The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach

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  • Review: Metatropolis

    Review: Metatropolis

    Metatropolis
    Edited by Jack Scalzi
    Rating on an arbitrary 5-point scale: 4 out of 5

    Metatropolis is a science fiction anthology exploring, as it claims, the “future of cities”.  That’s not strictly accurate. It’s really a collection of stories that explore the question: If we as a species are going to survive the mistakes of our forebears (particularly ecological mistakes), what will human society have to look like?  It’s pretty clear that we won’t be able to ratchet up world living standards to the stereotypical 2.4 kids in the suburbs mid American ideal.  Resources are too finite and indeed running out.  If our profligate carbon society doesn’t right itself soon, if we face a Century of Judgment, then what will emerge from the drowned coasts and droughted interiors?

    The five authors (Jack Scalzi, Jay Lake, Tobias Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, and Karl Schroeder) don’t really offer blueprints and white papers, of course.  They offer five distinct tales, appropriately interdependent, that explore a possible future.  This is a shared world on the model of Aspirin’s Thieves’ World, though not quite so sprawling or tightly woven.  It is clear that the authors spent considerable time together thrashing out their shared world — though, in keeping with the theme, much of that might have been online and virtual.

    So, does the book succeed?

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  • Quote of the Day

    From a post by Steve Benen over at Political Animal:

    In human history, it’s never been easier to get — and stay — well informed. Folks just have to take some responsibility. If they don’t, the result can be a dysfunctional democracy.

    It’s impolitic to say this but not all pastimes and passions are equal. And the next time you bemoan the state of the economy or your due taxes or your summons to jury duty or the latest idiocy out of Washington — just pause for a moment and think about how much time you spend reading gossip columns, or devouring “reality” TV, or watching one overgrown overdosed tribe of jocks beat up on a different overgrown overdosed tribe of jocks. Is it really true that you don’t have the time to keep informed?  Or is it that you just don’t want to invest that time?

    And if it’s the latter, do you really deserve the vote you’re accorded by virtue of your citizenship in an advanced democracy?

  • Review: Inception

    Inception
    a Christopher Nolan Film
    Arbitrary 5-Point rating: 5 out of 5

    Inception is a weird, ambitious, action-packed sci fi thriller-cum-heist flick.  It is, in its own way, as ambitious as The Matrix and suffers from the comparison only in that it didn’t come first.  Leonardo DiCaprio plays Tom Dom Cobb, a thief of a singular kind: He can enter the dreams of others and “extract” information they’re trying to keep secret.  On the run for (at first) unspecified horrible crimes, he parlays his skill into a lucrative, if high-risk, lifestyle.  But in the end all he really wants to do is get to go home again and pick up the shards of his former life, including two small children.

    More detail, and spoilers, to follow, but in short, this is a fantastic film that’s better than it has any right to be.  The pacing is superb, the acting is above-average, and the setting and technology are remarkably well fleshed out.  Although everyone draws comparisons to The Matrix, the real spiritual ancestor of this film is The Thirteenth Floor (which, ironically, came out at the same time as — and got lost in the glare of the hoopla of — The Matrix).

    Spoilers ho!
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  • Wow. Just… wow.

    http://www.marktalk.com/blog/?p=10387

    (Also hosted at Political Correction, in case the original gets “disappeared”, and reproduced below the fold here — although apparently it’s already been edited.)

    I don’t really know really even to begin to comment on this “letter” from Tea Party Express chairman Mark Williams.  It takes something really, um, special to answer charges of racism by claiming that the N.A.A.C.P. is the one who’s racist. But the real kicker is the letter per se — a mock letter from N.A.A.C.P. president Benjamin Jealous, in which the mock-Jealous writes to Abraham Lincoln to request the repeal of the 13th and 14th amendments.  (Aside: What is it with these Tea Party fanatics and amendment repeal?)

    Now, the truly Crowning Moment of Jerkitude comes in signing the letter with “Tom’s nephew”.  It takes a certain gumption — but not the good kind — to label a civil rights leader with “Uncle Tom”.

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  • The Political Asymmetry of Weather

    So, the East Coast is in the middle of a record heat wave.  How come we haven’t heard any hyperventilating media types announce that this “proves” global warming is true?  After all, when we had a little snow in February, it was declared “snowmageddon” and offered as the final nail in the coffin of the “global warming conspiracy”.  So now that the thermometer is over 100 several days in a row, all those people will admit they were wrong, won’t they?

    ‘Cause otherwise, it’s a tacit admission that they made those statements only to score political points, degrading our discourse and endangering our children’s futures for nothing more than transient political advantage. And a disingenuous selfishness of that magnitude is too awful to be true, isn’t it?

