Scripturient

What KIC 8462852 Says About Us

2015-10-15 2015-10-15 Astronomy & Cosmology / Conspiracy Theories / Critical Thinking / Science & Technology5 Comments

KIC 8462852. Hardly a household name. But it may be, one day soon, or at least when it garners a more prosaic name. It’s a star and it sits rather forlornly in space in the rightmost edge of the constellation Cygnus, almost 1,500 light years away. And although it’s too dim to be seen by the naked eye, it has caught the attention of astronomers and conspiracy theorists alike, worldwide. KIC 8462852 is a mature F3-class sun, more massive than the Sun and both brighter, hotter. It’s the kind of sun we usually search for habitable planets around, at least within the range of potential candidates. ……… click below for more ↓

The Signal

2015-10-06 2015-10-06 Culture / Film & ReviewsLeave a comment

One of the oddest – but most intriguing – scifi films I’ve seen recently was the 2014 movie, the Signal. It is a small-budget film that premiered at the Sundance Festival last year and seems to have gone to DVD soon after. I picked up a copy recently at a nearby HMV and watched it over the weekend. It stars Laurence Fishburne as the only big-name actor, while the main role is played by newcomer Brenton Thwaites. The film reminded me somewhat of George Lucas’s first big film, THX-1138, in its minimalist production and sets. But they’re not otherwise alike. THX-1138 ……… click below for more ↓

Digging and dying

2015-10-05 2015-10-05 Computers & Programming / Games & Gaming / Personal Reminiscences2 Comments

About an hour after I started playing Minecraft for the very first time, I died. As game experiences goes, that sucked. Not exactly a “thanks for your purchase” ingame welcoming message from Mojang Not that I’m unaccustomed to dying. In most computer games I’ve died: Call of Duty, Medal of Honor, World of Tanks, World of Warcraft, Ghost Recon, Diablo, Borderlands, Left 4 Dead, even in Civilization. Dying is part of gaming.* But most of the time, I know why. Sure, I may not have seen the sniper who nailed me from a distance, or the elite dragon that snuck up on ……… click below for more ↓

Houses of Cards

2015-10-03 2015-10-03 Culture / Politics / TVLeave a comment

While there are parallels between them, there is no direct, simple comparison between the original, British mini series, House of Cards, and the American series of the same name. The latter, aired 13 years after the original, owes much of its first-season content to the BBC’s production, but it quickly went its own way. Like its contemporary, The Bridge, the American version took on a life of its own – and a very distinct, American character – and can’t be considered a simple adaptation. Both are excellent shows. In part, the vast differences between American and British political systems compound the ……… click below for more ↓

The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproduction

2015-09-26 2015-09-26 Arts / Culture / Politics / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

I have been reading the essays of the late critic, Walter Benjamin, most famous for his 1936 piece, The Work of Art in the Age of its Technological Reproduction (an earlier translation of this essay is available here). Wikipedia notes of this essay that it has been, …influential across the humanities, especially in the fields of cultural studies, media theory, architectural theory[1] and art history. Written at a time when Adolf Hitler was already Chancellor of Germany, it was produced, Benjamin wrote, in the effort to describe a theory of art that would be “useful for the formulation of revolutionary demands ……… click below for more ↓

The Hidden Agenda in the Strategic Plan

2015-09-25 2015-09-25 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

My final comment for the next while on the town’s committee-based wishlist (the so-called community-based strategic plan, of which it is neither) has to do with biased and partisan comments made in the document’s introduction. This material was presented to council in the recent versions (approved by a 7-1 vote, as expected, with one councillor absent) but not included in all earlier draft versions. I believe it represents the influence of the former VOTE (Voters Opposed To Everything) special interest group and their later followers in the deputy mayor’s special interest group, known locally (and humorously) as Better If I’m Elected, Collingwood. What sort of ……… click below for more ↓

Ex Machina

2015-09-23 2026-04-11 Books & Reviews / Culture / Film & Reviews / What I'm Reading NowLeave a comment

Ex Machina – “from the machine” – is a British film that is more about philosophy and morality than science. It opens a can or worms, philosophically, that underscores issues now being raised by advancing and increasingly intelligent technology. Its spare but crisp production reminds me of George Lucas’s first film, THX-1138. Spoiler alert, by the way… It is, in its essence, a modern exploration of the themes presented in Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel, Frankenstein, using artificial intelligence as the fulcrum, rather than the reanimating of dead tissue. The film poses questions that are current in all AI research, but ……… click below for more ↓

