Halloween Fifteen: Creepy Boy, Creepy Girl

Like most years, I found only a few items that made me definitely uncomfortable: the trailer for "The Boy," near the middle, and the gif of the little girl at the end are the top two, for sure. Eek!

Julia Segal

 "Jon Snow White" Tastefully Offensive

This space skull just whizzed past us a few hours ago. Bad Astronomy

Fake Science

A slew of photos of "Halloween makeup and prosthetics by students," at The Guardian

 The Witch Head Nebula, APOD

Zolloc, via Kottke

Tastefully Offensive

Savage Chickens

Medium Large

Tastefully Offensive

I Hate My Parents

Tastefully Offensive

Doodle for Food

I will not be watching this movie. Mannequins will eat me.

Extra Fabulous Comics

Cyanide and Happiness

Jim Benton

Incredible Cinderella costume, Tastefully Offensive

Jim Benton

Cyanide and Happiness

Medium Large

Funny to Me

Loading Artist

Funny to Me

Cheezburger

Sorry, but your kid is possessed by Gary Busey. Cheezburger

Tastefully Offensive

Cheezburger

"I Have Been, and Always Shall Be, Your Fan."

Today is a loss... if I don't do this (and I really don't want to, but I need to work toward closure), I won't get anything else done. It was announced earlier that Leonard Nimoy has passed away.

I really appreciated that Barack took a moment to respond to this sad news, and even more pleased by how perfectly he hit the notes I'd like to hit:

To which I responded (from this post nearly six years ago), "Obama's statement on Spock is, of course, logical."

Star Trek TOS (The Original Series) started airing in fall of 1966, at a point in time when our family did not have a television. But I saw it occasionally at friends' houses, and of course, heard about it at school. At Christmas of 1967, when I was in 3rd grade, our family did get a small, black and white TV. Star Trek became the show I tried to never miss. The show only rarely achieved "greatness," in terms of what older me would come to require of "great" science fiction, but for 8-year-old me, it was perfect.

And as a kid who was inclined toward science from my earliest memories, Spock was the character I gravitated toward. Level-headed and knowledgeable, he was what I aspired to be.

Flash forward to the seventies, syndication and high school. Reruns reran every weekday at 5 PM... and I rarely missed them. In fact, I audio-recorded the entire series. I basically had the series memorized. And Spock became even more the center of my attention. Dealing with the emotional BS of puberty, I saw in him a model I could emulate. I could experience these intense emotions, but not let them harm me or those around me. It wasn't exactly healthy, for a human person, but it was a strategy for coping with what felt like insanity. It was one that allowed me to empathize with others, but (hopefully) spared others the pain I experienced. From "City on the Edge of Forever:"

McCoy: "You deliberately stopped me, Jim! I could have saved her! Do you know what you just did?"


Spock: "He knows, Doctor...He knows."

In that scene, you can see that Spock is intensely aware of, and is pained himself, by the grief Kirk is experiencing from witnessing the death of the woman he loved, yet remains committed to the reality of what had to happen. That was what I aspired to.

Another episode (the above is generally argued to be the "best," and I tend to agree) that was my personal favorite, was "The Devil in the Dark." Miners are being killed by some kind of ferocious beast, so the Enterprise arrives to try to protect them. It turns out, the miners are unwittingly committing xenocide against a race of intelligent, peaceful, and logical rock-burrowing creatures called "hortas." Spock mind melds with the last surviving horta, and explains the situation to the crew and the miners- which leads to a fruitful partnership for all. I have no doubt this episode played a major role in creating a positive attitude toward geology for me. Did it "inspire" me to be a geologist? Almost certainly not. Did it make geology something I was more eager to investigate when I had the opportunity? Almost certainly. I can't draw the line in there, but it was a big influence.

And once again, Spock was what I aspired to.

So...

