With interest

So is everyone still alive after that meteor flew by? Kicking, breathing... More importantly, did anyone care? Not that we could have done anything about it. "But dude, that Guardians of the Galaxy trailer was on Jimmy Kimmel. That's important, dude."
Lesson learned from this: Don't worry over the things you can't control. If some big rock wants to plow us into oblivion, I say bring it on.
Maybe I'm not following the same news the rest of the world is. For instance:
A UK Surgeon used a 3-D printer to make an artificial pelvis for a patient. The surgeon implanted it 3 years ago. The surgery is considered an unrivaled success.
Called it. It's just a short jump from there to growing our own replacement organs.

Free speech and net neutrality collide:
You tube is threatening to remove the account of a scientist who debunked the claims made in an Aids denialist documentary.
Some people believe the earth is flat. Some people believe HIV doesn't cause Aids. Some people believe the earth is only 6,000 years old. Some people don't believe our climate is changing.
In the other corner is people who think the exact opposite. People discuss and debate. Hopefully, the truth comes out. I'm being optimistic by assuming people are reasonable and intelligent.
Changing people's minds is never an overnight process. A look at history shows that it takes generations.
But who decides what information goes out to the masses? Is it up to Viacom, You Tube or AT&T to decide what you read, hear or watch?
This is at the core of the net neutrality debate. Free speech and facts backed up with proof and evidence.

Ending on a good note. (I am of course, an optimist.) In a few weeks an updated version of the classic series, Cosmos, will air. In the 34 years since Carl Sagan took us on a journey of our understanding of the universe around us, so much has changed. Perhaps I should say our understanding of the universe has changed. This article sums it up nicely. You know where I'll be March 9th, glued with my TV set to record this milestone series.
Here's the preview.

Milestones

The word anniversary can mean many things in one form or another. Birthdays, celebrations, remembrances. This past weekend marks 15 years since I've lost my hearing. Soon, my daughter will have her 14th birthday. After that, my wife and I will celebrate 23 years together.
The Chelyabinsk meteor strike occurred one year ago, February 15. Scientists have been scrambling to explain what exactly happened and how we can be ready for it the next go round.
Picture time:

Map showing the trajectory of the main fireball in yellow (and two additional explosions at top left). The pink oval, called the strewnfield, is where the densest concentration of meteorites were found. 
Read more: http://www.universetoday.com/109376/happy-1st-anniversary-chelyabinsk-the-fireball-that-woke-up-the-world/#ixzz2tbjFi2J7

Those who witnessed it experienced eye pain, temporary blindness and sunburn so bad that skin peeled. Now for the part that is going to make you pause for a second.... about 76% of the meteor burnt up before it struck the ground. If it had been made of denser stuff, such as iron or nickel, we wouldn't be having this conversation.
The link goes into how much damage it caused and how big the meteorite was. If there is one piece you take away from the scientific jargon, the people who studied the meteorites after the impact agree: it broke off of something bigger.
I'll let that sink in for a bit.
I don't want to get all pessimistic about 'the sky is falling'. We as a species are getting better at spotting these things. In fact, there's going to be a near miss tonight. Here's the link where you can watch it live. 
Here is the USA Today link about the meteor that is going to miss us filled with as little scientific jargon as possible.
I want to get this posted so my friends can see the asteroid pass by around 9 PM Eastern time.
Enjoy.


  

