Locally Produced

Most Americans, I suppose, do their grocery shopping in a grocery store.  Probably a chain, like Krogers, HEB, FoodTown or Pathmark.  Food is shipped to each store by truck and comes from a warehouse.  Before the warehouse, the stuff was in a factory.

The rising cost of gas means that the food you’re buying is going to become more expensive because they need to cover the rising costs of shipping.

At what point would it be more cost effective to not shop at a chain grocery store anymore?  When does it make more sense to buy produce from a local farmer, or meat from a local butcher? 

When it comes down to it, though, we’re a lazy bunch.  We’d rather have everything laid out for us in one spot then go to a bunch of different stores.  Sometimes it makes sense to do it that way.  You wouldn’t want to burn up a tank of gas just to do your weekly shopping.

With the proliferation of strip malls, many of which lay unused and empty, maybe there could be a better way.  If those empty stores could be rented out to local farmers, butchers, and bakers then everything could stay local and yet still be moderately convenient.

Maybe we’d be better off in the long run.  We could have a little less chemicals injected into our bodies through our food.  Since food would have less distance to travel it wouldn’t need all the preservatives and chemicals that we eat now.  Have you ever really read the label on the food you eat?  Do you even know what half of the stuff listed in the ingredients are? 

Would it be better to buy a bunch of ears of corn from a local farmer, beef from a local cattle rancher, and whatever else?  Would the rising gas prices (especially diesel) make it more cost effective for everyone in the long run?  Would it be more environmentally friendlier?  Would it be more inconvenient?

Is this something that we could use, I wonder.  If it would help us as a society in the long run by forcing us to slow down and be a little more patient wouldn’t that be better?

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I think about them when I’m roving through my local grocery store.  I wonder why beef is so expensive; I work for a big computer company and yet, across the street, there are fields with a bunch of cows in them.  Why is beef so expensive?  Why is milk so expensive?  Do we have a shortage of chickens?  Are pigs rare animals?  Is a yellow bell pepper made of gold? 

If I didn’t live in suburbia I’d try growing my own damn bell peppers.  But people are stacked on top of people and there isn’t room, even though there’s plenty of land.  Again, that’s convenience talking.  I wouldn’t be able to afford the gas to get to work if I lived further away from my job. 

At what point does all of this break?

Fifty Years From Now

The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today: 60 Of The World’s Greatest Minds Share Their Visions of the Next Half-Century: Mike Wallace: Books ISBN: 084990370X ISBN-13: 9780849903700

There’s a new book out called “The Way We Will Be 50 Years from Today” edited by Mike Wallace. It has essays by sixty of the world’s top minds (why was I not invited?) on what they think the world will be like in the year 2058.

I have a problem with books like these because they don’t seem to be right. We should all remember how predictions from the past

ended up by the year 2000. No flying cars, no moon bases, no “kitchen of the future” with dinner tables that washed dishes for you. The only predictions that seem correct are the ones that are vague, like “computers will be really powerful” and “we’ll have a presence in space.”

In most cases, these predictions seem more like what the author would like to see happen rather than what will probably happen.

I can come up with hundreds of predictions for fifty years from now.

Most of them are mutually-exclusive. I’ve already written about a few of them, but you’d probably have to search around a bit to find them.

Let’s have some fun.

1) New World Order

By the year 2058 the global economy collapsed. The world became re-united under a central leader, a global president. Each country, in turn, is ruled by a local “governor.” Problems arise when these governors can’t get along any better than they did when they were absolute rulers of their country. The global president is completely ineffective at keeping peace. For the world’s citizens, nothing much has changed other than having a central head figure for aliens from outer space to contact.

2) Citizen Tracking

In the coming years, the citizens of the United States will complete their castration of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. They will give up their rights of privacy in the interest of convenience. The government will sell them on various programs, such as a National ID card, because it will make their lives easier by having a card that carries their bank information, medical history, voter status, drivers license, and other such things that can be used anywhere. The fact that it tracks everything they do is a minor side-effect. People will gobble it up. RFID implants will be used to keep children safe from kidnappers, hikers safe from getting lost, and your senile grandma from ending up in the wrong house. All tasty foods will be outlawed, due to being unhealthy, and replaced by a nutritious paste sanctioned by the government. Paper and coin money will be phased out so all transactions can be monitored to prevent terrorism. Don’t even think of smoking a cigarette. Alcohol will be permitted so everyone will be happy.

