We here at Mostly for Me definitely enjoy our science fiction - but this article goes one better. Instead of guessing about how our futures might look, this article from the 1901 Ladies Home Journal describes how THEY thought things would look in 2001, a century after the article was written.

Some of the material is dead on target. People are now taller. Ready-made meals are bought from stores, no cooking required. We do, in fact, use "Air-Ships" for transportation, and "wireless telephone and telegraph circuits" certainly "span the world." According to the prediction, we should be "able to telephone China quite as readily as we now talk from New York to Brooklyn. By an automatic signal they will connect with any circuit in their locality without the intervention of a 'hello girl.'" And so we are. There has never been a single "hello girl" on my telephone line, and it's a crying shame. And although we don't purchase things from stores by pneumatic tube, I would say that shopping online is close enough for me. It's not pneumatic, but I hear there are tubes.

Other predictions were not to accurate. "Peas and beans will be as large as beets," for example: no luck there. The ladies also predicted that mosquitoes, flies, rats, roaches and other pests would all be eliminated. From the heart of New York City, I'm here to testify that we're not even close. And let me add to that, the prediction our large cities will be free of traffic, as all transportation "...will be below or high above ground when brought within city limits." Sign me up for THAT!

The article is well worth a read - see a (barely) legible version by clicking on the image above.

Full article: davidthedesigner.com

"The Minnesota Zoo and eduweb are partnering to develop WolfQuest, an innovative new project that brings the immersive, compelling drama and action of video games to informal science learning while creating a model for nationwide distribution."—WolfQuest

Back? Let's continue.

Education is a great thing. Video games are also great things, mostly. Unfortunately, just like Aliens and Predators, they aren't always great together.

Enter WolfQuest, the game where you get to make your own wolf persona, hunt elk and sniff wolf piss in the hopes that your animal spirit will rage so hard that Mom and Dad will be calling your local senator before you can say A.N.W.R.

1. This game is free
2. It's for kids...I think
3. It means well
4. You will truly enjoy this game...

...for about 3 minutes. You start by naming and customizing your own wolf. The attributes are dictated by three sliders which basically boil down to speed, strength and endurance. The sliders, using some kind of magical relevance, are supposed to maintain that classic RPG ratio and balance, so that if you jack-up your strength, your speed will suffer. It doesn't quite work. If you "jiggle the handle" a bit with the sliders you can pretty much freak it out and get everything close to its max.

WOLF TIP #1 — Don't initially try and make a 700lb super wolf. You need speed more than strength.

Once your wolf-self is in the game you'll be treated to a sweeping shot of your wolf situated in the landscape, scored to some appropriately rugged music which, all comes together in an emotionally stirring moment that would make Peter Jackson weep. Then the game starts. You'll be prompted to find a mate, but really you'll want to go kill something. I mean, you're a damn wolf.

WOLF TIP #2 — Before you start screaming "how in the shit can there not be a Howl Key!", it's 'H'.

You can follow your compass to find some elk, and chances are will eventually find them. Here's where that speed comes in handy. You race up to an elk and sink your teeth into his fluffy posterior by clicking the mouse button. Then you stay there, fused with his behind, while he drags you to Hell and back like only an elk with a wolf attached to his ass can. Eventually the elk's health meter will drop and so will he. At this point you and walk up to it and eat you some fresh kill. Just click and desiccate. There you have it. Hunting.

After you've had your fill of that glory you'll want to find your mate, or just quit the game. Let's assume you want to find your mate. You can go into "Scent Mode" which is kind of cool. When you toggle this first person view you can track the scents of different animals, including that ever elusive Wolf-tang.

I'll skip to the chase and assume you've found your lady friend. Here's where WolfQuest truly enters the bizarre. You'll enter a dialogue-ish tree-ish, conversation-like interaction with the other wolf. You'll say something like "You're Strong" and do a pathetic little cower animation. She'll respond with "I want to be boss!" and growl. It's truly something you need to experience. After clicking through the options enough times she'll probably run away.

And that's when I turned the game off.

I've heard from other WolfQuest packies that you can woo the ladies, and the game kind of hits its "end game" phase, with no new objectives. I've also heard you can start your own pack and, if you believe the site, go online and where you can run free with the other pitied kids that aren't allowed to play Grand Theft Auto 4

Wolf Quest is genuinely entertaining for a bit. I appreciate the learning through games, I really do. Unfortunately though, I don't think I learned anything about wolves other than it sucks to be a wolf and hanging on an elk's ass is a shitty way to spend a life.

