Thu 9 Oct 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

And now a tiny car for the Future as seen in France—where all good things, like Nobel Prize winnerz (why is that funny with a ‘z’?), come from today—which also, and you won’t be surprised to find this, being a futurehead yourself, involves llamas. Source:


Thu 9 Oct 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

And now a tiny car for the Future as seen in France—where all good things, like Nobel Prize winnerz (why is that funny with a ‘z’?), come from today—which also, and you won’t be surprised to find this, being a futurehead yourself, involves llamas. Source:


Listening while driving

Wed 8 Oct 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

Went to Brooklyn to the Community Bookstore for Kelly’s reading, met lots of good people there and found that the store is as good as ever: they have a huge and tempting NYRB section, comfy seats, piles of interesting books not seen on other bookstore tables, and these people know books. Wish it were our local bookshop. But we have good ones here, so la. Also found there is a huge ad for Pretty Monsters in The Believer and one in The New Yorker (wow!).

Got to listen to the debate on the radio on the way back up to Northampton, which is one of the best car inventions there is, although there are some that aren’t that much, you can learn about it at this news online. Apparently Obama seemed to be debating the Penguin (“Eh? eh?”). These debates are completely misnamed. They should be renamed Presidential Candidates’ Talking Points as there’s so little actual debate. What about just letting the two of them have at each other and see if a discussion ensues? Sure, they must find each other tiresome, but Mr. V. Putin isn’t going to accept ” Two-minute answers, followed by one-minute discussion for each question.”

At some point as President one of these guys is going to have to actually get off the script and it would be nice to see them doing so. Obama at least tried to have a conversation a couple of times but apparently that’s not allowed to happen.

As for there only being 3 debates for the Presidency and 1 for the VP slot, there’s more debate at the average 7-11 over who should have slushees and who should have ice cream. Bah.

It was fascinating to listen to the debates and then to the various call-in shows as we avoided road works somewhere in the depths of Connecticut. No one seemed persuaded by the other guy and Obama seems to be taking the high road, so got to love that. One more debate to go, then 2 weeks of these two guys playing nice to each other and Palin doing all the mud-slinging, then it will all be over. Can’t wait.


BTW

Fri 3 Oct 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Kelly says Julie of the wolves would not vote for Sarah Palin.


Chevy gets some bail out action

Fri 3 Oct 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

When for some reason the bail out failed, Autobloggreen posts a note from the Detroit News on their hometown industry getting a nice little backend governmental funding. Funding for electric vehicles: yay! $10-15K for trucks? Sure, electrify those Fedex trucks, school buses, all those large conveyances. 3-ton pick-up trucks? Not so much.

One particular $1 billion chunk of that extra money has been earmarked to provide cash back to American drivers who opt to buy plug-in vehicles. Tax credits starting at $4,168 (there’s a nice round number for you) will go to people to buy a vehicle with a battery pack that has at least 4 kWh of capacity. From there the credits ramp up to $7,500 for vehicles with a 16 kWh pack. For those that haven’t been paying attention, that just happens to be the size of the pack in the Chevy Volt. Medium and heavy duty trucks with plug-in capability are also eligible for credits of $10-15,000.


Hero

Tue 30 Sep 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

We don’t need Time to tell us who our heroes are but it’s nice that we agree on at least one: Kim Stanley Robinson.

He sees creating utopias as a technical challenge to his craft — they’re hard to do convincingly and interestingly. But he also sees them as an empty ecological niche in the imagination; if only to maximise cultural biodiversity, he wants that niche filled.


taxes

Thu 25 Sep 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

What about this graphic from the WaPo is unclear?

Under McCain, the richest people get the biggest cuts (by percentage and by dollar count).

Under Obama, the top 1% of earners will have to pay more taxes. 99% of people will pay the same or less. Which plan is fairer?


Wall Street Journal on Palin

Tue 16 Sep 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

from the depths of pre-election desperation, some honest words from the Wall Street Journal. Yes, that old left wing bastion, the Journal:

Leave the fantasy land of convention rhetoric, and you will find that small-town America, this legendary place of honesty and sincerity and dignity, is not doing very well. If you drive west from Kansas City, Mo., you will find towns where Main Street is largely boarded up. You will see closed schools and hospitals. You will hear about depleted groundwater and massive depopulation.

And eventually you will ask yourself, how did this happen? Did Hollywood do this? Was it those “reporters and commentators” with their fancy college degrees who wrecked Main Street, U.S.A.?

