Inner Peace Is For Losers

Originally published at Saint Nickanuck of the Tundra. You can comment here or there.

“Science is more than a body of knowledge – it’s a way of thinking, of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility.”

Today is the first annual Carl Sagan Day event, which is being held to celebrate his life and contributions in conjunction with the 75th anniversary of his birth coming up on Monday. A full roster of the day’s events at Broward College in Davie, FL, can be found here, and many of the goings-on will be streaming live here.

Carl’s perspective as a humble scientist and a captivating storyteller is an inspiration to many, myself included. Even narrowly looking at my own field, many challenges that I face in my work with infectious diseases – public perceptions of the nature of the influenza virus, or unfounded vaccine fears, for two of many examples – are a directly tied to many of the issues Sagan was passionate about, including a global lack of critical thinking education, and an almost willful misunderstanding of science and medicine by some segments of the public. Continuing his work is critical not only for the betterment of public health, but also for the well-being of our global society as we continue to move into a more scientifically nuanced and technologically advanced era.

Below, in three sections, is Carl’s last televised interview. It touches on many topics, including pseudo-science in a scientifically-driven world, critical thinking v. belief, and his own illness. As with any video he was involved with, it is entertaining and thought-provoking. The quote above, and those below, are taken from this interview. Enjoy, and happy Saganday!

“We’ve arraigned a society based on science and technology, in which nobody understands anything about science and technology, and this combustible mix of ignorance and power is soon going to blow up in our faces… who is running the science and technology in a democracy if the people don’t know anything about it?”

“People read stock market quotations and financial pages, look at how complex that is… people are able to look at sports statistics… understanding science is not more difficult.”

“Science is after the way the universe really is, and not what makes us feel good… a lot of the “competing” doctrines are after what feels good, and not what is true.”

“If the universe does not comply with our predispositions, we have the wrenching obligation to accommodate to the way the universe really is.”

• 22:39 Cmar-bloggery: alcohol kills germs, or #HoNoToGroABeMo Day 6 - bit.ly/3Vxut2 #

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Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 07:40 Hello, Friday, and greetings, new followers! How iz ya? #
• 09:38 For @johnnydare: bit.ly/1ZH31 #
• 10:06 OfficeLife 101: Nobody wants to hear your cellphone's annoying-assed ringtone, especially when you're not around to answer the damned thing. #
• 10:44 @bobgreenberger Re: new project - Congrats on the new gig! #
• 10:59 Wow. There's fanwank, and then there's fan-yanking it out at the root. bit.ly/1jB8oH (Hat tip to @geekgirldiva). #
• 12:59 Plumber comes, plumber goes. That's the fastest $500 bucks I've spent in a while that didn't involve strippers. #
• 13:23 @Alpinemaps Re: #usmc - There are times I miss still being in the Corps, and the birthday celebrations are some of them. #
• 20:26 Thanks for the #ff love, @pereiraphoto! Yo, tweeps - check out this guy's photography. It'll knock your socks off. #
• 20:28 Thanks also to @hertzog for the #ff shout out! Hey, are we still hangin' at the @scifidiner again next week? #
• 20:29 @hertzog Many thanks for checking out The Last World War. Hope you like it! #
• 20:42 How geeky is my desk? A Quark's mug sits on a Cafe Diem coaster, next to a TARDIS USB hub, a Magic 8-Ball & a statue of the Lawgiver. Yours? #

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I want to feed my Frankenstein needs. Help me out.

After listening to Mary Shelly's Frankenstein in October, I've become kind of curious as to when Frankenstein's monster went from being a tortured villian/misunderstood outsider and was transformed into Frankenstein: ass-kicking outsider hero. Or am I just imagining that incarnation?

I know I've seen it in comic books (particularly Grant Morrison's Seven Soldiers). There's kind of hints of it in movies like Monster Squad and the extremely disappointing Van Helsing. I know Guillermo Del Toro wants to do more ass-kicking Frankenstein instead of re-adapt Shelly's book. So what am I missing? When did the change come?

Any essential pop culture Frankenstein I should check out?