New Horizons

Technically I've got an hour left till deadline, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.
If you ever have the chance to go to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner, especially with the one you love, do it. This is not your usual fare. Avocados in an egg roll. Moroccan chicken. Red velvet cheesecake. Steak Dianne. Madira Chicken. It was delicious. For Valentines day the wife and I wanted to go some place that didn't serve happy meals. I'd say we succeeded.
After that, we saw Monument Men. Even better, we enjoyed the movie. The open captions worked this time throughout the movie. Bravo, Regal Cinemas for bringing up your average to .50
Often times I say it's a good time to be alive. At the same time I pity the people who complain that they're bored. We humans are actually in better shape than we were in the past. Our life expectancy is up. Diseases that killed off hundreds of thousands are now being eradicated. We are exploring our deepest oceans and farthest reaches of space.
Want to know something that will blow your mind? In 2007, Timothy Brown had HIV and Leukemia. Sounds like he rolled snake eyes in the game of life, doesn't it? The thing is, while undergoing treatment for his leukemia, the HIV went away. Yep, seems he had a very expensive and life threatening bone marrow transplant. As of this writing he is coming up HIV positive only part of the time. Scientists have yet to recreate it, let alone figure out what the hell happened. This is a big step in the right direction. Now the men in white coats have to figure out that they did and how to do it again. I'm watching you guys...
The New Horizons spacecraft will be visiting Pluto this time next year. Up to this point we know zilch about the ninth planetary body that makes up our solar system. A quick review:
Pluto was discovered with math. In the 1840's Urbaine le Verrier noticed Uranus was orbiting erratically. Using Newtonian Mechanics, he predicted where we might find Neptune. But Neptune was acting strangely too. The common belief in the later part of the 19th century was there was another planet out there. They didn't find it until 1915. Funny thing was they didn't know they had discovered it. Percival Lowell went to his grave thinking he hadn't found it, but in looking back at pictures taken, he in fact found a lot of stuff, but didn't recognize what he was looking at. It was too far away to make an accurate observation.
I'm just going to say this now. What Voyager did for Jupiter, New Horizons is going to do for Pluto. A lot of books are going to have to be re-written.

Vaccinations

First I'd like to apologize for missing an update Monday. Life got a little hectic around my household. If I know I'm going to have to be in three places at once in the future, I'll plan ahead. Bwah hahaha! Me, planning ahead. For a second I almost believed that.
Todays rant has been building for a while now. There is a group out there telling anyone who will listen not to vaccinate your kids.
Do not listen to these people, they're idiots.
"But Jenny Macarthy says her son got Autism from being vaccinated."
Ugh! I doubt being a Playboy bunny qualifies you as an expert in the field. I would take her advice with a heaping spoonful of doubt and a morsel of skepticism. Yes, I realize her son is has Autism, but there is no link between vaccinating a child and autism. In fact, the one doctor who said there was a possibility of a link was later found to have faked his research and sub-sequentially retracted his paper from the Lancet, a medical journal.
Still, the rumor persists in internet limbo. My guess is that Mrs. Macarthy is looking for someone to blame for her son's condition. Hate to break it to you people, but there times when things happen for no reason whatsoever.
Let me back up for a second. I'm not here to pick on one particular person or single them out.
Organizations like the Lions club and Rotary club have been instrumental in helping to eradicate preventable diseases such as Polio, Measles, Mumps, Rubella, and Chicken Pox, among other historically fatal illnesses.
The current generation has not had to deal with the debilitating, disfiguring, painful and sometimes deadly diseases. Just because we've been successful in stamping out these illnesses in the US, doesn't mean they're gone. All it takes is one infected person to pass it on.
Years ago when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a senior in high school, I happened to be one of the first students to contract a strain of German measles. Yes, I'd been inoculated for the main variety of measles. To this day I'm not sure where I contracted it or who passed the illness to me. What I do know is that I spent the week in unconscious oblivion. There's a story in there where I think I woke up on Wednesday to relieve myself and discovered my privates were polka dotted. Scary stuff for a 17 year old.
The following week I returned to an empty school. There were perhaps a dozen students present in a school that numbered in the thousands.
Fast forward a few years. One of my students came up to me to tell me his brother had Chicken pox. Quickly separating him from the other students, I ran down the mental checklist in my head. I was certain I was immune, but apparently there are two strains. I went on to my other job at Disney World and proceeded to unknowingly infect hundreds of thousands of tourists. A few days later I came down with the symptoms. My boss took one look at me and sent me home. Admittedly I slept through that one too.
The point being vaccines are only good against what they are made to prevent. There is no 'one shot cures all'. There are many diseases I missed out on simply because I was inoculated.
By my reckoning I fell ill twice, but missed getting sick from the dozen or so others that are out there.
So do yourself and your loved ones a favor: make sure your shot records are up to date. In this age where people cross the world for a vacation, it only takes one person to smuggle a germ past a border and unleash it on an unsuspecting populace.
Your homework for the week: Read 'The Stand' by Stephen King and see how fast a flu bug can spread.

Creationism debate

Bill Nye the science guy, debated Ken Ham, the founder of Kentucky's creation museum the other night. Both sides say they won the debate. While I admire Bill Nye for taking on a creationist in a public forum, I also think it was kind of pointless. This sums up my feelings.
 
