Re: Brin: Existence has arrived...
Heh! Both covers are great though the lensatic one is so cool. I assume you've all seen the even-cooler preview trailer tinyurl.com/exist-trailer Thrive all From: kananda...@aol.com kananda...@aol.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wed, August 22, 2012 7:41:08 AM Subject: Re: Brin: Existence has arrived... On 8/22/2012 10:08 AM, Charlie Bell wrote: It's a shiny3D hologram trade paperback. Very excited! Um. That's all. Davidwrote: It's interesting how books get published differently in different countries. I got the hardcover, which has a shiny dust jacket. Iliked the book, although I do have some questions... This seems to cry out for a comment like I think the electrons making my ebook cover *may be shiny*. Good thing I am not young enough to have accessory envy. Dee :-) ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Existence has arrived...
I concur! Thanks Nick! On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 4:26 PM, Nick Arnett nick.arn...@gmail.com wrote: I made up for John by buying the hardcover and the Kobo e-book. Had pre-ordered the hardcover on Amazon, then ended up traveling without and was overcome by the desire to read on, so I bought and downloaded the latter (and finished it on my trip). Nick On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 12:15 PM, John Garcia john...@gmail.com wrote: i borrowed the hardcover from the NYPL (sorry Dr. B, but the budget is tight this year and i was not willing to wait for the paperback, although i will buy that when it is available) and that cover is pretty cool. the trailer was great. i will have to read it again but i have to digest it a bit. all in all, a great many ideas to ponder upon. good work! On Wed, Aug 22, 2012 at 1:33 PM, David Brin db...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Heh! Both covers are great though the lensatic one is so cool. I assume you've all seen the even-cooler preview trailer tinyurl.com/exist-trailer Thrive all From: kananda...@aol.com kananda...@aol.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wed, August 22, 2012 7:41:08 AM Subject: Re: Brin: Existence has arrived... On 8/22/2012 10:08 AM, Charlie Bell wrote: It's a shiny3D hologram trade paperback. Very excited! Um. That's all. Davidwrote: It's interesting how books get published differently in different countries. I got the hardcover, which has a shiny dust jacket. Iliked the book, although I do have some questions... This seems to cry out for a comment like I think the electrons making my ebook cover *may be shiny*. Good thing I am not young enough to have accessory envy. Dee :-) ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Book / Time = Joy%
Krondor eh? I (peripherally) helped to design the world that Ray Feist set his books game in. Knew him and helped/taught him when he saw that if Brin could get money for writing, why not me? Subconsciously, some of his less admirable characters were starkly clear self-portraits. From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Mon, June 18, 2012 1:19:26 AM Subject: Brin: Book / Time = Joy% David Brin: Seriously. (May I? For just a moment?) Next time you contemplate a book’s retail price, try dividing it by the number of hours of pleasure you’ll get, reading it. Then tell me of any other pastime with a better minutes per pennies ratio of sheer joy! Video games. It's easy to see that Good Quality video games gives a much better ratio (I'm not talking about all these first person shooter games which are basically 100% interchangable and are basically Doom clones). Lets see, you probably get 3-5 times (average) from high quality games--Ico, Shadow of the Colossus, etc, You probably get 4-10 times from any given Zelda game (including handheld), 2-20 times from High quality fighter Games--Soul Caliber, Tekken, etc. Possibly 100's of times from open ended games--Tetris, Angband, Darklands, Minesweeper, etc. I know I spent more time playing Betray at Krondor than I did reading Magician (Apprentice Master). Then we get to TV shows/Movies. The average person probably rewatches their favorite TV shows Movies over and over again, so your conception is wrong. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Book / Time = Joy%
Yep, Existence starts on Tuesday! Send all your friends to tinyurl.com/exist-trailer !! best to all - d___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Quantum Cryptography Outperformed By Thermodynamics
Clever. I will talk the DoD into implementing it with Google Tap! From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thu, June 14, 2012 8:31:47 PM Subject: Brin: Quantum Cryptography Outperformed By Thermodynamics http://www.technologyreview.com/view/428202/quantum-cryptography-outperformed-by-classical/ The idea is straightforward. Alice wants to send Bob a message via an ordinary wire. At each end of the wire, there are two different resistors that correspond to a 0 or 1. Alice encodes her message by connecting these two resistors to the wire in the required sequence. Bob, on the other hand, connects his resistors to the wire at random. The crucial part of this set up is that the actual current and voltage through the wire is random, ideally Johnson noise. The essential features of this noise are determined by the combination of resistors at each end. This noise is public--anybody can see or measure it. Now here's the clever bit. Bob knows which resistor he connected to the wire and so can work out which resistor Alice must have connected. But Eve, who is listening in to the publicly available noise, does not know which resistor was connected at each end and cannot work it out either because the laws of thermodynamics prevent the extraction of this information from this kind of signal. - It’s cheap to maintain Lies and expensive to maintain Trvth. --KZK's Maxim ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Brin events
Oh by the way, many of you probably received my annual newsletter during the last couple of days. So you know about my book tour schedule, with in-person events in Seattle, Portland, the Bay Area, LA and San Diego area. Also see http://www.davidbrin.com for info about a Tweet extravaganza on 6/20 ( 1pm) #TorChat... and a Reddit Ask Me Anything marathon on 6/26! I assume you all have seen my new web site http://www.davidbrin.com ...and the fantastic preview trailer that Patrick Farley painted and executed for me! tinyurl.com/exist-trailer Sorry for the salesmanship, but I'm working hard! And it has been 8 years since a big brin book so I hope you don't mind! Best to all. davidb___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Debunking the Myth of Intuition
The one area where Sigmund Freud offered breakthrough insights of profound and permanent value was by demonstrating conclusively that the unconscious mind exists, that it has agendas that often differ from our surface rationalizations, values and proclaimed beliefs, and that it can affect our decisions and biases before we even begin consciously weighing them. Alas, like so many other brilliant men, Freud went on to make unjustified leaps of elaboration that - ironically - erupted out of his own tortured unconscious. Still, science is continuing the verify the origical insight. This rumination discusses how difficult it is to be sure we are being truly rational. Take it as a caution. And repeat the sacred statement of science. “I might be wrong.” From:KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To:brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent:Tue, May 29, 2012 8:56:58 AM Subject:Brin: Debunking the Myth of Intuition http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/interview-with-daniel-kahneman-on-the-pitfalls-of-intuition-and-memory-a-834407-druck.html ... Kahneman: Yes. Psychologists distinguish between a System 1 and a System 2, which control our actions. System 1 represents what we may call intuition. It tirelessly provides us with quick impressions, intentions and feelings. System 2, on the other hand, represents reason, self-control and intelligence. SPIEGEL: In other words, our conscious self? Kahneman: Yes. System 2 is the one who believes that it's making the decisions. But in reality, most of the time, System 1 is acting on its own, without your being aware of it. It's System 1 that decides whether you like a person, which thoughts or associations come to mind, and what you feel about something. All of this happens automatically. You can't help it, and yet you often base your decisions on it. SPIEGEL: And this System 1 never sleeps? Kahneman: That's right. System 1 can never be switched off. You can't stop it from doing its thing. System 2, on the other hand, is lazy and only becomes active when necessary. Slow, deliberate thinking is hard work. It consumes chemical resources in the brain, and people usually don't like that. ... - It’s cheap to maintain Lies and expensive to maintain Trvth. --KZK's Maxim ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Infinite Stupidity
Unbelievably pathetic. thx From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sat, December 17, 2011 4:54:29 AM Subject: Brin: Infinite Stupidity Edge never fails to disappoint. http://edge.org/conversation/infinite-stupidity-edge-conversation-with-mark-pagel --- It’s cheap to maintain Lies and expensive to maintain Trvth. --KZK's Maxim ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Infinite Stupidity
Alas, Pagel spins a just-so story that is conveniently and charmingly free of reference to historical facts. For example, he ignores the fact that innovation sped up, intensely and supra-liearly, as the number of individuals in a society increased. Agrarian clans and then kingdoms allocated surplus food to specialists, rewarding them for talent and expertise, sometimes in accurate correlation to their effectiveness at innovation. Competitively striving to attain that status, youths who became scribes, blacksmiths, tool-makers, engineers and priests must have achieved enhanced reproductive ability almost equal to the feudal lords who soon dominated every society. Hence, a proclivity for nerdiness would increase... though not quite in pace with an ever-rising tendency toward oligarchy. From: Pat Mathews mathew...@msn.com To: Brin List brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sat, December 17, 2011 6:03:00 AM Subject: RE: Brin: Infinite Stupidity Prone to fads defines every urbanized civilization I've ever heard of, and tribal societies are less given to innovation that he thinks, because the traditional lore is a store of highly specialized local knowledge about conditions whose changes are well understood. Even the odd once-in-a-lifetime events can usually be answered by consulting one of the elders or grandmothers. It's my guess that innovation is the hallmark of an expanding or frontier society where all bets are off and great benefits can be had from it. Or in borderlands where cultures interact. Because a lot of what he describes as docile copying and getting our information from the society at large can also be interpreted as it is not rational to reinvent the wheel! Unless it's not working for you. And there is the other condition for innovation - to be subject to a clumsy procedure or machine and grit your teeth and mutter Bad design. VERY bad design. I could do better. And be able to do it. In which case all that culturally accumulated knowledge is there to serve you. http://idiotgrrl.livejournal.com/ Date: Sat, 17 Dec 2011 06:54:29 -0600 From: evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Brin: Infinite Stupidity Edge never fails to disappoint. http://edge.org/conversation/infinite-stupidity-edge-conversation-with-mark-pagel l --- It’s cheap to maintain Lies and expensive to maintain Trvth. --KZK's Maxim ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: on Debt, Democracy, and all that
BTW... I hope you all know that Brin-L style elevated discussions take place regularly under the Comments section, beneath each of my regular blog postings at http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ A great blogmunity. And, if you call it an extension of Brin-L... one of the oldest on the Net! Hoping you all have happy holidays and a great 2012...* warm regards david brin * The year my big novel EXISTENCE comes out! (June ;-)___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: on Debt, Democracy, and all that
Wow, this was more interesting than I expected it to be. On Debt, Democracy, and all that... http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2011/12/michael-hudson-debt-and-democracy-has-the-link-been-broken.html What with 700+ Trillion in derivatives outstanding... Huge exaggeration. 700 trillion was artificially lent to banks so that their balance sheets would show enough capital so they would not have to be closed. They then used it to buy treasury bonds.. Most of it is not missing.___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: (Ignoring Murphy's Law) kills
eeek! From: Alberto Monteiro albm...@centroin.com.br To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Tue, December 7, 2010 3:31:53 AM Subject: Brin: (Ignoring Murphy's Law) kills Three days ago, a brazilian teenager was killed in hospital, because instead of saline solution, the nurse gave her vaseline. The reason was that the idiots that produced those products made _identical_ vessels for them, with the difference being a minuscule identification label. Murphy's Law is exactly the way to prevent those stupid errors. Text (in Portuguese): http://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caso_Stephane Here an image of the two vessels: http://g1.globo.com/jornal-nacional/noticia/2010/12/mae-diz-que-auxiliar-de- enfermagem-colocou-frasco-de-vaselina-em-sp.html Alberto Monteiro ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Hrm
saw it! From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thu, December 2, 2010 11:04:50 PM Subject: Brin: Hrm http://amultiverse.com/2010/09/29/dont-ask-dont-swim/ ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Arguing Doesn't Work: Fact Vs Belief
