A man came running to Socrates with a rumour about one of his students.

Socrates: Are you sure what you wish to tell me is true?
Man: No, not entirely sure….
Socrates: Then do you know it to be good?
Man: No, in fact….
Socrates: Then at least is it useful to me?
Man: No, not quite.
Socrates: Then if what you wish to tell me is neither true, nor good, nor useful, why tell it to me at all?

There was a time when a medium where all of humanity could interact quasi-anonymously and unbound by geography seemed like a good idea. It was naïvely assumed that such exchange would lead to a more enlightened world, that people would shed their prejudices in the face of the truth that we are more alike than not and share many of the aspirations and anxieties of those that we hate.

Then the Internet was invented and it became apparent that left to themselves, six billion primates will soon descend into name-calling, semi-literacy, fraud, and spam. It’s sweet and cuddly to believe in the wisdom of the many and the inherent humanity of the human race, but the truth is that most people are quite unlikely to contribute to either the combined smartness or niceness of humanity. As a species, we’re mostly dumb and hateful. Not everyone can have an advanced understanding of quantum physics and higher mathematics (like most of the nice aliens in most of science fiction – Vulcans, Asgard, Flouwen, you name it), but everyone can afford to be respectful. You don’t need to pretend to agree with everyone else, because that’s plain dishonest. But you can choose to make intelligent, reasoned, civil statements instead of trolling cyberspace and contributing nothing good or useful. On the contrary, if all you can think of is LOL FAG DIE!!!, then go play somewhere else. Or with yourself. What else are the tubes for?

These lyrics were written for Star Trek (the Original Series) by Gene Roddenberry but never performed.

Beyond
The rim of the star-light
My love
Is wand’ring in star-flight
I know
He’ll find in star-clustered reaches
Love,
Strange love a star woman teaches.
I know
His journey ends never
His star trek
Will go on forever.
But tell him
While he wanders his starry sea
Remember, remember me.

Can you hear Shatner in your head?

Yes, that is Linus Torvalds, flashing a smile that proves he FOSSes regularly. “Let’s Finnish this”, he seems to say. Salute the kernel, everyone.

“Terrorists… hate Americans. Indians… hate each other.”

(Russell Peters)

Clearly.

I’m impressed by the sheer diversity of sites BBC Magazine is interested in. This blog will need watching. Critics will also notice that my supposed predilection towards Asian women isn’t all that unusual. One post ago, Aquarians also hate each other.

I’m an Indian Aquarian. Brilliant.

I find it a mystery that Buddhists have very high mutual dislikes with anyone at all. Duuude… who do Buddhists hate, and who hates Buddhists? Except, you know…. And these guys, of course. And he, but Bood pwns him totally. Light of Asia on!

This is COROT-7b, a planet discovered on my birthday in 2009 by the French and European space agencies. The planet orbits COROT-7, a star less large, less warm, and less ancient than the sun, although now no less interesting.

COROT-7b is closer to its star than Mercury is to the sun, which gives it a 20-hour year and has it tidally locked so only one side of the planet ever faces the star, similar to only the near side of the moon facing Earth. The side exposed to the sun has temperatures of nearly 2000 K. At these temperatures, minerals vaporise into the atmosphere like water does on Earth.

They include corundum, whose crystalline forms are ruby and sapphire (the colour comes from impurities); enstatite, which when weathered forms the gemstone bronzite and when polluted with chromium forms the gemstone chrome-enstatite; and spinel, which forms part of both the British and the French Crown jewels.

The atmosphere itself acts as a fractionating column, becoming cooler and richer in lighter components at higher altitudes. Eventually, and mostly on the dark side, the minerals condense. Not just condense, but condense in their crystalline forms. They turn into clouds of minute jewels levitating miles above the surface of COROT-7b.

Then they rain.

—

Suggested names for COROT-7b:
- Lucy.
- Antoinette (because eet ees French and covered with jewels, non?)
- Fëanor (forged the Silmarils from the light of the Two Trees of Valinor… wait, none of you have read Tolkien’s mythology? Oh. God.)

Here’s to Syed Shahid Ali, the Pakistani I.O.C. member who spoke out against the treatment meted out at America’s airports (mostly to people of his faith and colour of skin). To Obama’s face. Yes, yes, it was Bush’s paranoia, but if Obama has inherited his power and status, it stands to reason he must bear his predecessor’s albatrosses as well.

I am reminded of Riyadh us-Saleheen 1:195, where a man came up to Prophet Muhammad and asked “What is the best type of jihad?”

“Speaking truth before a tyrannical ruler.”, the Prophet answered.

1. Revenge is sweet.

2. Revenge is a dish best served cold.

From 1 and 2, revenge is ice-cream.

Richard Dawkins once stated his pride in the fact that American banknotes say ‘In God We Trust’, while the British tenner shows Darwin.

Now, the British Chiropractic Association is suing particle physicist Dr. Simon Singh for libel for saying that chiropractic medicine is bogus. British law, in its otherwise charming absurdity, places the burden of proof upon the accused in libel cases. It is Dr. Singh’s problem, now, to prove he hasn’t committed a crime.

It may seem like a small matter, but consider the consequences. This takes away the ability of conscientious scientists to publicly out chiropractics, astrologers, preachers, dowsers, witch doctors and others of their ilk. No more Dawkins, Harris, Dennett and Hitchens (the ‘Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse’) pulling religion down from its high horse and calling it the superstitious caveman bullshit it really is. No more peer review or double-blind tests or government approvals before you can begin selling bogus ‘medicine’ to the masses. False medicine isn’t only a crime because it cheats the victim of money, or because it essentially stalls real treatment and often worsens conditions. It is an even greater crime because it cheats the victim and the people in their lives of the truth, and offers the flimsy illusion of hope to prime eventual and inevitable disappointment.

It’s bad enough that the darkness of creationism is alive in America; must Britannia, the Empire of Empiricism, fall too? At least it’s good to know one-third of France and (according to various cheerful reports) four-fifths of Sweden is still atheist. Keep the non-faith.