(source)

(source)

There is so much more to say about Leonard Nimoy as a genuine, caring, concerned, and humane human being, and all I've really talked about is his role as Spock. But that's where I'm going to stop, because that's what I knew, and that's the loss I have to cope with. Attempting to go further into the depths of his basic decency would only make it hurt more. I'll leave it with,

Kirk: "We are assembled here today to pay final respects to our honored dead. And yet it should be noted that in the midst of our sorrow, this death takes place in the shadow of new life, the sunrise of a new world; a world that our beloved comrade gave his life to protect and nourish. He did not feel this sacrifice a vain or empty one, and we will not debate his profound wisdom at these proceedings. Of my friend, I can only say this: of all the souls I have encountered in my travels, his was the most... human"

#TwoSentenceHorror

So another Halloween Post happened to happen. After being reminded of the #TwoSentenceHorror meme from July by the video clip next to last in the previous post, I decided to look at some others, and write a few of my own if I could, to fit the limitations of Twitter. I'm not going to claim these are any good; I don't yet have the distance necessary to judge my own writing. But there is a real pleasure in accomplishing "creepy" not only within the confines of two sentences, but within 121 characters, as well (The hashtag name + a space equals 19 characters). The first batch is my sole responsibility.

• My dog simply won't stop begging for attention. I thought that was over when we buried it.
• Had a dream I was on an African safari, & pack of hyenas was chasing me. Woke up with a gasp, realized they'd caught me.
• I was the first victim of a plague that killed 90% of humanity. I'd just like to say, "I'm awfully sorry."
• Some years ago, gave poison candy to neighbor kid. It killed him; wasn't caught, but brat still shows up every Halloween.
• My cat brought me a "present" today. It was a still-warm human hand.
• That old graveyard has always creeped me out. I just learned the reason: that's where I was buried.

Here's one that I'm not sure was intended to fit the bill, but it did:

• MT @MGhydro "Ice cream scoop?" "Dammit Smithers, this isn't rocket science, it's brain surgery!"

And here are a few from this archive (Some very good ones, there, if you're enjoying these) that fit the Twitter constraint.

• "You know that sensation on the back of your neck, that lets you know someone’s watching you? You should." -Gregory Lynn
• "Day 312. Internet still not working."
• "Wife woke me up last night to tell me there was an intruder in the house. She was murdered by an intruder 2 years ago."

50 Science Fiction-Fantasy Novels

Meme Time! Here's the list, from this post, where they thoughtfully discuss their criteria and limits (No more than one book or series per author, for example). Despite the waste of virtual paper, the blank list is appended below my annotated list, so you don't have to extract my added text. (I've learned that if you drop formatted text directly into HTML compose mode, it wipes the formatting clean, to plain text.)

Standard rules: bold the ones you've read, * the ones you found particularly outstanding, / the novels or series you've only read a fraction of, that is, not finished. ? if you're not sure. (I haven't read much new SF in 20 years, so I have a number in that category; memories are not forever. Add notes as desired. Make a suggestion or two for ones they missed. Or, you know, make up your own rules.

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card*
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien*
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood ?
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake Excellent, but too depressing for a *
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler- I know I've read a couple novels by her, but not this one.
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin It's been a LONG time, but I think*
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut*
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling / First book only and movies, but in process of acquiring the whole series. When complete, I'll read the whole thing.
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle / 1st book only (Wrinkle in Time)
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis Loved this as a youngster, hated it as adult. Like I need to be beaten about the head with Christian symbolism.
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams *for the first three, then it gets too dark.
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert*
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell Like Gormenghast, excellent, but too depressing for a *
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman Only thing I've read by him, and not terribly impressed. Need to try others.
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett / Only 2 or 3 of series, damned if I know which ones.
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll** My all-time, life long, favorite book. By the end of elementary school, I darned near had the whole thing memorized.
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley / Bored me to death. Didn't finish
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle ?
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton ?
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro Movie only. Despite comments at the source site, I quite liked it.
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey / A few, but again, they got dull
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

One nice thing about this list is that it gives me some clues about which more recent authors I should be catching up with. Two authors I think should be included are Connie Willis, who's almost always excellent, but I'll go with her Doomsday Book and Sherri Tepper. For her, I'll go with The Family Tree, as that one is not as grim and brutal as many of her novels can be. Looks like my bolded count is 31, but quite a number of those are only partials.

Here's the "blank." Wanna play?

