 3852
And so it was the other night that the children's hamster passed away.
Now Hammy was a very long lived hamster, and so it really came as no surprise. She had been quieter as of late, not begging to be let out of her cage, and when I went into the kitchen during a movie I was watching I noticed that she was lying in the middle of the cage. I determined to bring her out to play, picking her up she seemed strangely limp and cool in my hands, and I kind of knew that this was it.
So I sat and watched the rest of the movie, holding and petting her, her little nose poked between my fingers, she would tremble and move about, but only a little. Usually she would stay still for a minute, tops, before wanting to be set free. But not then.
And perhaps a half hour later, feeling her limpness, I determined she was dead.
The children will be a little heartbroken, but they'll take some comfort in knowing that she lived to a great age (almost three years), and had a good life (with alternate days spent entirely free.).
Highlights from her life? Well, as the children aren't reading this I can be truthful. At least half of Hammy's life was a fraud. A double-identity, body double for the original hammy who met with her death in a cupboard way back in the days of the apartment. And one day helping my daughter to look for her I discovered her dead body, not wishing her to see I concealed the death. And it was great sport, the children looking for Hammy, our elusive free-range hamster, up to all sorts of mischief and adventures with the mouse no doubt, the children speculated.
This went on for several months, and then when I moved I had to reproduce hammy, the children were afraid she'd been left behind, so in the new residence I acquired another one, same sex and color. They never questioned the switch.
She had a name, "Night Time" or "Blackie", or something similar, I forget. The children never really knew either, after the initial naming ceremony she became more or less known as "Hammy". And so the new Hammy replaced the old, and sometimes the boy would observe how long lived she was, without the slightest suspicions, they only usually live to be about 3 years of age, tops, and here's ours pushing 5.
She would sit in the cage and beg for food when I would cook, greedily hauling in slices of green pepper or lettuce. We tried her on the Habitrail system, but she'd hole up in the tubes, living on stockpiled food that was soaked in her urine and smothered in feces. We found that gross, and so removed all of the tubing, she could live without it. When she wanted out she'd hang by her teeth from the top of the cage, sometimes she'd make noises, or fill her cheeks with seeds and wait to be let out, as if she were running away from home.
She never ran far. If you were lying on the floor, after an hour or so she'd come to you, run up your sleeve or onto your lap, and you knew she was ready to go back into her cage.
She was a pretty good little hamster. RIP.
Page 849 of 877