Ascension: Book One of The Allaince Chronicles 2nd Edition

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Sunday, December 20, 2009

Would Teleportation Be Morally & Ethically Acceptable?

I'm watching Sci Fi Science with Dr. Michio Kaku. Tonight, he's presenting teleportation (ala the transporters on Star Trek) and the path he's on is to transform a human in to raw data and transmit it from origin to destination where, at the point of destination, would be reassembled. As cool as this is, I do have a question.

If a person can be reduced to data and transmitted via a computer system, is it possible for a computer system to save a copy of that person? I'm assuming the answer is yes, and I have a few problems with this.

1] If a person can be stored and 'reprinted', then wouldn't this effectively make the person immortal? For example, say you have the money to keep a copy of yourself as a backup. On a regular basis, you update your copy and in the event you are killed (murder, accident), a clone is assembled and activated and all you have is a little bit of lost memory. Sound familiar? This was essentially what they did with the Vorta on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.

2] What if this fell in to the wrong hands? Suppose a Hitler-type of bad guy got ahold of this technology and started to rewrite the data codes of soldiers, essentialy to program clone troopers...

3] What is the same Hitler-type activated clones of himself?

4] Along the lines of example 2, the rich and famous would be able to reprogram their bodies to look a certain way.

5] If we're able to teleport, we'd have no more use for borders or nations.

6] Like many other things in life, this would become a luxury for the wealthy.

7] The most important and scariest (to me) no more God. If a human cannot die, then a human does not need God.

Just because we can do something doesn't mean we should.

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over 'Climategate' - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Just to prove that she's the idiot that some of us have been saying she is, Senator Babs Boxer wants to go after the Russian hacker that broke in to the computer system of a British institution, stating that the hacking is a criminal offense and that these people need to be brought to justice and will apparently push for congressional hearings to accomplish this. Has anyone mention to Boxer that we as Americans do not have jurisdiction in Russia or England? More importantly, why is Boxer insisting that we pay more attention to bringing the hackers to justice over further investigating the actions that have turned climate change in to a fake science?

One potential answer: boxer is part of the problem. Senator Boxer is the chair of the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Her work is based entirely on this fake science that is costing people millions of dollars world wide.

We need common sense in the Senate, common sense that Senator boxer does not have... and don't get me started on the fact that she wants to limit the ability of parents to raise their children.

Boxer: Hackers should face criminal probe over 'Climategate' - The Hill's Blog Briefing Room

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

I Hope She Likes It


In an ongoing effort to make our Christmas presents this year, I finished a scarf for my brother's girlfriend. They are supposed to be visiting later today, so I will go ahead and give it to her when they come over. I hope she likes it.

Yet Another Dr. Who Scarf Update


In search of new colors and fresh ideas, I decided to start a thread in the Simply Nonsense for The Sake Of Fun group at Ravelry, offering to knit two rows of pink for each of the ladies that replied to the thread. I ended up with 20 replies =) Here's the result!

If you notice in the lower left corner, the result of my Thanksgiving day knitting is showing. While i originally didn't want to include multi-colored yarn in the scarf, it came out looking really neat! This scarf is going to end up having a lot of meaning to me.

Monday, November 23, 2009

Dr. Who Scarf Update


Just a quick visual update on my Dr. Who scarf. I'm back to work on it after breaking to make the two scarves for my kids. Today, I finished off a block of purple and added a few rows of yarn from the skeins that I used to make the kids scarves. Their scarves are special enough to me that I wanted to have something added to mine.

I picked up some Thanksgiving themed yarn for knitting on turkey day. I'll post a picture of that one Friday.

Qap'la!

Ok, eeewwww!

Sunday, the wife and i spent the day at an Autism seminar at Governor's State University. There were several notable 'authorities' Autism research and treatment, even though the keynote speaker for the day was some quack who was pushing the misconceived notion that Autism is caused by immunizations...

...funny, my son was autistic before he got any immunizations.

Anyroads, as we waded through the crowds of people (which nearly brought on a claustrophobic panic attack for yours truly), we began to realize that several of the exhibitors were pushing alternative treatments such as the Gluetin Free & Casein Free Diets. It is believed by some that gluetin and casein introduce bio-toxins in to the body which could contribute to autism. So what's the answer? Cut out gluetin and casein. Problem is that now you're also cutting out the several vital nutrients that kids need. Not to worry though, there are several vendors on hand ready to sell the dietary supplements that will help the kids on the GF/CF diet. Of course, they could get their daily nutrition from eating normally and letting the body filter out toxins like it's supposed to.

Fast-forward to this morning. My wife and I were sorting through the swag bags to see what was given to us. It was almost like Halloween with all the candies and bags of edible goodies the vendors tossed in. However, we started to look at the edibles and looked over materials that they provided and realized that some of the candy was packed with a lot of different stuff. One of the lollipops had vitamin M-B12 in it, others had fish oils. One treat bar we deemed was safe enough for the kids to try. Devin, my autistic son, tried it. Mama asked him what it tasted like and he replied "It doesn't taste like anything", then spit it out. My daughter tried a piece as well and spit it out. I tried a piece and while it didn't taste like anything at first, it had an aftertaste that was so bad that if a horse's ass had a taste, this would be it.

So the moral of the story: If you have a child who is autistic and you think that a GF/CF diet may be for your child, check with your family doctor or the diagnosing doctor prior to placing your child on a specialized diet.

Sunday, November 22, 2009

Project #2 Done!


I'm proud to report that Devin's scarf is done. It didn't take long after I picked it up following an afternoon of rearranging furniture. Dev was bragging about how I was making a scarf for him, well, here it is. Now back to the Dr. Who scarf.

Abby's "Daddy" Scarf

My first project was my Dr. Who scarf, and even that was a version 2.0 (a story for another post). Anyways, as I was working on that, my daughter Abigail insisted that I work on a scarf for her. Well, being a good daddy and still a relatively new knitter, I decided why not, set my work aside and got to work making her a scarf of her own. Here's the result:


She spent all day yesterday bragging to her grandmother about the scarf, and Devin (my son) told her that I was making him one too and it had lots of colors... That one is almost done and I'll post about that later =)

Qap'la!

Two Weeks In...

I'm officially two weeks in to knitting. So far, I have found it to be an enjoyable and rewarding craft that really helps me be calm. It's the first craft that I can really just relax with. I've currently got two projects active, with one complete.