1. Ubik, Philip K. Dick
2. Ender’s Game, Orson Scott Card
3. The Lord of the Rings trilogy, J.R.R. Tolkien
4. The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood
5. Dhalgren, Samuel R. Delany
6. A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin
7. Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
8. The Gormenghast series, Mervyn Peake
9. The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress, Robert A. Heinlein
10. Kindred, Octavia Butler
11. The Left Hand of Darkness, Ursula K. Le Guin
12. Nine Princes in Amber, Roger Zelazny
13. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, Susanna Clarke
14. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut
15. The City & The City, China Miéville
16. The Once and Future King, T.H. White
17. The Mists of Avalon, Marion Zimmer Bradley
18. Zone One, Colson Whitehead
19. The Harry Potter series, J.K. Rowling
20. The Time Quartet, Madeleine L’Engle
21. The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis
22. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
23. The Female Man, Joanna Russ
24. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, Jules Verne
25. Brown Girl in the Ring, Nalo Hopkinson
26. Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
27. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
28. The Dune Chronicles, Frank Herbert
29. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
30. Snow Crash, Neal Stephenson
31. The Stars My Destination, Alfred Bester
32. Neuromancer, William Gibson
33. American Gods, Neil Gaiman
34. The Foundation series, Isaac Asimov
35. Discworld, Terry Pratchett
36. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
37. Among Others, Jo Walton
38. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
39. The Last Unicorn, Peter S. Beagle
40. The Drowned World, J.G. Ballard
41. Witch World, Andre Norton
42. Something Wicked This Way Comes, Ray Bradbury
43. The Time Machine, H.G. Wells
44. Never Let Me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro
45. Little, Big, John Crowley
46. The Dragonriders of Pern series, Anne McCaffrey
47. How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Charles Yu
48. The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Patricia C. Wrede
49. The Castle trilogy, Diana Wynne Jones
50. The Giver, Lois Lowry

The Old Reader

I don't remember when the news broke- I'm thinking early April, but not sure- that Google was shutting down its RSS service, Google Reader (GR). That was shocking, angering and depressing to the many of us who have come to use that service, not as a major "source" of news and other internet information, but as the (in my case, THE) major conduit that tied all the sources we follow into one manageable page. Rather than visiting 500+ pages a day, I need visit only one with all those sources displayed.

Immediately the scramble was on: what alternates were available? What sorts of formats did they come in? (I don't care for photo or "magazine" formats, most often a thumbnail accompanied with a snippet of text- what I am after is the text, and if I have to click through on every article to get it, it completely defeats the whole benefit of the manner in which I use RSS.) Were various alternatives ready to deal with the enormous flood of new users abandoning the sinking ship of Google Reader?

While many people scrambled, I chose to sit back and wait a bit. I wanted to see feedback from others on their experiences, and the strengths and weaknesses of other RSS services. Within 2-3 weeks, the one I'd heard the best commentary on was The Old Reader. However, and this was a major concern, one of the comments I saw about that time was from a newly registered user who said they were somewhere around 14,000 in the queue to get their subscriptions/feed lists loaded. That would have been sometime back around the later part of April- again, if memory serves.

So yesterday, with some free time on my hands, I decided to see if I could figure out the whole process. I logged in to The Old Reader (TOR) using my Google account (you can also use Facebook, but it's not clear whether there are other ways or avenues to log in), and was told I needed to export my GR feeds as an OPML file. I don't know what that designation means, but as I'll describe in a moment, it doesn't matter. So you go the the gear icon on the upper right of the GR page, select settings, then "import/export," and under export choose "Download your data through Takeout." It takes a few minutes to get everything in shape to actually create the export files. When it's at "100%" continue. This is by far and away the most time-consuming part of the process. Be patient. It was easy to wander around to Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, and GR in the meantime. Creating your archive files runs easily in the background, and does not monopolize your computer or browser. This was where I got confused, and wasted a bunch of time. I was expecting to see at least one of those files with a .opml suffix, or some shortened equivalent. None of them will. (I made the mistake of quitting out after 30-40 minutes because I thought I was doing something wrong, then having to start all over again.) You end up with 8 files, one of them, Subscriptions, with a .xml suffix.

Once you have those 8 files (mine showed up zipped, but I just opened the zipped folder and copied the files to a similarly titled folder in an unzipped format), return to TOR, select import, and choose "Subscriptions.xml" as the target file. Loading my subscriptions took maybe 20 minutes or a bit longer, and when it completed, it sent me an email saying so.

