Croakaine – the drug and the effect in one word!
Category Archives: Science and Society
Posts on all things scientific; biology, evolution, all the way to computer science (when it’s not about programming or applications), and also some pieces on politics and society in general.
Enemy combatant
Enemy combatant, military ethnic slur for a person of Arabic or middle eastern descent.
Right?!
The main cause for evolution are lack of resources
The main cause for evolution are lack of resources.
In a world with endless resources, there is no need for competition or any pressure to evolve.
Anschluss 2.0
Anschluss 2.0: Happening right now at a Russian-Ukranian border near you…
I mean, if Putin was any smart, he’d claim there was weapons of mass destruction in Ukraine, that would have worked, but using propaganda about threatened Russian speakers and arranging a ballot where 97% is for a separation… that is so 1930ies.
The great watch conspiracy
…or what happens at 10 past 10?
…or a celebration of conformity in the PR-business?
Search for any image of watches… chances are 90-99% of them show the time 10:10.
Why is that? Conspiracy? Brain washing? Lack of imagination? EU/US standards? Laws against unjust competition? Fear of competitor advantages? Fabric settings?
I have no clue… But I do have 49 images of watches, all set to somewhere from 10:05 to 10:15… most almost spot on 10:08 or 10:12.
There are a few “wild” ones out there going as far as 10:20… but that’s Nike… and look… Diesel also goes 10:20… Both are digital… New conformity?
Then we have the not so wild, wild ones, (Adrenaline) that set their watches to ten to two…
Searching the web (mentalfloss, Google Answers, petapixel) gives the following bits of info:
- It was not the time of death of Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy or Martin Luther King
- It was not the time when the atom bombs were dropped, either on Hiroshima nor on Nagasaki
- It is about aesthetics; the hands are symmetrically placed, which makes the clock look nice (and not broken or unbalanced – something you’d probably not want from a clock)
- It is also about practicalities; the hands are not on top of each other, on top of the company logo, or on top of any date displays or other extra features (however the last one can be disproved by several of the above depicted clocks – e.g. the Calvin Kline clock would show more extra features if it was set to 09:15.)
- It is also to make the clock look happier, you could achieve the above by setting it to 08:20, but then the clock would seem like it’s frowning
That’s all good an well… but… the digital clocks…? None of the above reasons are valid for them… other than the fact that setting them to 10:10 or similar follows some company policy. Timex sets their clocks to 10:09:36 exactly, just to mention one such company policy.
On Communication: When the other person isn’t there
When the other person isn’t there, sometimes we tend to make up their side of the conversation, which truly isn’t fair to either one of you…
/Pretty Little Liars
Why the death penalty is wrong – in my opinion
Can you give life back to the dead?
I think the best reason not to use the death penalty is found in the Lord of the Rings:
“Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.”
In my opinion, the largest problem with death penalty, compared to for instance life time imprisonment, is that death penalty is final. There is no going back from it. Once someone has been executed you cannot say, oops, we killed the wrong guy, sorry, here’s a settlement… If the wrong person gets imprisoned, even for many years, the wounds can still be healed, the person still be compensated, and life can go on.
Continue reading Why the death penalty is wrong – in my opinion
Bombs to promote your political agenda…
If you use bombs to promote your political agenda, the risk is, people won’t hear your message over the explosions.
Those who think they’re not communicating….
I came across a quote some years ago. I wasn’t able to find it now but it went something along the line that anyone wanting to send a message in film should go to the telegraph office instead.
My spontaneous thought is:
Those who think they can open their mouth – or even stick their head outside the door – without communicating something, are fooling no one but themselves… And the likelihood of these people communicating anything of interest is probably purely coincidental.
The last special date in 89 years is right now…
As I said around three years ago (September 9, 2009) there have been some special dates since 2001.
Basically moments in time when year (ah well at least the last two digits of the year), month, day, hour, minute (well I guess seconds and milliseconds and so on as well) have been the same. E.g. 01-01-01 01:01:01… for first of January, 2001, one minute and one second past one.
However this moment… the 12th of December, 2012, is the last such moment in 89 years… When there will be 2101-01-01 to have… (January 1st, 2101) So why not do some partying! 😀
Okay, to be infernally strict about it, the party should probably have started say the first of January, year 101 A.D. Or how about years before then? But on the other hand, nobody knew it was 100 B.C. Because if they did, they’d been time travelling. Imagine than… some archeologist finds an inscription saying:
He died a hero in the … lords? unlordly? … year 189 B.C.
Then we’d know… time travel! 😀
Anyway, so then there’d be another party in February 2, 202… all the way to December 12, 1212…. Then I’m guessing if you’d be strict about it, the next big date should be January 1, year 10101 (10101-01-01).
Hey, how about U.S. dates… They’re typed as month-day-year, right? So …um doesn’t matter much, there would still be the same logic. If you really get off on dates, have a look here for a more thorough discussion of the topic!
Okay, anyhow… let’s go have a party! (I’m fearing not many girls will find the speciality of the date that appealing though hahaha!)