    Isn’t it?

  • The Perils of Positive Thinking

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5um8QWWRvo

    I think the major point — that a unquestioning devotion to “positive thinking” is both dangerous and immoral — is a good one. We definitely allow suffering because we think everyone has a shot, so if they’re suffering, it must be their fault. It’s pretty easy to see how comforting this is, to people on top.

    There are poor people who are poor because they are lazy or bad.  There are rich people who are rich because they have worked hard and applied intelligence.  What we don’t like to recognize, however, is that there are also poor people who are poor despite living right and working hard, and there are rich people who are rich despite being lazy or stupid.

    Luck plays a huge role in our lives.  The part of our lives that result from forces outside our control — luck, history, social mores, etc. — probably dwarfs the fragment of our lives we can directly influence.  And that terrifies people.  It means that maybe, just maybe, their success isn’t really deserved.  Maybe the fact that they have a giant house and three cars and five iPhones doesn’t mean that they’re better people than someone who struggles to find food every day.  And if that’s the case, then maybe they should help out those who are struggling.

    But no one wants to hear that, so they prefer to imbibe The Secret and believe that they are the root cause of all they have.

    We are a sad, little species.

  • Classic no-win situation for the President

    Apparently, the Pentagon has recommended that a Medal of Honor be given to a living soldier, for the first time since Viet Nam.  The Washington Post article speculates that

    The presentation of a Medal of Honor to a living soldier would be an important moment for President Obama, whose relationship with the military has been complicated in recent months by controversy over the administration’s Afghan war deliberations in the fall and the recent firing of Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal for remarks that belittled senior Obama administration officials.

    But I’ll make a prediction here:

    (a) If the President decides to not give the Medal, the rightwing media will erupt in feigned outrage and real fury over his “snub” of our valiant troops.

    (b) If the President instead decides to follow the Pentagon’s advice and give the Medal, the rightwing media will erupt in feigned outrage and real fury over his attempt to co-opt a military honor for political ends, thereby mocking the sacrifices of our valiant troops.

    It’s impossible for the President to make a call that won’t be mocked, denounced, or vilified.  So here’s to hoping that he chooses whatever he thinks is right, rather than expedient, and that he allows himself to be guided by the better angels of his nature rather than shouted down by the petty demons of his detractors.

  • A little political humor, a little late

    A little political humor, a little late

    As soon as I read John Boehner’s characterization of financial regulation reform, I was inspired to make the following.  Unfortunately, this-and-that kept me occupied until today.

    Here’s a link (https://adfinemfidelis.net/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/poster.jpg) since Facebook inexplicably strips images(!) from imported RSS feeds…

    I made the poster using a tool located at Big Huge Labs.  I had wanted to use the similar took at despair.com but it did weird things to the scale and I couldn’t seem to make it work.

  • Why I have no respect for design behaviors at Microsoft

    I’ve received my new laptop and am working on getting it outfitted and up to speed.  (This process, by the way, is distressingly like moving to a new home and is equally as frustrating and potentially as traumatizing.)  After logging in for the first time, the system helpfully suggests that you create a system backup.  This is a wise and useful thing to do, so that you can restore to original conditions, and I was impressed that Microsoft offered it.

    Except…

    It takes fiendishly long to generate the system image — after about two hours of waiting, I gave up last night and went to bed.  During the night, the other “helpful” feature of Windows 7 kicked in, which was automatic downloading and installation of updates.  As anyone who works with Microsoft knows, you can’t even think about an update without Windows needing to reboot, which it did … automatically.  This interrupted the system backup, of course; and since the system has changed, the backup can’t even just pick up from where it left off.

    Net result?  I must begin the backup again and wait another two hours for it to run.   I will have had my laptop for over a day without being able to run a single program on it.  What is the overwhelming temptation, of course?  To skip the backup “for now” and just dive in.  So these two choices for Microsoft have the combined effect of discouraging proper computer hygiene — and for many users, probably taint the whole idea of backups in general.

    Way to go, Microsoft!

    (By the way, I have of course also now turned off the automatic install option, as it’s insane to let anyone just drop stuff into your operating system without at least some chance at review.  Once again I am reminded of a mantra I’ve had since at least Windows 95:  Whatever default behavior Microsoft settles on, it’s the wrong one.  We could call their philosophy “default-to-fail”.)

  • Excellent headline explaining why we’re headed for the next Great Depression

    Bravo, Paul Krugman!

    “The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Continue Their Invisible Attack”

    Could we call this the phantom menace?  🙂

    The Invisible Bond Vigilantes Continue Their Invisible Attack