Links for 2011-12-02

I’m dubious, because the texture of the outside would be way different than a real samosa. But it looks relatively simple, so maybe it’d be worth a try.

If the Fermi Paradox is a profound question, then this answer is equally profound. It amounts to saying that the universe provides us with a picture of the ultimate end-point of technological development. In the Great Silence, we see the future of technology, and it lies in achieving greater and greater efficiencies, until our machines approach the thermodynamic equilibria of their environment, and our economics is replaced by an ecology where nothing is wasted. After all, SETI is essentially a search for technological waste products: waste heat, waste light, waste electromagnetic signals. We merely have to posit that successful civilizations don’t produce such waste, and the failure of SETI is explained.

“Of course, the Giants have a long, storied tradition of quitting on Tom Coughlin. It’s one of their favorite pastimes. When Coughlin eventually does leave the team, expect Big Blue to somehow find a way to raise “giving up on their head coach” to the rafters in an emotional halftime ceremony. (The Jets will counter by honoring “losing their swagger” during a subsequent home game.) We want to pay tribute to the Giants’ consistency in giving up, though, without having to wait for that fateful day. Let’s review the Coughlin era’s remarkable history of abandonment.”