Friday, August 31, 2007
SF Writers Commit SuicideThis is one of the stupidest things I have read all day. I guess sci-fi writers like being in a literary ghetto because this is a great way to stay there.
PermalinkViacom isn’t the only organization involved in sending out “bass-ackwards” DMCA takedown notices; the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (abbreviated, for complicated reasons, as the SFWA) is in on the fun as well. The group has issued DMCA takedown notices for sci-fi reading lists drawn up to aid teen literacy, freely-distributed webzines, and Creative Commons-licensed material.
The debacle began a few weeks back when the SFWA contacted Scribd, a site that allows users to post documents in the same way that YouTube allows people to post videos. SFWA alleged that numerous works on Scribd violated copyrights of SFWA members and requested that these works be taken down. They were. But it quickly became apparent that the USS 1701-SFWA had a crack in its dilithium crystals.
Stories began to emerge from the blogosphere, and not the sort of Stranger in a Strange Land stuff that the SFWA exists to promote. Nick Senger, an eighth-grade teacher and promoter of teen literacy, found his sci-fi bibliography targeted in the crackdown. “I’m not sure what the SFWA has to gain by requesting that the list be removed,” he notes. “That list does nothing but encourage people to buy their books.”
Oh, Shut Up
A book and website tells us what would happen after humans. This is to show us what an impact we’re having. In other words: FEEL GUILTY!
If there were no humans, who would care? These kinds of arguments make me laugh, but they’re also interesting to read.
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Irony DuJour
Federal offices owe some $45 million in delinquent withholding taxes and the Internal Revenue Service needs to do more to ensure that the government lives up to its taxpaying obligations, according a report issued Friday.
The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, who oversees IRS operations, also found that as of January this year delinquent state and local government accounts totaled $254 million.
“It is outrageous that government entities are failing to pay their employment taxes,” Inspector General George J. Russell said in a statement. “It is especially troubling that federal organizations are a part of this problem. The IRS must develop comprehensive procedures to remedy this inexcusable situation.”
So even governments can’t be trusted to pay their taxes on time. Why not shut down the whole process and reboot it? Eliminate income tax. Use a consumer tax and make they system fair for everyone. Then people wouldn’t be concerned about avoiding the system. The more convoluted and byzantine they make the tax code, the more people will want to fight it. Stop the madness.
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The Future Home
According to a 1979 Science Magazine. They got most of it right except for the look and the drink serving robot.
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Thursday, August 30, 2007
Abandoned Wonders of the WorldGhost Cities and huge decaying buildings with strange stories.
Battleship Island in Japan is a fascinating one.
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Sci-Fi Ain’t Dead
Ridley Scott thinks Science Fiction movies are moribund.
He was the director of two of the most critically acclaimed science fiction films, but now Sir Ridley Scott believes that the genre is so tired and unoriginal that it may be dead.
At the Venice Film Festival for a special screening of his seminal noir thriller Blade Runner, Sir Ridley said that science fiction films were going the way the Western once had. “There’s nothing original. We’ve seen it all before. Been there. Done it,” he said. Asked to pick out examples, he said: “All of them. Yes, all of them.”
The flashy effects of recent block-busters, such as The Matrix, Independence Day and The War of the Worlds, may sell tickets, but Sir Ridley believes that none can beat Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 sci-fi epic 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Made at the height of the “space race” between the United States and the USSR, 2001 predicted a world of malevolent computers, routine space travel and extraterrestrial life. Kubrick had such a fastidious eye for detail, he employed Nasa experts in designing the spacecraft.
Sir Ridley said that 2001 was “the best of the best”, in use of lighting, special effects and atmosphere, adding that every sci-fi film since had imitated or referred to it. “There is an overreliance on special effects as well as weak storylines,” he said of modern sci-fi films.
The truth is, most movies are crap and SF movies follow that same Sturgeon’s Law. There have been so few good SF films, Scott’s argument is weak. I see what he means about the quality, but unlike Westerns, SF has an almost unlimited range of types of stories it can tell in an almost unlimited amount of environments. It’s really up to a good storyteller to break with the hack-like tendencies of the genre.
