Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary, Space, Technology and Society

Safe Is Not An Option

24 Comments

Clark Lindsey, who got an early draft (and the most recent one), has a review of the book. There are only five days, left, and we’re still short over a thousand dollars. And the more I can exceed the goal, the more I’ll be able to promote this.

[Update early evening]

I just realized that I’ve left out a crucial quote in the book, from an eighties teeshirt. Not sure where to put it, though, but I definitely have to include it.

“The Meek Shall Inherit The Earth. The Rest Of Us Will Go To The Stars.”

Might even be on the cover…

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

More Guns, Less Crime

12 Comments

Jeffrey Goldberg at The Atlantic comes to recognize the benefits of an armed citizenry, though he still think that there is a “gun-show loophole.” But some of the emotionalism and non-thinking on the part of his interview subjects is breathtaking:

Mauser expresses disbelief that the number of gun deaths fails to shock. He blames the American attachment to guns on ignorance, and on immaturity. “We’re a pretty new nation,” he told me. “We’re still at the stage of rebellious teenager, and we don’t like it when the government tells us what to do. People don’t trust government to do what’s right. They are very attracted to the idea of a nation of individuals, so they don’t think about what’s good for the collective.”

Mauser said that if the United States were as mature as the countries of Europe, where strict gun control is the norm, the federal government would have a much easier time curtailing the average citizen’s access to weapons. “The people themselves would understand that having guns around puts them in more danger.”

I’m sorry your son was killed, but if you want to live in Europe, move to Europe, and be a collectivist. My ancestors came to this country to get away from all that.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Social Commentary

What’s In A Word?

1 Comment

Gallup demonstrates the continuing decline into meaninglessness of political labels:

My suspicion here, conveniently enough, is that this is primarily a problem with our political language. It certainly doesn’t help that the two main descriptors — “conservative” and “liberal” — no longer accurately describe the broad political positions of the two parties (“radical classical liberal” and “statist” would do better, I think), or that the president spent the campaign season cynically messing with terms (consider that the architect of Obamacare repeatedly accused Republicans of wanting “get between you and your doctor”). Orwell noted that “it is clear that the decline of a language must ultimately have political and economic cause.”

And, as he notes, consequences.

Media Criticism, Political Commentary, War Commentary

Beyond Benghazi

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OK, you want to move on? Then let’s talk about what happened to the missiles? If they weren’t competent to secure the consulate, and allowed four people to be murdered, why should we think that they managed to secure heat-seeking missiles?

[Update a couple minutes later]

More “moving on.” There are worse blights on Susan Rice’s record than her Benghazi fantasies.

[Update a while later]

With Rice, Benghazi is only the start of the problem.

Can someone explain to me what she’s done at the UN that’s so wonderful, including yesterday’s vote?

Health, Philosophy, Science And Society

The Secret Of Immortality

4 Comments

From a jellyfish?

[Update a few minutes later]

I posted this without reading it all, because it’s a long. But I found this telling:

Even some of Kubota’s peers are cautious when speaking about potential medical applications in Turritopsis research. “It is difficult to foresee how much and how fast . . . Turritopsis dohrnii can be useful to fight diseases,” Stefano Piraino, a colleague of Ferdinando Boero’s, told me in an e-mail. “Increasing human longevity has no meaning, it is ecological nonsense. What we may expect and work on is to improve the quality of life in our final stages.”

My emphasis. This is a religious belief, not a scientific one.

[Update a few minutes later]

Related: life extension through gene therapy:

Mice treated at the age of one lived longer by 24% on average, and those treated at the age of two, by 13%. The therapy, furthermore, produced an appreciable improvement in the animals’ health, delaying the onset of age-­‐related diseases — like osteoporosis and insulin resistance — and achieving improved readings on aging indicators like neuromuscular coordination.

The gene therapy consisted of treating the animals with a DNA-­modified virus, the viral genes having been replaced by those of the telomerase enzyme, with a key role in aging. Telomerase repairs the extreme ends or tips of chromosomes, known as telomeres, and in doing so slows the cell’s and therefore the body’s biological clock. When the animal is infected, the virus acts as a vehicle depositing the telomerase gene in the cells.

This study “shows that it is possible to develop a telomerase-­based anti-­aging gene therapy without increasing the incidence of cancer,” the authors affirm. “Aged organisms accumulate damage in their DNA due to telomere shortening, [this study] finds that a gene therapy based on telomerase production can repair or delay this kind of damage,” they add.

It’s from May, but I don’t recall seeing it.

[Update a while later]

Must be early-onset Alzheimers. I posted about it at the time.

Biting Commentary about Infinity…and Beyond!