Appliances with Spyware?

Here's an interesting read from the University of Arizona about a possible "advancement in home appliances." I don't think I like this guy's idea very much. Should people you don't know need to know how often you used your appliances or how you use them? While this may seem like a good idea for promoting technology, I view it as just another way for corporations and other outside operations to gain access to "private" information.

Even though I'm not fond of the appliance device he has developed, I do see some potential in his designs for a smarter car and traffic controllers. Everyone in Tuscaloosa could benefit from this idea.

Math and Music

I found this from a link off www.sciencenews.org. I thought that John would find this particularly interesting since it deals with math. It seems that now computers are able to compose original music using mathematical algorithms. If you are really feeling creative, try entering your own set of numbers. My compositions weren't that great, but like the saying goes, "Try, try again."

Whew! Planet-dissolving dust cloud is a hoax

In this link, Snopes.com explains that the imminent planet-dissolving dust cloud you may have heard about, like everything else originally reported in the Weekly World News, is a hoax.

The Snopes.com website, by the way, is an invaluable reality check for all the bogus "information" that shows up in our e-mail baskets every day. The longer Snopes.com articles are models of analytical thinking and good expository writing. I highly recommend signing up for the weekly update.

Science fiction writer named a MacArthur Fellow

This year's recipients of $500,000 MacArthur Fellowships, a.k.a. "genius grants," include novelist Jonathan Lethem, whose credits include a lot of science fiction, among other things. (No, he's not on our syllabus this semester, alas.) Here's his biography at the MacArthur Foundation website.

Diversity in science fiction

The Carl Brandon Society is a new group of readers and writers devoted to addressing the representation of people of color in science fiction, fantasy and horror. The organizers would like to establish an annual award, and they're looking for suggestions on what to call it. Maybe y'all have some ideas?

Hope for the best, expect the worst

In this Q&A, Rutgers sociologist Lee Clarke, author of Worst Cases: Terror and Catastrophe in the Popular Imagination, argues the benefits of expecting really bad futures.