Quantum stickiness, Hawking and teh funny

From KurzweilAI.net, micromachine stiction, Stephen Hawking tackles the universe’s inflation and defining humor.

How a quantum effect is gumming up nanomachines

New Scientist news service, June 28, 2008 Researchers are making progress in overcoming static friction, or or “stiction,” which sticks together the parts of micromachines on scales of between 10 and 300 nanometers and limits progress in reducing their size, affecting computer hard drives and other devices with small moving parts. Stiction is due to the Casimir effect, a quantum-mechanics phenomenon that causes surfaces to be attracted. Methods to reduce its effect include use of patterned surfaces, suspending the components in a liquid, and use of metamaterials.   Read Original Article>>

Hawking ‘close’ to explaining universe’s inflation

New Scientist (article preview), June 28, 2008 Starting with current observations of the universe and working back to narrow down the initial set of possibilities and by treating the early cosmos as a quantum object with a multitude of alternative universes that gradually blend into ours, Stephen Hawking and colleagues think they are close to perfecting an answer to explain why the infant universe expanded so rapidly. (Subscription required)   Read Original Article>>

Mechanism and function of humor identified by new evolutionary theory

PhysOrg.com, June 27, 2008 Humor occurs when the brain recognizes a pattern that surprises it, suggests Alastair Clarke in the forthcoming book, Humour. “Now that we understand the mechanism of humour, the possibility of creating an artificial intelligence being that could develop its own sense of humour becomes very real,” he says. “This would, for the first time, create an AI capable of exhibiting one of the defining characteristics that make us human, making it seem significantly less robotic as a result.”   Read Original Article>>

POPaganda on public television

I’m not going to tell you how to vote, but I would heavily suggest hitting this link and voting for POPaganda.

I’m sure the other two films are wonderful, but my loyalties lie with Ron and his amazing artwork.

From the link:

	POPaganda: The Art & Subversion
	Director: Pedro Carvajal A profile of the artist and activist Ron English who dares to hijack corporate advertising by using familiar words and images to create confrontational art with a message.

Post number …

… 500. Woot!

I started this blog early this year. This post marks the 500 mark. And in exciting news, this blog will soon be distributed through the Newstex “Blogs on Demand” syndicate.

Thanks for the support and do keep on reading. You can expect more of the politics, technology and business, with a little extra … mix I strive to post.

George Carlin, RIP

Stand-up comedian George Carlin has died at 71 of heart failure.

His work the last few years was a lot of the old crank and not quite as funny, but he delivered many classic lines and honed some of the great comedy routines of the last forty-plus years. His voice and (strong) opinions will be missed.

From the link:

Carlin, who had a history of heart and drug-dependency problems, died at Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.

Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine called “Seven Words You Can Never Say On Television.” A regulatory battle over a radio broadcast of the routine ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court.

In the 1978 case, Federal Communications Commission vs. Pacifica Foundation, the top U.S. court ruled that the words cited in Carlin’s routine were indecent, and that the government’s broadcast regulator could ban them from being aired at times when children might be listening.

Moodstream by Getty Images

Moodstream is an odd/interesting multimedia online tool from Getty Images. It’s probably better for you to just try it out than for me to attempt a description.

Here’s what the creators have to say:

Moodstream is a powerful brainstorming tool designed to help take in inspiring, unexpected directions. Whether you want images, footage or audio, or just need a stream of fresh ideas, tweak the Moodstream sliders to bring a whole new creative palette straight to you.

Ready? Stream. Create.

Reverse graffiti

This is extraordinarily cool:

David Pray’s short video about reverse graffiti artist Paul “Moose” Curtis’s San Francisco’s Broadway Tunnel project. Curtis creates his work using stencils and a pressure washer to create images in pollution, grime, and filth. The effect is stunning; making for a beautiful work of art while at the same time making a pointed statement about man’s impact on the environment.

The Reverse Graffiti Project[YouTube] : Wooster Collective

Go check out the YouTube video. Very amazing, and very innovative, urban art.

Saturday video fun — “I got dumped for Obama”

According to the YouTube description, “A response to Obama Girl. Inspired by true events. “

 

Real life imitates art, the Boondocks version

It looks the actual R. Kelly child prostitution trial turned into something very close to the “Boondocks” episode on that trial.  The fictional animated show is a great social satire. Sounds the real-life trial was more a farce.

