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COTTON THISTLE CLEARANCE
Random musings from the noggin' of Knolltrey
(Best viewed on a monitor running Mozilla Firefox, with a brain running on a case of Grolsh...)
Saturday, 29 September 2007
'GPS's'? We don't need no stinkin' GPS's!
Mood:
 chatty
Now Playing: "Learnin' to Fly" by Tom Petty
Topic: Pseudoscientific Musings
Ever wonder what life would be like if you lived on a gigantic bar magnet? ...well, you do... We've known for quite awhile now that most animals (li'l birdies, in particular) develop at least some kind of relationship with the Earth's freakishly hyperactive magnetic field, but it turns out that we may not know the half of it. Apparently, birds don't just feel the Earth's magnetic field: some of 'em can even see it. And, according to the reports, we're not talkin' metaphorically, either... Honestly, it wouldn't surprise me. The magnetic field around the Blue Marble is tops on my list of 'Natural Wonders' (and, need I remind you, is the only reason you're reading this now and not boiling away under a sea of solar fire...). Interestingly, when CNN ventured to make their own list of 'Natural Wonders' they didn't quite select Magnetic Earth as one (though they did give passing mention to the Auroras, which are technically a physical manifestation of the magnetosphere... but still: citing the 'Auroras' as a Natural Wonder in lieu of the whole magnetic field in general is kinda like talking about Courtney Love's career without mentioning Kurt Cobain.) You heard me, Courtney... Also, those idiots at CNN don't seem to realize that we've got TWO sets of 'lights', not just one (for some reason, they only cited the 'Northern Lights' as a wonder...twits) When you think about it, it's kinda odd that any animal would patter around without the ability to somehow 'see' the show going on all around them. Sure, we've got GPS now, but wouldn't it have been nice for ancient mariners to have a little more magnetite in their heads than we humans typically have? Thank God our frontal lobes happened to start growing over our eyeballs, or we'd have no hope at all (after all, I'll settle for a good GPS system any day). Eh, 'animal instincts'... very interesting to see what's our there, and what we don't even have a prayer of ever posessing ourselves. Evolution's full of give and take, after all, and I suppose we just didn't 'migrate' enough to warrant a powerful internal compass. Oh, well... However, this study brings up an interesting point: granted that birds can actually see the magnetic field, how would a slightly nearsighted birdie manage to get around, then? 
...you never know...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 2:26 AM ADT
Wednesday, 26 September 2007
Shocking Toxic Syndrome!
Mood:
 not sure
Now Playing: "It's the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine)" by R.E.M.
Topic: Pseudoscientific Musings
The common cold bug is a real pisser: it's a virus with the potential to turn a healthy adult into a sniveling wreck for a few days. Do not put that f**ker into space, though: it might come back with the strength to put you in a pine box. Alright, so we're not quite talking about the worst, worst-case scenario yet (though that might not be too far off, either) but it's still enough to give one pause: germs exposed to spacecraft conditions coming back with a little extra pep (not as much extra pep as if we'd intentially screwed around with them, but still, it's almost as bad a Tripp-up when you think about it...) ...sorry... Also of note is that the affected germ, Salmonella, appears to have only coincidentally been altered as a response to weightless conditions; the change in its turgid structure just happened to make it a little more suited to environments like mammalian intestines. That is to say, this is probably just an isolated coincidence, and it doesn't necessarily mean that a test tube filled with Herpes Simplex Virus 1 (the one that gives you mouth sores, not the other one...) would come back from space as a vial of Weaponized Bubonic Plague. Still, when you think about the fact that we've been struggling against these diseases for the past 3 billion years, it doesn't seem smart to intentionally muck-up the natural back and forth arms race we've got going: you've gotta 'keep running to stay in place', sure, but what the hell happens when you intentionally pick up one of your opponents and literally toss them out ahead of you? (as a caveat, I am totally fine with the concept of genetic engineering, as long as the people involved know what the f*ck they're doing at each locus...) After all: if we're not careful in how we alter our microbial enemies (or how we allow them to be altered) the eventual 'Strain' could see us plagued with problems that are sure to 'Tripp' us up in the future... again, sorry...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 3:27 PM ADT
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
"Faithful" rendition
Mood:
 bright
Now Playing: 'True Faith' by New Order (...just see the insert, eh?...)
