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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