From the NRO (second) link:

Great Moments in Jurisprudence   [Mark Hemingway]

Incredibly, R&B singer R. Kelly was just acquitted on 14 counts related to child pornography after a videotape of him surfaced some years ago in which he could be clearly seen micturating on and fornicating with 14-year-old girl. That’s bad enough, but here’s the kicker from his attorney’s closing arguments:

Showing the jury a studio photograph of the alleged victim on a large screen, he then told them that if they were going to find Kelly guilty of 14 counts of child pornography, “you are going to have to call (the alleged victim) 14 times individually and collectively a whore.”

Barely audible, he whispered, “My momma told me when we were kids, ‘if you ain’t got something nice to say about someone, don’t say it about her.”

He concluded his argument saying, “How are you 14 times going to call her a whore?”

Now hold up. R. Kelly shouldn’t be found guilty for videotaping the the sexual abuse of an adolescent girl because it would ruin her reputation?! What is this? Saudi Arabia?

 

It’s good to see the Texas GOP’s …

… taking on the big, important issues of the day.

Oh, wait a minute:

Robert Hurt went to Washington and didn’t like what he saw – nudity in the nation’s capital. “Nude women, sculptured women,” he told the state Republican platform committee, which sat in rapt attention.

Of all the evils in Washington that the Texas GOP took aim at this week, removing art with naked people from public view was high on the list for Mr. Hurt, a delegate from Kerrville.

“You don’t have nude art on your front porch,” he explained. “You possibly don’t have nude art in your living rooms. So why is it important to have that in the common places of Washington, D.C.?”

Mr. Hurt offered statistics: He’d heard that 20 percent of the art in the National Gallery of Art is of nudes.

He offered detail: On Arlington Memorial Bridge overlooking the famed national cemetery, “there are two Lady Godivas, two women on horses with no shirt on and long hair.”

Actually, they are classical sculptures about war – one called Valor, depicting a male equestrian and a female with a shield, and Sacrifice, a female accompanying the rider Mars.

(Hat tip: Wes)

The internet is changing our brains

Just read Nicholas Carr’s piece in the July/August 2008 print Atlantic Monthly, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The article raises some very interesting points, most importantly bringing into sharper focus the relatively new neuroscience idea that our brain continually changes, improves and otherwise re-wires itself. This is counter the long-held belief that once you reach adulthood, your brain is permanentlyset. Sort of like concrete poured into a mold. Instead the medium a malleable, and the mold is constantly refiguring itself.

The larger concept is the internet, and its unique structure, is affecting the way we access and process information. Certainly true. I’ve included an excerpt from the article about how acquiring a typewriter affected Nietzsche’s writing.

I completely understand this idea. When writing for business or media I use the computer keyboard, but when writing fiction I often will write in longhand. It’s a different experience and it slows my thinking down forcing me to contemplate each word a bit more. Sure I do some fiction at the keyboard, but much of that writing is done with pen set to paper. And my journal of many years is one hundred percent longhand. Something about the pen, or pencil, scratching across the page still appeals to me. Plus I like looking at the large stack of spiral-bound notebooks holding my thoughts dating back twenty-plus years.

From the article:

Sometime in 1882, Friedrich Nietzsche bought a typewriter—a Malling-Hansen Writing Ball, to be precise. His vision was failing, and keeping his eyes focused on a page had become exhausting and painful, often bringing on crushing headaches. He had been forced to curtail his writing, and he feared that he would soon have to give it up. The typewriter rescued him, at least for a time. Once he had mastered touch-typing, he was able to write with his eyes closed, using only the tips of his fingers. Words could once again flow from his mind to the page.

But the machine had a subtler effect on his work. One of Nietzsche’s friends, a composer, noticed a change in the style of his writing. His already terse prose had become even tighter, more telegraphic. “Perhaps you will through this instrument even take to a new idiom,” the friend wrote in a letter, noting that, in his own work, his “‘thoughts’ in music and language often depend on the quality of pen and paper.”

“You are right,” Nietzsche replied, “our writing equipment takes part in the forming of our thoughts.” Under the sway of the machine, writes the German media scholar Friedrich A. Kittler, Nietzsche’s prose “changed from arguments to aphorisms, from thoughts to puns, from rhetoric to telegram style.”

The human brain is almost infinitely malleable. People used to think that our mental meshwork, the dense connections formed among the 100 billion or so neurons inside our skulls, was largely fixed by the time we reached adulthood. But brain researchers have discovered that that’s not the case. James Olds, a professor of neuroscience who directs the Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason University, says that even the adult mind “is very plastic.” Nerve cells routinely break old connections and form new ones. “The brain,” according to Olds, “has the ability to reprogram itself on the fly, altering the way it functions.”