My questionnaire include some digs at the notion of Toxic Memes. http://www.davidbrin.com/questionnaire.html From: Michael Harney dolp...@mikes3dgallery.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sun, November 21, 2010 9:55:54 AM Subject: Re: Brin: Arguing Doesn't Work: Fact Vs Belief On 11/21/2010 10:17 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 11:21 AM, Michael Harney dolp...@mikes3dgallery.com wrote: Dawkins addresses this a bit in his book _The God Delusion_. Evolutionarily, it makes sense. Children cannot afford to disbelieve things that are told to them by elders. Doing so means consuming poisonous things or getting too close to lions or other dangerous predators. That seems tautological to me, since it is only true if what you're being told is true. Believing false information of that nature would be selected against, so one could imagine that humans could have evolved a strong sense of when to believe those in authority. Actually, false ideas would only be selected against if those ideas had negative survival value. If the survival value is neutral, then the idea and the people who believe it continue. Or, an idea may have negative survival value for the individual, but positive value for the group. ex: the Aztecs would sacrifice people to the gods during times of famine to try and appease the gods to end the famine. Though bad for the individual being sacrificed, whether or not the famine ended, the group would be better off as there would be less mouths to feed and fewer people would starve. You do have a point though as teenagers actually lose judgment and consequence ability in their early teen years, it makes it more likely for them to disregard what they have been taught, making it more likely to try something that they were told was bad. Any thing that has negative consequence is likely to be witnessed by others and the taboo reinforced, but expectations to can influence what a person sees. If the parents said Say your prayers every morning and night or bad things will happen. If a rebellious teen stops saying their prayers, they are more likely to interpret any bad thing that happens as a direct consequence of not saying their prayers as that is what they expect. In this way, people may end up crediting the wrong idea for good or bad results resulting in neutral ideas being sustained. Besides, some of us had parents who taught us to be skeptical of authority. I'm fairly sure DB's kids have been taught that! Be skeptical of authority, kid. Why? Because I'm your father and I said so. Nick True, but the idea of teaching children to question authority is a relatively new one, or rather, it is one that only a small portion of the population engaged in until recently. Even now I would say it is still a small minority of the population. If holy texts are any indicator, questioning authority back in much older times usually ended in the questioning person being killed. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Claw
leaves out WWII From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thu, August 26, 2010 4:00:15 PM Subject: Brin: Claw This Graph puts the 23Trillion in Perspective: http://www.flickr.com/photos/79361...@n00/4868316187/ Obama's Kleptocratic Banksters aren't really very different from Bush's. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous
You got me. I skimmed. the modern sin. If you had any idea how many people I must respond to. From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Mon, August 23, 2010 12:24:31 AM Subject: Re: Brin: The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous On 8/21/2010 10:14 PM, Chris Frandsen wrote: This is the same anti government pitch being pushed right now to hamstring this administration. So, we should just ignore it when Obama is worse, in this case on spying on Americans, than Bush was, just because he has a (D) after his name? We should just ignore it when Obama does the opposite of what he campaigned on, just because he has a (D) after his name? We should Shut our mouths over things that when Bush did them, were completely outrageous, just because he has a (D) after his name? So we should just turn of four brains and accept everything he does as good, and just and right, and beyond criticism, just because he has a (D) after his name? Chris On Aug 21, 2010, at 21:51, David Brindb...@sbcglobal.net wrote: Whine, moan bitch complain without any sensible suggestions... yep, that's the Cato way. Above all, aim all suspicion-of-authority at some vague government and ignore all other forces. From: KZKevil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sat, August 21, 2010 6:42:35 PM Subject: Brin: The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous http://www.cato-unbound.org/2010/08/09/glenn-greenwald/the-digital-surveillance-state-vast-secret-and-dangerous/ / ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous
Whine, moan bitch complain without any sensible suggestions... yep, that's the Cato way. Above all, aim all suspicion-of-authority at some vague government and ignore all other forces. From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sat, August 21, 2010 6:42:35 PM Subject: Brin: The Digital Surveillance State: Vast, Secret, and Dangerous http://www.cato-unbound.org/2010/08/09/glenn-greenwald/the-digital-surveillance-state-vast-secret-and-dangerous/ And as we acquiesce to more and more sacrifices of our privacy to the omnipotent Surveillance State, it builds the wall of secrecy behind which it operates higher and more impenetrable, which means it constantly knows more about the actions of citizens, while citizens constantly know less about it. We chirp endlessly about the Congress, the White House, the Supreme Court, the Democrats and Republicans, but this is the Real U.S. Government: a massive Surveillance State functioning in darkness, beyond elections and parties, so secret, vast and powerful that it evades the control or knowledge of any one person or even any organization. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Beds, FM Radiation, and Left-Sided Cancer
Thanks KZK and happy July 4th to all! Oh, drop by http://www.davidbrin.com to see a number of my most recent podcast videos, some of which have gone quite viral! Especially the advice to students at college. Thrive all. With cordial regards, David Brin http://www.davidbrin.com From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sun, July 4, 2010 5:49:05 AM Subject: Brin: Beds, FM Radiation, and Left-Sided Cancer http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=left-sided-cancer-blame-your-bed-an-2010-07-02 Metal bed-frames as antenna's.. ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Two interesting Articles for Dr. Brin:
Wow, this guy is really something. I'll tout him on my blog. Who is he? Thanks for sharing it. From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Fri, March 19, 2010 6:51:11 PM Subject: Two interesting Articles for Dr. Brin: http://www.asymptosis.com/libertarians-republicans-and-democrats-new-findings-on-morality-empathy-and-sympathy.html http://www.asymptosis.com/are-machines-replacing-humans-or-am-i-a-luddite.html ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Two interesting Articles for Dr. Brin:
I challenge libertarians to imagine it is 1861. In which army do they fight? They are romantics and hence illogical. In fact, they think they are for the Horatio Alger rags to riches innovators. They hate it when you ask them how well that works when the rich become feudal lords. Patron Saint Adam Smith actually would have been a democrat From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sat, March 20, 2010 2:49:02 PM Subject: Re: Two interesting Articles for Dr. Brin: On 3/20/2010 12:00 AM, David Brin wrote: Wow, this guy is really something. I'll tout him on my blog. Who is he? I don't know, I just found his site a few days ago. Your best bet would be to try and email him and ask. (Their are unscrupulous ways like looking up who the website was registered to by using whois). Then again, I'm partial to pseudonyms. Thanks for sharing it. I think their have also been other things going on for a number of years. Namely, most employers (90+%) now won't hire people who are not currently employed (they brag about this). So people who lose thier job are finding it very difficult to reenter the workforce. And people who've never been employed have extreme trouble just getting that first job (look at the unemployment underemployed %). Libertarians can be summed up in one statement: Libertarians are for anything that increases the: Wealth, Power, Rights, and Privileges, of the already Wealthy and Powerful Elites; Libertarians are also for anything that decreases the: Wealth, Power, Rights, and Privileges, of everyone else, especially the poorest or minorities. After all, the Libertarian party has in the past had a Pro-Apartheid plank in it's platform. You can usually get a Libertarian to argue that Slavery is OK, because people have a right to sell themselves. From: KZK http://www.asymptosis.com/libertarians-republicans-and-democrats-new-findings-on-morality-empathy-and-sympathy.html http://www.asymptosis.com/are-machines-replacing-humans-or-am-i-a-luddite.html ___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://box535.bluehost.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Lesley's copy of Kiln People
Nick, if it consoles at all, I wish I grew up in a family as clearly tight and loving as yours must have been. Stay strong and thrive-all. david brin___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: BRIN: Uplift books on Kindle?
I have a query in. Alas, it is a department that I have no influence over, but I will keep trying... thanks db From: John Williams jwilliams4...@gmail.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Mon, January 11, 2010 1:18:32 AM Subject: Re: BRIN: Uplift books on Kindle? On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 3:00 PM, David Brin db...@sbcglobal.net wrote: The Startide Rising release says January 11 2009. I suspectt that's a misprint and should be January 11, 2010? That'd explain the glitch and should resolve in a week. Nope, still no Kindle edition of Startide Rising available. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: BRIN: Uplift books on Kindle?
The Startide Rising release says January 11 2009. I suspectt that's a misprint and should be January 11, 2010? That'd explain the glitch and should resolve in a week. I have a query in about Brightness Reef thanks! From: John Williams jwilliams4...@gmail.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wed, January 6, 2010 10:23:00 PM Subject: BRIN: Uplift books on Kindle? I was checking again for the Uplift books on Amazon Kindle, and things have improved since the last time I looked, but the status is odd. Uplift War is available on Kindle, and Heaven's Reach is available for pre-order (Jan 13 release). Oddly, Brightness Reef and Infinity's Shore are nowhere to be found on Kindle. Why release Heaven's Reach but not the other two in the trilogy? And Startide Rising is still missing. If you search the Kindle store for David Brin, you find a listing for Startide Rising: Kindle Edition - Jan 11, 2009 Buy $3.55 Available for Pre-order but clicking on the link gives a page that says Pricing information not available and no way to purchase or pre-order the Kindle edition of the book. What is going on? ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Re: is Brin-l active?
Let me know how I can help! From: Richard Baker r...@theculture.org To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sun, January 3, 2010 2:35:44 PM Subject: Re: Brin: Re: is Brin-l active? Nick said: And we're cooking up a new project, a wiki for SF and fantasy, starting with a focus on a particular writer's works... Guess who. Benford? Bear? Baxter? Rich GCU I Give Up! ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Re: is Brin-l active?
Hi Nick. I had sent a note to bri...@nickarnett.net or to brin-l@mccmedia.com and had it bounce. Is this the nick.arn...@gmail.com addr to send missives to Brin-L? Here's the message I tried to send: = Dear Brin-L discussion list. Dr. Christine Carmichael charm...@gmail.com wants to collate a bunch of stories that illustrate physics concepts.Any of you who know books or stories that might be relevant can inform her separately at charm...@gmail.com I want to use stories written by scientists that really illustrate a physics concept creatively and imaginatively. They are harder to find than I thought. I know she should contact David Hartwell, whose ASCENT OF WONDER and THE HARD SF RENAISSANCE both ought to provide some grist. Anything elkse come to mind? Hope you all have a super decade. With cordial regards, David Brin http://www.davidbrin.com Hoping UR thriving Nick. d From: Nick Arnett nick.arn...@gmail.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sun, January 3, 2010 2:22:22 PM Subject: Brin: Re: is Brin-l active? On Sun, Jan 3, 2010 at 2:19 PM, d.brin db...@sbcglobal.net wrote: is Brin-l active? Yes. And we're cooking up a new project, a wiki for SF and fantasy, starting with a focus on a particular writer's works... Guess who. Nick ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Life after people - The Invaders
Thanks. Lots of fun. Thrive on! With best wishes, for a confident and ambitious 21st Century, David Brin www.davidbrin.com From: Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro albm...@centroin.com.br To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Saturday, October 17, 2009 5:10:12 PM Subject: Brin: Life after people - The Invaders A great episode!!! Tool-using dolphins, self-uplifing chimpanzees, dolphins that remember humans as Gods in the Golden Age. What's next? Whales, Gorillas or AIs? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Dark Matter / Energy in Doubt
Interesting stuff! From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Friday, October 2, 2009 6:38:22 PM Subject: Brin: Dark Matter / Energy in Doubt This paper (pdf) shows how MOG (Modified Gravity or Scalar-Tensor-Vector) theory explains the Bullet cluster 'proof' of dark matter without dark matter: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0702146 This article argues, weakly, that the apparent acceleration of the universe can be explained without Dark energy (and they hope to refine their theory more and produce some testable predictions): http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/erasing_dark_energy/ ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Libertarian Morality--Up with good King John, down with Robin Hood.