...both here on LJ as well as Facebook:

David Mack (infinitydog, bestselling author, Jack Daniel spokesperson, aspiring curmudgeon and all around good guy) wants you to friend him on Facebook. Why? Well, aside from his normal, insatiable need to be validated in the eyes of complete strangers, he's also posted clips from The Shore Leave Roast of Keith R.A. DeCandido, which was conducted at the Shore Leave convention back in July. The clips feature all of the roasters doing their thing. It's one thing to hear me say "Fuck," but it's another thing entirely when roastmaster Bob Greenberger employs the juicy F-word.

[GeorgeTakei]

"Oh, myyyyyyyyyyy."

[/GeorgeTakei]

Keith was a good sport about the whole thing, and managed several zingers in his own defense once he took the podium to deliver his final remarks. Despite the verbal beating he took that evening, I hope he knows we wouldn't have gone to all that trouble if we didn't love him like the annoying little brother we may or may not have.

To learn more about Dave's shameless attempts to attract more friends, and how to view the roast clips, click on this linky-type thing right here.

• 09:08 @trreed If by "enjoy" you mean "wracked with a full-body groan, then yes. ;) #
• 09:11 Sinai Hospital of Baltimore medical grand rounds for the week: "Historical Clinicopathologic Conference" with Dr. Phillip Mackowiak #
• 09:55 Dr. Mackowiak discussed many of the possibilities, and makes an excellent case for... SYPHILIS. I am forced to concur. #
• 23:27 Cmar-bloggery: the return to work brings naught but joy, or #HoToGroABeMo Day 5 - bit.ly/1WvOsW #

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Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 10:26 @Starfleetmom Re: Surgery - Hope everything goes well. Best wishes for a quick recovery! #

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The empire strikes back

In recent weeks, we've taken huge steps towards blocking spam accounts on LiveJournal. In fact, we've suspended as many as 30,000 accounts in a single day! We've implemented several pre-emptive measures to prevent the creation of spam accounts, and we've honed our detection of suspicious content. Spam bots are a crafty lot, so we'll continue to refine our tactics and keep up the good fight to keep you safe from spam attacks on LiveJournal.

RSS feeds again

If you're addicted to xkcd_rss, icanhaschzbrgr, or other syndicated feeds, we're pleased to report that we've resolved the update error that was mucking up your RSS feeds. While content was being pulled correctly, it wasn't being posted to the feeds themselves. Late last week, we finally nailed down what we hope was the root problem, so content should post properly. We thank you for your patience.

Wii have killer CSI Deadly Intent contests!

c_s_i

If you're a gamer who loves CSI, have Wii got news for you! c_s_i is sponsoring killer contests. Simply post a question to a member of the CSI crew. The winner will get a free copy of CSI: Deadly Intent for Nintendo Wii (with a retail value of $39.99) and get their question answered by a member of the CSI writing team! There's also a fantastic monthly contest. To enter, join c_s_i, play the online version of CSI: Deadly Intent, and respond to a two-part query for a chance to win a Wii! Entries will be judged on composition and originality. Sorry, but you must be a U.S. resident and over 18 years old to participate. Check out the rules here.

Enveloped in postcards

Last week, we asked you to send in postcards to help us decorate our drab concrete walls. Here's a photo of the results so far! Thank you so much and please keep them coming! You can mail them to Frank the Goat, Esq., c/o LiveJournal, Inc., 539 Bryant Street, Suite 210, San Francisco, CA 94107. Be sure to include your username, since we'll be giving ten random users paid account credits.

Photos of the week

If you haven't visited our new LiveJournal photo community, you're in for an amazing visual trip. LiveJournal users from around the world will take you on a scenic journey to everywhere. Post your own pictures or kick back and enjoy at lj_photophile. You can view some of this week's awesome photos after the jump. Please start tagging with geographic location, since we'd like to track all the places around the world represented in this community. Keep on commenting too!
( Read more... )

Celebrating the 54th anniversary of the invention of time travel....

