A screwup in migration to a new SQL database went awry in April and frakked this site. (I’m sure you all noticed the disturbance in the Force.) It took until today for me to have the time to resolve it, but now it is and I think I was able to restore the backup. So all the words should be here and accessible
Thanks for your patience and perseverance. Or, if you didn’t even know, then thanks for visiting today. 🙂
Here’s a look back at the best I read during 2022. These are roughly listed best, first; but the quality was generally so high as to make fine distinctions specious. Some comments on each follows the lists. I’ll be fleshing those out over the next few days so visit to see updates, if you like.
Also, I have to give a shout-out to my wonderful wife, who bought me most of these books last Christmas and keep me happily swamped in reading material for most of the year.
{Ed. note: Another thing languishing in my Drafts for multiple years. Maybe I thought I’d be expanding it? Clearly I won’t, so here it is.}
I’ve finished all of (season one?) of Altered Carbon, and have reached the conclusion that it is decidedly … adequate. It’s so-so cyberpunk and so-so noir, desperately trying to be distinct from Blade Runner while simultaneously desperately wanting to be Blade Runner.
Spoilers below the fold.
{Editor’s note: This has been sitting in my Drafts since early 2017 but seems as appropriate now.}
You want an ACTUAL political revolution? You want to take back our democracy or “make America great again”? Then here are the vitally important but unsexy changes you should be advocating:
* minimal obstacles to voting
* true, non-partisan, proportional redistricting
* adequate — no, expansive — funding of research organs of government, to give legislators advice and education independent of corporate lobbying
* meaningful enforcement of anti-monopoly and anti-monopsony laws, at all levels of the economy
* effective isolation of legislators (and aides) from lobbyists and corporate interests — no taking their money in office, no taking a cushy job after being in office.
Spoilers abound, so if you, like me, are watching this over a year late {ed. note: now more like seven years}, be warned.
{Editor’s note: Whoof, this is an oldie that’s just sat in my Drafts for — seven(!) years, for no good reason.}
As predictable as the rising of the Sun, a figure on the right has assailed same-sex marriage equality as an “assault on families”. I am so tired of this. You know what undermines families? Thirty years of
You know what doesn’t undermine families?
A bug hunt. How I hate bug hunts.
Spoilers for Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 1 Episode 9 “All Those Who Wander”.
(more…)Still going. I’ve been writing this blog on and off — really, mostly “off”, but hey — since this date in 2006. That’s weird to think about.
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds continues to impress. “Spock Amok” has all the ingredients for an epic disaster, yet…