Not sure I see where Trent is coming from, associating me with such nonsense. I am a libertarian in a sense that is not shared by many other libertarians... in that I believe that harnessing interhuman competition is the core element that enabled the Enlightenment to escape the brutal traps of nearly every other human civilization. Our markets, democracy, science and law courts are all complex machines designed to foster and harness competitive efforts by groups that are self-organizing and internally cooperative, but eager to win in rivalry viz other groups. Harnessing this was not easy, since most winners immediately try to cheat and prevent further competition. This is the way of oligarchy. It is also the reason that most modern American libertarians are complete whackos. They ignore 5,000 years of human history, in their shrill claims that ONLY government bureaucrats represent any threat to freedom or markets etc. Bureaucrats CAN endanger freedom, true, and a healthy impulse should always be to encourage citizens to do more and see if govt can do less. But to ignore the fact that oligarchy was, is, and always will be the main enemy... well, that is simply mass stupidity. And that is ALL I will say about this now. I have explained at length elsewhere. About looking past political totems: http://www.reformthelp.org/theory/generalizing/foe.php and... http://www.reformthelp.org/theory/positioning/models.php and...http://www.davidbrin.com/libertarian1.html I do dream the LP will someday take its rightful place as a reasonable, pro-freedom and markets party to replace the undead GOP. But till that miracle happens, I'll just say I am delighted that at least adults are back in charge... even uneven and flawed ones. Please remove Re: Brin from this thread. And thrive all. db From: Trent Shipley tship...@deru.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, August 6, 2009 7:42:49 PM Subject: Brin: Libertarian Morality--Up with good King John, down with Robin Hood. I wrote a suggestion to my Arizona State legislators about de-funding the state universities in favor of tuition vouchers. Vouchers would be in keeping with Arizona's conservative libertarian bias in favor of a low taxes-low wages-strong small business environment. If I lived in Massachusetts or Minnesota where the culture favors high tax-high wage-strong big business I would never have made this suggestion. Anyhow, I am through with school. As a good libertarian and social Darwinist it is now time to screw the following generations. When I inappropriately sent a selection of my idea as an off topic contribution to the Phoenix Linux email list I was astounded that the comments came not from the left but from the RIGHT! The respondents were self-educated technicians suspicious of higher education in general and wanted NO public funds spent on higher education. It started me thinking about the bases of libertarianism and American conservatism. Previously when I had thought of libertarianism, I had not thought of it as particularly based in a moral principle. I thought it just a political extension of liberal or neo-classical economics that reduced the general welfare to economic efficiency. Of course, I knew there was another strain in libertarianism that was based in morality. This was an ideological commitment to maximize individual freedom. Basically Aleister Crowley's Harm no one and do what thou wilt, with the harm no one clause being optional--particularly when doing business. But there other moral strains mentioned by one of my libertarian Linux respondents. Taking money from some one who earned it to give it to some one who didn't is stealing, government or otherwise. This actually combines two moral axioms common to libertarians and conservatives. The first is that taxes are a form of theft. The second is that it is immoral to give (poor) people money. (Exceptions are made for rich people and corporations because in that case they earn the money through their cleverness and not through class conscious theft). The morality of taxes are theft, in particular, is logically self consistent; therefore, convincing on its face. lemma I used to be a pacifist. I was raised Mennonite. Pacifism is a logically self-consistent principle. Killing is horrific, killing is murder, killing for a cause or for war is still horrific and is still murder. The problem is that war is an inescapable part of the human condition. Even in the best of times the potential is there. Pacifism doesn't allow for the complexities of human reality, it isn't pragmatic. end lemma The moral principle that taxes are theft suffers from a similar limitation. Logically taxes ARE theft. However, one must be expedient and practical. We have a society to run. We need to buy social goods. Social goods have to be paid for and that money has always come from taxes. There is a more fundamental
Re: Brin: On 'Incomprehesibility'
Today's DVD's 1- are not universal if you record on minus or plus mode and many units throw fits, even then 2- fast-forward and reverse are a mess. They are twichy and over and undershoot like mad. 3- menu navigation is often torment 4- You cannot copy incrementally, onto the end of a segment of DVD that you already recorded some before. 5- Very few computers let you use a DVD as an optical mass storage device, even though it is the perfect medium for making your monthly hard-disk backup. They insist it can only be used AS a DVD-video storage device. 6 - Even with new hacks and machines, there is still collusion between manufacturers and studios, meant to diminish and hinder copying of anything you legitimately own. Yes, there are reasons for this. But clearly the market is not functioning, or some company would simply be selling units that do what the customer wants.___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Language
Which shows how diametrically different Galactic lawyers are to US lawyers, who are frequently hired to find some way of making the contract say the exact opposite of what it is meant to say because one of the signatories wants to do what he wants rather than what he agreed to. YEP! In one respect at least the Martians are a happy people; they have no lawyers. -- Edgar Rice Burroughs, A Princess of Mars Actually, it is much more subtle than that. Lawyers are like bees. They really can be very useful. But in large quantities they kill. My allegory? How can we both help Russia and the US at the same time? Send tham half our lawyers - freedom in both countries will go up. Send half the graduates of our Business Schools. Both economies skyrocket. Send half of Nasa's managers. We get a good space program, they get some good farm labor.___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Language
Fascinating! I'll use the Mandarin /time part in my current novel. From: KZK evil.ke...@gmail.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Sunday, June 28, 2009 3:00:34 PM Subject: Brin: Language I'd like to hear Dr. Brin's thoughts on this: http://edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html He touched on the concept in some of the Uplift Novels, where galactic languages have generally been constructed in a way that eliminates metaphore. Also I would like to know how it plays into Dr. Brin's 5 Dominate world Meme's theory. ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: BRIN: Startide books on Kindle?
John, I have the contracts in-hand, as we speak! With cordial regards, David Brin http://www.davidbrin.com From: John Williams jwilliams4...@gmail.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:08:03 AM Subject: BRIN: Startide books on Kindle? Any idea why none of Startide Rising or the many sequels are available in Amazon Kindle format? I've been curious for some time why so few SF books are available for Kindle. Only about 1 in 5 of SF books that I would like to purchase are available for Kindle. The only explanation I can come up with is that Amazon caps the Kindle edition price at $9.99 (has anyone seen a SF Kindle book above $9.99?) and the publishers think there is no profit in it at that price. But paperback editions are frequently less than $9.99, so that explanation requires that the costs for selling a Kindle edition are higher than for a paperback, which would be odd. Is Kindle flawed in this way? ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: BRIN: Startide books on Kindle?
Great! Thanks for the quick response. Any idea how long it will be before Kindle editions are available? I have no idea. Hopefully just a matter of months. Meanwhile folks, remember to drop by http://www.davidbrin.com and/or my blog http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ I've been on several episodes of Life After People. Be sure to order THROUGH STRANGER EYES for your Brin fix. Also see several novellas of mine on Baen's UNIVERSE Magazine online, including two very different comedies! Oh, any of you who used to pre-read my manuscripts... are you still interested? I have a couple of items, starting with my wife's new YA sf novel. Cheryl has written a lovely, somewhat feminine story about a girl on a colony planet, growing up fast while her nation goes through a conflict a lot like WWI. It's really good! But could use some more eyes. db___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: Re: New Uplift Universe question....
I'm on it. seriously From: Nick Arnett nick.arn...@gmail.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Friday, May 8, 2009 7:54:29 PM Subject: Brin: Re: New Uplift Universe question On Fri, May 8, 2009 at 6:10 PM, Dan M dsummersmi...@comcast.net wrote: I've got a question that I think about when I think of Brin. He hasn't written a regular novel since Kiln People, which was about 6 years ago...and his last graphic novel was a year after that. Is it fair to say that, while he will continue to write short fiction, the probability of a new novel is exponentially decaying, or will there be new novels? Somebody had to bring this to David's attention, thus the subject change! Nick ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Looking for a story...
Sorry. Doesn't ring a bell With cordial regards, David Brin http://www.davidbrin.com From: Andrew Crystall dawnfal...@upliftwar.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:30:53 AM Subject: Looking for a story... I'm looking for a story I read - I think it was a short story. It features a grunt's eye view of an attack on an alien position, with the attackers being aliens of the same species, but bred by Humans as part of their society. AndrewC ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Looking for a story...
