Month: September 2002

And That’s Why They’re Called Fruit Flies

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I came across this article in today’s Japan Times (pulled from the UPI wire). Scientists have apparently found that heat can change the sexual preference of genetically modified fruit flies. The story was only mildly interesting until I got to this part:

The male fruit flies also lined up in circles and chains resembling a conga dance and, on occasion, even reciprocated other male’s sexual advances with attempted copulation. Males apparently rejected unwanted suitors with a flick of their wings or a kick to the courting male’s head.
The flies reverted to their original heterosexual behavior when temperatures cooled down.

Comparing the original UPI headline (“Heat change makes mutant flies gay”) with the one the Japan Times came up with (“Flipping the switch of sexual preference”) shows the value of a good headline writer.

Coming Soon: Humilty to Replace Hubris

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A scientist predicts that humans will soon lose their place as the most complex things in the (known) universe — to be replaced by computers.

A few folks, such as Kurzweil, embrace the post-human future with enthusiasm. They look back upon the long sweep of cosmic evolution and recognize that humans are a momentary efflorescence, destined to be supplanted by new forms of complexity as surely as people took precedence over insects and mice.

In Kurzweil’s view, the future will be characterized by ”greater complexity, greater elegance, greater knowledge, greater intelligence, greater beauty, greater creativity, greater love.” His optimism is similar to that of the Jesuit mystic Teilhard de Chardin, who saw the fulfillment of creation at the end of time, rather than at the beginning.

The majority of people, however, are distressed and frightened by the prospect of a post-human future. The late great chemist Erwin Chargaff and entrepreneur Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems, have gone so far as to call for constraints on certain kinds of technological innovation as the only way of preserving our essential humanity.

Don’t Worry, Everything’s Fine

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Nothing like hearing that a small country prone to earthquakes can’t maintain nuclear reactors correctly. What happens when the big earthquake hits?

Things are not good these days when it comes to safety at Japan’s nuclear power plants:

The reports of safety lapses, fraudulent repairs and cover-ups at Japan’s largest nuclear power company began with a trickle but have resounded into an industry nightmare.
The details, filled in over the last two weeks by one alarming report after another, show a potentially catastrophic pattern of cost-cutting along with 16 years of cover-ups of serious flaws, apparently in an effort to preserve public trust. The pattern includes the systematic falsification of inspection and repair records at 13 reactors at the company, Tokyo Electric, the world’s largest private electrical utility.

(From Antipixel, my favorite blog.)

Control Freaks

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Yet another example of why the entertainment industry is the new evil empire, and is run by idiots.

With each passing day, industry arguments in favor of stricter controls on how consumers use information and entertainment become more absurd and outrageous.
An AOL Time Warner executive actually asserted that television viewers are under contract to watch advertisements:

“Your contract when you get the show is you’re going to watch the spots [advertisements]…. Any time you skip a commercial…you’re actually stealing the programming,” Kellner is quoted as saying. He goes on to note that “there’s a certain amount of tolerance” for going to the bathroom.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued Turner Broadcasting and others over this issue, asserting that consumers have the right to record and watch TV as they please, without having information on their viewing habits forcibly turned over to entertainment companies (who will presumably use the data to track down the hardened criminals who aren’t watching ads for dentures).

Mt. Fuji

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fuji.jpg
My luck with volcano visibility here in Japan hasn’t been good. First I climbed Asahi-dake in Hokkaido (tallest mountain on Hokkaido) without seeing anything through the clouds and rain. Now I’ve made it to the top of Mt. Fuji without seeing the famous view from the top (let alone much of anything along the way).

But the trip was still an adventure, including a 38-hour day with no sleep, law-breaking, beers for breakfast and a day at an amusement park directly after descending from the mountain. Needless to say, I needed a good night’s sleep when I finally returned to Nagano.

Continue reading “Mt. Fuji” →

Another Sad Tale, All Too Familiar

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Another flaw has been found in Microsoft Word. In other words, Microsoft has been selling something that is broken (certainly not the first time for our favorite “innovative” software company). The flaw affects several versions of Word, including the most recent. However…

Word 97, an earlier version of the program, is most susceptible to the attack. But Word 97 will not be repaired because Microsoft no longer provides support for it, the company said. A research firm reported in May that about 32 percent of offices have copies of Word 97 running, according to a survey of 1,500 high-tech managers worldwide.

Customer: “The product you sold me is broken.”

MS Customer Support: “May I suggest that you purchase a new version of Microsoft Word.”