Postcards from the Bleeding Edge
Monday, June 15, 2009
I have quite a backlog...
I'd like to critique Michael Moore's plan to re-invigorate America, particularly action item 3, where he proposes a bullet train that could cross the USA in only 17 hours. A Ford trimotor crossed America that fast in the late 1920s. Oh, the 1920s! Such a wonderful time that was - the gin flowed, the stock market was up, the world was at peace...
I want to talk to the Republican plan for building 100 nuclear power plants in Obama's green energy bill, as what I wrote last year about Liberty Ships still applies. Also, I note nanosolar has been strangely silent lately.
But, first, I want to work up a spreadsheet of projected energy use, both in the US, and worldwide, first, and overlay Japan's land area over America's to serve as an example, and research the history of the Philadelphia->Atlantic City train as well as Acela. That's going to take some time, and isn't a lot of fun.
I'd like to talk more to America's perverse safety culture, which I sort of did a month ago, where people are deathly afraid of swine flu and yet unafraid to drive. People ask me about safety where I live now, and I say that nothing compares to the dangers inherent in surfing, yet, I am not going to stop anytime soon - and I counter - at least there's no nuclear weapons pointed at me...
There's been some interesting developments in global warming lately, but I would really rather talk about the state of the oceans. Actually...
I'd rather be writing a book on happier subjects. Or surfing. Or writing a book about "Everything I know (now) about business, I learned from surfing", but the high quality photographic plates required would make it non-publishable and in web format, it would be boring... maybe if I wrote it in "Johnathan Livingston Seagull" fashion it would work... I need a waterproof recorder, all the best stuff I think up vanishes by the time I get to shore....
I also recently found the text to my talk, last year, in Australiaon Living autonomously in an ever more connected world which was one of the bigger things I've written recently and I'd like to bang that into shape for publication, as I went extemporaneous in the talk with a great digression that needs to go back in the text....
I'd also like to talk to "the last great CPU war - ATOM vs ARM" which is beginning now, with arm cortex A8 or A9 processors coming in on the bottom end below Atom and moving up...
But, anyway, if I get around to it, maybe I'll write some or all of the above in the coming weeks. Maybe that last one I could get paid for....
I'd like to critique Michael Moore's plan to re-invigorate America, particularly action item 3, where he proposes a bullet train that could cross the USA in only 17 hours. A Ford trimotor crossed America that fast in the late 1920s. Oh, the 1920s! Such a wonderful time that was - the gin flowed, the stock market was up, the world was at peace...
I want to talk to the Republican plan for building 100 nuclear power plants in Obama's green energy bill, as what I wrote last year about Liberty Ships still applies. Also, I note nanosolar has been strangely silent lately.
But, first, I want to work up a spreadsheet of projected energy use, both in the US, and worldwide, first, and overlay Japan's land area over America's to serve as an example, and research the history of the Philadelphia->Atlantic City train as well as Acela. That's going to take some time, and isn't a lot of fun.
I'd like to talk more to America's perverse safety culture, which I sort of did a month ago, where people are deathly afraid of swine flu and yet unafraid to drive. People ask me about safety where I live now, and I say that nothing compares to the dangers inherent in surfing, yet, I am not going to stop anytime soon - and I counter - at least there's no nuclear weapons pointed at me...There's been some interesting developments in global warming lately, but I would really rather talk about the state of the oceans. Actually...
I'd rather be writing a book on happier subjects. Or surfing. Or writing a book about "Everything I know (now) about business, I learned from surfing", but the high quality photographic plates required would make it non-publishable and in web format, it would be boring... maybe if I wrote it in "Johnathan Livingston Seagull" fashion it would work... I need a waterproof recorder, all the best stuff I think up vanishes by the time I get to shore....
I also recently found the text to my talk, last year, in Australiaon Living autonomously in an ever more connected world which was one of the bigger things I've written recently and I'd like to bang that into shape for publication, as I went extemporaneous in the talk with a great digression that needs to go back in the text....
I'd also like to talk to "the last great CPU war - ATOM vs ARM" which is beginning now, with arm cortex A8 or A9 processors coming in on the bottom end below Atom and moving up...
But, anyway, if I get around to it, maybe I'll write some or all of the above in the coming weeks. Maybe that last one I could get paid for....
Labels: absurdity, disease, energy, environment, futilitarianism
¶ 7:26 AM 9 comments
Friday, September 26, 2008
Some choice quotes from this week:
I'll start with Palin...
Glenn Greenwald has also had choice things to say about Palin, too many to list.
Palin is nowhere near as good as Peter Sellers at political speech. Palin comes across as genuinely confused, where Sellars comes across as confusing genuinely.
Given Palin's incoherence on the issues, a comparison to Princess Caraboo seems in order.
I try not to be depressed. There was such great comic material in everything that happened this week - Letterman bashing McCain, for example, Palin's swimsuit video, for another. This latter video keeps getting pulled for violating copyright law, and the public keeps reposting them - I have little doubt that the recently passed PRO-IP law will be used to suppress further expressions of mass outrage...
Then there was the bailout...
Not to be outdone by the Chinese, the McCain campaign placed an ad claiming that McCain won today's debate - the ad was showing long before debate and even before anybody knew if he'd even attend.
And I don't think the SEC's methods have improved much over the last 5 years.
Lastly, a bit on the life and times of Edward Bernays, who established some of the core ideas behind amoral PR. He found his ideas used by just about everyone, from capitalist to Marxist, and loved that. I had read Manufacturing Consent decades ago, I'd like to find a copy of Engineering Consent to round out my education.
I'll start with Palin...
- Fight back, you hacks! Demand access. Demand accountability! It's our duty. If we cannot ask questions of a total newbie six weeks before an election in which she could become president of the country, then the First Amendment is pointless. Grow some! -
Andrew Sullivan
Glenn Greenwald has also had choice things to say about Palin, too many to list.
Palin is nowhere near as good as Peter Sellers at political speech. Palin comes across as genuinely confused, where Sellars comes across as confusing genuinely.
Given Palin's incoherence on the issues, a comparison to Princess Caraboo seems in order.
And then there was the election...
I try not to be depressed. There was such great comic material in everything that happened this week - Letterman bashing McCain, for example, Palin's swimsuit video, for another. This latter video keeps getting pulled for violating copyright law, and the public keeps reposting them - I have little doubt that the recently passed PRO-IP law will be used to suppress further expressions of mass outrage...
Then there was the bailout...
- "I'll go with the guy with one house. The guy with one house is scared about losing his house." - Chris Rock
"Phone calls to my office about the wall street bailout are running 50-50--50% 'No' and 50% 'Hell No.'" - Congressman Ron Kind
"`I nationalize strategic companies and get criticized, but when Bush does it, it's OK. Bush is turning socialist. How are you, comrade Bush?'" - Hugo Chavez
Playboy: Too Big to fail? - Lew Rockwell
... It may be that the former CEO's of some of these institutions ought to be given golden parachutes and made to use them from 20,000 feet... - Jerry Pournelle
Not to be outdone by the Chinese, the McCain campaign placed an ad claiming that McCain won today's debate - the ad was showing long before debate and even before anybody knew if he'd even attend.
And I don't think the SEC's methods have improved much over the last 5 years.
Lastly, a bit on the life and times of Edward Bernays, who established some of the core ideas behind amoral PR. He found his ideas used by just about everyone, from capitalist to Marxist, and loved that. I had read Manufacturing Consent decades ago, I'd like to find a copy of Engineering Consent to round out my education.
Labels: absurdity, banking, msm, politics, space
¶ 9:52 PM 0 comments