3) Civil War

The events in #2 transpire which creates a rebellious faction. Civil war erupts. While the government won’t use nuclear weapons within the country, it will use other forms of bombardment and land engagements. Chaos ensues, turning the U.S.A into a veritable wasteland. The coastal areas will remain within control of the

government in case other countries decide to use the opportunity to stage an attack on the weakened country, but the interior will be a lot more chaotic and dangerous.

4) The Star Trek Holodeck will be created

Creating a real-world Holodeck will be one of the major changes in human kind history. If you don’t know what a Holodeck is, you’ll have to read about it because it’s too much for me to cover right now. But if everyone had a large closet space that could be turned (for all intents and purposes) into an unlimited amount of space with anything a person desired within then it would be pretty damn neat. Since the US only has information type jobs, all work can be done in a networked holodeck environment. You could phase out janitors and stuff. You could do just about anything you wanted to do without leaving your home. I wrote a whole big thing about it, but you’ll have to search for it. It was last year, sometime.

5) The Creation Of Nanobots

The Feynman/Drexler vision of nano technology will change the entire world in so many ways it would be hard to count. People could live forever, cars and other items could be self-repairing, food would be plentiful and made from garbage, similar to the way the food replicator works in Star Trek. Artists would become the highest caste in our society because the only thing separating what you could have versus what your neighbor could have would be the styling.

Engines of Creation: The Coming Era of Nanotechnology: Eric Drexler: Books ISBN: 0385199732 ISBN-13: 9780385199735

Okay, that’s five. I’m sure I could think of more, but I’m still tired and I’m still not feeling well. If I had some nano bots running through my system wiping out cold virus’ I’d be gold.

Mars Revisited

So, first there was the “Face on Mars.” And that’s fine. For anyone who doesn’t know me by now you need to understand that my position on the “Face” is quite simple. I don’t know if it’s artificial and I don’t know if it’s natural. For me, it go could go either way. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a mystery that

won’t be solved until we go up there and take a look at it. I have no respect for people who dismiss it out of hand as being a natural formation, and I don’t have respect for people who are dead set on it being artificial. We ain’t there, we ain’t gonna know until we really look at it. Trying to justify either position from Earth is silly.

After the rovers were roving for a bit, another interesting thing showed up. Some people were claiming it was a Martian body. Considering the weather on Mars, I shouldn’t think it would be. And it didn’t look too much like a skeleton to me.

Actually, it looked like it came from the set of “Planet of the Apes.” But it wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say it looks kind of like a statue. What does it for me is the raised ground stretching down from the chin. While being very uniform, it still looks like it could be covering more of whatever it is. It looks similar to the “Face,” too.

Finally, there’s the new picture. Even though it isn’t new. This one looks like that Bigfoot photo from the 1970’s. It looks like a figure walking across the landscape. Or a Sand person from Star Wars. Or a figure who used to be seated, perhaps on a throne.

This could all be wishful thinking, sure. Maybe they aren’t monuments, statues, and figurines. But wouldn’t it be interesting if they were? Wouldn’t it be great if someone else thought it would be worth going up there to check it out? At least publicly?

Technorati Tags: mars,face,statue,figurine,anomaly,weird,space

KDE4 for a day — How it worked

Some people might actually be interested in how I fared using KDE 4.0 for a day. The truth is, I wasn’t able to go a whole day. I needed to look at some media clips and, for some reason, VLC would only display the very top line of the video. Mplayer showed a scrambled screen.

I’m willing to blame the composite system for that, but I didn’t think to turn it off. I just went back to KDE 3.5.8 for the rest of the day.

I still like it, though. I can see myself using it more and more. That’s really the same thing that happened with BeOS. I installed it just to look at it and ended up using it more and more until it was my normal operating system. I only used Windows for games.