Bo Diddley, RIP

Man, there’s been a spate of entertainment and arts deaths recently — I’ve run multiple RIPs and I certainly haven’t covered most of the significant events.

Bo Diddley, the man with the square guitar and a true rock & roll pioneer, is dead at 79. He’s probably better known for the guitar shape than of his actual music. A great artist and a great innovator. Bo, take your rightful spot in that celestial choir …

From the link:

In the 1950s, Mr. Diddley — along with Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewisand a few others — helped reshape the sound of popular music worldwide, building it on the templates of blues, southern gospel and rhythm and blues. His original style of R&B influenced generations of musicians. And his Bo Diddley syncopated beat — three strokes/rest/two strokes — became a stock rhythm of rock ’n’ roll.

Update: Here’s a link to a few relevant YouTube clips assembled by Reason’s Jesse Walker.

Dick Martin, RIP

Dick Martin, co-host of the awesome goodness that was “Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In,” has died at 86.

During Trio’s all-too-brief stint on DirecTV I had the joy to watch “Laugh In.” Brilliant comedy and satire. The flying fickle finger of fate has come to rest on Martin, but I’m guessing the laughs go on.

Memorial Day weekend video fun — La Di Da Di

Someone found this blog searching for “Slick Rick.” I have no idea which post ranked that high in search results, but in honor of that random webizen, and to make the holiday weekend a little bit slicker, here’s the original …

(And yes, I know Rick D isn’t Slick Rick, but if Rick D isn’t slick himself, the definition of “slick” needs an amendment.)

 

And for a holiday bonus, here’s Snoop Dogg with a somewhat portly Doug E. Fresh …

Enjoy.

Robert Rauschenberg, RIP

One the titans of the art world, American Robert Raushenberg, has died at 82.

From the link:

A painter, photographer, printmaker, choreographer, onstage performer, set designer and, in later years, even a composer, Mr. Rauschenberg defied the traditional idea that an artist stick to one medium or style. He pushed, prodded and sometimes reconceived all the mediums in which he worked.

Building on the legacies of Marcel Duchamp, Kurt Schwitters, Joseph Cornell and others, he thereby helped to obscure the lines between painting and sculpture, painting and photography, photography and printmaking, sculpture and photography, sculpture and dance, sculpture and technology, technology and performance art — not to mention between art and life.

Mr. Rauschenberg was also instrumental in pushing American art onward from Abstract Expressionism, the dominant movement when he emerged during the early 1950s. He became a transformative link between artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning and those who came next, artists identified with Pop, Conceptualism, Happenings, Process Art and other new kinds of art in which he played a signal role.

No American artist, Jasper Johns once said, invented more than Mr. Rauschenberg. Mr. Johns, John Cage, Merce Cunningham and Mr. Rauschenberg, without sharing exactly the same point of view, collectively defined this new era of experimentation in American culture. Apropos of Mr. Rauschenberg, Cage once said, “Beauty is now underfoot wherever we take the trouble to look.”

Sunday video fun — Bauhaus, “Bela Lugosi’s Dead”

Spent a bit of time at Edgefest today supporting a gig by Proud Wine. An up-and-coming neo-psychedelia band fronted by a relative of mine. The bulk of the bill is emo and screamo, however.

In that vein today’s vido goes back to the days when emo was just simply goth, and some of the skinny boys wore skirts.

The standard? Peter Murphy, Bauhaus and “Bela Lugosi’s Dead.”

 

If you want to blow …

… $100 dollars just buy a four pack of these outlet covers.

From the link:

Machina Dynamica’s Tru-Tone Duplex Cover is a special audiophile-grade cover for all duplex wall outlets; they are intended to replace all types of duplex covers - steel, plastic, wood, etc. - in the listening room — including non-audio outlets and unused outlets. We suggest a baseline of 3-4 Duplex Covers in the room to see what these covers will do.

The gullibility of audiophiles is both constantly surprising and quite embarrassing. if these people spent a fraction of the money put into cables, interconnects and apparently outlet covers, into education on basic acoustics and auditory biology they’d be able to see through the inane claims of companies like Machina Dynamica.

And probably enjoy the sounds emanating from their systems quite a bit more as well.

