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(This feature is updated every several days at the main page for www.threerivertechreview.com. This is more like an archive page now in case anybody is reading.)

Obviously, I'm disappointed about the election results. I'm also genuinely frightened for the future of my country and I'm starting to be a little frightened by at least a slight majority of half the people in my country.

I am, however, proud of the fact that I worked hard at ACT. ACT and MoveOn and ACORN and others in the America Votes coalition did a great job of winning states that Kerry probably would have lost without us, such as Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania. IN fact, Pittsburgh ACT was thinking about closing up shop on the 15th. I hope they reconsider. I'd certainly be happy to stay on board.

And yes I really wanted to take down that upside down distress flag in the lefthand corner of the site. I guess I should just make it bigger.

Here's the two best Post Mortems I read that speak for me. Here's one from Eric Alterman:

Welp, I've been busy lately bringin' a government down, to paraphrase the justly underrated pop band Love and Money from their tune "Hallelujah Man". Or at least that's what I'm hoping that I'm doing with America Coming Together or ACT.

This is some of Tom Moody's, most underrated blogger on the web, impressive artwork. He's also still doing some experiments with animated GIFs.

Kurzweil Claims He Hasn't Aged for 10 Years

As per usual, I have to head out for work as I do this. So a plethora of new links will be available tonight after midnight...I'm also working on moving most of my online efforts toward my new online paper.

James is probably way too bashful to include a pic of himself at the recent Hugo Award ceremonies. But I'm not. What's interesting is that this pic was taken by El Jefe, who writes one of the more interesting blogs out there called "Gravity Lens". I find this interesting because both El Jefe and James are charter members of what Kurt Vonneget called the "karass". I am now convinced that these two are in my personal karass. Perhaps James is some kind of focal point or Wampeter. Sounds like something The Question should investigate...

Definition, keeping in mind that I'm a an atheist who thinks religion is basically the foma:

A karass is a "team [of people] that do[es] God's Will without ever discovering what they are doing". [ 1 ] Humanity is organized into many such teams. One can try to discover "the limits of [one's] karass and the nature of the work God Almighty has had it do ... but such investigations are bound to be incomplete." [ 2 ]

And for the record, "foma" is defined thus, from memory:

"The harmless untruths that keep us happy, healthy, wealthy and wise."

I didn't read anything about the top 25 Censored Stories in any of the Pittsburgh major papers. (God knows I wouldn't see anything about these stories in my car crashed murderous local television media. I no longer have hope for them.)...and I guess that's the point about why Pittsburgh needs an online paper like this one. By the way, this paper isn't ready yet, but it needs to be done now and so I'm starting. What did Kirk say Evil Spock with goatee in "Mirror Universe" about what one man could do...? (I just looked it up: "In every revolution there is one man with a vision"...)

Out of the 25 the ones that struck me as the most frightful were: The Bush admininstration censorship of science, those very scary electronic voting machines and their lack of a paper trail, and the evils of Wal Mart. What was also very informative were all the cool links these stories came with.

Here's just a few I'll be checking out:

Global Issues Org: For all of you who remember that groundbreaking "Global Reach" book about the rise of the multinationals here's your companion website.

Free Press: This one is done by Robert McChesney, one of the most important corporate media critics out there, and it's a clearinghouse of ideas of why the corporate media doesn't inform us very well about pretty much anything.

The Center for Digital Democracy: I already link to this site at Three River Tech but this is still really really impressive. This is must reading if you'd like the Internet to stay at buffet prices and not charged the way you're charged for cell phone services. Were you aware that the Brand X court case might determine the future cost of broadband? Now I know...

Doc Menlo's Sensual Liberation Army has moved here. He's mixing politics with sex. He should get a zillion hits. (Note to self: Don't forget to steal this idea.)

On the Pop Science front, as opposed to the soft porn front, The Speculist has moved his site. Check out the very stylish graphic and the swirling galactic S. I was the one who talked Phil into applying the Creative Commons license online toward his fiction for better or worse.

The above pic is from a movie that Neil Gaiman is involved with, I think. More info here. Thanks again to patently evil Gravity Lens guy...Actually, this is something his friend, Dave McKean, is working on....

Pulp, a rather ineffectual Pittsburgh weekly that wouldn't hire me, has gone under. But there is something interesting called "Deek Magazine" that could replace it.

I actually submitted this to the ACT Blog (Full Disclosure: I now work fulltime for ACT) but it turns out Jack Valenti works right down the hall so it kinda got cut....

Got Inspiring Left DVD Movies?

