The Lost Realm

It seems that “ho ho ho” is too scary for today's children. Obviously he's decided that rewarding people for being good doesn't work, so he'll just scare them into behaving. I must remember that and use it when I have kids: Eat your peas or I'll get out the red suit and sleigh!

Maybe we need a replacement for Santa. Or we could just ditch the idea entirely and give presents spontaneously as a real sign of affection for people… nah — it'd never work.

If I was suddenly transported into the world of Quake, I would (by choice and according to this poll) be a Shambler:

Now the only question is: do I get to be a Shambler with rabies?

So they're managed to clone a human embryo. This sounds wonderful, until we hear that the results are not really usable quality. Other cloning research seems to be having similar issues with concerns that the results of experiments may not be as reliable or “normal” as we are being told.. Even Dolly, cloning's pinup girl, is not quite what she appears to be.

We keep being told that cloning is going to be useful. We're going to save people's lives. We're going to bring extinct animals back from the dead. Didn't we learn anything watching Jurassic park? Sure, I don't think we'll find ourselves having to run away from pack hunting carnivores, but aren't we rushing into this before we have a chance to think about it?

Cloning technologies may be the solution to many of our problems, but do we really want to open this can of DNA-encoded worms before we understand the implications and pitfalls? Should we be playing god before we read the manual?

While I've never been all that interested in economics and stocks, I don't ever remember market reports being like this: naked women stripping as they read the day's market news and commodity prices. I suppose it's about the only way to make that sort of thing interesting. Not that I'd watch something like that, of course. Nope, not me.

The one quote from the article that really worries me is “But it is very tame, it's only R rated.” Can you imagine an X rated market report?! Oh… you can? Excuse me while I go write a business proposal.

I know, I know… these silly tests are pointless, but at least this silly test has some cool diseases you can be. Look, mum — I'm rabies! You must be so proud.

Looks like I'm actually one of the nicer diseases, too.

This is one of the best articles on J.R.R. Tolkien I have ever read. It's quite long, but an extremely interesting read into his life and works.

I urge you, if you haven't read The Lord of the Rings, do so before the movie comes out. While I'm sure it's going to be a good movie, you'll never be able to achieve the wonderous imagery that the book can deliver. Don't forget to read The Hobbit too.