Watch ring found in Ming Dynasty tomb

In the news this week is the mention of a Swiss-made watch ring (a watch integrated into a ring, or rather, a watch worn as you would wear a ring) found in a 400-year-old Chinese tomb. Problem is, "[l]ocal experts say they are confused as they believe the tomb had been undisturbed since it was created during the Ming dynasty 400 years ago."

So, has someone traveled back in time, or what? That an archaeologist joked about it only serves to confuse the gullible even more.

I know the answer, and of course it's no. The watch ring is old, and it's very likely someone was in the tomb sometime in the past 100 years. Probably closer to then as opposed to now. It seems fairly safe to assume that unless you have personally watched the tomb entrance every moment for the past 100 years, or so, and you can be certain no one has entered or exited, that some time traveler has NOT left his/her ring in the tomb. Actually, more than a fairly safe assumption.

But this story does make good fodder for a D20 Modern Time Travel campaign episode. After we visit the Nazis during WWII, and maybe visit the space station (on the far side of the moon) back in 1270 (I think that's when it was).

Yes, I'm a geek and I still play RPGs, at my age. I never want to think older than 25, and so far, I'm winning.

Real-life Dilbert manager quotes

Since I'm an IT architect, this list of real PHB* quotes is particularly funny. I may have heard some of these a time or two, but the real funny I run into all the time is a business-imposed deadline that has no reason they are willing to share with us. And us IT folks are supposed to be "partners" with the business. Partners as long as you're doing what they ask, when they want it, and for the amount of money they're willing to pay.

Yes, "moving at the speed of business" is our most favorite oxymoron.

* Pointy-Haired Boss

"Teach the Strengths and Weaknesses of Evolution?"

First of all, hat tip to Ed Brayton and his Dispatches from the Culture Wars blog. In reference to the State of Texas school board's position on the theory of evolution:

I have to wonder--is it appropriate to teach the "strengths and weaknesses of evolution" to high school students? Truly? Really? The finer points of the theory of evolution are appropriate for graduate school courses in biology. Can a high school student understand and appreciate where the current theory is, in terms that make sense given their really limited exposure? In a word, no.

So, I'm trying to parse this statement in a way that makes sense. Of course, I know the agenda behind it, and it's really a thinly veiled attempt to insert Christian faith/belief into the science curriculum. A place, I might add, where it firmly must not be. I wouldn't want Islamic faith taught as science, either.

I am a rationalist. My "faith" is not based on superstitions or stories. The theory of evolution has been researched and experimented against by thousands of scientists for more than 100 years. It's not a faith, and it does stand up to rational, scientific scrutiny. The same scrutiny and rigor that, for example, sent us to the moon. A scientist continually tries to prove that they're wrong. The only way to verify some hypothesis is to build experiments that are intended to disprove it. Because only when an hypothesis stands up to repeated, stringent attempts to disprove it, does it become a scientific theory. Theories change as we learn more, but no one would suggest that not knowing everything would, in fact, mean a theory is weak.

We do not know everything; we probably never will. Knowledge isn't a destination; it's a journey. As for how life began, how the universe began, what caused it all ... I don't know the answers, and I'm all right not knowing. If someone wants to believe that a supernatural god did all this (and we call this faith), then that's OK with me. It's just an hypothesis that, unfortunately, hasn't really been tested. We can infer its validity in the face of unknowns, but we have not tested this idea against the physical universe. For all I know it could be true, but my intuition tells me it's not.

There doesn't have to be a reason for all this--everything. That it is, is good enough for me. Because the real question is: what are you going to do with what you have? The meaning of life is to see it perpetuated, and that is all. We have minds that thirst for the answers, so in addition to perpetuating our life in this universe, we also explore the nature of the reality we sense. Perfectly OK. Not a waste of time.

I'd suggest if you've been sitting around waiting for the afterlife that you get up off your ass and get busy. You ain't got eternity to accomplish something. There's no time like now; no one better than you. Or me.

It's been a while

I haven't blogged about my story, A Far Sun, in some time. I've been crazy busy at work, and the energy that works requires often means I have no desire left in the evenings to write. I can change that--I need to change that so I continue to make progress. I've been "stuck" at 175K words for a while, now, and despite stopping and restarting twice in the past 6 weeks, all I've succeeded in doing is red-pen-to-paper editing of the last 300 pages (or so).

Off topic but apropos, sometimes it pays to print out the damn thing and edit it on paper. Better than editing on screen, but obviously more costly in time and resources. A 6,000 page laser printer cartridge is about $130. Red rollerball pen refill is $5. Printer prints 19 pages per minute. Editing at the dining room table ... priceless.

