6. juli 2003

Flunked prophecy 101 A fascinating insight on the future, in this article called Miracles you'll see in the next 50 years. Only, it was written in 1950, about what the world would be like in 2000. This Dobson house is not as highly mechanized as you may suppose, chiefly because of the progress made by the synthetic chemists. There are no dish-washing machines, for example, because dishes are thrown away after they have been used once, or rather put into a sink where they are dissolved by superheated water. Two dozen soluble plastic plates cost a dollar. They dissolve at about 250 degrees Fahrenheit, so that boiling-hot soup and stews can be served in them without inviting a catastrophe. The plastics are derived from such inexpensive raw materials as cottonseed hulls, oat hulls, Jerusalem artichokes, fruit pits, soy beans, bagasse, straw and wood pulp.   No more bouts with the razor for a man of tomorrow. He'll whisk away whiskers with a chemical solution. When Jane Dobson cleans house she simply turns the hose on everything. Why not? Furniture (upholstery included), rugs, draperies, unscratchable floors—all are made of synthetic fabric or waterproof plastic. After the water has run down a drain in the middle of the floor (later concealed by a rug of synthetic fiber) Jane turns on a blast of hot air and dries everything. The best we can say about it is that not everything is that much off base. He did predict we'll still have no cure for cancer. Predictions of the future are by their very nature extremely uncertain, since it is logically impossible to forecast exactly what technological breakthroughs will be made in some decades. If people knew in advance how to build a future invention, they would naturally have created it back then. Even a promising path of research often reaches a dead end. On the other hand, we have inventions that nobody could even imagine in the past. Who could have imagined the Internet at a time when computers took up entire buildings and had less computing power than today's calculators? Anyone dare to predict how the world will be like in 2050? Stay healthy, and some of us will find out for ourselves. 6:53:48 PM    comment []

One out of four was not the father From April 1st this year, Norwegian men who had been pointed out as the father of a child by the mother, and thus were eligeble to pay alimony, had the right to demand DNA testing if they contested the claim. Naturally, there has been a tremendous increase in such tests with the new law. In one case out of four, the man was not the father of the child. So, for decades earier, before DNA testing became available, hundreds of men have been paying alimony for somebody else's child. (From a Norwegian article in Aftenposten) 11:52:48 AM    comment []

AOL goes the blog AOL has shown a pre-release version of its integrated blogging tool to a select audience, and to the astonishment of many, it didn't appear to suck. When AOL way back when opened the floodgates of losers on the Internet, it destroyed many a good online community. Expect a massive increase of lamer blogs... but, well, there is nobody forcing us to read them, is it? 8:03:15 AM    comment []

Reality too far Well, "reality TV", the biggest misnomer in entertainment ever, is already taken too far, many times, but I think Series 7 still sounds like a pretty cool idea, and a funny site. Check out the trailers and the flash games! 5:22:34 AM    comment []

Mars closing in In August, sky gazers should be in for a treat, as the planet Mars comes closer to Earth than it has done in the past 70,000 years. The distance is still a good 56 million kms, but the red planet should be clearly visible in the night sky. If we have a clear night, that is. Various space agencies have taken advantage of this, and as of now, three spacecraft are approaching the planet.  The European Mars Express is expected to put Beagle 2 on the surface on Christmas Day. Contrary to some media reports, Venus is still the closest planet to Earth. 4:25:55 AM    comment []

Turkey furious at US arrests of Turkish soldiers The Turkish government is furious that US troops has taken action and arrested 11 of its soldiers in northern Iraq. The US has repeatedly warned against interference in Iraq, which has not stopped Turkish forces from establishing a military presence in the Kurdish areas. Turkey, which has its own struggle against Kurds, is very anxious to avoid an independence Kurdistan in northern Iraq. The relationship between Ankara and Washington has soured considerably after Turkey refused US troops to use its territory in the attack on Iraq. The Kurds, on the other hand, have demonstrated themselves to be loyal allies to the US. 2:27:59 AM    comment []

Keep an eye on Big Brother As a counterbalance to the US government's Terrorism Awareness Network, citizens have created the Government Information Awareness network in the form of an interactive, searchable database of persons and organisations in the government. As it grows, it may become a very nice resource indeed. 12:53:34 AM    comment []

© Copyright 2003 Jan Haugland. Last update: 01.08.2003; 01:51:33.