While Nye believes that the earth was created billions of years ago, Ham believes God created the earth 6,000 years ago. Simply put, Ken Ham is a zealot. Nye, who I regard as a extremely smart man, is capable of changing his mind, however, a zealot such as Ham is someone who refuses to change his mind and won't change the subject.
Bill Nye brought up Geology, Astronomy, even the fossil record and the Grand Canyon. He brought facts and empirical evidence.
Ken Ham purposely put blinders on. Every fact, every point Bill Nye made, was countered with the equivalent of putting fingers in his ear and saying, 'la-la-la, I can't hear you, the bible says so, la-la-la. This is where you lose me. Like any reasonable man, I've listened to both sides of the argument. The more I hear from scientists who are out there discovering our world, the more it makes sense. By telling me it's in the Bible, doesn't end the matter. Even as a kid, I couldn't reconcile myself to accepting 'because the Bible says so' . I change my mind to fit the evidence, I don't change the evidence to suit my theories.
It's a long debate, just shy of two hours, and while I think Bill Nye did something he felt he needed to do, there was no way he was going to change Ham's mind. My hope is people watching the debate see how ridiculous the young earth argument is.
Here are the highlights from NPR.
As I watched, I believe Bill Nye had a trick up his sleeve. By engaging in this debate (and keeping his cool), he made Ham and his whole creationist movement look stupid.
At the end of the debate, Nye was asked if there was anything that would make him change his mind. Bill's immediate response was; 'evidence'. When asked the same question, Ham replied; 'Nothing.'
The very definition of a zealot.
Does this mean I don't believe in God? Perhaps not. As I've stated before, we are not the highest rung on the evolutionary ladder. I like the concept of a superior being, I don't agree with the Christian interpretation. What pope Francis is doing is phenomenal in my opinion. I'm a big fan, and that's something you don't get me to admit very often.
I suppose what I like best about science is this: Lie, deny, or erase the evidence, but that doesn't change the facts.
Like they say in that Mother Jones article I linked: perhaps this will upset the status quo and get us back on track as critical thinkers. At the very least, it made Ken Ham look like the charlatan he is.

A bonding we will go

Last night I began a project with my oldest daughter. We're building a little virtual reality adventure. There's not much more to say about it except we just started. No pictures, no updates... heck, I don't know what we're going to do with it yet.

In a perfect world, I'd introduce it at Chimearacon in April. Don't ask me, that's how they spell it. Goes against my spelling rules and grammar, but I didn't make that call. That's the Facebook link, by the way.

Every time I've gone, it's been fun. Geeks of all flavors and armchair generals come out of the woodwork to test their mettle. In the past I've driven a Roman chariot, piloted a futuristic mech, and built a civilization. I've played wizard chess and slain dragons... and that was just Saturday!

The whole convention is cool, we are the little con that could. There are a bunch of fan clubs ranging from Lego builders to Anime Enthusiasts. Dr. Who fans to World War II historians. There's a lot to see and talk about. Card games, board games, computer games, you name it. Come on down the first weekend of April, 4-6th.

but seriously

It was the best of weekends, it was the worst of weekends...
Spent time with my dad, which is always a good thing. In watching him, he seems more relaxed. I think that's necessary to stop and look around, rather than rush through things.
My dog got out. He saw a chance and took it. As I chased him down, it occurred to me he was simply playing. It had been at least a week since I walked him, so this was his way of demanding attention. It came to a close when I tackled him and got a busted lip when he head butted me. Haven't had a sock to the jaw lately and this was a reminder of what it would feel like. Ouch.
Our Superbowl party was great. I hope you had a good time at yours. Lot of my friends are Broncos fans. By my reckoning, I know two Denver fans for every Seattle fan. To that I say: Did you see Lawrence Fishborne in that KIA commercial?
What I got out of Sunday evening was I got to spend time with my family. Dad watching the game live rather than on 15 hour delay. Thanks to my sister for hosting and cooking a fabulous dinner. As of this writing, I'm stuffed worse than at Thanksgiving. I don't think I'll need to eat for at least a day.
A new week is upon us, another month to tear into, although it will be a short one.
Our local board game convention will be the first weekend in April. Here's the website.
I'll be running the Robo Rally tournament. It seems that was such a popular event, I'll be bringing it back. Which reminds me... I'll need to sign up and register the event. I want to put out this call to my fellow geeks and game lovers in town to come on down and play. I'll do a full write up in the next post, I promise.