Sorry, everyone. It’s been a very stressful and exhausting stretch this month.
Family issues, health issues, work issues…
I need a serious break.
Two weeks of no posting 🤦♂️
December 20, 2023
(Yet) another apology for a brief absence
November 19, 2023
Dear readers,
Sorry to have been absent for a couple of weeks.
Things just got busy at work and at home. And influenza really is strong this year, as predicted (I found out long ago that teenagers – especially guys – completely ignore suggestions regarding ways of avoiding illness due to an unwavering belief in their invulnerability).
I’ll try to make it up to you over the next couple of days.
In the meantime, here’s an Apple IIe showing the matrix (“all I see is blond…brunette…”).
mRNA and nanotech? Stay skeptical and use the Baloney Detection Kit!
June 25, 2021
It’s becoming increasingly common to see social media posts claiming that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, which include those made by Pfizer and Moderna, could alter a person’s DNA. Some posts even suggest that nano-machines are being injected into the body.
https://cosmosmagazine.com/health/covid/technically-no-longer-human-can-mrna-covid-19-vaccines-meld-with-your-dna/
Yeah, I’ve seen some of these posts. Talked to a neighbor who was convinced Bill Gates was trying to inject us all with a chip to control our minds.
Is there any truth to these rumours? Could an mRNA vaccine be modifying your DNA?
No.
(Read the linked Cosmos article for more details!)
Actually, all you need to do is use logic and reasoning, apply some critical thinking, and demand lots of science-based evidence.
It’s called the Baloney Detection Kit and was introduced in a Cornell University undergraduate course about critical thinking and the scientific method by astrophysicist Carl Sagan.
In his book The Demon-haunted World, he lays out nine steps to bust BS and call out unscientific baloney. I use it with my second year undergrad students in a current news and global issues course.
The link above to the kit also outlines some of the most important logical fallacies to avoid, with number 8 and 9 being the most difficult to explain and convince people about (because they involve education about basic statistics).
So will this convince anti-vaxxers who make outlandish claims online?
Probably not. Unless it goes viral 😉.
What would the Grandmaster say?
January 7, 2021
Authors Give Back Initiative = FREE ebooks for Self-Isolation
March 22, 2020
Both my books on Smashwords (Adam’s Stepsons and Destiny in the Future – actually my mother’s book published posthumously as a tribute) are FREE downloads from now to April 20 as part of the Smashwords Authors Give Back initiative:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/931869
Formats include .ePub, .mobi, PDF, .txt, and online reader (browser-based).
Take it easy. Deep breaths. No panicking. Let’s get through this thing.
(See https://blog.smashwords.com/…/smashwords-launches-initiativ… for more information and links to other free ebooks as well.)
The Witcher, Wheel of Time, and Other Sci-Fi/Fantasy Shows Halt Production Due to Coronavirus
March 16, 2020
😱😱😱
Welp, guess it’s back to ST:TNG and Teen Titans: Go! for a while…
Just in time for COVID-19 self-isolation and quarantine: A whole lot of online books for (15th to 19th century) kids
March 15, 2020
Includes such favorites as “pyke notte thyne errys nothyr thy nostrellys” and “spette not ovyr thy tabylle.”
Oh, and there’s some stuff by Lewis Carroll (Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, i.e., Alice in Wonderland) and Axel Scheffler (The Gruffalo), among many others.
Artificial intelligence-created medicine to be used on humans for first time
January 31, 2020
“This year was the first to have an AI-designed drug, but by the end of the decade all new drugs could potentially be designed by AI.”
Philip K Dick would have had a field day with this. Imagine what will happen once we start ingesting nanobots…
I, for one, welcome our AI drug overlords.
RIP – Vonda N McIntyre
April 7, 2019
I bought her Star Trek novelizations when I was a teenager. At the time, I had no idea that (a) she was an original Trekkie (b) had studied genetics and (c) had won both the Nebula and the Hugo Award (the Nebula multiple times).
She also made it a point to prove that women could write science fiction just as well as men, in a completely male-dominated science fiction landscape.
She managed to finish her final novel less than two weeks before she died.
RIP.
(Read here if you don’t have access to or don’t care for the NYTimes: https://www.geekwire.com/2019/vonda-n-mcintyre-1948-2019-seattle-science-fiction-star-dies-cancer/)
The Great American Rake Off
November 20, 2018
Just gonna post this here for posterity…
M Thomas Apple Author Page 