Sorry folks. Must test three subject lines this time. With Re: With Brin: Without either. From: Andrew Crystall dawnfal...@upliftwar.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:30:53 AM Subject: Looking for a story... I'm looking for a story I read - I think it was a short story. It features a grunt's eye view of an attack on an alien position, with the attackers being aliens of the same species, but bred by Humans as part of their society. AndrewC ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Brin:
with Brin: From: David Brin db...@sbcglobal.net To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:05:08 AM Subject: Re: Looking for a story... Sorry folks. Must test three subject lines this time. With Re: With Brin: Without either. From: Andrew Crystall dawnfal...@upliftwar.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:30:53 AM Subject: Looking for a story... I'm looking for a story I read - I think it was a short story. It features a grunt's eye view of an attack on an alien position, with the attackers being aliens of the same species, but bred by Humans as part of their society. AndrewC ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
and a test with no colons
From: David Brin db...@sbcglobal.net To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:05:08 AM Subject: Re: Looking for a story... Sorry folks. Must test three subject lines this time. With Re: With Brin: Without either. From: Andrew Crystall dawnfal...@upliftwar.com To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:30:53 AM Subject: Looking for a story... I'm looking for a story I read - I think it was a short story. It features a grunt's eye view of an attack on an alien position, with the attackers being aliens of the same species, but bred by Humans as part of their society. AndrewC ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Problem with (and, specially, without) Brin: [was: On the Housing Market]
I have to agree with Alberto. Some other solution is needed, since I am getting all subject lines, all the time... From: Alberto Monteiro albm...@centroin.com.br To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:47:57 AM Subject: Problem with (and, specially, without) Brin: [was: On the Housing Market] David Brin complained: Alas, both versions came through. Nick, have we run out of solutions here? May I offer a suggestion? * Set the standard David Brin account to receive no mails * Create (someone else could do it) a dummy account, like david.brin.k...@somewhere, run by a 'bot, and subscribe it to the list * The 'bot has the primary purpose of forwarding to the standard David Brin account every message whose subject includes the string Brin: * The 'bot has the secondary purpose of forwarding to the list every message it receives from the main David Brin account Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Problem with (and, specially, without) Brin: [was: On the Housing Market]
Hi Nick. I am reading this at db...@sbcglobal.net But that address gets pass-thru from two other addresses: b...@alumni.caltech.edu and b...@cts.com(I doubt those are listed on Brin-L but you might check. Thanks for plowing through this. david From: Nick Arnett narn...@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 10:15:18 AM Subject: Re: Problem with (and, specially, without) Brin: [was: On the Housing Market] And you're getting this at the email address below? That's what shows up in the headers as the actual address to which the email was sent? I'm really sorry about this... it was working perfectly before the move and I can't see any reason it shouldn't now. On the other hand, if you don't reply to this message, I'll know that Julia figured it out. Nick 2009/2/26 David Brin db...@sbcglobal.net I have to agree with Alberto. Some other solution is needed, since I am getting all subject lines, all the time... From: Alberto Monteiro albm...@centroin.com.br To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 9:47:57 AM Subject: Problem with (and, specially, without) Brin: [was: On the Housing Market] David Brin complained: Alas, both versions came through. Nick, have we run out of solutions here? May I offer a suggestion? * Set the standard David Brin account to receive no mails * Create (someone else could do it) a dummy account, like david.brin.k...@somewhere, run by a 'bot, and subscribe it to the list * The 'bot has the primary purpose of forwarding to the standard David Brin account every message whose subject includes the string Brin: * The 'bot has the secondary purpose of forwarding to the list every message it receives from the main David Brin account Alberto Monteiro ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: On the Housing Market
I'm testing by replying once with Re: in the subject line and once without. If only the Re: comes to me, then we have a PARTIAL version of the old method, and I'll ask that folks remove Re: unless they seriously want my attention. (The old Re: Brin: was better) If I get both, then another solution is needed. thrive all! d From: Rceeberger rceeber...@comcast.net To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:25:30 PM Subject: RE: On the Housing Market On 2/24/2009 11:22:40 PM, Dan M (dsummersmi...@comcast.net) wrote: Thanks John! Those were pretty much the kinds of arguments I was seeing in 2006-2007 that made me anticipate the bubble bursting. Do you see the correction lasting 12 - 18 months or perhaps longer? I won't argue with the basic premise, because I saw it too...especially for the coasts, NV, etc, Sure, those areas were what tipped me off that something was up, though to be honest, I anticipated the bubble bursting only in the highly priced areas with the rest of the country riding it out mostly unmolested. I saw the loan problems as being a parallel situation and never expected such a dramatic implosion. but I have found that it is more expensive to live in a 1350 sq. foot apartment that's not as nice as my house than it would be if I bought my old 2950 sq. foot house at the price I sold it, paid 20% down, and lost the interest on the down payment money. This figures in all the costs of maintenance, the but not the 400 sq. foot of storage for furniture and books and stuff that we are storing until we move to wherever Teri gets a call. Down on the far south side of town, also on the pricey side of real estate, 1000 sq ft runs $800 - $1000 depending on how nice the appointments are. Of course there is a price level above and one below, depending on ones income bracket. On the whole, up on the north side of Houston, it's cheaper per sq. ft. per year to own than to rent. I think that's very unusual for the US, so I think Houston is just below the live because of expensive downtown rentalsif we weren't hoping to leave soon, it wouldn't make sense to rent. Right now houses in Clear Lake are quite inexpensive. Prices are way down from 2005 levels. 10 - 20 percent in many cases. When I was first recognizing the bubble, I noticed a lot of billboards advertizing homes in the 400-500K range and I wondered who in the hell were buying these homes. I still have no idea. For John, one of the better real estate sites I visit is HAR.com xponent Da Moneez Maru rob ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
On the Housing Market
Testing without Re: From: Rceeberger rceeber...@comcast.net To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:25:30 PM Subject: RE: On the Housing Market On 2/24/2009 11:22:40 PM, Dan M (dsummersmi...@comcast.net) wrote: Thanks John! Those were pretty much the kinds of arguments I was seeing in 2006-2007 that made me anticipate the bubble bursting. Do you see the correction lasting 12 - 18 months or perhaps longer? I won't argue with the basic premise, because I saw it too...especially for the coasts, NV, etc, Sure, those areas were what tipped me off that something was up, though to be honest, I anticipated the bubble bursting only in the highly priced areas with the rest of the country riding it out mostly unmolested. I saw the loan problems as being a parallel situation and never expected such a dramatic implosion. but I have found that it is more expensive to live in a 1350 sq. foot apartment that's not as nice as my house than it would be if I bought my old 2950 sq. foot house at the price I sold it, paid 20% down, and lost the interest on the down payment money. This figures in all the costs of maintenance, the but not the 400 sq. foot of storage for furniture and books and stuff that we are storing until we move to wherever Teri gets a call. Down on the far south side of town, also on the pricey side of real estate, 1000 sq ft runs $800 - $1000 depending on how nice the appointments are. Of course there is a price level above and one below, depending on ones income bracket. On the whole, up on the north side of Houston, it's cheaper per sq. ft. per year to own than to rent. I think that's very unusual for the US, so I think Houston is just below the live because of expensive downtown rentalsif we weren't hoping to leave soon, it wouldn't make sense to rent. Right now houses in Clear Lake are quite inexpensive. Prices are way down from 2005 levels. 10 - 20 percent in many cases. When I was first recognizing the bubble, I noticed a lot of billboards advertizing homes in the 400-500K range and I wondered who in the hell were buying these homes. I still have no idea. For John, one of the better real estate sites I visit is HAR.com xponent Da Moneez Maru rob ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: On the Housing Market
Alas, both versions came through. Nick, have we run out of solutions here? david From: David Brin db...@sbcglobal.net To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 7:58:46 PM Subject: On the Housing Market Testing without Re: From: Rceeberger rceeber...@comcast.net To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:25:30 PM Subject: RE: On the Housing Market On 2/24/2009 11:22:40 PM, Dan M (dsummersmi...@comcast.net) wrote: Thanks John! Those were pretty much the kinds of arguments I was seeing in 2006-2007 that made me anticipate the bubble bursting. Do you see the correction lasting 12 - 18 months or perhaps longer? I won't argue with the basic premise, because I saw it too...especially for the coasts, NV, etc, Sure, those areas were what tipped me off that something was up, though to be honest, I anticipated the bubble bursting only in the highly priced areas with the rest of the country riding it out mostly unmolested. I saw the loan problems as being a parallel situation and never expected such a dramatic implosion. but I have found that it is more expensive to live in a 1350 sq. foot apartment that's not as nice as my house than it would be if I bought my old 2950 sq. foot house at the price I sold it, paid 20% down, and lost the interest on the down payment money. This figures in all the costs of maintenance, the but not the 400 sq. foot of storage for furniture and books and stuff that we are storing until we move to wherever Teri gets a call. Down on the far south side of town, also on the pricey side of real estate, 1000 sq ft runs $800 - $1000 depending on how nice the appointments are. Of course there is a price level above and one below, depending on ones income bracket. On the whole, up on the north side of Houston, it's cheaper per sq. ft. per year to own than to rent. I think that's very unusual for the US, so I think Houston is just below the live because of expensive downtown rentalsif we weren't hoping to leave soon, it wouldn't make sense to rent. Right now houses in Clear Lake are quite inexpensive. Prices are way down from 2005 levels. 10 - 20 percent in many cases. When I was first recognizing the bubble, I noticed a lot of billboards advertizing homes in the 400-500K range and I wondered who in the hell were buying these homes. I still have no idea. For John, one of the better real estate sites I visit is HAR.com xponent Da Moneez Maru rob ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Watch the news out of Switzerland -
Yep, Pat. My chief fear is that people won't get riled up enough. From: Pat Mathews mathew...@msn.com To: Brin List brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 7:26:42 AM Subject: Watch the news out of Switzerland - UBS is starting to look very, very bad. I remember reading Earth and taking the Helvetian War for granted as the major early-21st Century Crisis without bothering to wonder what triggered the public mood of anger at their secrecy and covering up for dictators etc. Now, several months into the current recession, it becomes painfully clear - People will tolerate a lot of this sort of thing while they're making money or have hopes of making money. It's when the economy crashes and takes Main Street down with it that they get out the tar and feathers - and later the nukes. I've been watching it unfold with my own eyes. So - back to Earth - a worldwide economic crash in which the Swiss Bankers appeared to be the primary culprits, and the witch hunt is on until Helvetia glows in the dark. Yes. This makes SUCH good sense. Different timeline, of course, since it's the American financiers who are now in danger of being tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail. But - google for UBS in trouble. http://idiotgrrl.livejournal.com/ ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: [Brin-l] Admin page for Brin-L
One item, Nick... the old list was set only to include me when people put Brin: in the subject line. That way I remained available for occasional high points of interest, but the list did not help to delay my next novel! Is there any way we can go back to that regime? Or something similar? Thanks all best david brin From: Nick Arnett narn...@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 7:49:46 AM Subject: Re: [Brin-l] Admin page for Brin-L On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:18 AM, Charlie Bell char...@culturelist.org wrote: On 19/02/2009, at 3:26 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: Not sure if you really expect that, but it is only supposed to work on mccmedia.com Well, I received an email saying this: *** Moving the Brin-L list... if your address was set to No mail, you should be able to change it back yourself... or Nick will do it for you eventually (there's a lot to do right now).Welcome to the bri...@nickarnett.net mailing list! Ugh. That's not supposed to happen. Thanks for letting me know. Nick ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: [Brin-l] Admin page for Brin-L
Nick I just got both of your replies to me. Please do one version with Brin: in the subject line and one without (labelled) - I should only get one. Sorry to the rest of you for this transition finagling! db From: Nick Arnett narn...@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 9:03:03 AM Subject: Re: [Brin-l] Admin page for Brin-L Should be done now... let me know if it isn't working. Nick 2009/2/19 David Brin db...@sbcglobal.net One item, Nick... the old list was set only to include me when people put Brin: in the subject line. That way I remained available for occasional high points of interest, but the list did not help to delay my next novel! Is there any way we can go back to that regime? Or something similar? Thanks all best david brin From: Nick Arnett narn...@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, February 19, 2009 7:49:46 AM Subject: Re: [Brin-l] Admin page for Brin-L On Thu, Feb 19, 2009 at 12:18 AM, Charlie Bell char...@culturelist.org wrote: On 19/02/2009, at 3:26 AM, Nick Arnett wrote: Not sure if you really expect that, but it is only supposed to work on mccmedia.com Well, I received an email saying this: *** Moving the Brin-L list... if your address was set to No mail, you should be able to change it back yourself... or Nick will do it for you eventually (there's a lot to do right now).Welcome to the bri...@nickarnett.net mailing list! Ugh. That's not supposed to happen. Thanks for letting me know. Nick ___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Testing for DB
This message should not reach (i.e., bother) David Brin. Nick Alas, This one did... as well as the other one. So it isn't working. Bear with us, folks! db___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: [Brin-l] Brin: Some stuff from Down Under
Charlie, you are all in our hope and prayers. A year ago, my kids were volunteering at shelters during the San Diego fires and my eldest and I helped staff a National Guard checkpoint. But we experienced nothing even remotely like what you describe. The Australian Method of building homes to resist fire and shelter in place worked well, where it was tried. But You lot have experienced its limits. I just removed one Eucalyptus tree and more will go. They are just too dangerous. Good luck. david brin___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Weekly Chat Reminder
Bill thanks for continuing this fine old tradition! Glad I removed most of the politics to http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ One thing. Were some of you formerly pre-readers of my works who used to work with me, offering feedback on books? I think I have contacted many of you, lately. But feel free to write to me at davidb...@sbcglobal.net and remind me what you pre-read for me before. I may have a couple more cool items! Thrive all and long live Brin-L! david b___ http://mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l_mccmedia.com
Re: Brin: an Obama joke!
hrrr From: Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro albm...@centroin.com.br To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Monday, February 9, 2009 3:42:48 PM Subject: Brin: an Obama joke! After four years trying to fix USA's economy, Obama dies. But he does not die alone: as an asteroid smashes against Earth, everybody dies. However, in the confusion of dealing with 7 billion incoming souls, the afterlife bureaucracy sends Obama to Hell. There, he complains, but only after a long time he is heard. - 'I think I don't have to be here' he says 'I am aware that I couldn't do much to save the economy, but I tried hard. And, considering the utter mess that was sent to me, I think I did a good job!' The archangel gets his files, and says: - 'Yes, I'm sorry. There was a terrible mistake here. You were sent to Hell, yes, but not as a form of punishment. You were sent to Hell to rule it and fix it. Hell after 6,000 years of Satan administration isn't as hopeless as the USA after 8 years of Bush administration.' Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Startide Movie?