No. For decades now we have been electing people like Sarah Palin who claimed to love and respect the folksy conservatism of small towns, and yet who have unfailingly enacted laws to aid the small town’s mortal enemies.


Massachusetts peoples

Tue 16 Sep 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

It’ primary day: Go vote!


Katrina + 3

Fri 29 Aug 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

3 years since Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Gustav is on a maybe/maybe not course for New Orleans. Which is sort of akin to the US Government’s approach to the disaster. Maybe we’ll help you. Maybe not. Which is one reason they will be voted out in November.

Over at Smith Mag they just posted the Epilogue of A.D.: New Orleans After the Deluge, an amazing comics narrative that has been picked up by Pantheon and which will be published as a graphic novel at some point. But if you have a moment, try starting from the beginning.


John McCain for President

Wed 27 Aug 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Don’t miss the latest internet stunt from McCain aides. It is a legit site, right?


Double dutch

Mon 25 Aug 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

While in Scotland some of our nieces and nephews (and, er, others) had great fun attempting some skipping trips—don’t expect pics of this to surface on the nets. But one participant just sent us this video which made us want to head down to the Apollo Theater for the double dutch skip offs:

Watch CBS Videos Online


If we don’t answer your email today

Thu 26 Jun 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

it is because we are fat old executives who are soon going to be filled with team spirit (and covered in paint) so we may be at home recovering after this:


This week

Mon 12 May 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., , | Posted by: Gavin

John Kessel and Greg Frost are on the road this week (no this isn’t an APB) reading at three great North Carolina bookshops (damn, wish we were there! but they’ll be up here are Readercon which will come soon enough):

— Wednesday May 14 at 7PM at Malaprop‘s in Asheville.
— Thursday May 15 at 7PM at Park Road Books in Charlotte, NC. The Charlotte Observer reviewed The Baum Plan for Financial Independence last week and described it as “dark, wacky, wide-ranging short stories.”
— Friday May 16 at 2PM at McIntyre’s Fine Books, Pittsboro, NC.

If you go, post pictures!

On Tuesday Carol Emshwiller and others are reading in New York from Ellen Datlow’s new anthology, The Del Rey Book of Science Fiction and Fantasy. Check the calendar for more info.

And next Saturday & Sunday from 11-5 Small Beer will have a table at the Philadelphia Book Festival.

Other reading:

  • Washington DC is rightly excited to have a new bike rental program up and running. But if you live in or visit Lexington, Kentucky, for the second year in a row you take part in the program for a mere $10 (or free if you paid your $10 last year). Rumors that Christopher Rowe takes part in this just to ladies wearing little black dresses and heels “pedaling one down Main Street” are unsubstantiated and would not be repeated in any journal worthy of the public trust.
  • Shake Girl, a collaborative graphic novel based on real life experiences of Cambodian women attacked with acid.
  • Jacob MacMurray not only posted his annual Clarion West poster, but also—and this is wild (although it would be even better if VW were making a new hybrid/greaserunning van)—pics of his design for a VW van. (So now we will go buy Pacifico beer because any company that does this kind of thing has to make good beer.)

Interrogate them

Fri 11 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Confirming what everyone knew all along but the government were too lily-livered to admit:

Cheney, Others OK’d Harsh Interrogations
By LARA JAKES JORDAN and PAMELA HESS
Associated Press WriterWASHINGTON (AP) — Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned.

Cheney et al knew it was right for the USA to use torture but they also knew it was right that no one should know it was  them who ok’d it. Double standard? Sure. But who cares about that. What we care about is that torture-porn like 24 aside, if they wanted porn they should´ve watched some Gay Furry Porn. These methods are inefficient, morally questionable, and has probably helped throw the USA into recession because the whole world looks at the USA differently now. And not different-is-good.

Hope Cheney (et al) gets prison time before his robo-heart gives out.


Sluttery

Fri 11 Apr 2008 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

BookslutI’ll be posting some over at Bookslut for the next week and a bit so send me your hot tips, bitchy stories (all names redacted, mais oui), and so on.

Otherwise you know it will be all Alisdair Gray and Ursula K. Le Guin all the time.

Which sounds quite good, actually.


KSR @ Google

Fri 21 Dec 2007 - Filed under: Not a Journal., | Posted by: Gavin

Read Sixty Days and Counting, give them for Xmas (or your holiday of choice—happy solstice), read an interview with Kim Stanley Robinson, and now watch (or listen) to this alternately depressing and hopeful talk he gave at Google (which annoyingly can’t be embedded for some reason).


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