This excellent film pulls you into C.S. Lewis' magical world of fantasy where four children encounter marvelous creatures and battle evil in an effort to bring balance to the magical world of Narnia. Lewis and Tolkein were both in a writers group called the "inklings" and you can see the cross influences in Narnia and Lord of the Rings, each among the great masterpieces of literature in their own right.
This just in from that bastion of journalistic objectivity, FOX news –
Health tips for frequent (or infrequent) flyers –
Swelling of intestines means avoid overeating? Avoid junky food? [C'mon, flying's a new great excuse to nab some fast food between flights!]
Drink lots of water, but NOT from the unregulated bathroom source.
Earache? Put a warm towel on ear.
Keep babies alert during takeoff and landing to clear sinuses.*
Afrin and Claritin for adult sinus problems.
DO NOT drink the bathroom water, it's cleanliness is not regulated.
Last seat in Coach in aisle is safest statistically.
Gone Scuba? Wait 12-24 hours before flying
I just read that we Americans have 1 in 136 people locked up. Right now. Incredibly, about 1 in 37 Americans have served time. Among industrialized nations (and most others) we are the world's leading incarcerator. This is not a statistic to be proud of by any means and is an alarming indicator of an unhealthy society.
The Sentencing Project tried to answer the question "why?". This from a 2003 study comparing incarceration rates around the world:
The high rate of imprisonment in the United States can be explained by several
factors:
· A higher rate of violent crime than other industrialized nations.
· Harsher sentencing practices than in other nations, particularly for property and drug
offenses.
· Sentencing policy changes over a period of three decades, particularly the shift
toward mandatory and determinate sentencing, restrictions on judicial discretion, and
a greater emphasis on imprisonment as a preferred sanction.
· Policy changes adopted as part of the “war on drugs,” leading to a vastly increased
use of the criminal justice system as a means of responding to drug problems.
Some have suggested quite reasonably that the "next" really significant step in human evolution is the computerization of our brain functions, and that we'll usher in this downloadable brain era in about 30-70 years.
Once humans have a process to "download" our brains into machines, or perhaps simply create processes where machines have their own consciousnesses, many of the challenges facing humanity could go away – perhaps overnight. Concepts like health, water, food, fuel, and population will change as increasing numbers of societal participants will need few resources other than enough power to sustain their electronic consciousness .
For reasons I don't understand this sounds fanciful or even foolish to many who fail to realize or acknowledge the degree to which we NOW rely on machine intelligence. From simple calculators and spell checkers to satellite photos to internet searches and computer models of climate our information gathering and processing is enhanced via machine processes.
Sure, the leap to conscious machines is much larger but I'd suggest it will not prove qualitatively different from the subtle enhancements machines now bring to the table of conscious thought.
I'm just looking forward to playing perfect chess games every time.
Playstation 5 , said leading UK futurist Pearson, will be as powerful as a human brain. He notes the dramatic increase in power as video games evolve, and predicts that by 2050 we'll be able to download our brains into computers. Combine this notion with the recent brain blueprint experiments for a neat look into the probably future of …. self.
The implications are nothing short of staggering for a world filled with machine housed consciousnesses, communicating at near light speed via global networks.
How would these entities, perhaps AKA "you and me", view those who have chosen NOT to download into the machines? I'm guessing favorably unless the physical entities became threatening which would seem unlikely. Machines – conscious and otherwise – by that time will be so capable that it seems unlikely serious conflict would be to anybody's advantage.
I just hope I can make it to 2050 and have enough cash for the download. Pearson think's it'll take 25 MORE years before the procedure becomes cheap enough to be routine.
Tim Berners Lee is optimistic about the future. He's talking mashups.
Note the 16 to 1 return on tourism investment. This "huge ROI" theme is always interesting and mathematically provocative, since without qualification it means you can balance/expand any state budget by simply investing a few billion in tourism which will in turn yield huge economic gains and spin off lots of extra income tax revenues. Oregon recently decided to hugely increase state funding for tourism promotion while cutting other sectors. Based on what little I've seen it really does seem to be working in returning far more to even the TAX base than the cost of the marketing.
I'm smashing up some concrete steps so I can repair them by pouring fresh concrete, and noting that the previous fellow (or hardy concrete pouring gal c1911-1950) did not have the benefit of Quickrete premixed bags to which I just add water, mix in wheelbarrow, and pour.
They probably had limited concrete expertise as I'm finding big chunks of rock, no rebar material (metal to help strengthen the hardened concrete), and even a glass bottle buried in the steps. Even I wouldn't toss in a bottle…but….
But the point is that that hardy concoction worked well for many, many decades. It was a mediocre job but it was the RIGHT job. Probably close to the same project lifespan as if they'd had the world's BEST concrete people working on the project – and even if the BEST concrete people's job would have lasted forever, it's likely somebody might have come in to remodel or otherwise destroy the "perfect" job.
The moral of the story is that in most cases the "perfect" job is NOT THE BEST THING TO DO! In almost all endeavors it's better to have much higher levels of mediocre production than a modest level of high class production.
"But would you want a doctor who is removing your spleen to believe in your principle of mediocrity?" You ask, expecting me to say …. "that is an exception".
It's not an exception and neither is national defense spending, which is absurdly expensive partly for political reasons but mostly because mediocrity is not valued highly enough in this venue either.
I say we need MORE mediocrity in almost ALL things, especially those where risk aversion is most expensive such as national defense and offense, health care, and social security – our triple threat national budget breakers.
Most of the world lives (and dies) with very modest levels of health care. Here in the luxury world we can live a few years longer thanks to super advanced medical procedures, though most of us squander those benefits with lifestyle decisions like smoking, overeating, and poor excersize habits.
The case for the massive interventions and high level expensive healthcare options we insist on in the first world is not only questionable from a practical standpoint due to very low ROI for high level interventions – it's questionable from a moral one – at least until the majority of people in the world have *basic* health care.
Wow, I've got to hand it to Google – again – for offering an extraordinary application at no charge. Google Analytics was formerly "Urchin", and cost about $500 monthly. It's an extremely robust log analysis tool that allows detailed "drill down" examination of things like referrer logs, page views, and much more. A very clever user friendly tool called "site overlay" allows you to explore the click through rates of a home page's (any page's?) internal links. Very helpful in designing navigation for the site.
This is a very nice clear thinking explanation of why smart people believe in nonsensical remedies like homeopathy. In his book "Why people believe weird things", Shermer cleverly points out that many of our perceptions of how the world works come from childhood experiences and observations and contexts. Later, rather than truly apply critical thinking to our notions, most of us simply work to rationalize those childhood perceptions using a scientific method tool box. I'd suggest a good test of a clear thinking person is that they will, over time, collect evidence about their cherished beliefs and will tend to change their mind about a variety of things based on that growing body of emperical evidence.
Joe Duck 