THE FUTURE OF THE FUTURE!

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20050626-5041.html

The elderly Japanese people of the future will be so desperately lonely for companionship that they'll purchase slightly creepy android replicas of the drug-addled but brilliant sci-fi author Phillip K. Dick. Why the Japanese, and why Phillip K. Dick? It's a long story, and I'm not sure I fully understood it all when the android's makers explained it to me. I think I probably read the wrong books growing up as a kid, or maybe I now watch the wrong TV shows.

Via Blog of a Bookslut.

Faith-based biology in Florida

Via the Huffington Post, from the Orlando Sentinel

'Celestial Drops' no cure for canker

Florida researched the use of water, possibly mystically blessed, to cure the disease.
By Jim Stratton
Sentinel Staff Writer

July 5, 2005

Four years ago, as the state labored to eradicate citrus canker by destroying trees, officials rejected other disease-fighting techniques, saying unproven methods would waste precious time and resources.

But for more than six months, the state, at the behest of then-Secretary of State Katherine Harris, did pursue one alternative method -- a very alternative method.

Researchers worked with a rabbi and a cardiologist to test "Celestial Drops," promoted as a canker inhibitor because of its "improved fractal design," "infinite levels of order" and "high energy and low entropy."

But the cure proved useless against canker. That's because it was water -- possibly, mystically blessed water.

( What the HEY )

Not all the world's a stage

I don't like the word "drama". I hear it a lot. Friends and coworkers use it and it's everywhere online.

What does "drama" mean? A big argument, an unpleasant revelation, a crappy public relationship breakup, a confrontation, raised voices. Any kind of emotional blowup that isn't hidden is called "drama".

What does it really mean? That someone is being neurotic or manipulative and creating a theatrical scene, that trivial items are being puffed up to great size, that someone is a "drama queen" who needs to create public messes for his or her own reasons. Okay, that happens and it's annoying as hell. We all know a few people who do their best to turn everyday life into a soap opera.

But the word "drama" gets applied to anything emotional and public. Whether it's someone who gets in a shouting match with his ex-girlfriend at a party or someone who hits the end of the rope and guzzles a fifth of vodka and a handful of pills and has to go to the ICU, it's "drama". Basically "drama" is anything that makes you have to notice that other people are in bad trouble and can't help communicating it. It's an inconvenience to you, and it makes you stop having fun, and you want to trivialize it. So here's your label for that purpose!

Not everyone who loses their shit in public is clamoring for attention. Occasionally it's a tragedy and not a soap opera, and not to be dismissed.

Bizarre Marriage Thing I've Never Heard Of

Jeremy & Vicka were discussing their trip to the government place to get their marriage license this weekend. Long line, go to this window, sign this, etc.

Dave and Bethya had a different experience. After all the official city hall signing and stamping and proving and agreeing, they got the license back, along with another item: a plastic bag of stuff. The official said brightly "This is your starter kit" or something like that and handed it to Bethya. It was full of household cleaning products.

I guess Dave missed the "men's starter kit", which is probably a universal remote for the TV and stereo.

This asparagus stands tall. With AMERICA.

Biofuel not worth it?

via ScienceDaily, from a new Cornell study. Everyone knows that the ethanol subsidy is just a farm subsidy, but it's sort of depressing to see data that makes biodiesel generally look like a net loss. If it takes more fossil fuel to produce the biodiesel than we get out of it, we're taking a step back.

Ethanol And Biodiesel From Crops Not Worth The Energy

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Turning plants such as corn, soybeans and sunflowers into fuel uses much more energy than the resulting ethanol or biodiesel generates, according to a new Cornell University and University of California-Berkeley study.

"There is just no energy benefit to using plant biomass for liquid fuel," says David Pimentel, professor of ecology and agriculture at Cornell. "These strategies are not sustainable."

Pimentel and Tad W. Patzek, professor of civil and environmental engineering at Berkeley, conducted a detailed analysis of the energy input-yield ratios of producing ethanol from corn, switch grass and wood biomass as well as for producing biodiesel from soybean and sunflower plants. Their report is published in Natural Resources Research (Vol. 14:1, 65-76).

In terms of energy output compared with energy input for ethanol production, the study found that:

• corn requires 29 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced;
  
• switch grass requires 45 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced; and
  
• wood biomass requires 57 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.

In terms of energy output compared with the energy input for biodiesel production, the study found that:

• soybean plants requires 27 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced, and
  
• sunflower plants requires 118 percent more fossil energy than the fuel produced.

( more details )