“Public education does not exist for the benefit of students or the benefit of their parents. It exists for the benefit of the social order.
We have discovered as a species that it is useful to have an educated population. You do not need to be a student or have a child who is a student to benefit from public education. Every second of every day of your life, you benefit from public education.
So let me explain why I like to pay taxes for schools, even though I don’t personally have a kid in school: It’s because I don’t like living in a country with a bunch of stupid people.”
― John Green
Here’s to public schools, teachers, and the futures they help us all build.
For dinner-related reasons, Mr Man and I were recently discussing the humble fish finger. What were they like in childhood, which were the best now, and how does a “fish finger” get made, anyway? Imagine my surprise when I ran across this article on that exact topic. It’s interesting and full of supply-chain related surprises (that “30,000 mile” bit isn’t a typo!).
This journey, a journey about which most people tucking into their fish fingers today are almost completely oblivious, tells you rather a lot about the way the modern world – what I like to call the Trade World – really works.
I find stories like this fascinating, and they’re also an interesting window into ideas for fictional worlds. If your fantasy kingdom has been around for a couple of centuries, it’s probably part of an international trading network. And that network would be rife with all kinds of history and conflict, complications and opportunities, legal and otherwise.
Much like self-driving cars on Earth, Perseverance has sophisticated onboard cameras that image the surrounding terrain, and these images are then processed algorithmically by an onboard computer to calculate the safest route. Terrestrial vehicles have some advantages of course, like clearly defined maps, street signs, lanes, and more. Additionally there are plenty of “road” hazards on Mars, from large boulders to sandy slopes. But at least Perseverance does not have to contend with other traffic and bad drivers.
Scroll and pan around this map to see the rover’s latest location and traverse path, as it seeks signs of ancient life and collects samples of Mars rock and regolith (broken rock and dust) for potential future return to Earth.
This week marked the 60th anniversary of Star Trek (it was Tuesday, actually, but alas! I was distracted by the whole “return to work” thing). And the show almost didn’t make it at all.
“The Cage” – a complicated story about alien mind-control – was an ambitious pilot. When Roddenberry presented it to NBC, the programming executives were blown away. But the sales and marketing department wasn’t convinced. Not enough action, they thought. It would be hard to promote. Pass.
“Star Trek,” it seemed, was dead.
Fortunately, there’s more to that story, and the show not only got off the ground but became the entertainment juggernaut it is today.
I wasn’t a Trek fan growing up, in large part, I think, because my parents had made the conscious decision not to have a television. Now that I’m all grown up and have a TV of my own, though, I appreciate the ideals and more behind the sometimes campy but always fun franchise. So inspiring, and not just for everyday fans.
When it premiered in 1966, no one could have predicted that it would lead to more than a dozen spinoff shows, more than a dozen movies and one of the most enduring fandoms in popular culture.
“Star Trek” is also unusual for its close connections to NASA, both in its storylines and in the real world. Decades of “Star Trek” adventures have ignited a love of spaceflight across generations, inspiring many who now work as space professionals.
Let’s hear it for the real-world powers of fiction. And now, in life and the imagination, go boldly!
Books are just one of the many ways to interpret and record history. The 11th-century Bayeux tapestry is going on display to the public today in the UK. The tapestry has more than 220 feet of embroidery detailing the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066. And the public is loving it.
Inside the exhibition on Thursday morning, the first visitors made their way along the tapestry, snapping photos as they went. They were all quiet until one — Cheryl Prax, 71, a retired property manager — spotted some of the nude figures in the tapestry’s borders and laughed loudly. “I love quirky historical things like that,” Prax said afterward.
Why write? It’s a question writers get asked a lot. There are a lot of challenges to writing, both internal and external, and overcoming them can take persistence and focus and a good handle on what and why. So I periodically ask myself just that: why write?
Jamie Coomarasamy speaks to Patricia Cornwell, one of the world’s best-selling crime writers, whose books have sold more than 120 million copies worldwide… Her imagination became a refuge during difficult years, shaping the stories and characters she would later create.
Ann Patchett’s The Getaway Car is another interesting look into the author’s development as a writer, but everyone’s answer is different.
My version of why tends to revolve around an essential truth: I want to be part of the worlds I’ve loved since I was a child. I want to be a book in the library of life.
“Because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it. Hank, when people call people nerds, mostly what they’re saying is ‘you like stuff.’ Which is just not a good insult at all. Like, ‘you are too enthusiastic about the miracle of human consciousness’.” ― John Green
It’s a beautiful day here, all blue fall skies and fluffy white clouds, and birds singing in the back yard. What, one might wonder, did the landscape sound like in eons past? Before technology? Even before humans?
There are still a lot of questions to answer, particularly about dinosaurs and other creatures with soft tissue that has not traveled to us through time, but insects? That, we now have a better handle on.
Scientists spent over a decade reconstructing the calls of nine species of ancient insects to create the first accurate Jurassic soundscape.
Something to think about if you are a writer building a soundscape for your world. And having spent much of the weekend with mosquitoes buzzing in my ears, I can only say that insects certainly can make an impression!
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