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Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking said this week that humans might be making a huge mistake by trying to make 'first contact' with alien species. Hawking is part of the "Breakthrough Listen" project. It's goal is to develop super sensitive radio receivers to listen in on alien civilizations. If they're there.
But there's another project called Breakthrough Message. It aims to create a transmission "representative of humanity and planet Earth" to send to an extraterrestrial civilization. They pledge "...not to transmit any message until there has been a global debate at high levels of science and politics on the risks and rewards of contacting advanced civilizations".
Professor Hawking thinks that's a seriously bad idea. He wants to eavesdrop on alien civilizations, but stay out of the conversation. In his mind, it's in our best interest to keep our heads down and our mouths shut. He says he worries that advanced aliens “will be vastly more powerful and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria.”
Ouch.
Some people think it might be dangerous even to listen to an alien message. It's possible it could be an encoded message like a computer virus that, once in our minds, could kill us. Or worse.
But the whole Thing might be a moot point. We've been broadcasting everyThing from I Love Lucy to Star Trek into the cosmos for decades. If someone is out there listening, it's probably too late to shut up now.
An Artificial Intelligence (AI) robot named Torobo-kun failed the entrance exams for Tokyo University for the fourth time last week. Here's Torobo-kun working on the exam, which consisted of eight tests covering five different subjects.
The robot scored well on its history and physics exams, but his English scores were, well, pretty awful. Which shows us that AI is still behind the curve when it comes to Things like context and interpretation, which are critical language skills.
Torobo-kun sored 525 out of a possible 950, which, any human student would tell the robot, is a pretty respectable showing. Though it wasn't enough to make the cut at one of the top-ranked schools in Asia, the AI robot could have chosen from among about 500 other colleges or universities in Japan.
But his creators claim that after four years of hard work, Torobo-kun has barely managed to improve his test scores so now it must "accept defeat and work at a 'real job'".
I feel bad for Torobo-kun. But this might be a good Thing for the poor robot. At least it doesn't have to study for any more exams!
I love writing about dumb Things criminals do to get themselves caught and subsequently ridiculed mercilessly by the press, Internet trolls, and of course bloggers like me. Remember this paranoid pair who got themselves busted with 20 pounds of pot in Idaho? Or the nerdy burglar who couldn't resist posting the clever steps he took to evade police - complete with geotags - on Snapchat? Pretty dumb, right? Well, meet Raymond Brooks of Youngstown, Ohio.
Mr. Brooks was pulled over last month after he cut off a police officer in traffic. The local paper reported that Brooks was "acting nervous and gave police permission to search his car." The search turned up a 9mm ammunition clip under a loose cup holder cover. The CD player also looked a bit loose, so police removed it from the dashboard. Behind it was a loaded handgun with an extended magazine.
Oh, but it gets better. Turns out Brooks is a convicted felon and therefore not allowed to possess a firearm. At all. So police arrested him. He was charged with "improper handling of a firearm in a motor vehicle and being a felon in possession of a firearm".
Still it gets even better. On the way to the jail, Brooks asked if he could get his gun back. On the way to the jail! According to the local paper, a response from police "was not recorded". My guess is if it had been recorded, the response would have been uproarious laughter.
I don't know about you, but I'm tired of the whole political Thing this year. I vote, yes. I pay attention, yes. I even volunteer if I think there's a good reason to lend my time and energy to an issue or a candidate.
After all we've been through this year, I think most of us are sick of all the scandals, the childish arguing, the candidates (both sides) avoiding the issues and the non-stop, day-and-night, back-to-back political ads. But I have some good news: it's almost over. I can tell because all of our political Things are on sale.
I just want to go to the polls, cast my vote and wait for the end of this rancorous season. Sure, I hope Things turn out the way I want them to, but if they don't...well...that's part of living in a democracy, right?
Maybe we sometimes forget the beauty of a system in which power changes hands in a peaceful, civilized way. Well, somewhat civilized. The other night my family was arguing all Things political. There was a bit of yelling. A few threats to leave the country if one side or the other doesn't 'get their way'. And everyone was trying to drag me into the fray.
But I refused to take the bait. I just said, "I'll live by whatever the voters decide. Isn't that what America is all about?"
Native American Indians knew that the marijuana plant was powerful medicine. They used it for sacred rituals and they also used it for healing. According to the history of cannabis, both written and passed down through generations, American Indian tribes used the plant for everything from diarrhea to sleep to pain relief.
