Aug 23
“The replacement of journalism by rumor aggregators …” (Zendegi, Greg Egan). Yes. That. Precisely.
Aug 11
“Caitlin knew she was not a good negotiator, not like Annelise or Rachel. Sicence didn’t negotiate truth; it tried to discover and prove it.” The Eleventh Gate, Nancy Kress Ah. The less regard for truth, the greater one’s negotiation skills. Explains politics. The state of the world.
Aug 03
“In strict economic terms, the almighty free market theoretically considers the work of women in the home to be without value, to be worthless. It is recognized nowhere in the free market economic model” (The High Road, Terry Fallis). Also true for the work of men in (and around) the home. But I would not …
Jul 23
NANCY MOUNT BILL PASSES IN HOUSE Proposes “None of the Above” Be Added to Ballot Thirty Percent of the Votes Would Trigger New Election Excellent idea. from Jack McDevitt’s The Long Sunset
Jul 11
James White’s Sector General series should be required reading for ANYONE assigned to first contact missions. Note in the first paragraph below (from Alien Emergencies), the inclusion of specialists in communications, philosophy, and psychology. Note the exclusion of specialists in any of the hard sciences. And the military. (Note also, the more effective way.) “The …
Jun 20
“Look at the world around you, David. What do you see? An endless theme part, with everything turned into entertainment. Science, politics, education–they’re so many fairground rides. Sadly, people are happy to buy their tickets and climb aboard.” The Millennium People, J. G. Ballard
May 17
Read mention in a Lionel Shriver novel (The Motion of the Body through Space) about “white readers [the main, white, character read for audiobooks] pretending to talk like [members of] marginalized communities is ‘mimicry’ and … cultural appropriation” (p31). But I can’t help thinking that if she were not to use an accent other than …
Apr 14
Highly recommended. The title says it all. Among a whole lot of ‘worth mentioning’ bits, I’ll mention the reference to Irving Fisher’s study (p.43) involving meat-eating athletes, vegetarian athletes, and vegetarian non-athletes. Vegetarians, whether athletes or not, had the greatest endurance (as measured by three strength tests). “Even the maximum record of the flesh-eaters was …
Apr 09
Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men is a must-read. (And although she soft-pedals this, surely the persistent failure to consider women is evidence of what they think of us: we’re unimportant, we’re not worth consideration. Or perhaps it’s simply evidence of their persistent failure to consider anyone but themselves. Either way …
Feb 20
The No. 1 Cause of Climate Change the Media Don’t Mention another great piece by Lee Camp here.
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