We just happen to have DVD players in our vehicles. It can often take an hour to get to turf in hilly Pittsburgh--one of the toughest places physically to canvass-- as we go out to door knock. So we watch movies. A colleague of mine has a "connection"--which she won't share with me and that I resent--which supplies her with the newest and no doubt completely legal versions of just opening movies like "I Robot", "Catwoman" and "White Chicks", often replete with audible audience participation. I should mention that I'm a terribly naive person.

I was hoping that someone who reads this blog might send the Pittsburgh ACT office a no doubt equally legal version of more politically inspiring fare, such as the new Mike Moore movie. Or, if possible, someone could send a movie that I actually thought was a little better than F911: A movie called "The Corporation". The movie actually features Mike Moore and wholeheartedly rips off his style, which is great. The world needs more funny progressive propaganda. The movie also featured two reporters that star in this book. Turns out that a Fox News affiliate values ad revenue above the public's need to know. Who knew.

In one of my columns, I ask George Soros to start a privately funded American BBC that can write about the abuses of corporate power without fear of censorship or cancellation. He's done it before and he needs to do it here. There has to be a counterpart to Fox and MSNBC in order for our message to get out. Why have the Swift Boat ads been so effective? Because it's more likely for GOP slanders and lies to be repeated over and over through the right wing talk radio/Fox News megaphone nexus. The left needs a room of its own and now. I even wrote an outline as to how you could do it. The film also features Naomi Klein who I think is the world's best spokeswoman concerning what can only be called Third World slavery conditions. It's a must see for progressives and even offers some hopeful solutions.

Any other ideas as to what movies might inspire you to canvass more passionately? Z? Missing? Man of Iron? Supersize Me? And can you mail those perfectly legal DVD copies to the Pittsburgh ACT office?

Philip Shropshire ran a consumer group, worked as a general assignment reporter and sold white box computers. He has written for Locus Online, American Times, Tech Central Station and more alternative weeklies than he can remember. He believes in the future. His main site is Three River Tech Review and you can reach him at pshropshire@yahoo.com.

posted by Philip Shropshire at 7:14 AM 0 comments

This is from Alex Nino, again. Check out his bio. I'm not sure that it's in Spanish makes much of a difference. A lot of those 70s Heavy Metal stories left you with that feeling.

This movie finally came to Pittsburgh and I watched it Monday evening. From what I had read, I thought it would be a more interesting movie than F 911 and I was right. It makes a number of interesting arguments--well formulated in left circles--but that I had never seen on a big screen. It also features a number of left heroes--there's a lot of Mike Moore in this film and they steal the man's style without shame or guilt and it works (the world needs more funny progressive propaganda)--including Naomi Klein (my fave) and Noam Chomsky and some people from the other side that say just terribly untrue and silly things. We get the head of Shell, the company that spouts all kinds of pollutants and is probably directly or indirectly responsible for the deaths of a number of Nigerian activists, telling me how much he cares about the world's ecosphere. We get a nice overview of how corporations just looove fascists and dictators, with supporting footage of companies that really really liked the Hitler/Mussolini style. I highly recommend it if it comes to your city....

This is the great great Alex Nino, who I remember from Warren and Heavy Metal. He's just a stunning artist. You can find an American bio here and you can also find a very nice layout of what I think is a comic I originally read in Heavy Metal in the seventies. (1978 it turns out.) This is the Spanish version. Thanks to Gravity Lens for the link idea...Damn you Gravity Lens guy. You will Rue the Day...

I got a really great letter from Mark Plus, who I think used to roam the message boards at
Nanodot with me from days back. I haven't posted there in awhile. I probably should. Anyway, here's his letter responding to my latest Better Humans column.

Hello, Philip Shropshire.

I happen to agree with the critique that wage slavery is oppressive (refer to Bob Black's essays, readily available on the Web, "The Abolition of Work" and "The Libertarian as Conservative"). A social movement serious about increasing freedom would have to find ways to reduce the amount of nonsensical activities called "work" in our so-called "services" economy, because more and more of such "work" has been disconnected from tangible production and mainly acts to keep people under subjection. I honestly don't see what it accomplishes to multiply the numbers of "jobs" in retail, fast food, telemarketing and other forms of useless humiliation and paper shuffling. Whether such tasks are performed or not has no effect on the amount of real goods that gets produced. (I've experienced more than enough of this degradation working in the hospitality industry for the past 13 years, a "career" I had absolutely no expectation of entering when I was in my teens and wanted to become a scientist [long story]. I can also see that a successful mass liberation from work will require people to stop making services demands on others, e.g., by not traveling nearly as much.)