"The agency that regulates the city's taxi industry has adopted a new fuel efficiency rule that will require all cabs purchased after October 1, 2008, to get at least 25 miles per gallon... New York City cabs purchased after October 1, 2008 [must] get at least 25 mpg. Those bought after the fall of 2009 will have to achieve 30 mpg."

As a big fan (and frequent ZipCar patron) of the 40-50mpg Toyota Prius, demanding 25 or even 30 miles per gallon from taxicabs seems a little silly. If NYC wants to mandate that we all take a trip back to the 90s, why not start with regulating huge flannel shirts and enormous white socks? But the real shocker in this CNN article comes later:

"Right now, a majority of the city's 13,000 cabs are Ford Crown Victorias. But the Crown Vic's V-8 engine currently gets around 14 mpg..."

Really? 14 miles per gallon? How embarrassing. With our fancy "green" office buildings and hordes of local farmers' markets, how did we let this one slip, NYC? It's like finding out that-after all that complaining you did-it is your OWN fart stinking up the living room. So come on TLC, quit strong-arming drivers into putting in GPS systems, and let's move on to implementing rules that actually matter.

Full article: Rule will force NYC taxis to go green

Torchwood, the series, gets its name from the super-secret-we-answer-to-no-one alien hunting agency based in Cardiff, Wales. Being based in Cardiff is Torchwood's first eyebrow raising element. I mean really, how much of anything is based in Wales? Show me a map and I'm pretty sure you'd have to slide my finger over a few inches to hit the target. Also, it never gets old hearing the gap-toothed, bang afflicted, yet somehow adorable Gwen Cooper say "That's naught foony Ohwen!"

Torchwood is not Firefly, it's more like a high school production of some Firefly fan-fiction. Everyone is romantically involved with everyone, the set pieces range from Star Trek-esque colander as Alien Mind Melter to full-on CG pterodactyls, and it seems like family and friends are used for all the roles outside of the core five actors. So why did you bring up Firefly again? Well, the writing and dialogue is actually pretty decent, the dialogue more so than the plot.

The natural dialogue helps sell some of the more ridiculous sci-fi elements. One episode in particular finds the Torchwood staff in danger of being destroyed by an android that looks more at home serving food at Cafe FemBot than delivering inescapable death.

So should you check it out? Sure, why not? The first season just wrapped up on BBC America, and will be available on DVD in January 2008. While it's not the greatest sci-fi series, it's got some of that charm that made early Star Trek episodes so endearing, just with a little more Kirk on Spock action.

Call it Preimplantation Genetic Diagnosis or valids and invalids, it's all coming true. More frequently than ever, parents are choosing which embryo to implant and bear based on their genetic packages. The field, known as reprogenetics, is burgeoning. It's expensive - isn't everything? - and most health insurance won't cover the cost. But don't worry, that isn't stopping tons of parents-to-be.

This New York Times article profiles a couple who has made sure their daughter will not carry her father's gene for predisposition to colon cancer. The question is, of course, how far will we go?

Already, it is possible to test embryos for an inherited form of deafness or a mild skin condition, or for a predisposition to arthritis or obesity. Some clinics test for gender. As scientists learn more about the genetic basis for inherited traits, and as people learn more about their genetic makeup, the embryo screening menu and its array of ethical dilemmas are only expected to grow.

Full Article: The DNA Age: Couples Cull Embryos to Halt Heritage of Cancer

(Via NYT > National.)

While your PS3 sits idle, Stanford's "Folding at Home" project plans to harness its processor to run simulations of protein folding. The results should lead the team of scientists closer to answers about curing Mad Cow disease, Alzheimer's, cystic fibrosis, and certain cancers including hereditary emphysema.

According to the Folding at Home web site:

...it takes about a day [for a computer] to simulate a nanosecond (1/1,000,000,000 of a second). Unfortunately, proteins fold on the tens of microsecond timescale (10,000 nanoseconds). Thus, it would take 10,000 CPU days to simulate folding -- i.e. it would take 30 CPU years!

And when you get home, you can use your controller to zoom around a 3D image of the protein you just rendered. (check out a sample screenshot) All it requires is downloading some free software, and you're ready to help save the human race through sheer absenteeism.

