Mental Floss' Exclusive Interview With Bill Watterson

As a follow up to yesterday's FunTime, I offer this link to Mental Floss' preview of their upcoming
December issue which features an interview with Bill Watterson, the creator of Calvin and Hobbes.

And this one quote from the article......

"Owing to spite or just a foul mood, have you ever peeled one of those stupid Calvin stickers off of a pickup truck?
I figure that, long after the strip is forgotten, those decals are my ticket to immortality."

So many of us miss this wonderful comic that any new crumb or tidbit that we can have is a breath of fresh air in a stuffy and dismal media diet. I still read one strip a day and you can too. Right here.

Fun Time! Dear Mr. Watterson, A Documentary On The Impact Of The ‘Calvin & Hobbes’ Comic Strip!

Lifelike Images Of American Streets Using Toy Car Models

Photographer Michael Paul Smith has used forced perspective to create outdoor scenes using his extensive diecast model car collection. Here's a link to Colossal, the art site I found this on, where there are more examples of Smith's amazing photographs. He also has a book of similar images.

And because it's so cool, here's another shot from his website that I especially like.

Entitled "The Rescuing of Supercar."

Game Theory Shows The Way To Control Climate Change

Two weeks ago the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change delivered the clear message that climate change is real, that humans are to blame and that if something isn't done to change this and quick, life on Earth will be done in 50 years.

With the recent proof of human intransigence delivered by the U.S. Congress, one has to ask, how will we do this? The first impulse is to relegate the responsibility to act to national or global institutions, but that might not be the best course of action according to Vítor Vasconcelos, Francisco Santos and Jorge M. Pacheco from the ATP-group at Lisbon.

They used game theory, which is a branch of mathematics that studies social interactions, to show that any action taken by national or global actors is just as good as no action at all. Think of how effective the UN climate change message has been so far.

They found that best way to act is at the local level, with a punish-thy-neighbor approach. Click on the link for a full understanding of why this method will work.

And after all, doesn't everyone like games?

Travel Photo of the Week

Finn Slough, British Columbia, Canada

Negative Thinking - There's A Gene For That

It's been discovered that there is a gene that predisposes one towards negative thinking. Recent research has identified the gene in question as the ADRA2b deletion variant, which influences the hormone and neurotransmitter norepinephrine. I seems that people with the variant gene experience events more vividly than those without it.

Inside A Boeing Engineer's Impossibly Small Dream Pad

Casa Cúbica, A Gorgeous Container Home

From Small House Bliss comes this gorgeous container home called Casa Cúbica. The wood accented interior is beautiful and the deck on top perfect for entertaining. Sleeps four with two bunk-bed style doubles on the left end and a queen sized Murphy bed that drops down next to the cooking area. When the bed is not in use, a table drops down for eating or other table-related activities.

Fun Time! How To See New York's Secret City Hall Subway Stop!

To see this architectural beauty, the City Hall Station, take the 6 train to the Brooklyn Bridge stop and stay on. The train will use the station to turn around et voilà!

The Math That Saw The US Shutdown Coming

An article in New Scientist discusses the work of mathematical ecologist Peter Turchin. It seems that he has been applying the mathematics of complex systems to problems of political instability.

He believes that he has identified historical cycles that are two to three centuries long of political instability and breakdown affecting states and empires from Rome to Russia and he argues that that similar cycles are evident in US history. Quoting from the article. "Workers or employees make up the bulk of any society, with a minority of employers constituting the top few per cent of earners. By mathematically modelling historical data, Turchin finds that as population grows, workers start to outnumber available jobs, driving down wages. The wealthy elite then end up with an even greater share of the economic pie, and inequality soars."

If you add this information to polling data offered in an article in Salon that shows that the radical fringe of the GOP will become even more extreme and strident in the coming years, you just might have the "end if the world" scenario that so many evangelicals (a significant segment of the GOP) lust for.

Cheer up. Tomorrow's Fun Time will make up for all this doom and gloom.