Topic: General
Been out of town lately (partially explains the lack of posts) and did a bunch of driving there and back. Along the way an unfamiliar classic rock station hit me with a most wonderous little ditty... Dunno how I ever missed this gem of a song, but it's a real beauty. I'm all but unfamiliar with this group 'New Order' as well. I had to dial them up on iTunes as soon as I got home. In addition to the killer beat, enchanting melody and quirky vocal style, the lyrics are really something else... 'True Faith' I feel so extraordinary
Something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion
A sudden sense of liberty
I don't care 'cause I'm not there
And I don't care if I'm here tomorrow
Again and again I've taken too much
Of the things that cost you too much
CHORUS:
I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun...
When I was a very small boy,
Very small boys talked to me
Now that we've grown up together
They're afraid of what they see*
That's the price that we all pay
Our valued destiny comes to nothing
I can't tell you where we're going
I guess there was just no way of knowing
CHORUS:
I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun...
I feel so extraordinary
Something's got a hold on me
I get this feeling I'm in motion
A sudden sense of liberty
The chances are we've gone too far
You took my time and you took my money
Now I fear you've left me standing
In a world that's so demanding
CHORUS:
I used to think that the day would never come
I'd see delight in the shade of the morning sun
My morning sun is the drug that brings me near
To the childhood I lost, replaced by fear
I used to think that the day would never come
That my life would depend on the morning sun... * (or "they're all doing drugs with me) see the Wikipedia article... The song's about heroin addiction (about half of all pop songs are, aren't they?), however this tune hit me like a bullet 'cause it's such a spot-on overview of the remaining storyline in TYPERS: after about 42 years of unending warfare (and a war that is not even questioned on an ideological basis) my main characters are gonna have some tough times ahead reconciling their current attitudes and feelings with new revelations about the nature of the Bydo Empire (and, naturally, the "li'l kiddos" inside their ships). Hatred (antipathy, in particular, to make it a blunt cliche...) is like a drug, after all, and all my main characters were, effectively, robbed of their own 'childhoods' because of this ridiculously destructive conflict (in spirit, if not literally...) and for them to get anywhere at all they'll be forced to 'kick their habit' of hate and start lookin' at things differently... ...it's friggin' hard to see things with the eyes of a child, after all, let alone with a child's faith, but that's almost literally what needs to be done... And then (to be even more cliche) the 'healing' can begin... Makes me wonder if I should've made this song my personal 'theme song' for the writing project. That's a sticky wicket, 'cause the one true 'theme song' of TYPERS (inasmuch as a book series can have a theme song at all...) is this Steve Miller tune. ...I think it's slightly better, anyway... Eh, I can't switch anything out, anyway: 'Serenade' is the oft-referenced song in the TYPERS books 'cause it's got personal significance for my main main character Justin Storm (haven't gone into WHY it's so important to him, yet, but that chapter's not too terribly far away...) Besides, the theme of 'Serenade' is slightly more germane: lost in a sea of stars (and a void of space) the song declares that "the world is your home" (at least, as Justin mishears the lyrics...). In the end, that message is far more important to the ultimate climax I've been planning. The climax involves Justin more than anyone ('natch), but when I think about the song 'True Faith' I realize that its lyrics are actually most representative of the character Sam Rayne (I haven't solidified her backstory yet, but a Bydo-related tragedy set her on her ultimate military path, and away from something very, very different that could've been). Samantha is the character of least concern in my "holy trinity" though, so my attachment to this song might be related to the fact that I've been trying to round-out her character in my head for some time, now... I got the 'True Faith' single off iTunes, so I can't shove it up on a mirror site like my other media. The next best thing is, of course, YouTube. Ignore the freaks doin' the 'bump' together... that's just the original music video. Seems that someone didn't quite kick the heroin habit before the video came out, eh? Shoot 'em up, if you got 'em...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 1:55 AM ADT
Updated: Tuesday, 25 September 2007 12:20 PM ADT
Thursday, 20 September 2007
...but are they 'shire' about that?
Topic: Scientific Progress...
