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Interesting article from TIME: “The ’00s: Goodbye (at Last) to the Decade from Hell”

Bookended by 9/11 at the start and a financial wipeout at the end, the first 10 years of this century will very likely go down as the most dispiriting and disillusioning decade Americans have lived through in the post–World War II era. We’re still weeks away from the end of ‘09, but it’s not too early to pass judgment. Call it the Decade from Hell, or the Reckoning, or the Decade of Broken Dreams, or the Lost Decade. Call it whatever you want — just give thanks that it is nearly over.

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Oh god

From “THE SCIENCE OF ‘SURROGATES’“:

So “Surrogates” is meant as pure science fiction, right? Wrong. The filmmakers and futurists behind the movie say they’re aiming for an only slightly enhanced version of present-day trends.

“In the near future, robots are going to start to look like humans,” said James Canton, founder of the San Francisco-based Institute for Global Futures. “I think within 10 years you’re going to have the world of the surrogates.”

You don’t even have to wait 10 years to experience the kind of virtual life that eventually goes so wrong in “Surrogates,” said the film’s director, “Terminator 3″ veteran Jonathan Mostow.

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SUBMIT

I was helping Mike out at Ikea the other day, and I couldn’t help but nerd it up and look at the furniture from a structural stand-point. Thankfully, it was all inner-monologue so I spared Mike all the babbling.

But now I’ve decided to make a post on it (for this one, specifically on the materials), and you’ll all have to suffer the consequences. SUBMIT!

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Interesting article from The Wall Street Journal, “Man vs. God” which talks about science and religion:

Darwin made it clear once again that—as Maimonides, Avicenna, Aquinas and Eckhart had already pointed out—we cannot regard God simply as a divine personality, who single-handedly created the world. This could direct our attention away from the idols of certainty and back to the “God beyond God.” The best theology is a spiritual exercise, akin to poetry. Religion is not an exact science but a kind of art form that, like music or painting, introduces us to a mode of knowledge that is different from the purely rational and which cannot easily be put into words. At its best, it holds us in an attitude of wonder, which is, perhaps, not unlike the awe that Mr. Dawkins experiences—and has helped me to appreciate —when he contemplates the marvels of natural selection.

[...]

Where does that leave God? The kindest thing to say is that it leaves him with nothing to do, and no achievements that might attract our praise, our worship or our fear. Evolution is God’s redundancy notice, his pink slip. But we have to go further. A complex creative intelligence with nothing to do is not just redundant. A divine designer is all but ruled out by the consideration that he must at least as complex as the entities he was wheeled out to explain. God is not dead. He was never alive in the first place.

Reminds me of another quote…

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The Science News Cycle, via Mark Liberman.  Followup here.

Better than southern fried chicken?  At the Atlantic’s food channel.  Recipe included, but I’ll only believe it if I ever get to try it in Bangkok.  Hat tip Craig Newmark.

Markets in Everything: Rent-a-punks.  Read the comment too.

I think it was Trent Reznor who said iTunes is like the Sam Goody of online music.  (snowcloned!)  If thats the case, then Mark Underground’s blog Down Underground is one of the best local independent record “stores” on the web.  Check him out.

Adjectives relating to animals (ie: “swine” referring to “pig”)

Nine Words You Might Think Came from Science but Which Are Really from Science Fiction

Engrish lulz

Frikkin Spelling.  I think he missed “effin” and “frackin” among others.  We’re no strangers to euphemizing curse words around here.

Link to original article.

Self-healing polymer advance could mean scratch-free iPhones
Material scientists from the University of Southern Mississippi have created a new polymer that can fix its own scratches under regular sunlight, a feat that has no end of practical applications.

When reached for comment Wolverine stated, “Yeah, but can your iPod do THIS? *snickety snick* TORNADO CLAW! DRILL CLAW!”