So all in all, even though I had never done *any* of those things before, it was relatively quick and simple, with the exception of one mistake on my part that wasted somewhat more than half an hour. I was expecting the transition process to be much more complicated and time-consuming. If this is a concern of yours as well, it needn't be.

About the TOR service itself: the interface is almost a clone of the GR interface with some changes in color, fonts and font sizes. The only significant difference I've spotted so far is that my individual feed subscriptions that I haven't categorized into topical folders are all bound in a single generic folder called "Subscriptions," but given the manner in which I consume my RSS info, that makes no difference whatsoever. I've only had TOR for about a day now, and relatively little time (maybe 2 hours total) spent there, so consider this a preliminary report. As such, I'll just make some bulletted comments:

• All hail the return of the "Share" button! I have only one shared item so far, mostly as a test, but as I understand it (h/t @rschott), this link should take you to a page of my shared items.
• I was worried that I might have a limited number of subscriptions, but it took all 528 of mine without a quibble. I suspect that's an unusually high number, and that most people will have many fewer.
• One thing I noticed immediately and really appreciated was that TOR "Home" page lists dead feeds- that is, subscriptions that have been inactive for a long period of time. I've been aware of deadwood accumulating for some time, but other than occasionally coming across one and deleting it, have had no way of systematically pruning these out.
• The response time (i.e., switching from one folder to another, reloading, etc.) is noticeably slower than in GR, but not enough to be onerous. And given the enormous influx of users over the last months, this is something I suspect will improve- even though it'll matter little to me if it doesn't.
• You can reverse the read order from newest->oldest, to oldest->newest. This is a feature I've wanted from time to time, though at the moment I don't recall why.
• A feature/app I'm particularly intrigued by is called "Pocket," "a handy app that allows you to arrange, sort, and tag content that you intend to access later." (available at the bottom of the "settings" window) This could be very useful (and if what I envision, something I've really jonesed for in GR) as a way to save and organize things for link lists- Sunday Funnies, geology news, and so on. GR's current set-up basically allows me to star things, or like them, but no way to sort into separate categories.
• Want basic instructions? See "Howto" under your profile name, but it's pretty much just like old-school GR.

In short, I'm pretty darned impressed, and while I expect I'll keep using GR right up to the end (currently the easiest way to accumulate the funnies, and the 30th falls on a Sunday), I'm relieved, pleased, and much more relaxed in having a ready-to-go replacement for that service.

Happy Towel Day!

Wisdom from Douglas Adams:

“Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.”

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.”

“The story so far: In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and been widely regarded as a bad move.”

“There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. There is another theory which states that this has already happened.” 

“The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be.”

"The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who most want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it.
To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job."

“Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?”

“You know," said Arthur, "it's at times like this, when I'm trapped in a Vogon airlock with a man from Betelgeuse, and about to die of asphyxiation in deep space that I really wish I'd listened to what my mother told me when I was young."
"Why, what did she tell you?"
"I don't know, I didn't listen.” 

“If you try and take a cat apart to see how it works, the first thing you have on your hands is a non-working cat.”

“Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything so mind-bogglingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching proof of the non-existence of God.
The argument goes something like this: "I refuse to prove that I exist,'" says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing."
"But," says Man, "The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it? It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED."
"Oh dear," says God, "I hadn't thought of that," and promptly vanishes in a puff of logic.
"Oh, that was easy," says Man, and for an encore goes on to prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next zebra crossing."

“This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movement of small green pieces of paper, which was odd because on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.”

“Don't you understand that we need to be childish in order to understand? Only a child sees things with perfect clarity, because it hasn't developed all those filters which prevent us from seeing things that we don't expect to see."

“Don't believe anything you read on the net. Except this. Well, including this, I suppose.”

Happy Towel Day!

Know What I Did Last October? (Or "Halloween: The Ambushing.")

Interzone Nickelle sewed me up a pretty floral bonnet for Halloween, and I went around all day swearing by it. The shirt was a little tight, but it's the most cowboyish thing I own.

