Synaptic Sugar

Mars will be transformed into a habitable planet by the end of the century, according to physicist Lowell Wood, through a long process known as terraforming by scientists and science fiction writers and fans. The process involves changing the characteristics of a planet to make it more hospitable, by acting on its ecology, atmosphere and temperature; according to Wood, something that humans have been doing for at least ten thousand years on Earth, and that it’s now time to do on other planets if mankind wants to really conquer Space.

Mars appears to be the right candidate, as it would be much easier to terraform than, say, the Moon. All that is needed is to raise its temperature, for example with a controlled greenhouse effect, get rid of the excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and generate soil usable by agriculture; then, after around three decades of preparation, things should have a way of sort of working themselves out and evolve in a Martian Spring-like chain reaction. Only then will mankind be able to colonize the newly restored planet.

Take Two Interactive and Rockstar Games always go through some hard times when releasing a new game. Their latest creation, Manhunt 2, recently received a rating of Adults Only from the US Entertainment Software Rating Board, which is going to make it hard for the game to be released on its announced platforms, the Sony Playstation 3 and the Nintendo Wii, and to be afterwards sold by family-oriented companies such as Wal Mart. Much harsher, however, was the verdict from the British Board of Film Classification, which completely refused to give the game any rating apparently because of its eccessive violence, effectively making its commercialization illegal.

Following the latter decision, the Italian Minister for Communications Paolo Gentiloni also thought it was a good idea to completely ban the game in Italy, defining it “cruel and sadistic, with a squalid setting and a continuous, insisting encouragement to violence and murder”. The Minister asked Take Two to give up on the release date previously set for July 13, and alerted the ISFE (Interactive Software Federation of Europe) to discuss the topic and possibly help to ban the game throughout Europe; a meeting of ISFE on June 26 will in fact review the issue.

I wonder when people, in this case adults, will be left fully free to take their own decisions. It’s one thing to rate a game and make efforts to make sure it’s not sold to kids (and in this case even teens) when there’s strong evidence that it may be inappropriate, but it makes no sense at all to completely ban a game and forbid sales in a whole country (worse, a whole continent!) to anyone whatsoever. It’s the same old story over and over, and all it does is make the censors look ignorant, when movies or TV shows with much worse content get accepted without problems (maybe with a restrictive rating, but not banned). This way of showing off concern has no real effect either: those who really want to play the game will still do it, either by buying it (in person or online) from a country where it’s not banned or by obtaining a pirate copy somehow (so good job in that department, too).

Resources shouldn’t be wasted so much on preemptive censorship. If you don’t want your children to watch or play with something you find questionable, spend more time with them, explain what you think is wrong, and that fiction is not reality — and ultimately give them a free choice. If they’re adults already, then you should have done that a long time ago, and you should now give them a free and aware choice. As a side note, I think it’s interesting in this context to see how the headlines on the ISFE homepage link to a page that lists many studies on the social aspects of videogames, and quotes: “There is no linear combination between violent computer games and the violence of teenagers in reality”, according to Professor Wassilis Kassis (University of Basel). Possibly not the best organization to call upon when you so desperately want to prove the opposite point of view.

Google, as always keeping an eye on matters of energy efficiency, has offered $11 million, with $1 million already granted, to boost development of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles (PHEVs), the next generation of Hybrid Electric Vehicles (HEVs) for which currently only Toyota and General Motors seem to have concrete plans. The technology has been ready for some time, but requires lithium-ion batteries to replace the nickel metal hydride ones found on HEVs for the extra capacity promised by PHEVs in order to rely less on the internal combustion engine. This in turn creates a quantity of new issues to deal with, such as heating and obviously different costs, that can only be solved with a specific and sensible mass production and marketing plan, requiring investments of possibly up to hundreds of millions (the US government will apparently grant $28 million more in 2008 for research).

According to Google, the future will see “plug-in hybrids mass produced by major automakers; fuel tanks filled not with gasoline but with bio-fuels, such as ethanol, for the internal-combustion engines to use when necessary; solar carports, where plug-ins could recharge from power generated by the sun; vehicle-to-grid links. The growing number of plug-in hybrid owners could sell the power stored in their cars’ batteries to utility companies using special hookups to the utilities’ power grid.” (the most distinctive feature of PHEVs over normal HEVs is the possibility to plug them in to regular power outlets at home to recharge the battery, thus further diminishing the need for the combustion engine).

I was already thinking about getting a Toyota Prius, and I’ve read that current HEVs can be converted to PHEVs already (though I don’t know how costly that would be). As PHEVs won’t be widely commercialized until at least 2010, I wonder if that would be a viable option.

The wedding is getting closer (see "Orange blossoms"). Together with the one on Amazon, there’s an additional wedding registry at Target, to add more choice and through which people (in the US) who don’t feel like shopping online can still get us something by going directly to a real store! Check it out, if you’d be so kind, and stay tuned for more news.

Tired of having to stop working to have lunch? Does having to use both hands to eat make you uncomfortable? Do you find plates and utensils cumbersome and inelegant? Fear not, Crispy Cones may be there just for you. Rumored to open in new locations elsewhere soon, the chain currently has only one store available in Arcadia, California, and offers the best of two worlds: tasty and successful foods, with the convenience of a patent-pending production process that can stick them in a “smart drip-free” cone.

From the website:

With its easy-to-handle shape, the Crispy Cone is the food you’ll love to eat on the move. Whether in the car, the mall, or walking down the street, the Crispy Cone lets you enjoy its delicious, hassle-free flavors while shuffling through your MP3, driving your car, working at your desk or talking on your cell phone.

Why wait till your next meal to enjoy good food when you can just grab a cone and continue doing whatever it is that you’re doing? With a growing menu that includes pizza, quesadillas, chicken dishes, salads and sweets (all in a cone), eating won’t ever be an inconvenience anymore. Remember: when you concentrate food, you unleash its awesome power (and if Homer Simpson says it, then it must be true).

Thanks to Cat for pointing this out to me. I find a similarity to “Jimmy Dean’s Pancakes & Sausage On a Stick”, in the picture below. Yes, those are chocolate chips.