Fantasist's Scroll

Now, this strikes me as really interesting.

The estate of author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, Arthur Conan Doyle went up for sale recently. Mainly it was a lot of his story notes and personal papers. For a biographer, or publisher, it could be a really big deal to get, but it’s a fairly specialized area of interest.
What really struck me about the article on MSNBC was the “mysterious death” of one of the people associated with the sale. Apparently, he was quite an afficiando of all things Conan Doyle, and wanted the papers to stay together and available to the public for research. He was found strangled and surrounded by stuffed animals. The death, however, was ruled a suicide. Sounds like a Sherlockian mystery if I ever heard one!

Desgined to kill it’s own kind…

According to this article on Wired News, two scientists have engineered a virus that attacks HIV and keeps it from becoming AIDS. It’s still in the test stages, but it works in a petri dish. Their next step is animal testing.
Apparently, they came up with this nasty, little bug, or anti-bug, with a computer simulation. Though, I have to admit, that seems like an enourmous simplification. Anyway, it’s an interesting development in science and medicine. Imagine a series of designer “killer” virii designed to hunt down other “bad” virii. Think of what that kind of technology could do in the Third World.
But, the scientists who came up with this have already thought of the potential down-side, too. Imagine what this technology would do for the military. Or, worse, terrorists. The implications are, well, terrifying.

On the bright side, though, think of all the science-fiction plots!

Frankly, it doesn’t look good.

First of all, there was the brouhaha about pricing. Then, there was the whole issue of licenseing. Now, frankly, it’s a matter of simple existance.
People kept posting on their blogs to go look at this interview with Ben and Mena Trott, because it would explain so much about what’s happening with MovableType. Well, it did, at least to me:

Mena Trott: IT’s not going to scale. Movable Type will have to cease to exist in terms of development because it doesn’t pay its operational costs. And it will be interesting.

Hmm, that pretty well says it all, doesn’t it? Yes, that was actually Mena Trott in the aforementioned interview. Time to find a new blog system!

No, really!

At least, according to this article on Wired News, they’re investing in some technology that really sounds like science-fiction. Specifically, it’s the NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts, or NIAC, for short, who invest in some rather “odd” technology that might pay off with big results one day. Among the projects being funded are: shape-shifting space suits, antimatter-powered probes to Alpha Centauri, a robotic armada to destroy incoming asteroids, and my old favorite, weather control. Of course, my favorite part about the article is that the person behind the “weather control” system is a Hoffman. (Gotta’ watch out for them Hoffmans!)
Fun stuff here and all of it great fodder for science-fiction stories. Check it out!

Sea ranch.

Call it what you will, but it’s still fish wrangling of some kind. According to this article on Wired News, it’s out there and, apparently, working. These kinds of aquaculture setups have been a staple of science-fiction for as long as I can remember. Harvesting the ocean’s bounty is definately a recurring theme. In any case, it seems to be a reality. A nice, healthy, hopefully profitable, reality.
Of course, this is the first of it’s kind, but it’s an idea who’s time has come. I mean, the ancient Hawai’ians were doing something like this on a smaller scale centuries ago, so it’s about time we caught up! Really, we have to learn to manage our resources so that they’re there for future generations. And, it looks like these folks are on the right track. So, eat your fish!

Not sure this is really a good thing…

I use MoveableType for this blog as well as the Fiction Blog on this site. I also use it on my other site and my wife uses it, too. So, we have a lot invested in this free software. But, I’m willing to pay for it. Especially if they’re adding features. And, there’s the rub. They’ve updated it, okay, and they added a comment registration feature, which is good, but that’s all they did. Well, they made changes to the API to make it easier to write plug-ins, but in the process, they may, or may not, have broken existing plug-ins. Now, that I’m not willing to pay for… On the other hand, what else is there? Nothing else seems to be as robust or extendable. At least, nothing that I’ve found yet. So, I have an e-mail in to them regarding my particular licensing issue, and we’ll see what they say. I may pay for the commercial version, based on the idea that this site will have commercial content, but we’ll have to wait and see…

UPDATE: Don’t panic! By commerical content, I mean that I might start selling things off the site, not that I’d start to charge for what is already here.

No, not the political kind.

According to this article on Wired News, someone has invented a gun that will not fire for anyone who’s not implanted with the correct chip. It’s the latest idea in “smart guns” designed to protect police officers.
The idea is simple: implant a chip in the officer’s hand that’s linked to the gun. If the scanner in the grip of the gun doesn’t see the chip, it doesn’t fire. Simple. Keeps the officer safer, since a criminal can’t turn his own gun against him. And, of course, it could be a great home safety tool, too. If, that is, you can chip every adult in the house for the same gun. It’d be sort of useless otherwise, at least, in my opinion.

Anyway, it’s an interesting thought, eh?

At least, the end of LA.

And, really, we’ve been waiting for this for a long time, haven’t we? Well, according to this article on Wired News, scientists predict that LA will be hit by a 6.4 magnitude quake on, or about, September 5. Is it “the big one”? Not sure, but we could see LA slip off into the ocean later this year.
(No, I don’t really believe it either, but I can dream, can’t I?)