Archive for the ‘politics’ Category
Monday, March 10th, 2008
Here's my take on writing optimistic SF-- just don't make it consolatory pap. That's what advertising, TV and suburban sprawl are supposed to sell.
As an example, here's the latest on the global warming front. (note: the link is changed to point directly to the Washington Post article as ...
Posted in consumerism, green technology, politics, science fiction, writing | 13 Comments »
Friday, November 23rd, 2007
Welcome to Buy Nothing Day, where we try to stop all consumer spending for an entire 24-hour period. Gasp!
I love this holiday. Even though I already screwed it up this morning by dashing to the grocery store for Cream of Wheat.
Even so, I like the idea of noticing, ...
Posted in food, politics | 2 Comments »
Monday, October 15th, 2007
So, I quit my job last week. I've been working at High Country News for the last 4 years, which is actually a record for me. It's a little difficult to walk away from, because in comparison to any number of other jobs, it was pretty good: interesting work, cool ...
Posted in politics, writing | 6 Comments »
Thursday, April 26th, 2007
Every so often I start thinking that we have a functioning democracy in the United States. And then something like this crops up, where the guys with the money get to dictate the playing field. The Postal Service will be raising rates by massive proportions on small, independent periodicals, ...
Posted in politics | No Comments »
Friday, March 16th, 2007
John Scalzi, in a moment of obvious insanity is running a write-in campaign for SFWA President.
After reading his platform, I dusted off my ballot, wrote in his name and sent it in. He had me at "Hello."
Seriously, I think he's nailed a lot of important issues, and I like ...
Posted in politics, writing | 1 Comment »
Saturday, March 10th, 2007
As my wife and I were kibitzing over how garam masala got cooked into the taco meat instead of cumin, my son, from the kitchen table where he was busily devouring a bowl of cottage cheese, said:
"Dad, you don't need to bother Mommy. That's my role."
Thank goodness someone's got the ...
Posted in politics | 4 Comments »
Thursday, March 8th, 2007
Those greeniacs are probably going to put a nice plastic (recycled, of course) bag over the head of the girl who shows up in the end of this video.
That'll teach her to stop her damn out-gassing.
This video has been around for a little bit, but the Competitive Enterprise ...
Posted in politics | 1 Comment »
Saturday, March 3rd, 2007
One of the things that interested me about last years' e.coli in spinach thing was that it underlined how little we know about where/how our food is produced. There's a whole vast network of growers, packagers, distributors, and sales outlets and we have a pretty imperfect understanding of what happens ...
Posted in food, politics | No Comments »
Friday, March 2nd, 2007
If you like hard sf, here's a hard truth about rockets. Solid rocket fuel has a nifty compound in it called perchlorate. Wherever you have rockets, you have perchlorate contamination. So what, you might ask? It gets into groundwater, and then it migrates. Who might care about this? People living ...
Posted in politics | No Comments »
Tuesday, February 27th, 2007
The whole GMO thing has gotten me thinking about where we're headed as a democracy.
Technically, the democracy thing means that the general populace has a strong say in their local/regional/national governance. And when it was first created, it seems like it must have been pretty okay. When the only ...
Posted in food, politics | 3 Comments »
