The most common types of earthquakes are those where two plates meet, as in California along the San Andreas Fault. As the plates push against each other, pressures build up until one or the other gives way. In general, the longer the interval between quakes, the greater the pent-up pressure and thus the greater the scope for a really big jolt. This is a particular worry for Tokyo, which Bill McGuire, a hazards specialist at University College London, describes as “the city waiting to die” (not a motto you will find on many tourism leaflets). Tokyo stands on the boundary of three tectonic plates in a country already well known for its seismic instability. In 1995, as you will remember, the city of Kobe, three hundred miles to the west, was struck by a magnitude 7.2 quake, which killed 6,394 people. The damage was estimated at $99 billion. But that was as nothing—well, as comparatively little—compared with what may await Tokyo.

Tokyo has already suffered one of the most devastating earthquakes in modern times. On September 1, 1923, just before noon, the city was hit by what is known as the Great Kanto quake—an event more than ten times more powerful than Kobe’s earthquake. Two hundred thousand people were killed. Since that time, Tokyo has been eerily quiet, so the strain beneath the surface has been building for eighty years. Eventually it is bound to snap. In 1923, Tokyo had a population of about three million. Today it is approaching thirty million. Nobody cares to guess how many people might die, but the potential economic cost has been put as high as $7 trillion.

The recent Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami may have mostly spared Tokyo, but damn. I wonder if it counts as getting rid of that strain beneath the surface. If it does, I guess possibly $309 billion in damage and anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 deaths is preferable to $7 trillion and hundreds of thousands of casualties.

The book is wonderful, by the way, even if it’s more of a relatively short science book (considering the breadth of topics covered) which explains our knowledge about the universe and how we came to realize such things, as opposed to a massive history tome like Europe: A History. Bryson is a very entertaining author who obviously did an insanely amount of research to put together the book.

Scientists have created the world’s first synthetic life form in a landmark experiment that paves the way for designer organisms that are built rather than evolved.

The controversial feat, which has occupied 20 scientists for more than 10 years at an estimated cost of $40m, was described by one researcher as “a defining moment in biology”.

Craig Venter, the pioneering US geneticist behind the experiment, said the achievement heralds the dawn of a new era in which new life is made to benefit humanity, starting with bacteria that churn out biofuels, soak up carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and even manufacture vaccines.

Anyone who is really interested should watch the video at the link. And you SHOULD be interested. Man has created life. But then why am I surprisingly numb? Maybe I need it to be a trending Twitter topic for it to feel real. The Grey’s Anatomy finale is obviously much more important than this. Or #whywebrokeup. Jesus Christ, no one gives a shit about your boyfriend cheating on you with your younger sister. You’ll be able to have a new one synthetically made soon enough.

I can’t wait for all the different lifeforms that will be made to serve mankind. Sure, we’ll be able to scrub carbon from the atmosphere, and create new vaccines quicker, but what about making even better Wendy’s Crispy Chicken Nuggets from scratch? But I guess that’s food engineering, which has already been going on for a long while. How about a spider-killing bacteria that will only operate within 3 feet of your bed? Maybe a special coating of bacteria on a golf ball that makes it fly straight every time by intelligently halting sideward spin?

On a serious note, imagine how cool it’d be if there were a bacteria that could just be dumped into the Gulf of Mexico that would break down all the hydrocarbons automatically?

Copenhgen=arrogance of man2think we can change nature’s ways.MUST b good stewards of God’s earth,but arrogant&naive2say man overpwers nature

Earth saw clmate chnge4 ions;will cont 2 c chnges.R duty2responsbly devlop resorces4humankind/not pollute&destroy;but cant alter naturl chng

IONS

I can’t even bring myself to rip this apart as much as it’s needed. But really, IONS. Holy fucking shit, how was this woman a governor, nevermind a vice presidential candidate. Really, I’m willing to overlook all the retarded text-speak, since it’s on Twitter and I guess she wanted to get her moronic thoughts in 140 character bursts, but IONS.

It’s arrogant to think we can change nature’s ways, huh? Hmm, like cutting down rainforests or killing off entire species of animals? Shit, agriculture could be seen as man overpowering nature and we came up with that 10,000 years ago.

If you think Europeans became the dominant group in humanity because of superior genes, you’re an ignorant asshole. Eurasia — in case you didn’t realize, Europe and Asia are really one big landmass — had the advantages when it came to large domesticable animals and crops. Not to mention the proximity to the birthplace of humanity in Africa. You may think Africa would’ve become the center of human civilization since we originated there, but that continent’s animals don’t take kindly to domestication. And it’s pretty fucking hot there, if you didn’t notice. 

The orientation of continents also plays a role, as Eurasia spans mostly east-west, while the others span mostly north-south. Australia doesn’t count. They were still in the Stone Age when England decided to ship criminals there because farming wasn’t particularly advantageous compared to hunting. Even though I saw multiple hilarious pictures of Aborigines in Guns, Germs, and Steel, I still think of The Road Warrior when I hear Australia. I try to imagine cool shit like that occurs all the time in the middle of the continent, unbeknowst to the civilized people on the coasts. 