Director Sergio Leone reinvented the Western as a kind of mythic opera in the 60s and breathed new life into the genre. George Lucas helped breathe new life into the sci-fi film with Star Wars. Someone can do the same again.
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What a Shock
This doesn’t surprise me at all. It proves nothing about the validity of the issue. Only that once more, the GW crowd are proved to be liars. You can’t trust what they say.
PermalinkIn 2004, history professor Naomi Oreskes performed a survey of research papers on climate change. Examining peer-reviewed papers published on the ISI Web of Science database from 1993 to 2003, she found a majority supported the “consensus view,” defined as humans were having at least some effect on global climate change. Oreskes’ work has been repeatedly cited, but as some of its data is now nearly 15 years old, its conclusions are becoming somewhat dated.
Medical researcher Dr. Klaus-Martin Schulte recently updated this research. Using the same database and search terms as Oreskes, he examined all papers published from 2004 to February 2007. The results have been submitted to the journal Energy and Environment, of which DailyTech has obtained a pre-publication copy. The figures are surprising.
Of 528 total papers on climate change, only 38 (7%) gave an explicit endorsement of the consensus. If one considers “implicit” endorsement (accepting the consensus without explicit statement), the figure rises to 45%. However, while only 32 papers (6%) reject the consensus outright, the largest category (48%) are neutral papers, refusing to either accept or reject the hypothesis. This is no “consensus.”
Wednesday, August 29, 2007
The State Be DamnedIf there’s one thing you can depend on its bureaucrats will do stupid things and will try to get more power.
This article does a great job of explaining how one rancher has to deal with insane bureaucracy just trying to run a simple country farm. [More on him here]
In Norfolk, Va, they stepped over the line by arresting a man illegally. At least the public showed up to let them know the error of their ways.
More than 100 gun-rights advocates, most carrying handguns on their hips and wearing buttons saying “Guns Save Lives,” came to the City Council on Tuesday night to protest what they called harassment of law-abiding gun owners by city officials.
The protest was called by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group, after Chet Szymecki of Yorktown was arrested in June at Harborfest for carrying a gun.
Szymecki was arrested for violating a city ordinance banning guns at Harborfest - an ordinance that officials now acknowledge violates state law. City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko said city officials were unaware of a state law prohibiting localities from banning guns.
Carrying a weapon openly is legal in Virginia, even at a large gathering such as Harborfest. Once city officials realized their error, the charges against Szymecki were dropped.
“We made a mistake,” Councilman Barclay C. Winn said. “It was unintentional.”
Most who came to protest didn’t appear to believe it was an innocent mistake.
“You know it was illegal,” said Dave Vann, who drove from Falls Church to speak. “You arrested someone, and now it’s going to cost you dearly.”
It’s great to see the one of them squirm. For too long these people have ridden rough shod over our lives. The public really needs to let them know who they work for. They are our employees, not our bosses. And they need to get that through their heads.
Too many laws have been passed, too many cases of the publics rights being ignored or trampled on.
They always have some excuse. Terrorism is the latest one. Frankly, they need to be reminded who’s boss. We can do it as individuals, but we can do it as a group. And groups do effected policy. Look how some Dems bow and scrape to the net roots crowd.
Considering how pathetic our many leaders are, it should be easier to get our point across. All we have to do is agree on something.
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Geek Wedding Cakes Permalink
Misc Stuff
Yoga vs Whiskey. Guess who wins?
Nature’s art. The snowflake.
Hillary gets a $45,000 donation from a family that makes $45,000 a year. Hmm.
Fairies vs Insects. Oh, Snap!
It’s Jack Kirby’s 90th Birthday. The NY Times, does an article about him (and no mention of Global Warming!)
Forget neo-cons. Neo-liberals have caused most of the world’s problems. According to the Guardian!