Putting Homeopathy to the Test

2015-09-19 2015-09-19 Balderdash & Hoaxes / Critical Thinking / New Age Codswallop / Pseudoscience & Quackery2 Comments

Homeopathic products often make a lot of outrageous claims. Given that these products are just water, or sometimes water and sugar, anyone with a gnat’s worth of common sense doesn’t believe those claims. Nor are they backed by any evidence. It’s no wonder homeopathy is called the “air guitar of medicine:” It should not be a shock to learn that homeopathy has no basis in scientific fact – should anyone doubt this I invite them to peruse Edzard Ernst’s systematic review of the practice. Homeopaths have gone to incredible lengths to avoid having their air guitar of medicine tested in ……… click below for more ↓

Trivial Pursuits

2015-09-15 2015-09-17 Collingwood / Council / Planning & PoliciesLeave a comment

Now that the draft version of the so-called “community-based strategic plan” has been presented to council, I felt it appropriate to comment on this latest version. I have already posted several pieces on the earlier draft. If you haven’t read them, you should start with there: Strategic Planning, Part One: The Woo-Hoo Factor Strat Plan Part 2: The Shuffle Game Strat Plan Part 3: The Waterfront Strat Plan Part 4: Economic Vitality Strat Plan Part 5: Healthy Lifestyle Strat Plan Part 6: Culture and the Arts Strat Plan Wrap Up: Addintional Comments All the comments and criticisms made in these earlier ……… click below for more ↓

17 Pages of Blather

2015-09-11 2015-09-11 Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & PoliciesOne Comment

Zero point zero zero zero three eight. That’s the percentage of the population of Collingwood who made the effort to comment on council’s much-touted, revised, 17-page code of conduct before it was approved, Monday night. That’s 0.00038%, based on an estimated 21,000 residents. In other words: eight people. Only eight people out of 21,000 cared enough about council’s efforts to pump the bureaucracy to comment on the proposed code. Eight people. I hope they were all residents. One, I’m told, was a member of council, so if you take that person out of the equation because that’s what he or she ……… click below for more ↓

The Missing Frankenstein Movies

2015-09-10 2015-09-10 Culture / Film & Reviews / Personal ReminiscencesOne Comment

I was worried when I saw a new package for the Frankenstein films in WalMart recently. Labelled the “Complete Legacy Collection,” it offered eight original films on the Frankenstein theme, from 1931 to 1948. I snapped it up and read the back. I had to have it. (I always check the films they bring in pre-Halloween, in case they have any classics I don’t yet have….) Oh oh, I said to myself as I read the cover. I had purchased all of the Legacy monster movie collections a few years back (they were first released in 2004) and my set ……… click below for more ↓

Fortuna: Why Plans Fail

2015-09-08 2015-09-08 Books & Reviews / Collingwood / Council / Ethics and behaviour / Planning & Policies / Psychology & Sociology / Social Order & Disorder / What I'm Reading NowOne Comment

Niccolo Machiavelli used two words in his book, The Prince, to describe the factors that influenced events. In English these are virtue or character (virtu), fortune or chance (fortuna). Only virtue is internal – our nature – and although it manifests as voluntary action, it can only be somewhat, but not entirely controlled.* The other – chance or fortune – can make the best-laid plans of mice and men go aft agley, as Robert Browning wrote, regardless of our efforts to the contrary. In Chapter 25 of The Prince (What Fortune Can Effect In Human Affairs And How To Withstand Her), ……… click below for more ↓

Nope, That’s Not by Marcus Aurelius

2015-09-06 2022-08-24 Books & Reviews / Critical Thinking / Language & Grammar / Memes; Internet & Social2 Comments

An image appeared on my Facebook feed one day purporting to be a quotation taken from the Roman emperor and philosopher, Marcus Aurelius. Having read his Meditations more than once in multiple translations, I was baffled because it didn’t look at all familiar or even sound like him. But was it a new translation? The quote is: Everything we hear is a opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. It’s a good line, even if a tautology (the statement is itself an opinion), but I can’t find it in any online version of the ……… click below for more ↓

Where Have The Real Heroes Gone?

2015-09-04 2015-09-04 Language & Grammar / Media / Words & etymologyLeave a comment

Heroes, it sometimes seems, have been relegated to legend and myth. There are none left, none of the sort I used to associate with the name. Not in the media, anyway. The word has been so abused in the media over the last century, tossed about in such a cavalier manner that it has lost its former credit; it has become debased language, its pith cored for showy effect, like glitter, like so many over-used superlatives have been. Its strength drained away. Calling someone a hero today has the same punch as a teacher saying a child “lives up to his ……… click below for more ↓