thoughts and opinions by author s. andrew swann
S Andrew Swann | April 23, 2010
(with thanks to Instapundit) Thanks to an NPR article we have a concept worthy of a Phillip K Dick novel, with Orwellian commentary that should scare the crap out of you if you have any imagination— or remember the CIA’s history dealing with other chemical substances. The money quote: Does Biology Affect Our Trust In [...]
S Andrew Swann | February 15, 2010
S Andrew Swann | December 8, 2009
Scientific research is based on the idea of review, so others can reproduce your results. Peer review should not be about insuring a pre-determined outcome. It certainly shouldn’t be about intimidation of reporters. Is shouldn’t be about politicians defining what the “real science” is. Especially when they’re repeatedly wrong about it. Who really should be [...]
S Andrew Swann | November 30, 2009
While I was out, it seems we found out the science on Global Warming is a lot less settled than Al Gore would like us to believe. At the risk of being called the moral equivalent of a Holocaust denier, I can’t say that this particularly surprises me. When we talk about climate scientists (the [...]
S Andrew Swann | September 30, 2009
And now for something completely upbeat. (Thanks MGK)
S Andrew Swann | September 21, 2009
Truffles, our Chocolate Lab, has not had a very good couple of months. She’s been slowing down for a while, and showing some weakness in her back end that we assumed was due to age. Last July we took her down to Bow-wow beach for what was probably the last time. By the end of [...]
S Andrew Swann | July 21, 2009
I bet you thought I was kidding. I bet you thought such things would never see any practical use. I bet you believe them when they say that their mission is not to build “futuristic robots” to “feed on the human population” Will you feel that way when they start building themselves? (Props to Elizabeth [...]
S Andrew Swann | December 11, 2008
From Rudy Rucker’s blog, a truly trippy demo. As Rudy says, “the controls do work, but it takes a while to figure them out. Like using an alien iPhone that dropped out of a flying saucer.”
S Andrew Swann | October 2, 2008
There’s a bias in SF and its brethren such as alternate history to do world building around the big ass stuff; wars, revolutions, catastrophes. Or, for the sciencey mindset, the big ass discoveries that change our understanding of cosmology or fundamental physics, or some sort of massive engineering or computing breakthrough that has us uploading [...]
S Andrew Swann | September 13, 2008
The generally used definition of othering goes along like this: The belief/insistence that someone outside the group is somehow, “categorically, topologically, intrinsically, DIFFERENT.” Also, the use of this belief, the not-understandable “other,” to re-affirm the group’s “normalcy” and identity. There you go, the human history of race, sex and gender identity wrapped up in a [...]
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