Interzone Bill took some photos with my camera, but I only today figured out how to get them onto this computer with out a whole lot of fuss. Take the memory card out and stick it into the appropriate slot. I don't like handling the memory card, but apparently, it's not that big a deal.

Mining Science Fiction Films

A recent post in the G+ Geoscience Community posed the question, "What are some science fiction films that involve mining?" The three that came immediately to mind were Outland, Arnie Goes to Mars, er, Total Recall, and Avatar. The post also commented that the colony in Aliens is also described as a mining operation, which I'd forgotten.

I concluded "Can't think of any, off the top of my head, where mining is central to the plot though- it's just a reason for people to be where they are." I've since thought of two more where mining, defined broadly, is central to the story: Moon and Dune. In Moon, we see Sam Bell doing maintenance and trouble-shooting as the singular occupant of a Lunar He3 mining operation, and in Dune, spice mining is at the center of the whole plot- again, mining broadly speaking. Spice is a biological material found in an aeolian setting, but in a way, it's no different from coal/peat/lignite.

Let's see... going through lists...

• There's the famous line "We must not allow a mine gap!" by George C. Scott in Dr Strangelove, but again, mining is peripheral to the story.
• The Abyss is centered around a deep-sea drill rig, nominally designed for oil exploration. While many of the techniques and gizmos in this setting are interesting from a geologic perspective, once again the real focus is on other things.
• I'll simply mention Armageddon so you know I didn't forget it, but purposely ignored it.

Having now gone through four lists of "Top Sci-Fi Films," I'm not seeing any others that jump out at me. I doubt I got every example, but likely most of the bigger, better-known ones.

Of the above, Moon is probably the top example for those with a geologic bent. Dune is a horrible film that looks very good, and as such is sort of a guilty pleasure of mine. Outland, which I saw when it came out (not impressed), was much better for older me last year; it's a sci-fi remake of the classic High Noon. Dr. Strangelove is absolutely top-notch science-fictiony satire, and a true classic in its own right- and I've found many younger people have never watched it. Avatar and Aliens were both enjoyable box-office blow outs, and if you like sci fi, you've likely already seen them more than once. Total Recall, meh. Cartoonish violence, way dumbing down of PK Dick's original story idea, and an almost total loss of the ambiguity inherent in much of his work. Fun, in an Arnie sort of way. I haven't seen the remake, and it was widely panned, so I may not ever. And rounding it out, I quite liked the Abyss, though the geology is best expressed in the earthiness of its characters.

Any others I missed?

Followup- oh yes, the absolutely awful remake of The Andromeda Strain has as its "hero" in the climax a bacterium derived from ocean ridge mining. Part one was over the top, but I would have given it a mildly positive rating. Part two, though, was horrid. Don't waste your time.

Followup 2: Cowboys and Aliens. Dumb, goofy and fun movie. I won't say highly recommended, but it's not ashamed to be what it is, and I enjoyed it.

Followup 3, 2/22/13: In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, Kirk spends part of the film incarcerated in Rura Penthe, a penal mining colony run by the Klingons. Being an even-numbered film in the Star Trek franchise, this one is pretty good. And while not a "film" per se, The Devil in the Dark is likely most geologists' favorite episode in the original series. I was also reminded by a G+ commenter that The Chronicles of Riddick* takes place in a mining colony. I disliked that film quite a bit, and had forgotten the setting entirely. *Correction: I don't think I've seen The Chronicles of Riddick. It was Pitch Black that I found uninteresting and unmemorable. I felt no need to watch a sequel.

Superb Owl

Is everybody ready for a Superb Owl!?

Followup...

...to yesterday's Notpocalypse post. I've found a few more funnies on the theme for Sunday, but for the most part, th-th-th-that's all, folks. Have a happy just-another-day-that-wasn't-the-end-of-the-world.

Bring on the Geopocalypse: Accretionary Wedge #53

Bizarro, via Julia Segal's Tumblr

We did get a few intentional submissions, but apparently many were sort of put off by expectation of humor. So I'm going to roll in a bunch of humor from other places, as well as some serious pieces debunking this whole doomsday nonsense- which apparently is de rigueur every few months in our modern society. "Chicken Little" used to be just a silly children's fable- now it appears to be taken seriously by more than a few people. And two or three times a year, my heart breaks, and my credulity strained, as I read about family wealth destroyed, lives ruined- and even ended- because some gullible nitwit believed the wrong hucksters, and paid heed to irresponsible news sources.

