All posts by Rand Simberg

Technology and Society

Cryonics Breakthrough?

I just saw a segment on Fox News (Shepherd Smith’s evening show) that said that Greg Fahy is going to announce the ability to restore animal kidneys to full function after freezing them to deep subzero temperatures. I visted Greg in his lab over a decade ago when he was doing organ preservation research for the Red Cross in Rockville, Maryland, and he was doing some breakthrough work with rabbit kidneys then. According to the report, tests with human organs may commence within two years.

The purpose of the research is to make it possible to preserve organs for transplant for longer periods of time, but the implications for making cryonics ever more viable are obvious. Of course, they had to have the usual “scientist” on as a nay sayer. However, they’re having to cling to straws more as time goes on. They used to talk about making cows out of hamburger. Now they’re reduced to saying, “Well, OK, they can do it with a mouse, but that’s a long way from doing it with a human.”

That’s how science progresses, professor.

Oh, and kudos to Fox for using the correct term “cryonics,” rather than cryogenics.

Uncategorized

FUD Fails

Micro$oft’s campaign to put out Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt over Linux is a dud. Few users put any credibility on their “research” indicating that M$ products are cheaper.

…one technology director at a midsize transportation company who requested anonymity called the report’s conclusions “a joke.” “What about the cost of maintaining service packs and system downtime from viruses?” he asked. “If I could quantify cost of downtime of desktops and servers, this will surely surpass Microsoft’s estimates of cost.”

Uncategorized

Deterring Suicide Terrorists

According to this piece, it can be done.

I think he’s right.

In The Blank Slate, Pinker points out the flaws in our societal thinking about violence–that it is unnatural, that it is irrational.

Of course, it’s entirely natural–it was the way of our ancestors (and remains the way of our closest cousins, the non-Bonobo chimps), and only relatively recently have we come up with institutionalized means of using other of our human traits to suppress it.

It’s also often quite rational, and in the case of the terrorists of the Middle East, it was quite successful for them, right up until September 12th, when they miscalculated. It continues to be successful in Israel, because we continue to reward it with “peace processes” and “roadmaps” and promises of homelands.

Until the carrot/stick incentive/punishment structure is changed, it will continue.

General Science

Sniff Any Good F@rts Lately?

Hey, you think you’ve got it bad?

Go hence and read about the worst jobs in science.

[Update at 12:40 PM PDT]

Here’s a blog-relevant one:

14. ASTRONAUT

Yes, astronaut. By many lights, being an astronaut is the best job in the solar system, though one that carries with it the ultimate risk. But set aside the mortal danger and it’s still a job of great frustration, self- sacrifice, even debasement. Astronauts are subjected to the most arduous of tasks: sitting in high-G centrifuges so that doctors can study motion sickness, deliberately enduring hypothermia for hours on end, wearing rectal probes and central IV lines in all forms of stress training like so many guinea pigs (though?mitigating factor?no shaved bellies). Shuttle and Mir veteran Norm Thagard once objected to a study designed to make him wretchedly sick. NASA’s response? “They said I could be fired for good cause, bad cause or no cause,” says Thagard, “but I was required to participate as a condition of employment.” Thagard also had the distinction of being the first person ever to clean out animal cages in orbit, on the Spacelab 3 in 1985. Engineers promised him that the cages would be at negative pressure, so none of the weightless waste of 24 rats and 2 squirrel monkeys would escape. But when Thagard opened the cages, air rushed outward, leading to a frantic floating-feces chase scene. A day later, at the other end of the craft, commander Bob Overmeyer was accosted by a truant turd.

Political Commentary

The “Progressive” Candidate

Now that the Perfumed Prince is in the race, is anyone going to challenge him on this bit of historical ignorance?

GEN. CLARK: Well, first of all, they were not efficient in terms of stimulating the kind of demand we need to move the economy back into a recovery mode, a strong recovery and a recovery that provides jobs. There are more effective ways of using the resources. Secondly, the tax cuts weren?t fair. I mean, the people that need the money and deserve the money are the people who are paying less, not the people who are paying more. I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation. In other words, it?s not only that the more you make, the more you give, but proportionately more because when you don?t have very much money, you need to spend it on the necessities of life. When you have more money, you have room for the luxuries and you should?one of the luxuries and one of the privileges we enjoy is living in this great country.

No, General, this country was founded on the principle of no federal income tax at all. We had to pass a Constitutional amendment, within the last century, in order to levy it.

[Update on Thursday morning]

There’s a debate ongoing in the comments section, but in the meantime, Professor Volokh has some thoughts.

Political Commentary

The “Progressive” Candidate

Now that the Perfumed Prince is in the race, is anyone going to challenge him on this bit of historical ignorance?

GEN. CLARK: Well, first of all, they were not efficient in terms of stimulating the kind of demand we need to move the economy back into a recovery mode, a strong recovery and a recovery that provides jobs. There are more effective ways of using the resources. Secondly, the tax cuts weren?t fair. I mean, the people that need the money and deserve the money are the people who are paying less, not the people who are paying more. I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation. In other words, it?s not only that the more you make, the more you give, but proportionately more because when you don?t have very much money, you need to spend it on the necessities of life. When you have more money, you have room for the luxuries and you should?one of the luxuries and one of the privileges we enjoy is living in this great country.

No, General, this country was founded on the principle of no federal income tax at all. We had to pass a Constitutional amendment, within the last century, in order to levy it.

[Update on Thursday morning]

There’s a debate ongoing in the comments section, but in the meantime, Professor Volokh has some thoughts.

Political Commentary

The “Progressive” Candidate

Now that the Perfumed Prince is in the race, is anyone going to challenge him on this bit of historical ignorance?

GEN. CLARK: Well, first of all, they were not efficient in terms of stimulating the kind of demand we need to move the economy back into a recovery mode, a strong recovery and a recovery that provides jobs. There are more effective ways of using the resources. Secondly, the tax cuts weren?t fair. I mean, the people that need the money and deserve the money are the people who are paying less, not the people who are paying more. I thought this country was founded on a principle of progressive taxation. In other words, it?s not only that the more you make, the more you give, but proportionately more because when you don?t have very much money, you need to spend it on the necessities of life. When you have more money, you have room for the luxuries and you should?one of the luxuries and one of the privileges we enjoy is living in this great country.

No, General, this country was founded on the principle of no federal income tax at all. We had to pass a Constitutional amendment, within the last century, in order to levy it.

[Update on Thursday morning]

There’s a debate ongoing in the comments section, but in the meantime, Professor Volokh has some thoughts.