Dr. Emmett L. Brown

Keepin' it Outatime Since November 5th, 1955

• 09:59 Will be on the air at 10:10 EST doing an influenza chat with 98.3 KXDJ radio in Texas - kxdjradio.com #
• 10:36 @Nycteris Both, when you come down to it. ;) #
• 20:00 Watching @starstryder in a recent episode of The Universe. She's a radiant beacon of intelligent entertainment in an otherwise dumb show. #
• 22:12 Cmar-bloggery: the prosthesis revealed, or #HoNoToGroABeMo Day 4 - bit.ly/2zMJne #
• 23:23 Cmar-bloggery: The Secret Lair Special Episode: Dr. Cmar on H1N1 - bit.ly/3s9jbj #

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• 10:35 On the blog: The cover for Counterstrike: The Last World War, Book II! bit.ly/3GFPTE #
• 10:37 Also on the blog: What I did with my October, writing-wise: bit.ly/PWCPt #
• 16:59 Almost forgot that today is #boobiwed! Get educuated & do your part to SAVE SECOND BASE! boobiewednesday.blogspot.com/ #
• 17:05 I find myself on 29 different Twitter Lists. Wait, what's this one? "Tweeters w/o Pants?" How did they know? #
• 17:08 @geekgirls Re: #SDCC - as things stand now, I'll be there. :) #
• 17:37 BREAKING: Road Runner, and by extension Time Warner Cable, suck big hairy donkey balls. #
• 17:46 Why is it that the ONLY thing that works at Time Warner Cable with any consistency is their billing software? #

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Originally published at Saint Nickanuck of the Tundra. You can comment here or there.

The latest episode of The Secret Lair is up, which is the first ever special episode of the show. Partially inspired by this set of musings, Overlords Miller and Johnson had me on as a guest to chat about various aspects of the novel H1N1 pandemic, including media hype, some of the science behind it, and prevention. Influenza this season is a sprawling topic, but we were able to hit on a few of the most important aspects, and incorporate some listener questions as well. I’ve done many influenza-related interviews this season, but I can say that this one was the best – the combination of intelligent and witty interviewers without a time limit or agenda resulted in the quite the meaningful and entertaining discussion. It was a blast to do, and hopefully we’ll be able to arrange more of these types of episodes in the future.

Go here and listen, else when the Overlords’ time comes, you will be the first into servitude.

I thought it was okay. Elizabeth Mitchell did really well with what she was given - I thought the scene where she confronted her son with the video was well-played. Morena Baccarin as the alien ambassador was creepy good. Father Jack and Scott Wolfe have potential. The kids...honestly I really don't care about. I think it's really hard to introduce angsty teens in a TV series about something bigger than their angst. (Unless you're Veronica Mars.) The sleeper cell stuff I thought was very intriguing, and I love the idea of V traitors, although I feel like I should like Morris Chestnut's character more than I do. Wash was underused but he did what he needed to do, I guess.

So so far, I give it a pass. It set up something, it has potential, but it wasn't as good as Flash Forward's premiere. I'll probably watch more. Probably after I catch up on Flash Forward and Fringe. And check out SGU.

I've seen this posted to Amazon.com and SimonAndSchuster.com, so I felt safe enough share it here. I think it makes a nice counterpart to the cover from the first book:


(Click for larger versions.)


Publication for the new book remains scheduled for late April 2010. Stay tuned!

A little later than I normally post these, but here's what happened in October:

( Complete October rundown behind the cut! )

Annoying friends and strangers alike, 140 bytes at a time.

• 07:47 So, it's Tuesday. What kind of trouble can we get ourselves into today? #
• 11:06 Day 3 of #nanowrimo, and I'm behind already. Awesome. #
• 11:18 LMAO!!! RT @TFLN (513): You tried to wear your Jesus costume into Family Christian stores and say it was a book signing. #
• 12:34 @t33low Re: words per day - Well, that's on top of a full-time job, two kids, and another manuscript which is in revision. #
• 12:57 #unseenprequels 299 - The Spartans can't leave for Thermopylae without George, who's missing after a wild weekend in Athens. #
• 13:06 @bookviewcafe Rocket Boy shouted, "Prepare to be boarded!" The Geek Girls laughed. "Your rocket's too small to penetrate our shields!" #

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Originally published at Saint Nickanuck of the Tundra. You can comment here or there.