But now to the reason for this post: I think I'm about ready to start podcasting the story. I've decided to keep the thing in present tense (i.e., "Adam looks to Jane, who is staring wide-eyed at the amazing sight before her.") But I'm still trying to decide what a sun-skin accent sounds like. I'm tempted to treat it like a Russian accent, but that still seems cliche and a bit obvious. Or maybe it's not obvious at all. As for male and female voices, I'm just going to soften my voice for the women (mostly just Jane) and probably just deepen my voice for Adam. This is just so you can tell when the narrator is speaking. I know I'm going to have to put in a bunch of "Adam says" and "Jane says" so you will know who's talking.

I've been worrying about the length of the story, as well. The story has these basic parts:

• Adam and Jane (my heroes) find themselves in a "new world" that has apparently been destroyed. They find people--a native race of primitive folks who call themselves "sun-skins," and they go to live in a sun-skin village, the guests of a young woman named Lina (my third hero).
  
• Adam and Jane have some important realizations during their live in the village, and decide they need to leave the village (all three of them) to go in search of a cure for the "disease" that's been killing newborn babies.
  
• The next part of the story is their journey to this place called the Library, where it seems the last scientists are to be found. Several things happen on this journey to color their impressions of the Librarians.
  
• They arrive at the Library, and discover that things aren't quite what they expected. Can't say more without spoiling it.
• They save the world. This is not a spoiler, is it?
  

Do they find a cure for the disease? What about the Librarians? There are revelations to be revealed. Heh.

So back to what I was saying about the story's length: I think I will not hurry through this "final" part, but instead take the time to more fully explain and describe the Library and the Librarians. Allow Adam and Jane a chance to interact with these people. It was always what I intended; I just moved away from it in the desire to keep the story shorter. OK, so it's not going to be that short. Maybe 250K words. If you knew how I write, that's not going to be hard to do. It's keeping it short that's hard.

I know all the background stuff, and I also know what's going on there that might be interesting to write about. Is everything specifically relevant to the plot? Not sure, but there are plenty of things already written that might be candidates for trimming. It's all interesting to me, so I'm pretty sure it will be OK if I write it.

As a final point of style: In the first few hundred pages I had things in the story that were not, strictly speaking, something you would write in a novel. Things such as "we watch as our heroes slog through the rain throughout the day." I have a bunch of this kind of stuff to clean up. Later in the story I adopted more of a narrative style, and very little talking directly with the reader as if we're both watching the action. No "jumping out of frame."

But to summarize, I think I will start working on podcasting this story, time allowing. I'll be off about two weeks around Christmas, so who knows? As I often say: stay tuned.

Misconceptions about atheism and the afterlife

"When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more -- that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."

Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich made these remarks in reference to the death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan. Let me address them in the order they occur to me:

• "Die for nothing" - I thought he died to further the causes of freedom and safety for Americans. Not so much for the Afghanis, but ... not for nothing.
• "Now he is no more" - His body and mind are gone to us, but we remember him. I never knew him, but there are many who did. (Let's ask why we remember someone ...)
  
• "Supposedly a better life" - Maybe, but there's no proof of that. It's what we call "faith."
• "Where is there to go?" - What's wrong with nowhere? Why does there have to be a better place? What's wrong with this one? It sucks, maybe, but we're here and we can make it better, can't we?
• "Worm dirt" - Everyone becomes worm dirt, eventually. The body does not continue, no matter how much you believe otherwise.
• "Don't believe in anything" - Patently false. Unless you define "anything" as belief in a god. I don't define it that way. Atheists believe in lots of things, just not the supernatural. Frankly, I don't believe in the supernatural, either.
• "I don't know how an atheist thinks" - Atheists think exactly as you do, except they don't believe in a supernatural god. They have morals, and ethics, and know the difference between right and wrong, just like everyone else. Morals don't come from a god, as far as atheists are concerned. Your mileage may vary. Why an atheist would sacrifice himself (or herself) in war or in any other thing has nothing to do with belief in an afterlife or a god, and everything to do with protecting life. That's purely humanistic, of course, and not an invalid reason for dying. Would you die to protect your child or someone you love? Absolutely.
  

My mother told me she's pretty sure there's no life after death. She thinks she died when she had her heart attack, and said death is just nothingness. Black. Nothing. They revived her, obviously, or I would not have heard what happened.

I can live with that. Heh. Death doesn't scare me any more than knowing that I wouldn't be around anymore to do interesting stuff and be with the people I love. No one wants to die, but does it matter if we live forever? Why should that motivate us more or less than knowing we can accomplish things here? Now. In this life. This life should also be important, but if we expend our energies worrying about the "great beyond," isn't that a little irresponsible? Believe in an afterlife all you want, but don't give this life short shrift.

Live in the now. Do what you can, now, with what you have. If we can do that, the afterlife will take care of itself. At least that's what my god wants.

Hat tip to Ed Brayton.