There’s been quite the UFO flap in Stephenville, TX this week. A number of people are claiming to have seen one (possibly one). That’s fine with me, really. Anyone that knows me knows that I’m OK with UFO’s.

But as I get older I get a bit more skeptical. It’s not that I don’t think the universe is a large enough place to have another (I’m being gracious here) intelligent species or two. It’s just that I don’t know why they would be here. It seems to me, if we have alien visitors then they’d probably be from somewhere local. Like Mars or something.

The other thing that bothers me is the lack of video evidence. As of last night, there were no pictures or video. Even if there were video or pictures they’d be crappy. You know that. In this day in age when you can get a really good shot of Brittany Spears’ coochie there should be no excuse for not having a decent shot of a UFO.

Texas is no stranger to UFO’s, though. In 1897, Aurora, TX supposedly had a visitor from another planet. Aurora, by the way, is not very far from Stephenville.

Sperm Powered Nano Bot

It’s been a while since I’ve written about nano technology.  Mostly this is because I haven’t seen very much happening.  I’m sure there’s stuff going on, it’s just not being reported on in general.

It’s also because I’m not seeing anything interesting happening yet.  Interesting, to me, does not include suntan lotion, cosmetics, or stain-resistant trousers.  Self-cleaning trousers, sure.  Molecule-sized robots that roam through the body removing cancer cells, definitely. 

At heart I am a fantasist, a dreamer, a romantic and a futurist.  I see a world shaped by K. Eric Drexler.  A world where you car is self-repairing, a new toaster is just a push of a button away, and life is extended because your cells are repaired and rebuilt as needed.

I wait for the Next Big Thing.

So I felt pretty good when I saw this article about scientists looking to sperm to figure out how to give locomotion to nanobots.  There is no better place to look for inspiration than nature.  And if nature can do it, then we should be able to do it, too.  It’s just a matter of figuring out how.

After all, a redwood tree doesn’t start as a small tree.  It starts as a seed and through molecular and cellular manipulation it grows into a tree.  A big tree.

Technorati Tags: nanobot, sperm

Coffin Nail

Something horrible may have happened.  Scientists may have shortened the life span of the universe, just by looking at it!  Once would have been bad enough, but you know how scientists are.

Scientist 1: Looks in scientific instrument, then does some calculations.  He looks ups up. Whoa! He looks into the instrument again and then does some more calculations.  [slapping a co-worker on the shoulder] Dude!  Check this out.

Scientist 2: What? He looks into the scientific instrument.
Scientist 1: Now finish these calculations.
Scientist 2: Scribbles a bit.  Whoa!  He repeats the process again.  Everytime we look at this stuff, the universe dies a little faster.  That’s awesome!
Scientist 1: Looks into the instrument and then away.  Hey, check it out, what am I? He keeps looking into and away from the instrument.  I’m a cigarette for the universe!
Scientist 1 & 2: Laughs
Scientist 2: Dude, we gotta tell Patty about this.  She’ll think it’s a gas.

So there’s no telling how long the universe has got now.  So, to fix it, I recommend doing the only logical thing:  Class action lawsuit.  Everybody in the world joins in and sues these scientists for… something.  Something big.  Then, if we’re patient, we all make a little bit of money.

I know this doesn’t make it right.  It certainly doesn’t fix anything.  But it does give us all a little bit of extra money, and I think that’s the American way.  Besides, think of your grandchildren and what kind of universe they’ll have to grow up in.

Frozen in Paris

When I read that Paris Hilton may have herself frozen when she dies, I immediatly thought of two things:

1) Why wait?

and

2) Idiocracy

I wonder what it would be like for scientists in the far flung future to thaw out Ms. Hilton.

Build Your Own Bible

I sometimes wonder what would happen if I wrote my own bible.  If I wrote down parables and sayings and, perhaps, wrote a few hymns to a god (or gods) that don’t really exist.  If I kept it safe and it managed to survive the ages and many years hence was found.  Would it create a buzz in the archealogical world of the future?  Would it gain converts?

For that matter, will there be a far future generation that believes in the wisdom of, say, Harry Potter?  Will there be priests who tell their followers about the trials that Harry Potter went through, only to emerge victorious?  It was written down in antiquity, therefore it must be true.