Paramount hired a script but never went with it, alas. See http://www.davidbrin.com for other news. All best db From: Mauro Diotallevi diotall...@gmail.com To: Brin List brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Tuesday, February 3, 2009 11:52:12 AM Subject: Brin: Startide Movie? This link: http://scifiwire.com/2009/01/day-director-scott-derrickson-returns-to-sf-with-hyperion-film.php#more or http://tinyurl.com/cyzs36 mentions a movie version of Startide Rising from Paramount. Is there any truth to this? -- Mauro Diotallevi The number you have dialed is imaginary. Please rotate your phone 90 degrees and try again. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name?
Thanks Alberto. Hoping the world will soon be proud of us! d From: Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro albm...@centroin.com.br To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 6:03:02 AM Subject: Brin: Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name? Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name? Bull? Burt? Bast? An interesting thing: those past weeks, the stock market was so hysterical that _anything_ Obama said would make it go up, then panic would resume the next few days and it would crash down again. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name?
Even putting aside my pleasure and relief that the moment had finally come, I was of course inspired by President Obama's words, his call for a new spirit of purpose and idealism, evoking a sense of history and mission, duty and vision. Indeed, I hope they moved all Americans and people around the world - even those whose respect is as-yet guarded and suspicious. Let us all hope that even grudging doubters will be swayed toward firmer feelings of appreciation, over the coming years, not only by the skill and character of the Obama team, but also by events. By the validation that is bestowed by great success. iAnd yet,/i I don't feel compelled to write much about those themes and sentiments, all of which will be noted by others. Instead, what I'll do - out of habit - is bring notice to a few side-glimmers and iexceptional points/i that won't (I reckon) be mentioned by most pundits, or even historians. For example, it struck me that President Obama repeatedly called upon us to rise up as adults and inot only/i listen to the angels of our better natures - not only heed our high ideals - but also to rediscover the arts ofi negotiation and pragmatic problem-solving/i that undergird those lofty principles, and without which they so easily dissolve into platitudes or self-righteous rationalizations. (As, indeed, the word freedom was cheapened in recent years, into a mere totem for my side.) Other nations have known duty, honor, patriotism, self-sacrifice... and even freedom But it is the mix of those fine things with other ingredients -- with patience and craftsmanship, with both eager competition and willing cooperation, with reciprocal respect and healthy self-doubt -- that made the loftier ideals truly world-transforming. And that notion of anchoring idealism in pragmatic action is the message that I felt through my bones - deeper than through my ears - during Barack Obama's inaugural address. Do you want examples? iTo those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history; but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist./i How simple an image, and fundamental an offer. And then came a sentence that both rebuked the recent past and expressed far greater confidence in us than we have seen expressed (alas) by recent leaders: iAs for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals./i Of course you'll recognize a central theme of my book iThe Transparent Society: Will Technology Make Us Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?/i And especially since the dire events of 9/11, as I kept hoping Americans would reject the dismal and insipid devil's dichotomy we were constantly offered, having to choose between two things we simply cannot live without. Those two passages were certainly noted by others. Moreover, without question, President Obama had to say them, whether or not he meant quite the emphasis that I perceived. But itwo other paragraphs/i contained - tucked within - what I feel are vital hints to Barack Obama's character and agenda. Because they are things he idid not have to say./i Very few of the two million people attending in Washington, or close to a billion watching around the world, will note them. But I suggest that you do. iWe will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age./i Yes, yes. Education, sustainability, the new technologies that may not only help save the nation and planet, but also start the next economic boom, in much the same way that our government's internet research sparked the last one... all of that was profoundly welcome, and expected. iBut to put science first, /iahead of all the others, and thus signaling it's rightful place struck me deeply. This is one lawyer who knows that good decisions cannot be based incantations, but ultimately depend on actual, ihonest-to-God facts./i We have had enough of leaders who arrogantly believed that all you need to govern is one thing, a powerfully certain, subjective force of will. But then, it can be argued that Obama also had to mention science, after the travesties of recent years. Perhaps that, too, was no surprise, and I may be reading too much into it. So let me reach deeper for my final clue. iOur challenges may be new. The instruments with which we meet them may be new. But those values upon which our success depends - hard work and honesty, courage and fair play, tolerance and curiosity, loyalty and patriotism - these things are old. These things are true. They have been the quiet force of progress throughout our history. What is demanded
Re: Brin: Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name?
My suggestions to Obama are at: http://www.davidbrin.com/suggestion.htm From: Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro albm...@centroin.com.br To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Tuesday, January 20, 2009 6:03:02 AM Subject: Brin: Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name? Congratulations! Today you get rid of... of... what's his name? Bull? Burt? Bast? An interesting thing: those past weeks, the stock market was so hysterical that _anything_ Obama said would make it go up, then panic would resume the next few days and it would crash down again. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Re: A guaranteed-unusual set of suggestions for Obama etc
Yeager broke the sound barrier. From: Ronn! Blankenship ronn_blankens...@bellsouth.net To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, January 15, 2009 4:37:54 AM Subject: Brin: Re: A guaranteed-unusual set of suggestions for Obama etc At 01:20 AM Thursday 1/15/2009, d.brin wrote: The other posting is a little allegory about a strange event that happened sixty years ago -- the Miracle of 1947 -- when liberals and Democrats went through a wrenching, painful self-transformation, similar to what decent, patriotic conservatives should do, in 2009. ( http://www.davidbrin.com/1947.htm ) Any relation to the _other_ significant event which allegedly occurred that year? :-} Weather Balloon Maru . . . ronn! :) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: on the telly again
Hmmm... Just in case you were right about the manchurian-candidate conspiracy (right conspiracy, wrong person :-)) I will stay in a natural anti-nuclear protective valley on 2009-01-20... What if Obama is brainwashed by Bush and decides to wipe out the whole Western Civilization? :-) I prefer conspiracy theories that at least have SOME basis in observed fact. Obama SEEMS to have the fewest IOUs to pay off of any entering president, ever. No, the worry spreading everywhere is that there are powers desperate not to let the honest men into office. The vulnerable hour is while Obama and Biden and a hundred others are standing right next to each other. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Epochal media: 200 years ago and next week!
This Youtubed concert shows the marvelous Anne-Sophie Mutter as soloist. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4U7C1_dxCAfeature=related But get better sound on a CD. I love the Itzhak Perlman recording. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do. By the way, folks. Announcing my latest short story, now available for your pleasure at Baen’s Universe Magazine. http://www.baens-universe.com/articles/Shoresteading__Part_One The first half is up free. To read the rest (of part one), you need to subscribe to the magazine... which is well worth it! (There’s more content than in any print zine, and you can’t beat the convenience.) Indeed, you’ll be able to fish back and read Parts 1-4 of my hilarious serialized sf-spoof comedy, “The Ancient Ones.” And, coming this spring, another funny one in a much more broad comedic style: “Gorilla My Dreams.” Also The Smartest Mob which is set in the same universe as Shoresteading. A Plethora! Membership/subscriptions are on a sliding scale. And now, just for you folks, an added bonus! Type in coupon code EE329517B2 - which is good for $5 off any subscription! (This is the novella I hope people may nominate in 2009! ;-) From: Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: d.brin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Cc: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, December 4, 2008 8:39:51 AM Subject: Re: Epochal media: 200 years ago and next week! On Wed, 3 Dec 2008, d.brin wrote: As for the Violin Concerto...? Matters of art are subjective, of course. But I deem Beethoven's Violin Concerto to be the greatest work of music ever conceived by Man. Can someone with good knowledge of this piece recommend a particular recording of it? Julia ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin:Re: Epochal media: 200 years ago and next week!
Though my Sheldon does bicycle 30 miles a day. Again, the YouTube concerto is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4U7C1_dxCAfeature=related thrive From: Charlie Bell [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, December 4, 2008 12:47:48 AM Subject: Brin:Re: Epochal media: 200 years ago and next week! On 04/12/2008, at 8:53 AM, d.brin wrote: Matters of art are subjective, of course. But I deem Beethoven's Violin Concerto to be the greatest work of music ever conceived by Man. Arguably. It's certainly a phenomenal piece of music. Your post has inspired me to go and find a good recording on CD, as I've lost almost all off my classical music in moving around the planet - *all* my vinyl is gone. I shall hit the music store on Friday. Incidentally, and Off Topic (of course - this is Brin-L after all), I got a bit of a nasty shock when I saw the name Sheldon Brown in the to-field, 'cause he died a few months ago. Maybe Dr Brin doesn't know he died, I thought. Then I checked the address and realised it was a different Sheldon Brown (apparently, the computer artist, not the bicycling guru). So as you were. :-) Charlie. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Life after People
Wayne Eddy, and gang, Yeah, Life After People was a fun show, though I had no actual control over it. In fact, I think the time scales are 10-100x too short. It was tasty that they left it vague WHY we were gone. We might even have become gods and simply moved away! Anyway, it got huge ratings so there'll be a spinoff series! db From: Wayne Eddy [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, November 27, 2008 11:41:24 AM Subject: Brin: Life after People Life after people screened here in Australia last night. It was interesting to watch after reading all the comments on the list a while back. The narration seems to have been redubbed - I think to try and give it more of an Australian flavour, so perhaps it has been totally re-edited. From memory there were about five interview snippets with our patron, including the very first one. At one point the narrator said something along the lines of it is inevitable that one day that mankind will disappear from the world. That may be true, but IMHO that time is a long way off and the Earth, the biosphere building design, etc., will be changed beyond recognition by that time and that any predictions should take that into account. The segment about abandoned city near Chernobyl was very interesting. It would an interesting project for someone to take a series of photos over the next fifty or a hundred and then make it into a time lapse film. Regards, Wayne Eddy ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: someone stole your idea (again)
Thanks Alberto! Interesting! d From: Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Monday, November 17, 2008 8:42:45 AM Subject: Brin: someone stole your idea (again) I got this from the Tolkien mailing list. Remember when you wrote that Sauron was the real good guy, and not those segregationists, neo-cons and prince-heirs? Someone stole your idea Alberto Monteiro -- http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail? detail=aboutProductsku=0316033707id=57991704#aboutProduct Orcs Stan Nicholls (See All Contributors) Paperback, 784 pages Little Brown Company September 08, 2008 Description: Fantasy's bad guys finally get their due in this fast moving, action-packed tale of Orc valor and human treachery.Orbit Description: Look at me. Look at the Orc. There is fear and hatred in your eyes. To you I am a monster, a skulker in the shadows, a fiend to scare your children with. A creature to be hunted down and slaughtered like a beast in the fields. It is time you pay heed to the beast. And see the beast in yourself. I have your fear. But I have earned your respect. Hear my story. Feel the flow of blood and be thankful. Thankful that it was me, not you, who bore the sword. Thankful to the orcs; born to fight, destined to win peace for all. This book will change the way you feel about Orcs forever. About the Author: Stan Nicholls has been a key figure on the genre scene for more than 20 years, having been a bookseller, reviewer, and writer. He writes a regular column for Time Out and contributes to both Interzone and Starburst. He is also the author of several children's fantasies. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: from Saturday's blog
Thanks Alberto I hope we don't let you down... - Original Message From: Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Killer Bs (David Brin et al) Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 4:09:41 PM Subject: Brin: from Saturday's blog Ever notice that Sarah Palin anagrams to Sharia plan. So, clearly, she's the one who plans to institute Muslim law in the United States. Other anagrams include: a sharp nail a plain rash. Any chance of a numeralogical match with 666? Pleze? Numerology is an easy science! Sarah Palin Vice President USA if we add the _roman_ digits, we get: Palin = L + I = 51 Vice = V + I + C = 106 President = I + D = 501 USA = V = 5 adding together, we get 663. Now, why we should add 3? - she was the third children from her parents - she finished third in Miss Alaska - she has three terms as administrative experience (2 in Wasilia + 1 in Alaska) So, it's clear that _3_ is Palin's lucky number. Adding 663 + 3, we get 666! Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Are you editing the Wikipedia?