Radio Isopod is an audio podcast that is on my “must-listen” roster of shows. Created and produced by the exquisitely talented Natalie and Andy, I give you the official show summary from their site:

Radio Isopod is about the misadventures of the crew of the submarine, the S.S. Isopod. The S.S. Isopod’s primary mission is a safe haven for mad scientists to conduct their mad experiments in relative peace. When they aren’t working on their own diabolical projects, they contract out their services to evil overlords and other interested parties in need of some covert scientific work.

However, it’s not just all work and no play aboard the Isopod. The scientists as well as the rest of the crew make it a point to keep things fun and… interesting.

Radio Isopod brings some of the happenings aboard the ship to the world while still maintaining their super secret location. The show includes discussion on the daily trials and tribulations aboard the ship, updates from the scientists themselves, a bit of music to lighten the mood, and the occasional intergalactic transmission from parallel universes.

The crew of the S.S. Isopod would like to welcome you aboard, for about a half an hour per episode, as they do their best to entertain and enlighten your mad science deprived life.

They have pulled out all the stops for their Halloween episode, including a submission from yours truly. It is best to have listened to The Secret Lair #29 before this show, as the technology exchange between the Lair and the Isopod noted therein is both referenced and strengthened in this episode. In addition to two holiday-appropriate tunes, segments include:

• Captain Tortuga and Pi discussing Pi’s Halloween excitement, costume choice, octo-lanterns, and mergoat ailments, among other mischief.

• The Lair’s Overlord Miller giving a brilliant reading of Darkness, by Lord Byron.

• A lab report from Dr. Gestalt, concerning her extra-curricular use of the mini-sub to hunt for alien life.

• The Lair’s Commandant Moore discusses some unusual properties of the moon water he recently acquired on a mission for the Lair, and makes an offer.

• A lab report from my alter-ego, Dr. Chancerous, details his attempt to allow the Isopod’s crew to participate in trick-or-treating while remaining at sea through the zombification of candy.

Go here and listen, else when mad scientist-pirates’ time comes, you will be the first taken by the press gang.

Over on his blog, Doug Drexler as has made with more of the sweet, sweet nerdy goodness, this time posting a series of photographs from the construction of the sets for the U.S.S. Defiant as seen in the Star Trek: Enterprise 2-part episode "In A Mirror, Darkly."

Of course, in the original Star Trek episode "The Tholian Web," the Defiant interiors were really just the standing Enterprise sets, so you know what that means, right?

REBUILD THE ORIGINAL SERIES HOTNESS, FANBOYS!

: Ahem. :

Anyway, check this out: DrexFiles: Reflections from the Mirror Universe

In addition to recreating corridors and and maintenance shafts as seen in this collection of photos, the crew also was able to go one step farther and show us parts of the ship never before seen, extrapolating from what was known to produce new sets that add a new dimension to what we've already seen all while evoking and remaining faithful to the classic Matt Jefferies design aesthetic.

Man, I love this stuff.

Check out the entry, and the rest of Doug's blog while you're at it. The site continues to be a treasure trove for old-school Trekkies like me.

Juliet's starring in V tonight, so naturally, I'm thinking about LOST. We still have...two months to go, I think?
 

( Potential Spoilers. Lots of Talk About Juliet and a Probable Outcome from the Season Finale. I.E., Gibbersih )

Two more months? WAH!

Imagine Linus grew up to be something like Fox Mulder, except all he wanted to believe in was a pumpkin patch full of sincerity that would finally bring him into contact with the Great Pumpkin. Toss in a healthy dose of H.P. Lovecraftishness and you've got John Aegard's "The Great Old Pumpkin" playing for free over at the Drabblecast. Seriously. Linus vs. The Great Chutulu. What's not to love?

I laughed. I sat on the edge of my seat. I did fist pumps in the air. It's a new classic for Halloween.