There's a Moonbat Pride movement afoot in Arlington. I particularly like the mug.
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10:16:29 PM,
Thursday 3 July 2008
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10:03:57 PM, Thursday 3 July 2008
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10:03:24 PM, Thursday 3 July 2008
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10:03:04 PM, Thursday 3 July 2008
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I very rarely wear sunglasses, so I never, ever remember that the camera isn't also wearing them. _
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10:02:38 PM, Thursday 3 July 2008
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Easterbrook's Chicken Little article, The Sky is Falling, detailing the possibility that asteroid strikes are more common than previously believed, and, as always, grousing about the unrepentant stupidity of our space program.
Reading A Problem From Hell, Samantha Power's book on American reaction to the genocides of the 20th century, which has large sections of people who are very worried about something running bumping their heads against bureaucratic indifference, as well as the basic human resistance to believe there is actually anything wrong.
Playing Missile Command at the bowling alley yesterday. (old arcade game where you are in charge of a ultimately futile effort to save some cities from and endless supply of ballistic missiles)
Playing Harvest Moon, a fairly inexplicable japanese RPG where you're a terminally behind-schedule, lovelorn small farmer. A game that bares the basic pointless compulsion at the heart of the great management games like civilization, where there's always another turn, always something you're half-finished with, except in this case, it's farm chores, and bringing your girlfriend eggs (she really likes eggs). Sort of like Lemonade Stand for the current generation.
So, these things came together for the idea of a game where you're a terminally underfunded, behind schedule, possibly lovelorn astronomer who is sure that earth is going to be destroyed by meteors. You start off with a trust fund, and set up a institute to study near earth objects. You can either lobby government, eat lunch with Gregg Easterbrook, run scans of space, improve your telescopes, hire people, etc. As you find things, it becomes easier to get funding. But when you find them, you still don't know how big they are without further study. You also don't know if their orbits might be effected by things you haven't found yet. Every morning you get a report on which objects aren't following their projected paths. You always have the option of issuing press releases about the general threat, and to start with you get attention, but there are skeptics, and the less sound your evidence, the louder they are, and your credibility plummets. Eventually you find one you think is going to hit Earth, you can either run to the press or make sure. Assuming that you're credible, you get a world government mandate to deflect them (but still not enough funding), with a choice of technologies to pursue, which may or may not work, have different start-up costs, problems, etc (gravitational tractors, lasers, etc), which compete with detection for resources. The game would have a self-correcting difficulty curve: it'd be nearly impossible to find and deflect them all, but the first few failures seriously increase your funding and credibility. (though eventually, with enough failures, civilization starts to crumble, the skeptics blame you for causing all the collisions, and you probably start spending your resources reinforcing your compound to survive the apocolypse instead). The best result would be where you die in obscurity, having got earth through the cloud without any collisions, and generally derided as a crank. Middling you're a heroic civil servant. Not quite failure, you're the leader of all mankind, a prophet leading your people out of the bunkers into a new world, and even your followers think you did it intentionally to destroy the old corrupt civilization. (though don't lead them out unless you're sure all the asteroids have passed) Most of the time, though, you'll be killed.
The place to start would be a pretty straightforward asteroid detection and deflection game.
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(2)
11:18:39 AM,
Sunday 29 June 2008
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Hookless fly-fishing. I just went and stood in the pond for a couple minutes. Well, first I sat on the shore watching the fish. Sunnies, mostly. Then I dipped my fingers in, and 5 of them charged up, then backed off with their fins. Every time I put my fingers in a different place, they'd do this. Then I decided to wade in, which they didn't like at first, but in a few minutes they were back swimming around. Saw a small-mouthed bass, as well. One of them came within a couple inches of my leg. I feel certain if I'd had a net I could have caught one, though I doubt I would have had the patience to actually manage it. So I'm trying to see if anyone catches fish with just a net and maybe breadcrumbs. I wouldn't even have to take them out of the water.
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(3)
08:09:05 PM,
Wednesday 25 June 2008
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Cabela's doesn't require that you tell it the type of credit card on it's web form. About time, the information is already encoded in the number. I guess for places that don't take all credit cards, it makes sense, by making people pay attention, but I'm always happy not to have to click something.
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(2)
05:58:31 PM,
Wednesday 25 June 2008
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Our sources report that PF & MFC are bound for Goris, Armenia. Caves!
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12:49:21 PM,
Wednesday 25 June 2008
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Could someone please convert Bill Maher? I'm all for public figures being open about their atheism, but this ain't going to help.
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(1)
06:10:21 PM,
Tuesday 24 June 2008
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I need either a cat that's set to astronomical time or a cat net. (like a mosquito net, only with larger holes). 16 1/2 hours of daylight would be just fine if the cat wasn't so intent on enforcing consciousness during them. Of course, he's probably off napping right now. Furry hypocrites, is what they are.
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(8)
08:24:24 AM,
Tuesday 24 June 2008
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I want windows I can open when it's raining. About all I've got is the front door, and I feel odd leaving the front door open, and then, I have to be very alert about the rain letting up and the cat embarking on an adventure. If I ever have a house, I'm totally having awnings.
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12:26:05 PM,
Monday 23 June 2008
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site & script courtesy of Moss
