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Cziltang wanders the trackless wastes in search of truth, beauty and personal enlightenment. He had tried to be self-sufficient, growing his own ideas, but they withered and died in the great intellectual drought that gripped the land in his youth. One day, as he gazed at the parched landscape around him, he realized that somewhere there must be ideas growing. Somewhere, rational discourse must still survive. Since that day, he has searched for a mythical land of fields and forests of living ideas. Now and again he finds a thought or two in the rubble of an occasional deserted outpost of civilization. Its a hard way to live and its not much of a life, but that's just how it is, out here in the Ratlands |
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Apologies to Emeril
link A while back I referred to the "Butter Police" in one of my posts. I was just being cute and at the time I thought it was an original idea. Much to my dismay, last night I discovered that Emeril Lagasse has previously the term on his cooking show (in much the same sarcastic vein, I might add). Since I do occasionally watch Emeril, it is quite likely that I heard the term on his show and didn't come up with it independently. So, I am apologizing for using the term, in case it is copyrighted or trademarked or something like that. I wouldn't want the Butter Police Police after me. by CziltangPosted: Wednesday, March 03 2004 07:52:39 PM
Beachfront property, anyone?
link According to NASA, Opportunity has discovered evidence of considerable quantities of water previously in existence on Mars. Now they are bubbling about a "sample return" mission and eventual manned missions. In general, I think this is cool. I've been fascinated with space exploration since I was a kid. I was hoping we would have colonies on the moon and Mars by now, etc, etc, etc. Of course, I'm a fan of good science fiction (and quite a bit that isn't so good). I remember, with a certain fondness, the way my worldview changed when I first read Asimov's Foundation Trilogy, Herbert's Dune, and Heinlein's The Past Through Tomorrow. Although I dearly love Heinlein's future history stories, when I first read them, I ate up the stories, but I never quite bought the idea of private exploration of space in the "early" years. That was fine for fiction, but in the real world, of course the government would handle it, as it was obviously too big for private companies to handle. Now I'm not so sure. I've begun to be skeptical of NASA in particular, and government in general, having what it takes (including money) to take a practical and constructive lead in space exploration, travel, colonization, and research. It's sort of like Rockhound (Steve Buscemi) said in the movie Armaggedon, "You know we're sitting on four million pounds of fuel, one nuclear weapon and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder. Makes you feel good, doesn't it?" Given NASA's track record over the past few years, I'm not so sure that private space exploration isn't a good idea. There is a series of essays on the subject on the Cato Institue's website. The Cato Institute is a Libertarian organization. While I'm not a Libertarian, I do have a certain sympathy for some of their ideas, and this is one of them. I guess it's because I am just enough of a romantic to hope that someday Rat Jr. or my grandchildren might be able to live on the moon or Mars. by CziltangPosted: Tuesday, March 02 2004 09:13:24 PM |
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