(Hat tip: JREF’s SWIFT)

Music lessons strengthen brain

I knew all that guitar practice would eventually pay off …

From the link:

Taking music lessons can strengthen connections between the two hemispheres of the brain in children, but only if they practice diligently, according to a study reported here 14 April at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. The findings add to a long-running debate about the effects of musical training on the brain.

(Hat tip: KurzweilAI.net)

 

Live action “Ghost in the Shell”

That phrase either really excites anime fans, or hits like a stomach punch depending on the “purist” quotient.

Not sure where I stand. I do think it could be very, very bad. The live action “Aeon Flux” did nothing but drag down a great bit of animation.

A link for, and excerpt from, the Variety.com article:

DreamWorks has acquired rights to the Japanese manga “Ghost in the Shell” with plans to adapt the futuristic police thriller as a 3-D live-action feature.

Story follows the exploits of a member of a covert ops unit of the Japanese National Public Safety Commission that specializes in fighting technology-related crime.

Created by Masamune Shirow, “Ghost in the Shell” was first published in 1989. It went on to generate two additional manga editions, three anime film adaptations, an anime TV series and three videogames. The second anime film, “Ghost in the Shell 2: Innocence,” was released in the U.S. by DreamWorks in 2004.

 

(Hat tip: KurzweilAI.net)

“Expelled” antidote

Phil Plait over at Bad Astronomy has some antidote for the new film by proponents of “intelligent design” — Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed. (Oh whither hast thou gone, Ben Stein?)

From the link:

What? Someone makes a movie arguing against evolution and it turns out they’re a bunch of evil lying frauds? How can such a thing be?

</snark>

It’s true: the makers of the movie Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed have been lying their heads off since square one. I would go into details, but I don’t need to: The National Center for Science Education (Genie Scott’s group) has created a wonderful website which explains very carefully just how evil the Expelled crowd is. The site is called Expelled Exposed, and I highly recommend sending everyone you know there, especially if they may be prone to listen to a propaganda piece like the movie. They more than anybody need to know the truth behind it.

“Clone Wars” trailer

Hit this link for a leaked two-minute trailer for  Lucasfilm Animation’s “Clone Wars.”

Hat tip: Gizmodo, via Wes

Saturday video fun — Tay Zonday, “Chocolate Rain”

I prefer the obscure over the latest meme, but couldn’t resist this one …

 

Cruciverb.com

As a companion to a post from late last week about a crossword solver’s blog, here’s a link to cruciverb.com. Crossword creators are formally called cruciverbalists, and cruciverb.com is a site for creators and avid solvers of crossword puzzles.

Once again I give credit to Matt Gaffney’s “Grid Lock” for pointing me to this interesting site. If you’re a crossword fan, visiting cruciverb.com is well worth the time.

From “About This Site” at cruciverb.com:

The CRUCIVERB.COM web site is a resource center for crossword puzzle constructors. There is an associated mailing list called CRUCIVERB-L which is used for discussing crossword construction via email. Most of our discussions focus on American-style crossword puzzles rather than cryptics.

Daily crossword solving blog

I’m reading “Grid Lock” by Matt Gaffney about the world of crossword puzzle creators and solvers. He mentions a blog written by Amy Reynaldo, a “top solver.”

Her blog is titled “Diary of a Crossword Fiend” and consists of her solving time for a number of newspaper’s crosswords each day, plus some commentary about the puzzles.

I think this sort of blog is what makes the internet so great. I remember back in the mid- to late-90s surfing and finding all sorts of odds and ends that were simply fun. Amy’s blog is one of those pieces of the world wide web that’s just fun.

Here’s her times for today:

Friday, 4/4

NYS 8:26
NYT 6:57
Jonesin’ tba
CHE tba
LAT tba
CS tba

WSJ tba

(Update — commentary from post removed per author’s request)

Project Gutenberg

If you’re looking for no cost books (both fiction and nonfiction) that are no longer covered by copyright, head to Project Gutenberg.

This excellent resource offers over 20,000 books on its main site and over 100,000 across its entire universe of affiliates, partners and resources.

