Random SCIENCE!

In the future, video game plays you!

Er, something like that.
Creepy circuit-board contact lenses...

I'm more of the mind to use it to remember facts about people/places/cheat on tests than for anything "useful". What? Either way, it goes into the category of "I want one". I've already decided I'm getting contacts later this year. Maybe these are the way to go. Think they come in air-permeable?

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FAME! I'm gonna live forever.
Remind me about these things when I get old, because I'm sure I'll forget:

This is simultaneously inspiring and frightening. It's brilliant to keep the architecture of the heart and replace the DNA itself. I have no idea how the process works, but from the looks of it, it's akin to opening every window in your house and flooding the place till every single thing but the walls is gone. Then the new folks move in.

Something like that. Remind me to get one when my heart gives out, 30, 40 years from now. I'm pretty sure there's some heart disease in my family tree (adopted, see. Vague recollection of a paper detailing my family tree's genealogical disease patterns is about all I've got to go on). I just find it amazing that the heart started beating on its own.




That, some serious nanotech (which isn't nearly so sci-fi as it was 20 years ago), the laser that can kill yer viruses, and a water bottle that can make drinkable water from sewage- these things give me hope.

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Naps = Good

Told you fuckers.

Leave me alone. I need my 15 minutes today.

I take at least one nap every day, usually around lunchtime (we have a telephone closet here at work that is my nap-spot of choice), and sometimes right after I get home. Charges me up for the rest of the day/night/whatever. It's odd how we forget something we learned in kindergarten, just because we're a bit older. I'd think you'd want *more* naptime, the older you got- you're doing more every day. I know I do a lot more now than I ever did when I was 6. Don't I deserve a break?

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This:
Artificial life likely in 3 to 10 Years
and this:








...make me hopeful for the future of space exploration. It's the sci-fi geek in me.

I want it, so bad. What I think is interesting is that, if we were (or when we are) capable of near-light-speed travel (yes, yes, huge amounts of energy, energy requirements growing at an exponential rate...), we'd at least have a clue where to point the ship. We can garner, to some extent, and idea what a planet's composition is. And if we can do it, that means other intelligent life in the universe may be capable of it, as well, if they're out there (I'm hopeful). Yeah, the universe is a big place, and who knows how unique our circumstances are. But there's a few things that make me hopeful.

Life thrives. Anaerobic bacteria can exist without oxygen. Plants survive on CO2. Gills make it possible for billions of creatures to exist in our vast oceans. So, given how diverse life is on our planet, who's to say that life didn't evolve somewhere else in the galaxy life could have developed that survives on anything, and in any form we can imagine. And the universe is pretty damned old. If circumstances had been slightly different at various stages of Earth's development as a planet, maybe we'd be reaching this level of development a million years ago- a mere moment in the cosmic scheme of things.

And no, I have no idea, outside of watching too much Discovery Channel or flipping through too many fascinating websites, why I'm pondering on these things so much lately. I haven't the scientific knowledge or education to properly comprehend them fully, nor have I a scientific bent as an individual. I just dig it. So there.

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Of course, while it's interesting, this has me scared in a "computers rising up to kill their masters" sort of way...

Brain in a dish flies an flight simulator...
I think the fascination for me is that the human brain is so complex that using human brains, we may never fully be able to comprehend it. Damned if that'll stop us from trying, though, eh?

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Money can't buy everything, it's true...
What it don't buy, I can't use...
Hah. I've been getting calls from my temp agency. Sounds like my company is finally going to make me an offer. That sounds better, somehow, than "add you to the payroll". The former sounds like I can make a counter-offer, maybe get a nice little bump in pay, generally end up better, salary-wise, than now. Y'know, good stuff. I worked a job a few years ago as a temp, and they really wanted to hire me on, but for quite a decrease in pay, citing "really great benefits package" as what would balance it out. Yeah, benefits are nice and all, but I certainly don't want to make *less* than I make as a temp. Of course, they were a non-profit with limited finances. This company does just fine. We mailed out Dom Perignon for Christmas, for cryin' out loud. I think they can give me a nice raise.

The latter sounds like "nothing will change but who signs your paycheck."

My boss asked me if I was comfortable with the temp agency knowing what my salary would be, saying they'd probably use it for "bragging purposes", she said, "like, 'Tony got hired, and made 25% more salary..." I know that number is significantly ridiculous, but even the fact that she'd drop 25% off the top of her head makes me optimistic. I like my workplace, most of the time, which is not something I can say of most of my past jobs. It'd be sweet to have a decent paycheck to attach to that.

And I recently quit a handful of tech gigs, so I can have my freakin' weekends back.

In other news, I don't think I'll ever be able to figure out how to format this damned blog. Sheesh!

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