I'm kinda surprised about the heated controversy that's been in play here... Not only are the wristbones of the dearly-departed Homo floresiensis (aka: the 'Hobbits') different enough to give researchers pause, but there's quite enough evidence in play to place these li'l guys outside the Sapiens sapiens lineage. The problem with claiming that these guys are just modern humans with a genetic deformity is that this argument ignores the other evidence on the island: tiny elephants, oversized flora and all manner of other clues pointing towards the REAL culprit in the little man's... er, littleness... There's probably other subspecies that these guys are much more closely related to than humans. Just based on visual appearance...  ...forget it... In any event, I really think that we're looking at a whole new runner in the brutal footrace that was the competition to rise to the top of the 'Homo' lineage. Good Lord... that was a slugfest, wasn't it? Yeah, Sapiens sapiens came out on top (though there were certainly enough bodies racked up in the fight). In a way, it's kinda nice to see a 'Homo' ancestor that was knocked out of the race peacefully, by virtue of simple geography, and not because they got their asses kicked by our pre-Magnon bretheren. The 'Hobbits' were puttering on with their lives on a little island while everyone else was clawing tooth and nail with each other... good for them. *Shudder*... the race to rule the planet, after all, was hardly a rosy affair (and hardly an actual contest: our closest competitor proved to be tragically inadequate, regardless of why exactly they ended up going 'dodo'...) Floresiensis may prove just how tough the battle was: apparently they lasted significantly longer than any other non-human 'Homo' group (and even well into the nebulous timeframe known as 'Modern Human History'); this is ostensibly by virtue of their 'noncombatant status' (ie: not having to compete against big, bad Cro Magnon man). Of course, that hypothesis is speculative, but logical...
Anyway, Scientific Progress goes tromping away on a very, very small elephant...
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 6:54 PM ADT
Wednesday, 19 September 2007
...and why was there more than one frog boss?...
Mood:
 lazy
Topic: General
Ever play this one? This was my holy grail as a little kid: the ONE Nintendo game that I just had to beat (and spent several years tying to...) It was also the first piece of entertainment media that inspired me to pen up a story (okay: it may have been only three pages long, and seriously lacking in quality compared even to the ' Worlds of Power' stuff that came out at the same time, but still...) Good music, great gameplay and haunting atmosphere: not a bad game at all (though, for some reason, the North American release was marred by a nonsensical opening story about a mutated frog and a big 'ol hole in the ground, compared to the fairly standard anime-esque storyline in the original Japanese release).
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 6:23 PM ADT
Tuesday, 18 September 2007
Blood for a
Mood:
 a-ok
Topic: Entertaining Insights
Make no mistake, I think Alicia's a bona-fide bombshell (though I can't see forgiving her for her choice in movies to participate in... the girl is literally 'clueless' ), but isn't there a better way to use her 'assets' than this? PETA, huh? Maybe Miss Silverstone would feel slightly more fulfilled hocking her body for cancer research, or the discovery of lifesaving cures to aid all makind... than again, perhaps not... Alright, I'm sensitive to any criticism of the 'factory food' culture that's developed in recent years (indeed, the possibility of cataclysmic disease entering the human population from these conditions is very real), but PETA doesn't stop their criticism at this point: ANY EATING OF MEAT is considered an absolute evil by these anti-human wackos. ...what part of "bipedial omnivorous primate" do you not understand, you plastic-shoed twits? Eh, Newkirk and her ilk have always been about the welfare of animals in lieu of human needs (and not just human vanities like cosmetics (lipstick on pigs!)...no, it's much worse than that: PETA is one of the most cold-hearted, nilhistic groups I've ever seen). Enough examples: I think Miss Newkirk's own words are most damning: "Animal liberationists do not separate out the human animal, so there is no rational basis for saying that a human being has special rights. A rat is a pig is a dog is a boy. They are all mammals" (emphasis added) Nah, Miss Newkirk: Homo sapiens sapiens is the ultimate creation of planet Earth (and God, if you're spiritually inclined). The whole planet, and all the creatures on it, are ours to use as we see fit (though admittedly we could certainly be better stewards of it...) and, contrary to your warped beliefs, we're a whole 'nother kind of mammal, altogether. Come on, Alicia: you don't really wanna hang around with this crowd, do ya?... (then again, she's from a place where certified 'space cadets' pour millions of dollars into the ultimate ponzi scheme, so the gullibility factor we're dealing with here must be staggeringly high...) People who simply want to hock vegetarianism to the populace are one thing (and I completely disagree with their premise, but I won't militantly yell at them for it...) but if someone wants to join PETA then they need to know about the full poitical ramifications of their participation: you aren't just advocating vegetarianism with such people, you're advocating very radical anti-human policy. It all boils down to this: if you see any difference in WORTH between the two animals pictured below then you CANNOT be a member of PETA's current incarnation. Okay: are you ready?...  The reason this is all germane to me at the moment is because the central villians in my current work 'The Reign of Eden' harbor a similar desire to keep humans diseased and in the dark ages for the 'sake' of the planet at large (their name is "Logos", btw, and isn't it odd that Newkirk's last name literally translates to 'new reverend' or 'new church'? They have made anti-human sentiment a religion unto itself, after all...) ...there are ways to deal with these granola munchin' rat-huggers... and sometimes the direct approach is best: Come on, now, Alicia: if you wanna promote vegetarianism then find a group of like-minded doctors to team-up with or something. After all, there's nothing worse than being a pawn to an agenda that you (hopefully) do not fully support. By the way: I'm seriously considering taking Ingrid up on her "Newkirk Nuggets" idea: I'll bet she tastes like chicken (clucks like one, anyway...)