For a sample of what you can find, here’s the top 50 authors downloaded over the last 30 days:

1. Twain, Mark (38999)

1. Thomson, J. Arthur (35613)
2. Austen, Jane (34034)
3. Dickens, Charles (30463)
4. Shakespeare, William (27665)
5. Doyle, Arthur Conan, Sir (23725)
6. Miles, Alexander (21763)
7. Thomson, Alexis (21763)
8. Verne, Jules (2142
9. Lacroix, Paul (19919)
10. Baum, L. Frank (Lyman Frank) (18881)
11. Landor, A. Henry Savage (Arnold Henry Savage) (16197)
12. Beard, Charles A. (Charles Austin) (15813)
13. Beard, Mary Ritter (15813)
14. Spicer, William Ambrose (14209)
15. Nichols, J. L. (14035)
16. Jefferis, B. G. (13894)
17. Colum, Padraic (13435)
18. Pogany, Willy (12932)
19. Poe, Edgar Allan (12762)
20. Lang, Andrew (12520)
21. Maspero, Gaston Camille Charles (1235
22. Hubbard, Elbert (12260)
23. Carroll, Lewis (12113)
24. Marshall, Logan (11549)
25. Wilde, Oscar (10855)
26. Pierce, Ray Vaughn (10792)
27. Van Dyke, John Charles (10611)
28. Aesop (10583)
29. Doré, Gustave (10562)
30. Wells, H. G. (Herbert George) (10467)
31. Burroughs, Edgar Rice (10104)
32. McClure, M.L. (9909)
33. Sayce, A.H. (9909)
34. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von (965
35. Litchfield, Frederick (9441)
36. Eliot, George (885
37. Burbank, Emily (8644)
38. Nietzsche, Friedrich Wilhelm (8475)
39. Potter, Beatrix (8389)
40. Conrad, Joseph (8380)
41. Harrison, James A. (James Albert) (8380)
42. Sharp, Robert (8380)
43. Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville) (8265)
44. Rawlinson, George (8082)
45. Berens, E.M. (7966)
46. Homer (7925)
47. Montgomery, L. M. (Lucy Maud) (7900)
48. Dumas père, Alexandre (7884)
49. Stevenson, Robert Louis (7869)

… not a shabby group there.

Tekkonkinkreet

Watched a cool anime movie tonight — “Tekkon Kinkreet” — a 2006 release from Studio 4°C. If you enjoy that sort of thing do check it out.

From the Wikipedia link:

… adapted from Black and White, a three-volume seinen manga series by Taiyō Matsumoto, which was originally serialized between 1993 and 1994 in Shogakukan’s Big Comic Spirits.^[2][3] It was first released in Japan on December 23, 2006.^[4] The story takes place in the fictional Takara Machi (宝町 Treasure City) and centers on a pair of orphaned street kids: the tough, canny Kuro (クロ Black) and the childish, snot-nosed Shiro (シロ White), together known as the Neko (猫 Cats), as they deal with Yakuza attempting to take over Takara Machi.

This link heads to the film’s official site at Sony Pictures, and this to Studio 4°C’s site in English.

Amazing CGI flash animation

This is one impressive bit of flash animation. The link goes to a CGI image (maybe layered photos rather than CGI according to the discussion at Boing Boing) that tracks the cursor with its — er, her — eyes. As the Boing Boing post below described the animation, it’s “creepily lifelike.”

Hat tip to this Boing Boing post:

I’ve got no idea what the story is with this awesome CGI Flash woman, except that she appears to have been created by a Brazilian design firm, and that she has made every person I’ve shown her to say, “Oh. My. God.” Link (via Kottke)

Saturday video fun — Barry and Lavon from “The State”

Barry, Lavon and $240 worth of pudding. Ahhhh yeah!

Pre-Edison sound recording found

A recording of “Au Clair de la Lune” dating back to 1860 has been found. This recording predates Thomas Edison’s earliest recordings by an (even after the edit, still) astounding 28 17 years.

Meet the father of recorded sound, Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville.

From the link:

For more than a century, since he captured the spoken words “Mary had a little lamb” on a sheet of tinfoil, Thomas Edison has been considered the father of recorded sound. But researchers say they have unearthed a recording of the human voice, made by a little-known Frenchman, that predates Edison’s invention of the phonograph by nearly two decades.

Isabelle Trocheris

The audio historian David Giovannoni with a recently discovered phonautogram that is among the earliest sound recordings.

