November 12, 2007

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Looking back on tomorrow

November 12, 2007 in Future | 7 comments

Arthur C. Clarke, author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, looks back from 2500. A sample:

  One outcome of this- — the greatest psychological survey in the whole of history- — was to demonstrate conclusively that the chief danger to civilization was not merely religious extremism but religions themselves. This was summed up in a famous saying: “All Religions were invented by the Devil to conceal God from Mankind.”

  Billions of words of pious garbage spoken by statesmen, clerics and politicians down the ages were either hypocritical nonsense or, if sincere, the babbling of lunatics. The new insights enabled by the Psi-probe helped humans finally recognize organized religions as the most malevolent mind virus that had ever infected human minds.

By the way, Sir Arthur turns 90 on 16 December.

A bloody blogger

November 12, 2007 in Blogging, Places | 2 comments

Just paid one of my too-infrequent visits to Steve Urquhart’s blog, and found that the dude used to be a boxer. A sample:

  After the 3 rounds, the judges scored the fight 2-1 for Broadhead. One of the judges put me up for the night. He told me, “You know, I had one round for each of you, going into the third. And the third round was very close. But, in good conscience, I just couldn’t give the fight to someone covered with so much of his own blood.”

I dunno if that was before or after Steve became an attorney. I know it predated Steve’s current tour of duty in the Utah House of Representatives, and founding the excellent Politicopia.

From wurst to best

November 12, 2007 in Events, Fun, News | 2 comments

Last year the Boston Celtics were so bad they lost 18 games in a row at one point. Now they’re On a pace to go 82-0. Which they won’t (they’re still just 5-0), but it’s a fun fantasy.

What’s weird for me is that I grew up as a Knicks fan. The Knicks-Celtics rivalry was a hot one, especially since the Celtics were perrenial champions and the Knicks were a doormat. The Knicks’ golden age, from ’69-’74 coincided exactly with my return to New Jersey from North Carolina after college. When I split back south again, Willis Reed retired and the Knicks began to tank. Now I’ve arrived in Boston just in time for Ray Allen and Kevin Garnett to join the Celtics and launch a new era. No causality implied; just good timing.