Never heard of this site. I am not the only one calling the Bushites kleptocrats. Where I am almost alone is in suggesting that an accompanying theory be given due consideration... not necessarily as the top theory, but certainly as one worth pondering-- -- that, beyond rapacious theft, the intent is ACTUALLY to deliberately and systematically destroy the United States of America. As in The Manchurian Candidate. Yes, it seems far-fetched, and I am only doing my job as a completist and a thriller writer. Still, no other hypothesis explains the perfect correlation of effects. - Original Message From: Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2008 1:11:05 PM Subject: Brin: Are you editing the Wikipedia? I was reading article Kleptocracy (this edition: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kleptocracyoldid=242517104 it will probably be reverted...) and saw this: In 2006, the Bush Administration enunciated a policy specifically to internationalize an effort to resist kleptocracies, which is ironic as the Bush Administration runs a kleptocracy Are you editing the Wikipedia? :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Are you editing the Wikipedia?
PS... Brinellers are welcome to drop by http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ and participate - Original Message From: Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: brin-l@mccmedia.com Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2008 1:11:05 PM Subject: Brin: Are you editing the Wikipedia? I was reading article Kleptocracy (this edition: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Kleptocracyoldid=242517104 it will probably be reverted...) and saw this: In 2006, the Bush Administration enunciated a policy specifically to internationalize an effort to resist kleptocracies, which is ironic as the Bush Administration runs a kleptocracy Are you editing the Wikipedia? :-) Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Are you editing the Wikipedia?
Bruce said: Sooner or later, an anti-democratic ideology will emerge that leverages democracy itself to destroy the democracy that elected it, and I'm quite convinced the Bush administration comprises at least some pieces of that exploit. DB: There are many variants, including the largesse calumny... that the People always ruin democracy thru overspending. A slander that is especially ironic since it is the pseudo-feudal nobility that have done this, not the people. see: http://www.lorencollins.net/tytler.html The intermediate paranoid hypothesis is that the kleptos have intentionally weakened all our institutions of accountability, while strengthening our institutions of capricious authority, in order to get away with more theft. Not necessarily in order to destroy the US. The extreme, manchurian version is simple, and chilling. A certain foreign royal (oil) house has the means, motive and opportunity to create and forge and hand-craft a ruling US clade and order it to send us toward a cliff. Cicumstantial evidence abounds. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Conspiracy theories
The vital thing about that show was that it was the only piece of mass media I ever saw that had the guts to fight back against dismal conspiracy theories. ONLY in that episode do you learn that LH Oswald was an expert Marine marksman, that he had stalked an American general and very likely worked for the Soviet KGB. Two nights ago we saw an Australian documentary that set up torsoes of ballistics gell and ribs and fired into them from the right angle, proving that the magic bullet could easily have passed through Kennedy and Connoly, exactly as claimed. What I don't get about conspiracy theories is that people flock to the wrong ones! The 9/11 loose change thing was monstrously - almost cartoony - stupid. And yet, nobody will look at the Bush Administration and see the blatantly obvious... ...that their relentless destruction of American strength and influence in the world could be easily explained by blackmail and bribery... if one hostile foreign power had pictures of one man with a donkey. Then there was the episode of _Quantum Leap_ where originally both (JFK and Jackie) were killed. From a distance of about 16 years, I remember that episode as much more intense than most episodes of that show. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: What's in the works?
I agree with John. Both sides offer up trivia to foster visceral dislike of the other guy, having nothing to do with how they'd govern. I am especially uninterested in passing slips of the tongue. BFD. McCain would re-appoint most of the scoundrels who have robbed us blind. That's kinda boring as a soundbite. But it's overwhelming. A second reason... only if the GOP is utterly trounced will its own internal reformers have a chance to re-take the party from the alliance of Rupert Murdoch, Karl Rove and radical fundies who actually WANT the US to end in fiery armageddon. Only in exile, licking its wounds, might the Goldwater types re-take command and save the conservative movement. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: What's in the works?
See: February '77 National Lampoon --Grand Fifth Term Inaugural Issue: JFK's First 6,000 Days which featured a silver-haired JFK on the cover. The whole issue was a big what if... about how things might have turned out had the assassin's bullet missed JFK and hit Jackie instead. A very good issue--neatly deflates the Kennedy myth: US steers clear of Vietnam, but ends up in Northern Ireland instead. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: What's in the works?
announcing a new posting on my blog at: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: What's in the works?
While I see far more to dislike about John McCain than there is to like... his history of vicious anger, the fact that he never administered more than 60 men, once, for a year and did badly, the fact that he has always acted like an entitled-though-oedepally-frustrated son of a high achieving father (sound familiar?)... ...I admit that there are some likeable traits too. Like his willingness to occasionally part from the standard (and completely insane) neoconservative party line. NOWHERE enough to be called a maverick alas. Which is the chief point. Though he has edged away from Bush, he would appoint at least 50% the same monsters who have been crushing the US civil service for 8 years, preventing the FBI from investigating corruption, the SEC from investigating Wall Street scams, the EPA from enforcing the law, the FDA from vetting drugs... while giving no-bid contracts to cronies and bankrupting our kids... ALL of these are crimes by conservative standards, BTW ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: What's in the works? (was Re: Greg Bear)
Thanks Nick and sorry I neglect Brin-L. Drowning for time, alas. (I blog sometimes at: http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ ) First off... we've all just returned from a high plains family odyssey -- from Denver (the World Science Fiction convention) to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devil's Monument and several cool caves (a family interest of ours.) The Denver World Science Fiction Convention was a bit small (they are steadily getting smaller) but charming, friendly and one of the sweetest I ever attended. (My first worldcon ever was Denvention II in 1981.) Among the highlights: 1- SKY HORIZON received the Hal Clement Award for best science fiction novel for Young Adults...a short but exciting novel in the Heinlein tradition. 2- I got a chance to do this fabulous panel with much-talented artists Frank Wu and Teddy Harvia, in which I essentially did stand-up storytelling improv with images or elements shouted from the audience while Frank and Teddy sketched. It got rather rollicking and manic, with Frank I standing on the tables doing surfer moves, then leading the audience in chants and songs, then getting REALLY silly. There must be a dozen blog entries and youTube postings about that one event. My latest book is THROUGH STRANGER EYES -- a collection of essays and book reviews from Nimble Press. Also...controversial ...Star Wars on Trial : Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Debate the Most Popular Science Fiction Films of All Time from Benbella Books. Other news? I was a cast member on the History Channel show The ArchiTechs (http://htyp.org/The_ArchiTECHS) as well as the History Channel's most popular show ever: Life After People. Currently appearing on the science show The Universe. I helped launch a major new online venture UNIVERSE Magazine. (http://www.baens-universe.com/) Drop by for exciting stories! Including my new serial-comedy THE ANCIENT ONES... funniest thing you'll read this year! But of course I am distracted by the elections, hoping we'll at last save America and civilization from a criminal gang. (What we're seeing -- including the outright and direct theft of half a trillion dollars -- goes far beyond regular issues of mere left or right.) Thrive all. With cordial regards, David Brin http://www.davidbrin.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: in the Conservapedia
It's not even comprehensive. I could have written a better survivalist entry... bleah. --- Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: BTW, it's frustating that the only reference to David Brin in the Conservapedia is in article: http://www.conservapedia.com/Survivalist_retreat Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Probably not what you meant by Transparency
Gadzooks. I predicted this would be painful... A site that plots people convicted by crimes in a map of any neighborhood. http://www.felonspy.com/search.html We both need this new ere of better vision... and need desperately to grow up, in order to use it wisely. Again, see my Google Tech Talk: http://tinyurl.com/yy7yxm ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Singularities, Nightmares, and Japanese Sci-Fi
Thanks guys. I keep expecting that the new computer graphics would empower semi-professionals to start a golden age of animated SF... But it hasn't happened yet, alas... Maybe some of the graphics challenge winners will spark something! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Singularities, Nightmares, and Japanese Sci-Fi
KZK thanks for interesting and thought-provoking stuff. Look, I like Miazaki and I have enjoyed a lot of other anime. Still, there seems to be a deep and abiding reluctance to do SF that I would call for grownups. Look, I know I have a lot more to see! Thanks for the viewing assignment. I will work my way thru it (slowly.) Most stories that deal with time travel forget that we are also moving very rapidly in space, so if you were to travel in time you wouldn't bein the relative vicinity of where you traveled from.. See Benfords TIMESCAPE that actually uses this as part of the plot. It seems to me, the biggest problem with faster than light travel (and time travel) is traveling at exactly the speed of light (which is division by zero). If you could 'jump' over close to exactly c you could avoid most of the unpleasantries. Which is why some people believe there may be tachyons. Thanks for the comprehensive run down of Japanimation studios! As for amateur CGI sf films... they do NOT have to be of the same rendering quality as Beowulf! A helluva market niche awaits decent cartoon level renderings of really good stories. db ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Singularities, Nightmares, and Japanese Sci-Fi
kewl! --- KZK [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: KZK thanks for interesting and thought-provoking stuff. I try. Look, I like Miazaki and I have enjoyed a lot of other anime. Still, there seems to be a deep and abiding reluctance to do SF that I would call for grownups. I tried to list ones that were mostly fairly serious drama's with very little super deformed animation. Look, I know I have a lot more to see! Thanks for the viewing assignment. I will work my way thru it (slowly.) Start with _Trigun_. It's the best of the ones I listed. It starts goofy, but gets more more serious. Most stories that deal with time travel forget that we are also moving very rapidly in space, so if you were to travel in time you wouldn't bein the relative vicinity of where you traveled from.. See Benfords TIMESCAPE that actually uses this as part of the plot. Time travel is my favorite Genre of Science Fiction. Speaking of Time-Travel and Japanese games, The best one was released a few years ago for the Playstation called _Chrono Trigger_. It seems to me, the biggest problem with faster than light travel (and time travel) is traveling at exactly the speed of light (which is division by zero). If you could 'jump' over close to exactly c you could avoid most of the unpleasantries. Which is why some people believe there may be tachyons. I never knew that! Thanks for the comprehensive run down of Japanimation studios! Animation Quality has come a long way over just the past 10 years. Compare the quality of the Show _Trigun_ (1998), to _Gungrave_ (2003?), same studio and same author. As for amateur CGI sf films... they do NOT have to be of the same rendering quality as Beowulf! A helluva market niche awaits decent cartoon level renderings of really good stories. For 2d it already exists. It's called Flash animation. There are even several shows made that way on cartoon network and nickelodeon (_Mucha Lucha_, _Handy Manny_, _fosters home for imaginary friends_, _sealab 2021_, _harvey birdman attorney at law_, etc.). The animation is very awkward and unnatural, and generally doesn't look very good (fosters and birdman being the best animated, and most expensive). As for 3d, it took the guy who made _Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow_ something like a year and half to make what amounted to a 3 minute trailer. It was really good, for one man working alone, but it didn't scale up. In order to make the movie, he basically had to create his own studio with hundreds of employee's. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Singularities, Nightmares, and Japanese Sci-Fi