Even much of the tangible stuff that winds up on the market wastes resources that could be put to much better uses by rationally defensible criteria (unless you've been hypnotized by "economics" that is). Despite all the propaganda about how "market forces" determine what gets produced, I'm not aware of any movie goer who ordered very expensive but unwatchable movies like Van Helsing, the budget for which could have revolutionized the field of engineered negligible senescence if spent properly. And, frankly, I could live without the mountains of junk food, Britney Spears CD's and novels about bible prophecy that the American economy piles up the marketplace and then harasses me to notice and buy.

Regards,
Mark Plus

I tried to find a really great Spiderman pic but it just wasn't there. So I went with an old comics Heavy Metal standard: Moebius. I really enjoyed the Spiderman movie. It was emotionally powerful in an odd kind of way. I thought the best scene was at the end when Kirsten Dunst tells him to chase after the sirens and she looks sad and solemn. Of course, the idea that an intelligent woman would leave a publisher's son and space hero and future villain seems a bit unrealistic. Sure, I can buy the fusion suns and the Octupus arms, but that's where the story left me with a fairy tale feel....

Yeah, that whole slew of stories and startups was excellent. By the way, congrats for taking Den Beste on in terms of his completely anti-american view on alt energy. He has a can't do attitude. Is he French? What's his problem? Why oh why does he hate American innovation? And why isn't willing to spend at least 100 billion, or what we've spent on our splendid little war in Iraq, on research so that we can wean ourselves away from our oil fix...

What's also mentioned in those articles is the viewpoint of Smalley, who, unlike Frenchified Hate American innovation firsters like Steven Den Beste, thinks the United States should invest in alt energy. You can find his full take over there at Small Times...

I'm sure Den Beste has gone on record against 100 gig hard drives, private space flights and peer to peer networks as well because, you know, they just can't happen. It's a good debate over there as well. I thought about defending Randall, but he's really doing a great job all by himself...

This is from Tom Moody's waycool site. He's been doing a lot of animated gifs lately. Can you tell? He also has an excellent review of Mike Moore's new movie. I saw it myself as an official member of the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy (hmmm, good name for a website) and it was emotionally compelling. And of course, it did something that all successful propaganda has to accomplish: It's a great piece of art.

"Today, I'm back at it in Pittsburgh, knocking on doors and asking people if they're registered to vote. You might ask yourself what this has to do with the transhumanist dream, where we live out our lives in fusion-driven Betterhumans space habitats, whiling away our several century lifespan seeking to understand every allusion and reference in the works of Joyce or Alan Moore, or actively partaking in the terraforming of Venus or Titan, or even studying up on that hot new personal genomic cosmetic item, the black rhino horn, grown wherever you like, with accessories.

The answer is that unless transhumanists think seriously about politics and self-promotion, this vision will always remain an interesting dream and not a reality. In fact, not only will you have to work for such a future—a future with real self-determination, no wage slavery and more than a vote every two or four years when all the real issues have already been settled—you will have to fight for it. And most likely, your opposition will be violently stupid people who refuse to give up what Carl Sagan described as the "demon-haunted world" and the obligatory yet soothing bliss stations—an eternity with Jesus and departed loved ones or Allah's 40 virgins—that go along with it."

I'm totally psyched about this. Doesn't it look totally science-fictional? In a related note, Better Humans, the premier (and I think only) left pro science publication out there, has this pro-space exploration column here. I'm kind of proud that I was the first columnist there to publicly come out in favor of space exploration. More of this, please. And when there is more of this...what's that great line from Kung Fu? "Time for you to go."

By the way, there's been a wealth of interesting work at Better Humans, and I'm not saying that just because I'm an associate editor and columnist there, but James Hughes wrote a great blueprint for what transhumanism should be. One of his diabolical plans involves putting out the Better Humans position in the media, as a counter to the Kass and McKibben pro-death memes out there. And sure enough, there's this Christian Science Monitor article where James is quoted. There are also excellent pieces by George Dvorsky and Russell Blackford and Simon Smith, my boss, who always writes excellent columns, especially when I miss a deadline...

Jack Ryan, the Republican nominee for the Illinois Senate and apparently not the Tom Clancy movie character, is clearly insane. It would seem this woman wasn't enough for him:

Any heterosexual man who needs a major kink to properly get off having sex with JERI RYAN is beyond perverted.

