Making a robotic infant with self-replicating nanobots that will grow the body structure over time and inserting an advanced neural net of molecular computers running a FreeBSD based OS with extensive self-learning algorithms in your garage is artificially manufacturing a child.

....not that there's anything wrong with that.

I thought Gud was spending an awful lot of time in the garage recently...

Yeah -- he was BUILDING the robotic infant with self-replicating nanobots and inserting an advanced neural net of molecular computers running a FreeBSD based OS with extensive self-learning algorithms that's GROWING INSIDE OF JESSICA!!!!

....or did we all forget that she was pregnant, huh? Or perhaps I should say "pregnant"....

The Bible don't say nuthin' about them nannerbots, I dunno, it just don't sound right to me, I reckon. It just don't sound right.... I don't think the Lord sits in favor of them robotic sperm cells and whatnot, or else it would be in the Bible, gol-darn-it!

I've read that the Vietnam war wasn't so much about "communism taking over" as Vietnamese nationalism asserting itself, and as a result of our obsession with fighting communism we missed this fact.

Basically true, though the one of the things the Pentagon papers revealed is that actually our government did know this. It is not so much that we missed the fact, as that we ignored it. Of course there was a sense in which it was thought to be a real threat at the time. If the U.S. government let a nation go communist without punishing them for it, there was the danger that others would follow their bad example. That was the real domino theory.

robotic infant with self-replicating nanobots and inserting an advanced neural net of molecular computers running a FreeBSD based OS with extensive self-learning algorithms that's GROWING INSIDE OF JESSICA!!!!

Please. If I were growing a robot, I'd do it safely inside a uterine replicator like any normal Betan citizen.

Please. If I were growing a robot, I'd do it safely inside a uterine replicator like any normal Betan citizen.

....or maybe that's what you WANT us to think!

Okay. I go drink beer now.

If I were growing a robot, I'd do it safely inside a uterine replicator like any normal Betan citizen.

Well, sure. Just like Gud himself did.

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I mean, come on, people, all the Leif stories...?

You know what I think would be a good idea? If we didn't ignore things we knew. I'm just saying.

We know that we shouldn't ignore things that we know, but we've decided to ignore that.

Timelies all!

One more holiday gift acquired. We saw this cute lidded bowl at the Jewish Folk Arts festival a few weeks back, but didn't buy it then, thinking we'd see the artist at another show soon. She wasn't at that show, but we tracked her down, found out the bowl was still available, and ordered it. Yay!

The Singing Nun is on TCM. I am now hopelessly earwormed with "Dominique." (And somehow, I know the French lyrics to this song. I don't know why I know the French lyrics, but when I start humming the "Dominique, nique, nique" part, the next phrase that jumps into my brain is "S'en allait tout simplement." I don't have any memory of ever learning that song, in any language. It's very odd.)

Going back to all the Iraq stuff from this afternoon, I'm in the middle of reading the latest Time magazine, and there's a sad, but interesting, article on the increase in urban crime in the past year, especially in the middle-large cities such as Milwaukee (40% increase in homicides in 2005). A big reason cited in the article is the decrease in police on the street, due to (a) loss of federal funds that have been siphoned into Homeland Security and Iraq, and (b) many cops being in the National Guard and sent to Iraq without replacing them in the force.

So, when factoring in the deaths in the "war on terror," add in those homicides in cities across the country that most likely would have been prevented if 911 calls could be answered in minutes, rather than several hours.