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 8:53 PM ADT
Updated: Tuesday, 18 September 2007 10:01 PM ADT
Monday, 17 September 2007
A road stud-ded with trouble...
Topic: General
This woman supposedly has a conspicuous, deadly and very distracting stud in her nose (uh... if you squint, you can just barely see it...) ...O rly? That's what Heathrow Airport officials are saying, anyway. Honestly, you'd expect this kind of blatantly pro-secular and anti-religious stuff to go on in Greater Europe, but I thought UK'ers were a little less demonically-anti-religion than their borderline-communist compatriots in France and elsewhere (as religion is contrary to their ultimate social views...) Eh, the problem's more complex than that, though: with such a flood of immigrants into Europe lately (notably African muslims, who are somewhat loathe to assimilate...) there're all kinds of anti-religious backlashes, but these are mostly linked to muslim-deluged France and its neighbors. Come on, now: that nose stud is smaller than a mosquito's testicles (do mosquitos even have... eh, nevermind). Obviously the decision is an anti-religious one, as no fair-minded person can believe that this piece of jewlery is a hazard or distraction. I usually come down on the side of religious tolerance, bein' spiritual myself (and I can justify that side of my existence with certain other philisophical views I hold, too). There're limits, of course (if you walk around with a 1:1 scale replica of The Cross on your shoulders, maybe...) but this li'l stud doesn't even brush against that line.
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 5:49 PM ADT
...so where do you put the batteries?,,,
Mood:
 mischievious
Topic: Scientific Progress...
All hail Zeno? My initial analysis? Pretty friggin' cool, but it's no big accomplishment really. The way Zeno's being described, it (he?...) well let's say "hit" appears to be the technical equivalent of a Furby with a cute rubber face. ...well, not exactly, but let's just say that li'l Zeno ain't gonna come with ' Turing' tires standard, if you know what I mean. The most impressive development of this li'l guy seems to be (obviously) the cool facial features it's got going for it (and, despite being built in the Lone Star State, it's simply kawaii as a button!). But that doesn't change the fact that you're not even gonna get a limited amount of 'personality' along with that cute face (so think of, say, a toaster or a microwave with a face... still a neat idea...) Shouldn't expect it, anyway, but my point is that this li'l creature is an AESTHETIC triumph, if nothing else, and most likely nothing else... Eh: never say never, but you get the point... The first step in the production of bona-fide strong AI is the creation of something very DIFFERENT from a human being: the first real 'INTELLIGENT' computer system won't be one that thinks, talks and acts like a man anymore than the first humans on Earth were mere clones of the God that made 'em (don't come back at me with that 'in his image' crap, either: that refers to your soul, to which we haven't direct access to... think of it as an indeliable part of the source code, for the analogy...). The intelligence in question would interact, to be sure, just as early man 'interacted' with the God that walked among him, but I doubt that this hypothetical computer in question would communicate in such an artifically-construed manner as seen by us humans (the definition of 'strong' AI is, by definition, an electric organism that learns to play by it's OWN rules...) Therefore, at first, when we make our own li'l electronic baby, we're gonna need to learn to talk to IT, not the other way around... For example (to whore-out an idea from my books...) in TYPERS I posit that by 2111 or so we've got powerful AI, but it doesn't spend it's time as a replacement for flesh-and-blood humans: my idea of strong AI is not some program that spends its time choosing whether or not to 'open the pod bay doors', but merely a program tasked with such insurmountable challenges that it is required, by its nature, to segregate its processing power into consciousness-like compartments: in order to deal adaptively with the situation (in my case, running a state-of-the-art spaceship and keeping the pilot alive) it is required to act with a sense of JUDGEMENT, or sapience, facilitated by a whiz-bang mock-neural setup. It doesn't INTERACT with humans like a human, but it deals with its TASKS like a human would... ...if a human were capable of 300 tera- ops... (if you actually know what an 'op' refers to, please just go along with the term: at the beginning of a previous chapter I mistook the definition of 'instruction per second with ' operation per second', which means that my fictional "'Atelier' AI" is SIGNIFICANTLY slower than current computers if you know the difference between the two terms... but if you're like me and you don't know the difference between 'flops' and 'ips', then the 'Atelier AI' is much, much faster... the only reason I won't change the mistake is because there's a smattering of funny dialogue that results from it, and one of the tenants of 'firm' sci-fi over 'hard' is that story must always come before technical accuracy, so there!...) Know what an 'Atelier' AI system actually does? Three things: 1. Protect the life of the pilot 2. Maintain conditions for maximal offensive power (provided this doesn't mess with #1) 3. Protect the general citizenry from combat-related disasters (provided this doesn't mess with #1 or #2). And do ya' know what "Atelier AI" stands for?... clever, huh?