Here's something that I need to read and study: Thirty Essential Nanotechnology Studies, which is brought to us by our good pals at the Center for Responsible Nanotechnology. I got that link from Evil Incarnate Glenn Reynolds, who still thinks the war in Iraq is going well. Unfortunately, I feel that I must also indirectly link to Glenn's interview with Aubrey De Grey

That's our good friend the comedian from the Watchmen. He's what you might call the fascist superhero that the Comics Journal has been warning us about for all these years.

He also bears a striking similarity to this guy, who was featured in this now cancelled comic (Cancelled because of bad taste? We can only hope so...)

A while back, because I was kind of confused about his politics (he seemed to be wishing Naomi Klein an ironic death when she visited Iraq), I asked Bruce Sterling just what the Hell his politics were. He answers, indirectly, with this Wired column rant against the clearly anti-science policies of the Bush administration.

By the way, I was down for a week because of a bill that I forget to forward to my good friends at Network Solutions. I hope I remember better the next time...

Update: You know when I mentioned what I thought would be a predictably mean-spirited Ted Rall response to the Reagan Death...? Well, that turned out to be true. Here's an excerpt:

...that Ronald Reagan didn't die in prison, where he belonged for starting an illegal, laughably unjustifiable war against Grenada under false pretenses (the "besieged" medical students later said they were nothing of the sort) and funneling arms to hostages during Iran-Contra.

Oh, and 9/11? That was his. Osama bin Laden and his fellow Afghan "freedom fighters" got their funding, and nasty weapons, from Reagan.

A real piece of work, Reagan ruined the federal budget, trashed education, alienated our friends and allies and made us a laughing stock around the world.

Hmmmm...sounds familiar.

Anyway, I'm sure he's turning crispy brown right about now."

The original link is here. Rall has more commentary (his hate mail seems eerily familiar to what I get at Warblogger Watch) on this, as well as Tom Tomorrow. My personal quick take on Reagan: I had just voted for Anderson in the 1980 election. I was open minded, frankly, about the Republican Party. And then I remember Reagan trying to gut my student aid every single year I was in school. I also remembered the Democratic Party congress restoring those cuts. That's why I tend to vote for the Democratic Party...

If you want a nice measured response to Reagan's death, you might try Kathryn Cramer. If you're looking for an angry disrespectful Ted Rall-like response, then try Greg Palast. You have to go to his weblog, curiously without permalinks, and scroll down.

"Then the Reagan roaches mixed their cowardice with crime: taking cash from the hostage-takers to buy guns for the "contras" - the drug-runners of Nicaragua posing as freedom fighters.

I remember as a student in Berkeley the words screeching out of the bullhorn, "The Governor of the State of California, Ronald Reagan, hereby orders this demonstration to disperse" … and then came the teargas and the truncheons. And all the while, that fang-hiding grin from the Gipper.

In Chaguitillo, all night long, the farmers stayed awake to guard their kids from attack from Reagan's Contra terrorists. The farmers weren't even Sandinistas, those 'Commies' that our cracked-brained President told us were 'only a 48-hour drive from Texas.' What the hell would they want with Texas, anyway?

Nevertheless, the farmers, and their families, were Ronnie's targets.

In the deserted darkness of Chaguitillo, a TV blared. Weirdly, it was that third-rate gangster movie, "Brother Rat." Starring Ronald Reagan.

Well, my friends, you can rest easier tonight: the Rat is dead.

Killer, coward, conman. Ronald Reagan, good-bye and good riddance."

Whoops. Gotta head for work to help overthrow the Bush regime (I canvass for anti-bush supporters in the city of Pittsburgh and they actually pay me...)

Here's an interesting article about the top ten conspiracy theories of the year. I like the one about how the Iraq war might be about oil. Shocking. On the other hand, the conspiracy theory that we're about to enter a worldwide global oil crisis would make the war for oil argument, which I've always believed by the way for readers who are just visiting, more sustainable. Here are two sites that are related. One is called the Coming Global Oil Crisis and the other features the first chapter of a book in the same vein.

Ted owns that of course. By the way, this is his newest outrage, along with his most recent column. I don't think either are that outrageous to be blunt about it. How intelligent is it to not only to sign up to die, but to kill people who may not pose a threat to you?

Mel Gibson as the Comedian sounds good. I still think that Julian Sands or Christian Bale are more Ozymandius like. Of course, now that Moore seems to care about what happens to his film properties: Ask Terry Gilliam to exec produce a 12 parter for HBO. Let it be so. I'm always thought a Sopranos casting might be cool. Gandolfini as either the Nite Owl or the Comedian...still like Hopper as Rorshack. Ed Harris as Dr. Manhatten seems like an inspired choice though, but the beautiful Mind guy would be good too, if he would do it...