To sweeten the pot, not only will this research cure the aforementioned horrifying battery of diseases, but "learning about how proteins fold will also teach us how to design our own protein-sized "nanomachines" to do similar tasks." Curing cancer AND making nanomachines? Sign me up!

Download the screensaver version for Windows, Linux or OSX.

Full Article: Folding at Home: PS3 FAQ

(Via Gizmodo.)

Beyond the concerns of getting approved by the FDA and being safe enough to administer to 11 and 12 year old girls (the aim is to inoculate girls before they have sex, eliminating the risk of them contracting HPV, which later frequently turns into cervical cancer and kills 3,700 women a year in the US alone), there is the fact that Merck is charging $360 for the three-shot course. This puts the vaccination well out of the range of many uninsured families. There is talk of federal and state programs attempting to cover the cost for those who aren't able, but it seems that nobody quite has the funds. So, it becomes a triage of what vaccines the government will decide to fund, and which they choose to ignore.

"Increasingly, states are asked to make a Sophie's choice about which diseases they will allow children to be hospitalized or killed by," said Dr. Paul Offit, director of infectious diseases at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.

My point being: just because we have some amazing technology, doesn't mean we aren't still assholes.

Full Article: U.S. Approves Use of Vaccine for Cervical Cancer

(Via NYT > National.)

While I don't actually understand most of what they're trying to tell me, I am convinced that Recombinomics is definitely saying something wonderful and futuriffic.

From what I managed to comprehend, it seems that Recombinomics thinks they can predict how viruses currently on the loose (like HIV and SARS) will recombine their genetic material to mutate into slightly different viruses. Apparently, if you can predict this recombination, then you can make a vaccine that's ready to combat the virus before it actually turns into an epidemic.

Also, please note how the logo manages to illustrate recombination among red & blue lines. I'm not saying I love it, I'm just saying somebody was thinking.

Full Article: http://www.recombinomics.com

"My resolution is a simple sense of Congress defending Christmas and its symbol and traditions" &mdashJo Ann Davis (R-VA)

Someone get this woman another white reindeer for her lawn.

Not to be outdone by Hallmark this 'Holiday' Season, the United States Congress voted on on a Resolution that expresses "the symbols and traditions of Christmas should be protected."

This isn't some crazy Rockwellian Christmas production where the United States has to protect Santa from being jailed, this is actual Congress, in the actual U.S. The same body that voted to invade a whole other country just voted to guard Christmas from us.

It passed. Of course it did. I can just hear the Republicans accusing Democrats of having voted against Christmas come the next elections.

Here's an excerpt:

...Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) recognizes the importance of the symbols and traditions of Christmas;
(2) strongly disapproves of attempts to ban references to Christmas; and
(3) expresses support for the use of these symbols and traditions.

Though the bill has no actual meaning, purpose or power it does reinforce to the taxpayers that this country is committed to spending your money in ways you could never imagine.

Again, not even sure what actual forces are involved in this¹, but too bad this shit wasn't around when All Hallow's Eve got raped by those liberal-godless-heathen-P.C.-consumerist-holiday police.

¹(FOX NEWS)

Full Article: Download the Bill
(Via Our Very Own Congress)

"George Takei, who as "Star Trek's" Sulu was part of the Starship Enterprise crew through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual..." &mdashGeorge Takei, 'Star Trek's' Sulu: I'm gay

no shit.

Full Article: George Takei, 'Star Trek's' Sulu: I'm gay
(Via CNN.com)

There are several reasons why it's amazing that scientists have completed the map of human genetic variation.

Firstly, there's the science part. This not only a window into how and why human variety exists the way we see it today, but also human history. As these scientists examine populations from around the globe, the migration patterns of early humans become clearer than ever. They have traced the origin of the species to Africa, using evidence still found in modern African populations' DNA as compared that of populations of other geographic areas.

Then, there's the part where it's a key to fighting disease:

Although any two unrelated people are the same at about 99.9% of their DNA sequences, the remaining 0.1% is important because it contains the genetic variants that influence how people differ in their risk of disease or their response to drugs. Discovering the DNA sequence variants that contribute to common disease risk offers one of the best opportunities for understanding the complex causes of disease in humans. -- hapmap.org

Lastly, and most heartwarmingly, there's the cooperation part. This project is a collaboration among scientists from Japan, the UK, Canada, China, the US and Nigeria, which is why the site is viewable in English, Japanese, Chinese and Yoruba. The map is free. You can download it from the web site. This is working together, folks. This is the kind of sharing unhindered by patents and profits, and funded by the government. Now, if only we could expand these humanitarian efforts and concept of sharing into the arena of, say, the Oil for Food Program.