I exclude positive intervention in order to let them - or God - off the hook. There is (1) no evidence for such events and (b) had others the power to intervent, there have been mega tragedies they could have helped us to avoid. Just the availablity of glass lenses, would have let us skip past a thousand hellish years. See http://ieti.org/articles/brin.htm Hey, if I were anti-Japan, do you think they'd have made me guest of honor for their biggest show ever, the World SF Convention, in Yokohama, last year? I've seen a couple of the movies you cite. And thanks, I'll look into more. Alas, I must tell you that storytelling logic often seems deeply lacking. PlanetS actually had some elements I quite liked, though. What I am trying to learn more about is the rising KOREAN sci fi film renaissance. I glimpsed one live action time travel story, set in a parallel univ where Japan still dominated Korea nowadays. Lots of verve. Wish I knew the name. ANyway, thanks and keep spreading the memes. db --- KZK [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In your article on Singularities and Nightmares, you briefly discuss negative intervention by outsiders (i.e. Aliens or so-called deities), but you didn't really discuss positive / preventative intervention or even neutral intervention by aliens. Granted you explore those scenarios in depth in your uplift novels, but I would have thought you would be more of a completest in your non-fiction works. But Actually I write because you say this Dr. Brin: For those of you who like Japanese-oriented sci fi... like monsters that stomp cities... or just cool mythology, have a look at a small webzine called Daikaijuzine. And you have also attacked anime and manga on several other occasions. I just want to set the record straight. Their is an enormous amount of japanese sci-fi and it isn't all just monsters destroying cities or giant robots. It runs the full range and explores every facet of hard sci-fi. Most japanese sci-fi TV / Movies comes from adaptations of manga and light novels, usually but not always into Animated Shows or Animated Theatrical Movies. Their are actually 10,000 Anime shows / movies that have been produced in japan over the years-A large fraction of which are science fiction. There are even more manga / novel series that never get animated. Heh, even you are probably more likely to see one of your own Sci-Fi books made into a japanese animated movie than a live action hollywood one. Here is a short list of good anime sci-fi shows/movies you *might* actually be interested in, based on what you have written in the past, all available in America: -Post Singularity: Blame! (very short) Noein Ergo Proxy -Post Apocalyptic: Scrapped Princess (don't be fooled it's not really a fantasy show) The Big O (I even threw in a not-so stereotypical giant robot / monsters stomping cities show) Interlude Avenger Trigun -Existentialist / Becoming God: Serial Experiments Lain Ergo Proxy The Big O Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya Kamichu! -Polymorphic Necro-Regeneracy: Gungrave -Other Good Sci-Fi Movies: The Place Promised in our early days Paprika [Voices of a Distant Star] Ghost in The Shell (inspiration for the matrix) Metropolis NausicaA of the valley of the Wind Castle in the Sky ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: The Latest In Dolphin Technology
this showed a scientology minister at a city council meeting. What dolphins? --- Rceeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWOmRAhkPNg How can they do this to those poor animals? xponent Moar Lulz Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: The Latest In Dolphin Technology
Heh... correlated with Lost I have visited the navy dolphins and beluga whales here in San Diego. I know some of the people involved. They assure me there are no suicide missions --- Rceeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: On 3/16/2008 10:29:19 PM, David Brin ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote: this showed a scientology minister at a city council meeting. What dolphins? Oh Crap! Xenu made me do it! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbfDUN2WYXs --- Rceeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWOmRAhkPNg How can they do this to those poor animals? xponent Moar Lulz Maru rob ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Life after People
I talked about lots of great stuff! Monkeys and cats might use our old towers to farm birds... just guard one staircase and you've got it... letting the cats or monkeys evolve smarts, till they build tower houses of their own! But that wasn't the tilt the producers wanted. Anyone see my show The Architechs? (http://htyp.org/The_ArchiTECHS) Copies can be ordered from the HC web site. http://store.aetv.com/html/product/index.jhtml?id=75873 I'm running a comedy SF serial on Baen's UNIVERSE Magazine, online. Oh, speaking of 10,000 BC... Game studio owner Steve Jackson and I have been working together for more than a decade, refining an anthropology game.Tribes! is a realistic role-playing game (formerly called Darwinopoly), that is loads of fun for six to eight players (or multiple tribes of 8 players each) who follow simple rules to simulate life as it must have been for our ancestors, anywhere from 10,000 to 500,000 years ago -- hunting, foraging, mating, and occasionally fighting. (And, yes, it does seem relevant to 10,000 BC mania.) Can you figure out how to survive... and have successful offspring... in a world where only your own wits stand between you and harshness of nature? Tribes! has been created with the advice of several prominent anthropologists, as well as one of the most experienced game designers on the planet. (For more information see the web site for Steve Jackson Games. http://www.sjgames.com/tribes/) Among the things people have found most fascinating is the sexual politics that can arise from a very simple rule set. Were interested in finding a few anthropology professors who might like to try the game out on students, perhaps as a classroom exercise. Folks are always welcome at http://davidbrin.blogspot.com/ Thrive all! I felt bad that the other scientists got to talk about dogs and cats and rust and stuff... What did David get left with? Cockroaches. No respect for the science fiction writer! - jmh ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Life after People
So the lesson is get high on life... after people...! --- Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Life After People will air on 2008-03-10 21:00 on brazilian's tetrahydrocanabiol oops... The History Channel. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Life after People
Oh... I appear on several episodes of the new History Channel show The Universe starting with one on March 11. (USA) ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Random stuff from the blog
Hmmm. Interesting as usual, Alberto... Good perspective. --- Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Brin blogged: The world's rush to embrace biofuels is causing a spike in the price of corn and other crops and could worsen water shortages and force poor communities off their land, according to a U.N. official. Ok, but this is not the consensus. What caused the spike in the prices of vegetable food is the increase of income of millions of chinese and indians. They got richer, they wanted to eat less veggies and more meat, and the production of meat takes about 7 times more vegetable than the production of veggie food. But a biofuel startup in Illinois can make ethanol from just about anything organic for less than $1 per gallon, and it wouldn't interfere with food supplies... And if it becomes economically viable (a big if), then why on Earth would the organic waste be priced at zero? Here in Brazil, the price of animal fat was near zero, then we started transesterifying it to make biodiesel. Guess what? Now it's price is getting close to soybean oil. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Opacity
Thanks for the InfraGard link. I'll post the following tonight on-blog: --- The latest issue of Baens UNIVERSE MAGAZINE is out, containing two big items from yours truly -- Part Five of my comedic serial The Ancient Ones... plus a fast-paced, action novella The Smartest Mob. The latter is an excerpt from my novel in progress, another lavish, near-future exploration, like EARTH. This one is the best portrayal of rapid, tech-empowered citizen action that youll see, this side of Vernor Vinge! Subscribe to the top online magazine ever! http://baens-universe.com/ Now click to the coolest bit of urban theater. Will somebody please tell the organizers that it is an almost perfect rendition of a scene from my short story Coexistence? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwMj3PJDxuo Some of the most influential leaders of the space community are quietly working to offer the next U.S. president an alternative to President Bush's vision for space exploration -- one that would delete a lunar base and move instead toward manned missions to asteroids, starting in about 2025, along with a renewed emphasis on Earth environmental spacecraft. Dang, is sanity popping out all over? http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0801/18avweek/ The latest in a long series of fascinating articles by sexual-anthropologist David Buss has just come out: Women Want It All: Good Genes, Economic Investment, Parenting Proclivities, and Emotional Commitment, in the journal Evolutionary Psychology. http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP06134146.pdf Bill Gates and ex-Microsoft executive Charles Simonyi have donated a combined $30 million to the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which will feature the largest digital camera ever constructed. Scientists say it will provide a color movie of the universe. The donation will go partly to the construction of LSST's three giant mirrors, which will enable it to survey more of the sky faster than any other telescope. With its three-billion pixel camera, the telescope will produce 30 terabytes of images that will be immediately available to the public online. (Comet and asteroid hunt from your home!) The LSST requires huge amounts of data processing. Project leaders estimate it will generate 1.2 gigabytes per second, which is orders of magnitude more data than the most data-intense astronomical application available today. http://www.wired.com/science/space/news/2008/01/internet_telescope bSome misc interesting things.../b Aliens spying on us from another star system might be able to discern continents and oceans on our planet by plotting the fluctuation in brightness as sunlight falls on different surface features such as forests, deserts and seas. http://www.space.com/searchforlife/080131-seti-galactic-wifi.html Watching the Watchers: Why Surveillance Is a Two-Way Street: If governments and businesses can keep an eye on us in public spaces, we ought to be able to look back. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/military_law/4237005.html Meanwhile, the FBI is gearing up to create a massive computer database of people's physical characteristics, all part of an effort the bureau says to better identify criminals and terrorists. What on Earth makes the civil libertarians think they can stop this trend, by trying to outlaw or regulate it? Are they really that stupid, to think that you can order back the tide? In ten years, not one of them has ever been able to cite a single example, from history, when top elites allowed themselves to be blinded. Fortunately, there is another approach... if anybody will listen... http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/02/04/fbi.biometrics/index.html?eref=ib_topstories Speaking of surveillance... Aliens spying on us from another star system might be able to discern continents and oceans on our planet, using technology barely more advanced than our own. http://space.newscientist.com/article/dn13126-alien-astronomers-could-discern-earths-features.html Currently, the largest conventional wind turbines in the world produce only five megawatts of power. However, one large maglev wind turbine could generate one gigawatt of clean power, enough to supply energy to 750,000 homes. It would also increase generation capacity by 20% over conventional wind turbines and decrease operational costs by 50%. If that isnt enough, the maglev wind turbines will be operational for about 500 years! http://www.inhabitat.com/2007/11/26/super-powered-magnetic-wind-turbine-maglev/ Speaking of which, Britain is to launch a huge expansion of offshore wind-power with plans for thousands of turbines in the North Sea, Irish Sea and around the coast of Scotland. The scheme could see turbines so large that they would reach 850ft into the sky. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article3022277.ece An exceptional article about bizarre and tragic events at the edges of artificial intelligence research. (I knew one of these guys.) Two AI Pioneers. Two Bizarre Suicides.