Here's some nice Steranko art that I copped from that acursed Gravity Lens guy again. Boy, does Paul Gullacy owe this guy royalties for his style or what?

Brazilian Jose Carlos Neves is arguably one of the biggest Alan Moore fans on the planet. Just check out this page of insider Alan Moore stuff, that not only features pics of Alan Moore the youth but his new wife, and other really interesting stuff. You will need Babelfish to read the page though...Update: actually this is just a translation that Moore did with Alan Doane some time back. Go forth to google and ye shall find...

There are some interesting new interviews at Changesurfer. One interview features the author of a new novel called "Nano" that sounds pretty interesting. And in his columns James often extols the virtues of a guaranteed living wage, which would probably be impossible in the US (we'll probably return to legalized slave labor before that happens) and here he interviews a guy in Brazil who's actually pushing that idea. I wonder what it's like to have real opposition parties? Must be cool.

I haven't said anything over at Warblogger Watch for awhile. I probably should. I've really been busy working and thinking about how to do an online paper and how it can somehow achieve excellence. Real journalism is work, not clippings or the usual stuff of the blogosphere. It's going out and doing real reporting. I'm trying to figure out how I can do that and work full time at the same time. When I worked as a journalist I put every bit of time I had into it. I might not be able to do it. But its probably worth a try.

As for the war, it's kind of surreal in a sad and finite way. I question the Iraqis who don't pick up a gun. What are they waiting for? That same good treatment that Latin Americans have come to expect all these years?

I was reading American Samizdat and I found this really good rant against the war. And while I was reading it I hit upon this story about how a Scottish firm had finally figured out terminator style like armies. If I recall my Star Wars mythology, didn't droids make lousy soldiers? Of course, Star Wars admits that in that far away galaxy of theirs AI never exactly took off. On a way-off related note, I'm studying this transhumanism FAQ.

I've added the Chomsky blog Turning the Tide, for that is the law. And speaking of Chomsky's dead on propaganda model for the American media (dead on I say as someone who's worked for two fairly conservative and republican papers), Ed Hermann provides an update right here.

Here's a new series that I'm really enjoying called Wanted. It's premise is that the villains have taken over. It seems to rip off a number of ideas from Alan Moore's Top Ten, namely cameo backgrounds (I'm pretty sure I've seen Electro, Juggernaut and the Vulture in the backgrounds) and the idea of routine cross dimensional travel. It also features a kind of new idea of celebrity casting, which would seem to open them up for a lawsuit but who knows. The lead character looks like Eminen. Dr. Selz, seen above, could only be played by short yet powerful producer Danny Devito. Steve Buscemi and Halle Berry play significant roles. Looks like its cast pretty well...

Well, Air America is on and I'm sorta enjoying it. It's not quite as information packed as Democracy Now, which Jeneane Garofalo just plugged, but it seems to be more interesting and has more of the funny. Al Franken has been hilarious. First, I think Ted Rall has it right about the format's faults, although he was clearly pissed that he wasn't picked as one of the hosts. One of those faults is too few stations and in liberal bastions no less. Need a few more stations in places like South Carolina and Florida, even though being on the satellite station is a good move. I just think they should concentrate on being a net property. Enough people have broadband to make a difference. I also hope they go the Democracy Now route and start offering visual and MP3 downloads. I still think the best idea is to do music videos (with a wide Netscape Radio/Shoutcast variety...fusion at last he sighed) interspersed with audio MoveOn ads would be the way to go. On all the time. All you need is a database, two turntables and a microphone, two turntables and a microphone...

The nice thing about this site is that it features a gorgeous Holdsworth solo on the homepage, then a big fat scary chord when you hit enter, then another great Holdsworth solo.

I don't believe it:: an interesting piece from Tech Central Station. Actually, there's no one more qualified to write about the intersection of transhumanism and comics than I am. I should get right on it.

