Special Delivery!

To Stonesthrow Apartments, Property Management:

Regarding your policy requiring written notice prior to receiving any package from a public shipping courier or the US Postal service: Terrorism via public shipping has usually targeted only very important places or people. Stonesthrow apartments is not an important place. None of your residents are important people likely to attract the attention of a terrorist. The likelihood of a terrorist attack at Stonesthrow via public delivery services is significantly lower than the likelihood of one of your residents busting into your office and shooting everyone in anger because one of their important packages was not delivered due to nonsensical bureaucratic paranoia.

Thank you,

Stephen M. Redd,
Resident

Deliver us from Yvel!

One of my long time aliases is the name "Yvel". I came across this today, and thought the use of yvel was particularly interesting in this context.

The Lord's Prayer in English:
From a 15th century MS, Douce 246, Bodleian library

Fader oure that art in heuene, halewed be thy name: thy kyngedom come to thee: thy wille be do in erthe as in heuen: oure eche dayes brede 3eue us to daye: and for3eue us oure dettes as we for3eue to oure dettoures: and lede us no3te into temptacion: bot delyver us from yvel. Amen.

They feared me back in the 15th! Not sure what the "3"s are all about though, maybe some 15th century form of l337 speak...

Pac Man afflicted kids..

"Computer games don't affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we'd all run around in a darkened room munching pills and listening to repetitive music..."

~ Kristian Wilson, CEO, Nintendo Gaming Corporation, Inc, 1989

Fake Piggie

"...but it feels so fake when you make yourself squeal like a piggie, 'cause you don't usually mean it."

-- Lloyd Baker

Tell me about it!

Atlantis Under Antarctica?

Atlantis Under Antarctica?

An interesting article giving some interesting historical evidence to support the notion that Antarctica may have been the seat of a very advanced Human civilization.

Link courtesy of Jeremiah.

Eat me!

Lab-grown steaks nearing the menu

This is just a follow-up on a previous post about lab grown fish meat. The project, aimed to produce meat for long space voyages, also has potential for payoff here on earth. But this last paragraph really gets me thinking:

"One researcher recalls a student, a vegan, who asked if she could just biopsy herself, grow up a steak and eat it. If you want to eat truly victimless meat, perhaps it is time to put yourself on the menu."

I wonder how that would be interpreted by anti-cannibalism laws? Furthermore, I wonder if it might not me more efficient (and possibly safer) to eat human meat... after all, wouldn't human meat, unlike that of other species such as chicken or cow, come pre-designed with just about all the stuff the human body needs in the right proportions? And how would your average "moral" vegetarians (as opposed to religious ones with a god to hide behind) justify not eating lab-meat when no animal is harmed in the making of that meat?

So eat me! I bet I taste good!

The Case for the Empire

The Case for the Empire

A few days ago, I posted a link to an excellent sociological review of Lord of the Rings where David Brin produces a dissonant interpretation. Brin also brought in a number of parallels with Star Wars, again with a counter-argument against the Rebellion. Brin's review reminded me of an older review of Star Wars: Attack of the Clones where the author makes a strong argument that Lucas got it all backwards -- Is the Empire actually the good guys and Luke Skywalker and company just a band of evil anarchists?