Thursday, July 28, 2011

30 days without a workplace incident!

I heard Christine Lagarde interviewed on PBS today about the seriously crazy US "debt ceiling" food fight and the crazily serious Eurozone debt crisis.  She's the new head of the International Monetary Fund, replacing Dominque Strauss-Kahn on 28 June 2011. 

She sounded pretty competent.  And so far she hasn't sexually assaulted anyone. 

Good start.

Monday, July 25, 2011

The Demolished Man


The tragedy in Norway last week has me thinking of one of my favorite books, “The Demolished Man”, by Alfred Bester (1953).  Without spoiling this old science fiction novel for those who haven’t read it, I just want to say that an important idea in the novel is that destructive power capable of ending humanity may ultimately lie in each and every human’s hands.  The author suggests that with the knowledge of this power, we may find ourselves developing a sense of responsibility for all humanity.  Perhaps that sense will allow us to each do the right thing, and to act in a way in which every person assumes responsibility for every other person, and protects all humanity from an ultimate demolition. 

Or, perhaps not.

As technology development speeds up in our reality, the capability for immense violence and destruction by individuals grows.  Terrorist attacks, shooting sprees and the prospect of the acquisition of a nuclear weapon by fanatical extremists are all examples of this fearful trend.

Soon, the fanciful prospect laid out in The Demolished Man will be our reality.

What will we do, I wonder?

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Al Gore for President

and, if so called, I will accede to my countrymen's cry to run as his vice-president.

See Al Gore's article in the Rolling Stone on climate change, President Obama, and the future of the Earth.

Monday, July 11, 2011

factoid for the day

Fun Fact for the day:

The sunlight photons that reached the Earth at this moment was created in the core of the Sun about 30,000 years ago, while the neutrinos that reached the Earth at this moment were generated about 8 minutes ago.