(You can stretch those last two paragraphs to about 200 pages.)

Even though Europe eventually became the center of civilization, for arguably a bigger portion of human history the Middle East has served as the hub for human advancement, as evidenced by the Babylon, Egypt (might as well be the MIddle East), Persia, and the Byzantine and Ottoman Empires. The Middle East used to be the Fertile Crescent! But then the farming capabilities of the area were decimated by desertification to create the hell that many people now consider the Middle East to be. Dubai is trying to change that by going SimCity all over everyone’s ass, but we’ll see how that turns out. Their financial planner is probably popping up every 2 minutes to annoy the shit out of them. If it weren’t for the desertification, the Middle East could easily still be the dominant force in the world, with the rest of us resorting to terrorist attacks on them. And Israel would certainly not exist. The Middle East — in addition to its head start in terms of native crops and animals — has central location in between Europe, Asia, and Africa, creating a whirlwind of cultural diffusion. And we all learned in school how cool and helpful cultural diffusion is! If only they knew of the growing menace that is anime…

And oh yeah, China was always so isolated because of geography. Actually, that’s just the whole book in a nutshell. GEOGRAPHY. Maybe already knowing my geography fairly well diminished the amount of satisfaction I could’ve possibly garnered from this book. Ok, so there was actually some discussion of social evolution in terms of different sizes of human groups, but I just did not find it all that enthralling. If you’re into reading about how a tribe handles growing from 5,000 to 20,000, maybe this is the book for you. I rather just read my 322nd science-fiction story in a row. More Philip K. Dick here I come!

Oh wait, I need to study financial mathematics instead.

Collisions with energy comparable to that of ones that will be created in the LHC (actually not even tomorrow, but in a week or so) take place in the upper atmosphere all the time, without black holes forming and swallowing the earth. Well, miniature black holes can and will form – if I remember what I’ve read and learned correctly — but their energy dissipates quicker than a lead handed over to the Mets bullpen.

It just blows my mind the manner in which this whole notion of the world possibly ending due to the LHC has picked up steam. I’m pretty sure this has happened with each progressively bigger particle collider, but never to this extent. Maybe the internet really has been able to influence the thinking of the unwashed masses. People actually have heard of “string theory” now. On the other hand, I’m sure most people couldn’t tell you that scientists at CERN (where the LHC is located) are looking for the Higgs boson a.k.a. the God Particle. Or supersymmetric particles that could help solidfy string theory.

Most people are inherently scared of stuff they don’t fully understand, so when they hear this LHC has even a tiny possibility of ending the world, they freak the fuck out. You know, there’s a probability of your TV spontaneously jumping on its own, but I’m pretty sure no one — out of the billions that have owned a TV — have ever seen a TV jump. Maybe probability isn’t even the point I should be making here. If the LHC amazingly manages to create a stable black hole that can suck up matter, it’ll all be over before anyone even knows it. So take solace in that.

But you won’t be able to call me a moron back. Muahaha.

P.S. I haven’t looked into the LHC enough to find out if a Half-Life scenario is possible. But that would be awesome, so whatever.

Edit: As if right on command, I checked my Google Reader after posting and this article came up:

Large Hadron Collider: Best and Worst Case Scenarios

Attended by over 6,000 people each year, I-CON is a three day festival, designed to encourage literacy, creativity and interest in science and technology through science fiction and its related genres. Programming at I-CON spans a wide range of topics and interests, including science fiction, fantasy, horror, Japanese animation (otherwise known as Anime), science and technology, comic books, and medieval reenactment.

The only featured guests this year that I know are Ray Bradbury, Billy West (voice of Fry), the dude who was Darth Maul, and the black guy from Ghostbusters.

Even with my student discount, it’s $48 for the three-day pass. One day ranges from $31-48 depending on the day.

Anyway, I’m looking at the schedule, and there’s some potential gold here.

ANIMU PREVIEW
Early Morning Furry Get Together
Group Cosplay
A Brief History of Awesome
Your Furry Alter-Ego: The Why & How
Anime 101: The Road to Being an Otaku!
Smash Brothers Brawl Tournament
Creating Anthropomorphic Web Comics
Harry Potter Wand Making / Creature Battle
Gamer Sex 101 “R” Rated
Cosplay Competition
Hentai (18+)

On the flip side, there’s actually some legitimately interesting stuff:

Michio Kaku presentations (don’t know why he isn’t a featured guest)
Doctor Who screenings
Why People Suck: The Search For Suck (my professor’s panel)
Texas Hold’em tourney
Introduction to Podcasting
Space 2008, What’s New?
South Park Trivia Contest
Battlestar Galactica Season 4 Premiere screening (too bad I’m not caught up)
Guitar Hero 3 tourney

But really, none of these compare to the previous list.

I think I’m leaning towards checking out this spectacle. THIS is why I finally bought a digital camera.