Or will it be much different.  With the advent of the computer and digital media, will paper become rare and lost.  Will there be a huge gap in the human record because all of our information was lost when the power went out, when chips corroded, and magnatized media became inert?  Will this golden age of digital information be regarded as the dark ages when no records, from the point of view of far-future historians, were kept?

The Face on Mars

First things first, something you must understand. I’ve seen pictures of the Face on Mars and the surrounding areas. I’ve seen the old pictures and the new ones. This isn’t about the Face as much as it is about human reasoning. I don’t know if the Face is a face. I don’t know if it’s artificial or not. This makes me no different than anyone else on the planet Earth. And that’s the important thing to know.

I’m supposed to believe in quantum physics. I’m supposed to believe in the String Theory. I’m supposed to believe in multiple dimensions (other than the standard four). I’m supposed to believe in a lot of things that I can’t see, hear, or touch.

But I’m forbidden to believe in a older civilization that once existed on another planet in our solar system. Believing that all matter is made up of vibrating strings is OK; believing in an intelligent race that was on Mars is not. How does that work?

Because there’s no proof. Aside from some clever math, there’s no proof of the rest of the stuff either.

I have no problem with the idea that there may have been life in the solar system before us. I attribute this to my amazing ignorance of how everything started. I like it this way. It allows me to use my imagination.

It just seems wrong to me to summarily dismiss something without investigating it. The Face looks enough like a face to me to warrant looking into. We’ve got orbiters that can take a closer look anyway, what’s the harm? NASA’s reaction always seems suspicious to me, which tends to nudge me over to the fringe thinker’s side. In the same breath, it seems wrong to go whole hog and say the Face is artificial. Nobody knows. And we’re not going to know until we send people up there to have a look. And that, to me, is the most important thing of all. If NASA wants to go to Mars, what better way to drum up funding and get the nation whipped up about it if not to say they want to find out for sure if the Face is really a face, or just a trick of nature?

What makes me angry is when scientists here on Earth decide that something is natural without having a really good look at it. Nobody can tell from space if it is or not. News flash: If the Face is artificial, then it’s alien. That’s important, not just for the obvious reason, but because it’s something that’s totally out of our realm of experience. You cannot, without having further information, pass judgement on something that’s alien to Earth using Earth-bound experiences.

Let’s use a metaphor. There’s a scientist on Mars. He was born in a city like New York. He grew up there, among the high sky scrapers all his life. Cars and people everywhere. He went to a large university and got his credentials. He works for the Mars Space Agency. He’s given a series of photos, taken by a Martian satellite, of Earth. It’s a desert region and there’s nothing spectacular in them. Some vegetation. There’s a bunch of caves in rows on a mesa. He thinks that’s a little unusual, given the linear arrangement of caves but that’s about it. Obviously there’s no life there, but vegetation, so he tosses out the photos as normal. He’s a city dweller, he knows cities, and there’s no city in these photographs.

I would leave it there as an exercise for the reader to figure what’s wrong here. But I don’t have any so I’d be waiting for eternity. The photos this Martian scientist was given had a settlement of Hopi Indian pueblo’s. But he missed it because they look natural, and they’re out of his scope. He never lived in a cave, nor have Martians in general. He passed it on as a weird natural landscape. As humans who have been brought up in a closed environment on Earth, that’s what we face. We wouldn’t know a Martian city (deserted or otherwise) if it bit us on the ankle. We don’t know what a Martian city would look like. It might look like ours, it might not. If it’s buried in sand, it would be that much more difficult to figure out.

Why would an alien culture build a gigantic face on the plains of Mars? Damned if I know. Why would some old Egyptian build a gigantic pyramid? Beats the hell out of me. I can’t answer a human-oriented question, how can I even hope to answer a totally alien one? How can anyone? Nobody on Earth is a trained Xeno-culturalist, unless they know something we haven’t been told.

So do the right thing. Leave yourself open to possibilities, and work towards getting the question answered. Try and get humans on Mars to have a look at it and see what’s up. That’s my advice.