Full Article: New DNA Map Will Help Find Bad Genes
(Via Slashdot)

"what looked like a chance to talk up new programs is fast becoming a scramble to save the old ones." &mdashLiberal Hopes Ebb in Post-Storm Poverty Debate - New York Times

The New York Times is running an article that talks about the political corpse humping taking place in the wake of Katrina. It seems that after wiping away those crocodile tears many politicians are trying to push forward their own self-serving agendas.

While most humans are decrying the negligence and lack of attention to the nation's poor (and notoriously apathetic voters) some politicians are seeing the devastation caused by Katrina as an opportunity to wipe them out entirely.

President Bush seems to be in some kind of twisted fit, signing break after break for reconstruction companies at the expense of the local workers, while the rest of the pack says "What Me Worry?" and guard their top tier tax cuts like they were the last thing keeping America from going ass first into the hands of the terrorists and gays.

The whole thing is a mess. It's political opportunism at its best and diabolical maneuvering at its worst. What a way to turn a national disaster into a national travesty.

Full Article: Liberal Hopes Ebb in Post-Storm Poverty Debate - New York Times
(Via New York Times)

"The early drafts of the book Of Pandas and People, were used as evidence to link the book to creationism, which it is illegal to teach in government-funded US schools." &mdashBook thrown at proponents of Intelligent Design

For those not in the know, here's the short and dirty of the Intelligent Design case going on in Dover right now.

Some parents are suing their school board for mandatory inclusion of Intelligent Design in their school's science curriculum. The text book which is offered as a source for all things Intelligent Design is called Of Pandas and People.

Here's where things get interesting in court. Intelligent Design proponents insist their ideas are not Creationism and they they simply offer an alternative explanation beyond Darwin's theory of evolution. We saw the following in court recently.

Forrest compared early drafts of Of Pandas and People to a later 1987 copy, and showed how in several instances the word “creationism” had been replaced by “intelligent design”, and “creationist” simply replaced by “intelligent design proponent”.

So here is a brief timeline for those that are still confused:

• 1987— The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that public schools cannot teach creationism in science classes.
• 1987 (few days later) — The book titled Biology and Creation changes its name to Of Pandas and People and also changes all references to Creationism to Intelligent Design.

Come on...I mean, guys...

Full Article: New Scientist Breaking News - Book thrown at proponents of Intelligent Design
(Via New Scientist)

From the waxed handlebars of the British armed forces to soul chips of 90s urban hipsters, facial hair has always been fun. But this! This is just above and beyond! It may be no surprise to learn that Germany is the dominant power in the championships, with at least 85 contestants entered in this year's championship. Considering that there are 6 categories in the moustache class alone, you can see where 85 entries can really be a bonus.

At the last world championships, held in Carson City, Nevada, in 2003, Germany took home a total of 32 trophies to the USA’s nine. Among the winners in Carson City was overall champion Karl-Heinz Hille, a native Berliner and member of the host Berlin Beard Club. -- The Beard Team USA Blog

What may, perhaps, be surprising is that the First Berlin Beard Club - the generous hosts of this year's championship - was founded as recently as 1996. Although the beard itself has a long and bushy history, perhaps it was only fairly recently that beard owners began to feel under-celebrated, and decided to fight back with the First Berlin Beard Club. Well done, gentlemen!

Full Article: World Beard and Moustache Championships
(Via KALIBER10000)

"Japanese scientists have photographed for the first time in the wild a live giant squid, one of the most mysterious creatures of the deep sea." —CNN.com - Scientists photograph giant squid

Very cool news for any dork. Those zany Japanese have done it again, this time filming for the first time a giant squid in the wild. The squid, which measures 25 feet in America or 8 meters for the rest of the world, was filmed attacking some bait off the coast of Japan's Bonin Islands.

The pictures are cool, but it's tough to see the scale of the thing. Leave the science to Japan and leave the fear mongering to the United States. It's only a matter of time now before some nutjob nature show guy is wrestling one of these things.

Apparently this poor fellow also left one of his monstrous tentacles behind as it got caught on the bait. The tentacle has not hit eBay as of the time of this printing.

Full Article: CNN.com - Scientists photograph giant squid - Sep 28, 2005
(Via CNN)