Speaker For The Diodes - September 6th, 2009

01:58 am - Keyless

Argh. Drove to fidhle's house and got a ride the rest of the way to the Virginia Scottish Games ... had a good set, was quite thoroughly exhausted, came back ... and there's no trace of my keys. :-( Still stuck here for now; looking for a) a ride to Bowie to get spare car key from Mom, or b) someone to fetch said spare key and bring it to me, so I can get home.

Hoping the keys landed someplace visible and get turned in to lost+found, but fear they're in the grass in the parking area.

05:25 am - QotD

From the Quotation of the day mailing list, 2008-03-27:

"Fermi's paradox became, for a while, a cautionary tale about cold war geopolitics.

"I suggest a different, even darker solution to Fermi's paradox. Basically I think aliens don't blow themselves up; they just get addicted to computer games. They forget to send radio signals or colonize space because they're too busy with runaway consumerism and virtual-reality narcissism. They don't need Sentinels to enslave them in a Matrix; they do it to themselves, just as we are doing today."

-- Geoffrey Miller, from "Runaway Consumerism Explains the Fermi Paradox", included in the book What is Your Dangerous Idea?, edited by John Brockman.

(submitted to the mailing list by Jeffrey L. Copeland)