"I woke up under the refracted geodesic light show in the Martian city of Metropolis. I inserted my tongue upward and turned on the nodule and my right eye blinked off and then back on, and then I whispered "frame" and it was like standing inside the old 3D Viewsonic Tablets. Then I surfed. I'm an info addict and I'm proud of it. I've even rewired my central cortex so that a good blog entry feels like the skin of one of those hot transgendered Bengal tigers (Meow)...Usually, I'd be more interested in the Bjork clone sex show or the reviews of my performance in last night's Monty Python play (I play Cleese in the Argument Sketch because I'm tall and have a British last name despite being the descendant of American slaves) but today was a very different day. For today in 2018, back on Earth, or what we on the Martian Direct Democracy call the "Plutocracy adorned with the Friendly Fascist Smile", where it turns out that Christian fundies armed with nuclear weapons and Islamic fundies armed likewise are about to have their final True Believer-like conversation. In the pool, I'm betting for plumes of smoke to swirl from Calcutta, New York, and an unnamed city in Southeast. It will be a great light show and the end of fantasy ideologies. I'd thank god if I actually believed in one...Now we can evolve in peace. I shall grow a rhino horn, and shimmering butterfly wings and I shall be beautiful..."

Here's an unfortunately true Business Week Piece that details the decline in American science fortunes. It misses the big point, however, about our current administration's anti science positions. Here is the best link about that.

Dean has a new project and it's pretty cool. God knows the Democrats need the money.

This is one of Syd Mead's drawings (tip of the hat to Gravity Lens again as I gnash my teeth...) Mead, if I recall correctly, is the visionary behind the look of Bladerunner. Of course, now that looks less futuristic in light of big screen teevees. I wonder how they can afford it with their Wal Mart jobs...?

I was watching something on the Discovery channel about people who were radically modifying their bodies--by way of full body tatoos, surgical mods and whiskers of all things-- and I was thinking how tame this was in light of the coming Ribofunk revolution. Then, over at Die Puny Humans, I found this link to what could only be called a whole page of Ribofunkers.. Here's a nice pic of a cactus with human hair. MMMMM nice.

James Hughes also has a superior essay about not only this new NBIC group but a fairly comprehensive broadside against Bush science policies.

This is a really talented artist by the name of Stephen Youll. You can find a gallery of his work here. He did the cover for an interesting graphic novel space opera prequel called Saga of the Seven Suns. O tall genetically altered and/or alien ebony assassin...you are beautiful...

James Hughes, the heart of Cyborg Democracy, has blogged a heckuva whole lot about not only the Kass commission, here and here, but also something very interesting called the NBIC conference. It stands for Nan, Bio, Info and Cogno and how these technologies will converge. There's even a legal group that's looking into these issues. Apparently transhumanism, as well as Eric Drexler, is getting the bad rap these days. I think it's because, and this was noted in a recent Better Humans forum, that the logical conclusion to assemblers and new power sources means not only a rethinking of capitalism, but in all probability it's end. I could see where investors wouldn't find that attractive...

While I was looking at those stories I also discovered two cool sites that I'll be looking at more closely in the future: Biotech Today, which features audio interviews with some of the NBIC panelists, and Wi Fi Networking News. I'm going to add both to the links.

On a related broadband note, it looks like broadband over powerlines not only works, but works really well. I've been linking to stories about this for the last several years. It's cool to see that one of these science fictional things I often breathlessly report about here can actually work. I say bring it on, right after the election. Thank God the republicans were too stupid to realize that if they had regulated broadband in exactly the same way they regulated dialup they would have created another boom. Too late now.

And on a related note, my new Better Humans column is up. I make A Left Argument for Space, again. New worlds, new constitutions folks.

I mention the Mirror Mirror Star Trek episode because I think this is where the United States is heading. I already have a goatee so I'll have to wait until my sash arrives in the mail...

Dean has withdrawn, but I certainly hope that he's not out. As I stated before, Dean has a second act. I actually imagine that he will use his incredible fundraising prowess to help congressional candidates. Money might not have helped Dean in a national campaign, but it could certainly go a long way toward helping Dems capture house seats. I know internet fundraising certainly helped Ben Chandler in Kentucky. I guess an overall strategy would be to attack up to 30 seats currently being held by the GOP and defend up to 20 or 30 Dem seats that need to be defended. Or he could take up my offer and attempt to build up a new media, since Soros hasn't cut me a check yet...

In other words, as Ralph Nader attempts to become a politician, Dean can transform himself into a civic crusader. Sounds fair to me.

Who's left? I would take either Edwards or Kerry over Bush but I think that Edwards has less baggage. I also think that Edwards has a more consistent left message even though he voted for the war. I'll have to take a closer look at their proposals. Both of them are cleaning Bush's clock by about 10 points and I don't think this is soft Dean support. People know the Bush record. They know why they're not voting for the shrub. Of course, this means nothing if the Dems can't retake one or both chambers of congress. This is why Dean is still important and why he can still help the party.