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 4:19 AM ADT
Updated: Monday, 17 September 2007 4:22 AM ADT
Friday, 14 September 2007
GEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Mood:
 caffeinated
Topic: A Hello to Arms
True story: I whanged my head today on my kitchen cabinet. I got that weird 'blobby vision' sensation... you know, the same strange things you see in your peripheral vision when you press one finger against the far side of your eye (go ahead: try it now!)... For a few minutes afterwords I thought I could see some fairies dancing on my countertop... I felt like I was someplace else, entirely... ...oooh, hallucinating... head woozy... but forget about that: there are more important matters afoot... The very facets of existence are in question: THE KILOGRAM IS DYING!!!!!! ...*huff* ...breathe... breathe... breathe... *pant*... So update your catalogues, people, 'cause the kilo is officially FIFTY MICROGRAMS lighter! ...it's okay, though... I know that there's some perfectly rational explanation... something that can be scientifically hypothesized, reasoned and worked out... My head's feeling a little better, now, so maybe I can try to work out my own little down to earth solution on why the kilogram is slimming: it's a riddle worth solving. Let's see... let's see... slimming... kilogram... slimming... slimming... kilogram... slimming... slimming... 
GEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 10:46 PM ADT
Updated: Friday, 14 September 2007 10:56 PM ADT
Wednesday, 12 September 2007
Book passage today aboard the SS 'Putanic'!
Now Playing: 'Hymn of the Soviet Union' by Sergey Mikhalkov
Topic: Random Political Diatribe
Hey, kids: it's autocracy time! So the Russian government has been, in effect, completely dissolved and a puppet on strings is in the PM chair (until Pooty-Poot says different...) I'm more puzzled by Putin's blatant power grabs than anything else... he's going to have the whole of Russia completely under his thumb soon (if he doesn't already...) But my question is: who'd want it? As part of the Kremlin's push to show Pooty as a 'rugged and powerful' outdoorsman and all-around badass, they've also allowed some steamy shirtless photos of the president/Tsar to be published. The pics were taken during a Siberian fishing trip. I wonder what Putin thinks about when out on these rugged, manly trips in a harsh land of and isolation and loneliness. His thoughts must surely be center on his wif- 
Oh... ...nevermind, then. Uh, moving on... A return to the time of the Tsars, huh? Interestingly, the end of the true-Tsarist lineage also marks the end of my interest in Russian history (so much so that, with the exception of a notable soul or two, I'm exceedingly ignorant about most facets of Russian history post-Tsar and pre-CCCP). While I was writing a chapter of 'Typers' I decided, on the spur of the moment, to put Russia in my main character's backstory: turns out that he spent his very early years in Vladivostok (although he's a native New Englander, but this ends up making sense in the plot considering his family would've had to move away from NE right after a certain major impact event shalacks their continent). This is also convienent because it allows Justin to have a second language (presumably he's conversant in Russian); most everyone else in Typers is at least bilingual, and it was odd that Justin's phonetic prowess never came up... No particular reason I picked Russia, though: I only needed some place with blisteringly-cold waters where my character could have a near-death experience: a temporary trauma leaving rather permanant resuts. It could be said that my choosing Russia as a plot point is a subconscious move that hints at my own desire to better understand its land and people (...riiiiiight...) The most plausible reason I did this is because a) I like to say 'Vladivostok' (and I like to write the word 'Vladivostok', even!) and b) an amnesic James Bond was cryptically told to go to Vladivostok at the end of You Only Live Twice, and since I believe that the Fleming novels end with this one (...I'm sure of it, actually... *shudder*) that ambiguous, ominous ending rather stuck with me. But mostly, I just like sayin' Vladivostok!
Posted by shanekentknolltrey
at 11:21 PM ADT
Updated: Wednesday, 12 September 2007 11:48 PM ADT
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