Entries for October 2005
Jersey Rocks
After a murderous week of rigorous study and brutal midterms; our hero has recluded to his base away from the home, New Jersey. Currently fighting for truth justice and the american way at Haverord Philidelphia, doing my best to relax and forget about school for a few days. Staying with Jeremy's parents in new jersey, and sleeping in.
Rocket scientists do it with higher thrust.
Yesterday I recieved an e-mail from my Physics Lab TA Anthony Baldridge informing me that out of three ways out of a lab, a death in the family backed up by newspaper obituaty was by far the nicest.
Needless to say, it was a bit of a downer.
I decieded it might be nice to send him a ray of light in the form of a website full of science jokes.
A day without fusion is like a day without sunshine.
What Will End the World I
In this modern day of flying cars and space aged hair-doos, it's easy to forget the darker side of science. Everything is so cool and dandy, who would think that cellphones might cause deadly braincancer? Radium (a highly radioactive material) used to be perscribed like tonic water mere decades ago.
We caught on when people's jaws started falling off.
The shadowy spectre of the darker end of the scientific spectrum frightens me. In light of the fact that I perfer fear from knowledge over ignorance, I keep a running list of possible world ending (read: changing the face of the world as we know it) scenarios:
6: Nanobots aka Grey Goo overrun the planet, replicating itself with Earth's mass, and we all die.
5: Biotechnology weapons or accidents (aka Green Goo)infect the populace, or force us out of our massive niche, and we all die.
4: AI Overthrows mankind, likely for some kind of social problems, and we are all enslaved, or killed (we all die)
3: MAD (Mutually Assuered Destruction aka: Nuclear War) creates massive fallout, and we all die or mutate.
2: Accidental Ignition of the Atmosphere (Likely due to Fusion reactors) planet is incinerated, and we all die.
1: Antibacterial Soap causes bacteria to build up resistance to antibiotics and we all die. (ALREADY STARTING TO HAPPEN, JAPAN STOP USING SO MUCH ANTIBIOTIC HANDSOAP!)
So remember, always look both ways before you ross the street.