Here's a quiz for you Gene Expression types: which of these high school kids should be encouraged not to take upper level math and science courses based on their ethnic differences? The answer is probably nobody, at least not on the basis of superficial racial differences. According to this San Jose Mercury article, everybody in this picture is related genetically to a single Asian ancestor. It's not that I don't think there are genetic differences, I just don't think that racial differences easily translate into genetic differences, especially here in the USA, a proud society of mutts and mongrels. Now, you can make an argument that there are significant individual differences based upon individual genetic reads, but across races? That seems silly and wasteful, about as scientific as using hat color as a marker...Afterall, these are all talented, high achieving Asian kids, even the black kid with corn rows...

Better Humans is becoming one of the best Pop Sci sites out there and I'm not just saying that because I write for them...

My stomping grounds at Better Humans have gotten a redesign and facelift. They're also getting a forums section. On the other hand, I disagree with the recent anti-space columns that I've seen both here and here, and even Cyborg Democracy Writer Charlie Stross takes a shot against exploration here, with an almost we're awful rotten humans and we deserve to die off kind of attitude. Charlie, brother, where's your species self-love man? I must write a dissenting opinion, where I will add some notes to this...

I might note that none of these guys are American. James Hughes, a very American guy, seems to support exploration with reservations. Frankly, given our corrupt politics and imperialistic wars, I certainly wouldn't be too thrilled with American exploration, either. It looks like we're not only going to explore space, but we're going to actively prevent others from doing so, which is evil, which is par for the course lately. I'm about as thrilled about space exploration under this corrupt republican administration as I am about the Chinese space program, which is to say, not much. In fact, I'd be tempted to become this crazy guy...

cuz' it's agin' de lawd I tellya...Jodie Foster won't see me until it's wayyyy too late...

Speaking of stiff monsters, John Kerry looks like he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party. I can't figure out Dean's high negatives. Even now, Dean is out raising Kerry. That's unreal to me. Kerry will have hand in hat begging the same guys that got rich off of the Republicans. Amazing. Perhaps Bush hatred is so deep that Kerry will just roll. I guess the reason I supported Dean so enthusiastically is that, one, he dragged the party to the right position of being against the war and two, Dean offers a way for us to not only win the presidency but the US Congress. On the other hand, Dean hasn't done a very good job of using his money to actually win contests. Meetups, as impressive as they are, aren't translating into votes. Who knows. Perhaps war veterans are more dependable than cyber kids. Dean has to win something by Super Tuesday and he has to completely retool his video ads.

You know, the one thing about Dean is that unlike most presidential candidates, he's got a second act. It would be interesting if he turned his fundraising into something that would unseat Bush. I was thinking along the lines of paying for ads in battleground states, as well as competitive House and Senate seats. I also have a nutty idea about helping the Greens in certain areas...Perhaps I'll post something over at Daily Kos. I can diary with the best of them...

Welp, Cory Doctorow has published a second novel and he's putting it out on the net fer free. That's right, free. That takes guts, again.

Both Tacitus and Phil Carter are the only two conservatives that I admire in this entire war debate in that they actually seem to, well, think. Carter has several interesting posts up. One, he comes down on the side of Larry Flynt on a case involving embedded reporting. He makes the case that Americans sort of have a right to know what's happening in wars that affect them, or kill them, if you're a part of the economic draft. Carter also lays out how you can track down where Bush was during his alleged yet highly probable AWOL Year. Tax records never lie it seems...

Speaking of Democrats who lie down with Republicans, I see that Kerry defeated my fave presidential pick Howard Dean, again. I hear that Dean fired Joe Trippi today. I'm amazed that Democrats think Kerry is the guy. He voted for the tax cuts and the war and now he's telling me that he's going to fight the special interests? Oh please. Don't get me wrong, I'd vote for a stick of wood over Bush, but why would you nominate a guy who can't attack Bush on the Big Issues of the day. Now, this is usually where I go over to Oliver Willis' blog and remind people why they vote for Ralph Nader. Sigh, again. Dean still has a chance.

Update: It looks like Dean has squandered his money, but everyone else is broke as well. He still has a chance. Also, over at Cyberdemocracy, I make the point that Dean is probably not a tool of Trusted Computing no matter what Charlie Stross thinks.

"Second, the "crushing regulations" that we are accused of seeking to impose on the new broadband networks are nothing more than the same level playing field that has long governed the dial-up Internet--where open access and nondiscriminatory transport are ensured--which has been a boon rather than a hindrance to competition online."

