5 November 2012 (Monday) - Stuff

Today was a rather cold and dark morning. Even Fudge seemed lethargic. I spent much of the day feeling vaguely down for no adequately explored reason. However on the plus side the rain had stopped. Thank heavens for small mercies.
The news wound me up as I drove to work; much as it does every morning. The other day I ranted about the farce that is democracy. Nowhere is that farce more evident than in the upcoming American presidential election. The news was mentioning precious little else other than that ongoing battle. The American presidency is probably the most powerful elected position on the planet, and the vast majority of humanity don't actually get a say in that election.
And there isn't really much choice for those who do get a vote. Two candidates are chosen by various alliances of big businesses (who are the only people who have the money to pay for presidential election campaigns) and the electorate gets to either select the candidate they think will do the better job, or (which is probably what really happens) vote against the one that they think will make a bigger hash of it.
Does anyone get to choose the candidate they actually want? Of course not!
How can this be considered "democratic"?
 
In other news (less designed to boil my piss) I see our old friend science has had another look at the Fermi paradox, and is coming up for another reason why there aren't any aliens. The Fermi paradox is something I've lectured about in the past. The basic premise is that given the vast scale of the universe, and the (probably) extreme likelihood of life evolving elsewhere, there should be aliens all over the place. However demonstrably there isn't.
Science now conjectures that for any solar system to come up with life, it needs to have an asteroid belt. Asteroid belts would seem to be something of a scarcity in outer space; hence no aliens. One lives and learns. Personally I suspect that it will only be a matter of time until asteroid belts are found to be ten-a-penny. What will science say then?
 
Talking of aliens, it would seem that flying-saucer-crackpot-ism is on the decline. Fewer people are reporting seeing UFOs, and crackpot UFO research groups are closing down due to lack of interest. Apparently with the immediate availability of expert advice over the internet, mis-sightings of Chinese lanterns, weather balloons, geese, military aircraft and Martians are being explained away before any crackpot stories can be attached to them. The Association for the Scientific Study of Anomalous Phenomena has called a crisis meeting to address the decline in UFO sightings. They see it as a bad thing. But then their president once claimed that King Arthur was an alien. One cannot help but wonder what opposition he faced when he was elected.
Mind you, personally I see the decline in UFO-ism as a bad thing. The world is a better place for having harmless nutters running about the place blaming it all on aliens.
 
And so home to find Fudge waiting for me. He was asleep. For a dog that is always bouncing about whenever anyone else is looking, he does seem to sleep a lot when he gets the chance. I was toying with the idea of a walk, but it was late. We'll get a walk in the morning I expect.
Meanwhile my face fungus goes from strength to strength. It's almost ready to be pruned into shape. Yesterday I mentioned it wasn't itching. It's beginning to itch a little now. Which is even more reason to get sponsoring.

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