Audio: 1860 recording: mm.DI = true; mm.LI = false; mm.AH = “The Phonautograph Recording from 1860 of ‘Au Clair de la Lune’”; mm.AS = “”; mm.AD = “10″; mm.AU = “http://graphics8.nytimes.com/audiosrc/arts/1860v2.mp3″; mm.IU = “”; writePlayer();

 The Phonautograph Recording from 1860 of ‘Au Clair de la Lune’ (mp3)

var so = new SWFObject(”http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/multimedia/swfs/multiloader.swf”, “p97536″, “100%”, “25″, “8″, “#FFFFFF”); so.addVariable(”mp3″,”http://graphics8.nytimes.com/audiosrc/arts/1860v2.mp3″) so.addVariable(”duration”,”10″) so.addVariable(”contentPath”,”http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/multimedia/INLINE_PLAYER/NYTInline.swf”) so.addParam(”allowScriptAccess”, “always”); so.write(”p97536″);1931: mm.DI = true; mm.LI = false; mm.AH = “An Audio Excerpt from a 1931 Recording of the Same Song”; mm.AS = “”; mm.AD = “26″; mm.AU = “http://graphics8.nytimes.com/audiosrc/arts/1931.mp3″; mm.IU = “”; writePlayer();

 An Audio Excerpt from a 1931 Recording of the Same Song (mp3)

var so = new SWFObject(”http://www.nytimes.com/packages/flash/multimedia/swfs/multiloader.swf”, “p242125″, “100%”, “25″, “8″, “#FFFFFF”); so.addVariable(”mp3″,”http://graphics8.nytimes.com/audiosrc/arts/1931.mp3″) so.addVariable(”duration”,”26″) so.addVariable(”contentPath”,”http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/flash/multimedia/INLINE_PLAYER/NYTInline.swf”) so.addParam(”allowScriptAccess”, “always”); so.write(”p242125″);

The 19th-century phonautograph, which captured sounds visually but did not play them back, has yielded a discovery with help from modern technology.

The 10-second recording of a singer crooning the folk song “Au Clair de la Lune” was discovered earlier this month in an archive in Paris by a group of American audio historians. It was made, the researchers say, on April 9, 1860, on a phonautograph, a machine designed to record sounds visually, not to play them back. But the phonautograph recording, or phonautogram, was made playable — converted from squiggles on paper to sound — by scientists at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif.

“This is a historic find, the earliest known recording of sound,” said Samuel Brylawski, the former head of the recorded-sound division of the Library of Congress, who is not affiliated with the research group but who was familiar with its findings. The audio excavation could give a new primacy to the phonautograph, once considered a curio, and its inventor, Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville, a Parisian typesetter and tinkerer who went to his grave convinced that credit for his breakthroughs had been improperly bestowed on Edison.

Scott’s device had a barrel-shaped horn attached to a stylus, which etched sound waves onto sheets of paper blackened by smoke from an oil lamp. The recordings were not intended for listening; the idea of audio playback had not been conceived. Rather, Scott sought to create a paper record of human speech that could later be deciphered.

Clinton and time travel

(I’ve been reading some classic science fiction from the 40s and 50s, so I’m blaming my time travel trope on that. Now, here’s a bit of sci fi political satire.)

September 2008 — International courts are looking into the pall that’s befallen the entire planet. Many blamed Hillary Clinton for the bleakness after winning the Democratic Party nomination. Little did they know just correct that idea has turned out to be. Clinton has been using a time machine during this entire primary season.

The problem began manifesting itself very subtly, but once certain authorities learned the source things became more clear. As is turns out, no one ever really used the machine with any amount of regularity — certainly no where near as often as Clinton did to squeeze extra campaign time into her schedule.

The problem is heavy use of the machine creates multiples time paradoxes in our current time thread. These paradoxes have the effect of producing great amounts of uncertainty which lead in a straight line to extreme doubt, and then progresses to crippling fear. Inadvertently, Clinton destroyed Obama’s message of change and hope with the time machine paradox artifacts of doubt and fear. Once the pall became heavy enough, Obama himself barely had the energy to keep fighting and the superdelegates lost the will to save the Democratic Party from what is now seen as a colossal mistake.

The major problem for both the party, and the candidate, is Hillary was told of the device by her husband when he was president. She never attained the security clearance necessary for this knowledge, but presidential wives have always been given some leeway. Bill’s mistake was providing Hillary with location and access codes of the time machine. This knowledge proved to be irresistible as her campaign cratered before a stronger candidate in Obama.

Now Clinton is the Democratic Party nominee, Obama is probably out of politics forever after the experience and international courts are considering drastic actions against Clinton.

It seems her actions have opened multiple threads in our time stream and alien intelligence that originally provided the device has been in contact. They are going to clean up the paradox issue for us, but possibly will destroy the original thread to remove the Clinton threat from the stream of time. Sadly, all of us are part of that time stream and will most likely blinker out of existence as we know once the paradox problem is fixed.

This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License

Easter video fun — Elvis Presley, “How Great Thou Art”