Stolen from Gravity Lens Blog yet again. Curse you Gravity Lens for your superior pop culture links. The artist is named Enki Bilal.

Well, I sure hope this poll that shows Kerry with a ten point lead over Dean was just home state spin. They're more optimistic over at my favorite Howard Dean blog.
Ted Rall Sez French kids hate us. And, oh, they get more critical coverage of the war than we do. Really? How shocking.

Obviously, I'm not too thrilled with Monday's results. Dean still has the money and clout to make a go of it (40 million goes a long way), but if he wins with a bloodbath where they cut each other's throats along the way, well, that's a loss as well. I also like Wesley Clark even though he isn't much of a, you know, Democratic Party member. Wesley also talks about his proud vote for Reagan, who attempted to cut my college aid every single year he was in office. Sigh.

I think Dana over at the Howard Dean blog has more to say about the viability factor, here and here. Lotsa stuff over at the Daily Kos, with some very tough medicine here and here.

This movie looks like it's very very important. Its subject matter is horrific, or rather it documents our time's truly big story, that the so-called "librul" media, which won't even take our Super Bowl ad money let alone our ideology, of how private power has corrupted everything. Here's a review. Their links page is especially good. I didn't know the Multinational Monitor links were so extensive.

In fact, from those MM links, try out Oligopoly Watch, where we learn all about how "slotting" practices determine the politics behind the California supermarket strike.

Bad week for the Bush Administration and oh how I weep. I think the best summary is over at the revitalized American Samizdat, where this Benedict guy has been bloggin' up a storm. I think it reminds me of this particular Deep Space Nine episode, but that's just me. I always knew that Tain was involved in the Bush White House. It was so obvious.

Here's a newer and betterer pic of the red planet. You know, to you, it just looks like a buncha rocks. But I see direct democracy, absolute civil liberties, and the nan driven economy. It's all a matter of perspective.

Two quick stories on alt fuels and how Bush doesn't really support it, here and here.

I thought that I'd post this Steranko cover. Again, I think this is fair use ville, especially since I usually drool over any artists I post and their complete and obvious genius. Steranko, as I drool, is a complete and obvious genius.

And here's the real thing. I'm real psyched about these Mars rover photos. A nice photo of a giant footprint or the Monolith would be cooler, but, still, this is pretty swell.

Meanwhile, my favorite neo-eugenicist Godless Capitalist has gone on record that he will not endorse Dean. I'm sure the Dean campaign weeps. For the record, his reasons are beyond silly, even for him. Better stick to cowardly anonymous fringe science. I'm hoping that Scientists for Dean has taken note.

I suppose it's no secret that I've been working on starting an online newspaper here in Pittsburgh. I've already bought the domain and I'm furiously thinking about how much and what kind of content I can put into it while still doing part time gigs that kinda pay my rent.

Unfortunately, I'm not alone. There are a number of other publications that are making an effort out there. Pittpunk seems especially immature, yet it's run by the "young people" so I expect it to be very very successful. There's also this paper called the Western PA Public Record, which apparently has a counterpart in Philly. They have a print version. That's how I heard of them. I'm really not sure what they're about in terms of content. It sounds like they're labor friendly. I interpret that to mean that they will occasionally write about labor without contempt. I'll have to check them out more. There are no bylines, I wonder who does all of the writing? Their website is awful. And then there's Trade River. Trade River is partially run by Lisa Stolarski, who at times is very intelligent. I had a debate with her about Dean vs. Kucinich over at American Samizdat.

Now, during that debate, I called Lisa an ignorant slut, which was a joke, an old SNL joke actually. She didn't watch TV when she was growing up. (Responsible parents: the bane of any decent pop culture IQ.) So, she threatened to sue me, like several times. She also threatened to sue Doc Menlo, at his job. Not a good move. Her invitation to join American Samizdat was withdrawn. Her lawyer informed her, politely, that she was nutz. We haven't spoken since. On the plus side, Trade River has moved farther along than my publication. She has a city grant, apparently. I still don't understand the business model but let's see what develops. Yet in the comments section, there was a person who accused Lisa, of guess what, threatening to sue them. Those comments were wiped out.

So there you have it. The state of the art of Pittsburgh alternative online press. I look forward to making fun of them all.

In other news, in my vigilante role as an off the books operative (They call me Agent Dan, Steelydan) Dean Defense Forces member, I got Scientists for Dean to pull their Gene Expression link from their blog, again. I kinda thought that it was a no-brainer f