Historic LOLs

So let's see. Anne posted a kind of ice-nine scenario of Hell freezing over. "So that got me thinking about what would happen if hell really did freeze over when winter starts. We would be in a winter state all year long because there wouldn't be any ground heat to melt the snow away."

"That is not the action of a fully intact pot"

And Jazinator treats us to a catastrophic tossed salad. "The intense heat from the combination of the impacts and nuclear explosions is expected to cause a fissure along the center of the Earth forcing the Earth to fracture, much like a head of lettuce slammed into a table"

(Image from The Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait)

And mine involves something about broken Higgs Bosons and the earth turning itself inside out. "Now, on the downside, our calculations suggest we will be inundated with something approaching a 340-kilometer deep ocean of molten steel- that's about 210 miles, in English- extinguishing every trace of earth as we know it, not to mention all life on the planet. On the plus side, though, the initial migration of the molten core toward the surface will be even more effective at freeing up 'tight' shale oil and gas than current 'frakking' technology."

 (Image from The Bad Astronomer, Phil Plait)

Finally, and a bit belatedly, Hollis chimes in with a scenario that any card-carrying hippie would find groovy and really far-out, man: "After just a few days, Yellowstone will emit a gargantuan burp of euphoria-inducing gas.  We will all happily swoon and then be peacefully frozen stiff with the onset of a prolonged very cold and very dark volcanic winter.  In other words, I’m an optimistic person."

 (in reference to this)

Now, Phil Plait (linked three times above, to two different posts) and Erik Klemetti, source of the two tweets above, have been doing superb, if exasperated, work in debunking this nonsense. The bits from those two that I would consider their centerpieces are, from Phil, here, and from Eric, here. If you need convincing that this nonsense is, in fact, nonsense, these are very highly recommended.

Narcolepsy Inc.

In a related vein, Dana Hunter has an excellent bit that gets at a central problem in a tangential sort of way, though she starts off pounding the nail squarely on the head:

Please sit down. I have some news to break. It may be very difficult to hear, and it may shake your innocence and trust. But I need you to know the truth.

Are you ready? Have you braced yourself? Okay, let’s have it: sometimes, the media is really terrible at science reporting.

I’m so sorry. But it gets worse: sometimes, they tell you things that really aren’t true at all.

Some people will die because of these rumours, and we are trying our best to stop them.

A particularly depressing- though outstandingly important- site is here. Yes, I rely on humor to combat sadness, and I know for a fact some people think I (at least on occasion) go too far, too soon. I understand, and I'm sympathetic, but believe me when I say you'd like my potential other behaviors less. However, I've spent a lot of time with and around youngsters, and their well-being is always on my mind. I'm much more conservative in language and behavior around them. Scaring a 2nd grader into life-threatening depression is not okay. Got that?

Bits and Pieces

The fact is, there are too many unscrupulous people who wouldn't hesitate to take advantage of fear- however unwarranted- to make an easy buck. And that's especially true in the US, where, apparently, we value money and its acquisition over all else... and I do mean all.

As Callan at Mountain Beltway commented, "Why does our civilization keep believing in these stupid ideas? There are plenty of real things that could disrupt or end a civilization." Well put. There are indeed plenty of things rational minds should fear. Doomsday apocalypse scenarios, whether based on Mayan Calenders, astrology, Biblical "revelations," or any other source, are not among them. On Circulation also recently posted a run-down of potential catastrophes, with a discussion of why none of them constitute the "end of the world."

It's Funny to Me

Which is why articles like this, and the people whose work is to confront such things firmly and decisively, are so important.

La Figa

The fact is, for the foreseeable future, every living entity on earth is going to die eventually. I personally have little fear or problem with accepting that. The fact of my death means there will be resources for someone else, perhaps- I hope- someone better than me. That's why many choose to have children. That's why we struggle to make things better for those around us, despite knowing that, in the end, it's meaningless to us personally. Endings are sad things, yes. But as a wise man once said, "hope springs eternal."

And as moms have said, since, I guess, about forever, "Stop it. You're scaring the children."

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