Lipstick of the future? Kids think of the future? Kids sing of the future? Oh yeah! Yeah yeah yeah!

I just heard something odd on TV: solar flare backlash. Basically, it was a little snipe at "media hype" in reference to the fact that we were warned of possible problems occurring when the solar flare hit yesterday, but nothing really happened. This disturbs me. I got the feeling that they were expressing a feeling of "Why do these stupid newscasters and scientists tell us about things that don't happen? It's just hype." blah blah blah.

Are we really so jaded that we can't be "bothered" by warnings that a massive solar flare might disrupt our precious, precious cel phone communications and power grid? I'd hate to see what would happen if "they" didn't warn us, and something had happened. But i think it comes down to the fact that solar flares = science and science = nerds, and it is just nonsense to the average American who doesn't understand anything beyond their own little world, and don't want to be challenged with something they don't "get". They just want to know what's in it for them, and what inconveniences they might experience, and resent being warned when it turns out that it (luckily) didn't happen.

I'm afraid, now, that since nothing happened with the solar flare, it will be the last time they bother talking about it on the news. I find these things fascinating, but i guess if it annoys the average human to hear of such things, then in the future, i won't get to. It's like shuttle launches and space missions. It used to be the highest achievement of mankind, and was portrayed as such. Now we're lucky if we hear about a shuttle launch on a tech news program, much more so if we actually get to see footage of the launch itself. I mean, one of the shuttles exploded a while back on re-entry; i heard about it on the news for about 5 minutes on two different broadcasts, and a short update a few weeks later. The slant of the stories were "These people are afraid something radioactive or otherwise dangerous may be falling in their back yards. How did the government screw up this time?" If it doesn't intrude into their little lives, no one cares.

It's like terrorism alerts. After a while, it seems the media was almost embarrassed that they ever made them. After a few false alarms, they quit bothering, and made a joke out of that color coding system. "Well, we make these alerts, but no one has died yet, so we're gonna quit bothering, because you people want action, not false promises! Now let's see which celebrities are dating each other!" Makes me sick.

Oh, and just now i saw another story: Apparently with certain hormone manipulation, scientists have extended the life and youth of worms and mice, and one scientist on camera stated that it would probably extend the life of humans "for decades, probably a lot more, but it's not unreasonable to expect a couple of decades". The reporter then went on to talk about the life-extending pill, but ended with an exasperated "We can't expect that for another 10 years." It seriously sounded as if he was implying "Well, forget about it ever happening, because it's 10 whole years away." as if we should all give up on the notion of a life-extending pill, that they reported as being a near-certainty, because 10 years is too far away. TEN YEARS?! We'll have a pill that extend our lives for AT LEAST TWO DECADES in TEN YEARS?!?! We should all be out celebrating! But no, scientists have let us down again, because it isn't happening RIGHT NOW. If it isn't happening within the hour, it isn't happening.

The mantra of the Modern American...

Japanese VocabuLearn

Had a nice conversation tonight with an Old Friend that i hadn't actually talked to one-on-one since before the Turn of the Century. (Okay, that makes it artificially sound like a long time ago, but it has been a few years.) I recently regained contact with her through LiveJournal, but IMs are just so much better. Just like old times, without the tremendously old-school circa-1995 chat interface. It was just really good to get to talk again, because i've missed her. I'd consider her one of my very favorite people in the world, and knowing how i absolutely can't stand most people at all, that's a pretty big deal. ;)

Oh, and i forgot to actually ask you what you've been doing the last few years. I'll have to get you to tell me next time. :)