Now 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized marijuana for medical use. Next month, nine more states will ask voters to approve legalization of the plant for either medical or recreational use.
As election day nears, a "new customer base" for the medicinal qualities of pot was revealed in the New York Times: your pets. According to the report, dogs and cats suffer from many of the same afflictions as their human counterparts, many of which are cured or relieved with cannabis. It's been shown effective in both humans and pets for seizures, anxiety, arthritis and inflammatory states such as arthritis.
WARNING: That doesn't mean you should 'smoke up' your dog. In fact, the psychoactive THC in marijuana is toxic to dogs. However, the non-psychoactive chemical CBD, which has been shown to prevent seizures in young children, is perfectly safe. In fact, it seems to work just as well in pets as it does in people.
I don't know what to think of all of this, but like most pet owners, I would do anyThing for my dog Bosco. So if it works, I'm for it. But I'm glad Bosco is a robust, healthy beast. He only visits the vet for his routine checkups or - most frequently - when he's eaten someThing he wasn't supposed to. By all accounts, medical marijuana wouldn't cure that.
Since Comic-Con back in July, people have been speculating about the new Star Trek television series planned for 2017. Much of the talk swirling around the convention was based on rumor. As it turns out, some of those rumors were more accurate than others. But Trekkies were delighted for any morsel of information they could get about the new cast, new crew, and, gasp! new ship, whether it was true or not.
Now we're able to piece together a better picture of the new series. Though CBS will not confirm a Thing, preferring, I think, to preserve the mystery, they have released two teaser trailers. However, others involved with the show have revealed some pretty juicy tidbits for us to piece together, including the tweet from producer Bryan Fuller at left.
Besides that somewhat cryptic tweet, here are 7 other Things we've heard (from reasonably reliable sources) so far:
Star Trek: Discovery will premiere on CBS in May, 2017 and be released to their streaming service All Access soon after.
The main character won't be the captain. Instead, the protagonist, Number One, is a female Lieutenant Commander. (We don't know her on- or off-screen name yet.)
The series takes place ten years before Kirk & Spock and will "bridge the gap" between Star Trek: Enterprise and The Original Series (around the year 2255).
The Enterprise is in service at the same time as the Discovery, most likely under the command of Captain Christopher Pike with Mr. Spock as Second Officer.
There will be a comic book and a book released in conjunction with the series.
The show will feature a gay regular character, robots (not androids), and a LOT more aliens than previous series.
The first season will run for 13 episodes and tell a complete story, much like chapters of a novel, but each episode will also stand alone.
Now here's the interesting Thing: the Romulan war ended (roughly) 95 years before Discovery launches, so now everyone is wondering: where will this story arc go? I surely don't know. On that topic, no one is talking. But I'm betting it will be where none has gone before.
Instead of going to a Halloween party this year, I'm hosting a Macabre Marathon at my Haunted House. I've got all the decorations up, the props positioned for maximum scare value and my creepy costume at the ready. Now, to pick the fiendish films...
Creature Features are some of the scariest movies in horror and this 50-DVD set has some of the best. Blood Tide stars James Earl Jones who must save village virgins from the "evil under the sea". Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favorites and features a very young Jack Nicolson. I've also picked a few classics starring the icons of horror, Boris Karloff and Lon Cheney.
Not to be outdone by killer creatures, Mad Scientists create horror in their laboratories. From inventions of evil to reanimated monsters run amok, it's hard to pick just a few from this set of movies. But the short list includes The Atomic Brain, House of the Living Dead, Horror Express starring Christopher Lee, Telly Savalas and Peter Cushing and...just for fun...the silent classic Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde.
Next up: a Dark Shadows binge-watch. The serial was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid and Halloween just wouldn't be the same without mysterious vampire Barnabus Collins. Nine fan favorite episodes were chosen for this set, which will take just about as long as your average horror flick and will close out the night with a retro goth bang.
My biggest challenge now is waiting until Halloween to watch it all. Now that I've picked them, I can't wait to see them!
Since Comic-Con back in July, people have been speculating about the new Star Trek television series planned for 2017. Much of the talk swirling around the convention was based on rumor. As it turns out, some of those rumors were more accurate than others. But Trekkies were delighted for any morsel of information they could get about the new cast, new crew, and, gasp! new ship, whether it was true or not.