Re: Brin: Dolphin wheels
--- Robert Seeberger [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.metacafe.com/watch/1041454/dolphin_play_bubble_rings/ Them Fins sure are smart! Wholly mackeral dere! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Exposition in the Knesset about the life of Sousa Mendes
Yes, I knew of him. A great man. There are about twenty international diplomats who did this sort of thing. The most famous was Wallenberg of Sweden. I'm glad to hear he is being honored. --- Alberto Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I got this from another list. I think you may be interested :-) Exposicao no Knesset sobre a vida de Sousa Mendes, Consul de Portugal em Bordeus que salvou muitas vidas do nazismo Exposition in the Knesset about the life of Sousa Mendes, Portuguese Consul in Bordeaux that saved many lifes from nazism http://videos.sapo.pt/gMSnp97ZacuCVILQm4ko Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin:World Building Wiki
Trent... cool looking game... ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Residents save houses when fire department is too late
--- Julia Thompson [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Makeshift brigade makes a stand - and wins Thanks Julia. Um, yes, though of course these are rich people in Malibu. Still, they have the spirit of the Age of Empowered Citizenship. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
RE: Brin: Fire info
--- John Garcia [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Isn't CERT one of those volunteer programs setup by FEMA? Dr. Brin, did you do any training with them? About twenty five hours. Any less would be absurd, any more would eliminate most working parents. See: https://www.citizencorps.gov/cert/ ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Fire info
That's Dr. Brin for you. At Nippon 2007 I happened to observe him stuff 10,000 yen into the donation box for a fan that had to taken to the hospital by ambulence. SHucks, Jim, that ain't much. Anyway, it's part of my attempt to create massive fandom cognitive dissonance. Half of the community thinks I'm cool and the other half considers me an SOB. Diff is, the latter set can't ever point to an actual action or event, only at a personality. And on THAT basis... well... I guess I agree with them! ;-) Your SOB ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Fire info
Don't you mean personalities, plural? Hrm... you mean the one I download into grays or the one I use for greens? IAAMOAKPC ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Fire info
thanks Nick, Thanks for asking. Cheryl the kids pets are with Cheryl's mom in her mobile home along el camino real, in a more urban part of Encinitas. All are fine. Last night I stood on the hilltop behind my home, looking up Lone Jack Road at hillside lines of fire near Del Dios Highway. It was tense, especially with Santa Ana wind gusts whirling in all directions. Last I checked at 5pm the fires seemed to have veered south into lower Rancho Santa Fe (2nd richest community in America). Another finger threatens from the north but the Bridges country club is paying big $$ to help block it for us. Nice of them. With the family cared-for, I put on my green CERT* vest goggles and hard hat to canvassed our neighborhood to see who had stayed. Then I helped man a sheriffs roadblock for a while. And again a while later with the natural er National Guard. Ever wonder what happened to civil defense, in an era of high techHomelandSecurity? Its guys like me heaven help us! d. ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Fire info
We did take two vanloads of stuff away along with kids. But I was never ordered out and things seem to be getting better. Thanks all! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Fires in California
Thanks, it is almost exactly the anniversary of the 2003 Cedar Fire. We've taken the younger two plus pets to grandma. Watching closely. Avoiding falling ash. Horrible air quality. But wind directions seem to favor us. A very bad santa ana is being opposed by an offshore push right over us. What drama! Forced to prepare, though. Small but real chance of total evacuation. Jim Burns paintings Hugos and kid mementos and photos... what a lot of stuff you notice when you have to... --- Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I heard about the fires. I hope nobody here is in any danger. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Fires in California
;-) --- PAT MATHEWS [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Oh, you're out there! Ouch... After the Cerro Grande fire up in Los Alamos some years ago, I bought soft-sided cat carriers for my fellows and made them as attractive as possible in hopes they'd sleep in them. I keep them on waist-high bookcases one near each dor. That way in case we have to evacuate, packing them up will be a lot easier. Best of luck and may you and yours escape the fire. Pat http://idiotgrrl.livejournal.com/ You never know who is swimming naked until the tide goes out. Warren Buffett From: David Brin [EMAIL PROTECTED] Reply-To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com To: Killer Bs Discussion brin-l@mccmedia.com Subject: Re: Brin: Fires in California Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2007 13:37:19 -0700 (PDT) Thanks, it is almost exactly the anniversary of the 2003 Cedar Fire. We've taken the younger two plus pets to grandma. Watching closely. Avoiding falling ash. Horrible air quality. But wind directions seem to favor us. A very bad santa ana is being opposed by an offshore push right over us. What drama! Forced to prepare, though. Small but real chance of total evacuation. Jim Burns paintings Hugos and kid mementos and photos... what a lot of stuff you notice when you have to... --- Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I heard about the fires. I hope nobody here is in any danger. Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Tame rats and foxes?
Thanks Jim. Fascinating. Ever read Brunner's STAND ON ZANZIBAR? Some related stuff. thrive --- Jim Sharkey [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I apologize if this is something that's been posted before (the article is over a year old) but I saw this on a forum I frequent and thought it might be of interest: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/25/health/25rats.html?_r=2pagewanted=alloref=sloginoref=slogin It's about a group of scientists in Russia who have been experimenting over the past 50 years with domestication and how it might be possible through selective breeding in a short time rather than a long one. They're also attempting to establish whether or not there are certain genes that more readily allow domestication than others. I found it fascinating, especially the sheer scope of it. I'm sure some of you were probably already aware of this experiment, but for the rest of us I thought it might be an interesting read. Jim I want a pet silver fox Maru ___ Join Excite! - http://www.excite.com The most personalized portal on the Web! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: Uplift at Star Trek
Huh. Ah well. Stay well! d --- Alberto Vieira Ferreira Monteiro [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Watching a Deep Space 9 episode, something caught my attention. Quoting from: http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Vorta#History_and_Politics The Vorta believe, perhaps apocryphally, that they previously existed as small, timid, ape-like creatures living in hollowed-out trees to avoid the many predators on their homeworld. A group of Vorta hid a Changeling from an angry mob, and in return the Changeling promised that one day they would be transformed and placed at the head of a vast interstellar empire. The Founders fulfilled this promise by genetically changing the Vorta into humanoids and employing them at the highest level of the Dominion. (DS9: Treachery, Faith and the Great River) Is this an Uplift rip-off? Alberto Monteiro ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: all sorts of Science Fiction etc.
Might as well do an update. At DailyKos I've been serializing (http://www.dailykos.com/user/David%20Brin) the Suggestions to the New Congress essay that I posted at: http://www.davidbrin.com/suggestions.html Any of you would be welcome to post comments there on on my blog at: http://www.davidbrin.blogspot.com/ Also stirring the pot have been two sprawling essays on the Lifeboat Foundation site: One of them is all about the coming singularity and whether we'll become gods or self-destruct: http://lifeboat.com/ex/singularities.and.nightmares The other is about the stunning arrogance of the SETI community, for wanting to broadcast into space without even talking about it with anybody: http://lifeboat.com/ex/shouting.at.the.cosmos Any of you all still into science fiction? I have some stories and novellas and a SERIALIZED SF COMEDY NOVEL running on the best online science fiction magazine ever. Jim Baen's UNIVERSE Magazine gives you about three to four times your money's worth than any other magazine or source of SF, paying great rates to top authors. http://www.baens-universe.com/ If the comedy tickles your fancy, I will listen to suggested bad puns and cruel ideas! Finally, any of you experts on BATTERIES? My wife's writing a nonfiction book about the history of the battery. Need expert readers! Hoping all brinellers are thriving in these challenging times. With cordial regards, David Brin http://www.davidbrin.com ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: BASIC for kids
Thanks Alberto. Hoping kidbasic will do some good. Now an alert to all brinellers! Catch the premiere of my NEW HISTORY CHANNEL SHOW -- The ArchiTechs! PREMIERE: Wednesday, October 11 at 11:00 PM REPEATS: October 12 at 3 AM October 14 at 11:00 AM (See: http://www.history.com/shows.do?action=detailepisodeId=192813 ) Here is what the History Channel says about this bold new show: Five geniuses are challenged: innovate fire rescue and evacuation tools for skyscraper disasters... and do it in 48 hours! Watch a small team of designers and visionaries form a high-tech think tank, racing the clock to shape bold, over-the-horizon designs for the future. With unprecedented cooperation from New York's regional fire departments, episode#1 culminates in a dramatic presentation to Former FDNY Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, one of the heroes of 9/11 If ratings are good, this exciting series will send our dynamic (and handsome) team tackling rapid innovation makeover challenges, ranging from spaceflight to eco-power to creating the next humvee. (We went zooming around the desert, interviewing Special Forces, dissecting hummers, then created a wholly new design, all at behest of a four-star general.) Help spread the word about this breakthrough in entertaining and smart/informative television! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
Re: Brin: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
Hi brinellers! Glad to see you still in business! I am very sorry to have neglected you in favor of that darned, time-consuming blog. http://www.davidbrin.blogspot.com/ In part because the political issues are so important/urgent right now that I'll grab any influence where I can get it. Of course see news at http://www.davidbrin.com and watch out for my new History Channel show in November. As for the article that just appeared in Salon, whew! Let me append below my canned response after receiving HUNDREDS of emails (not including more hundreds that came into Salon Slashdot!) Thrive all! With cordial regards, David Brin http://www.davidbrin.com = Yes, I got a LOT of mail about the Salon article. and that doesnt count the letters to both my blog and Salon itself! What shocked me was the degree of passion... no, bilious RAGE that my effrontery provoked. In comparison, mere politics and religion seem to have mild effects! Only a small minority seemed at all interested in even looking at my core idea, which was how to create a nice, comfortable starting point for millions of kids, so they could use their computers to do a little COMPUTING for mild classroom assignments, and so get a taste of this way of looking at the world. Indeed, the tiniest fraction seemed to grasp how valuable it once was (but no longer) for ALL kids to be able to easily type in little illustrative examples at the end of each math or physics chapters. Everyone seemed to think it could still be done. But it cannot. I repeat that. It cannot AND it simply, simply cannot be done. It does no good to preach what languages kids SHOULD have. Most dont. Period. Three solutions were offered that might plausibly address the problem in a practical way. 1) Somehow persuade Microsoft to care. In which case, with a fingernails effort, they could offer micro-implementations of Basic, python, scratch, etc in versions tuned precisely to be usable as classroom and homework demos, with launchpads to download expanded versions if the kids interest is sparked. 2) Some place with an historical interest in Basic (like Dartmouth) could create a slimmed version, along with maybe a hundred little 12-line programs that illustrate everything from statistics to galilean laws of motion to PONG, and offer this perfect turnkey download for text publishers to link to. (BTW, did you know that TrueBasic http://www.truebasic.com/ is still being offered? I didn't know myself until 30 seconds ago. 40 bucks for the dumbed down version. Includes some demo programs, apparently. Sounds like no solution, alas.) 3) Many readers are so enthusiastic for PYTHON... and I admit it seems to be the logical successor to BASIC. It allows simple syntax and direct expression of the algorith in sequential lines of code -- which would be highly compatible with the notion of collaborating with schools and textbook publishers. Indeed, an effort along these lines can be seen at: http://www.python.org/doc/essays/cp4e/ Indeed, Python is so widely available, that the goal might be achieved simply via some kind of DECLARATION... say by a prominent education association... declaring support for a Python-based universal entry-level environment. If well-publicized, that may be all thats needed for everyone from Microsoft and Apple to textbook publishers to lift their pinkies (a minimal twitch) and make this happen. 4) In order to keep using those textbooks (like my sons) that still have TRY IT IN BASIC exercises, one reader had a fantastically simple suggestion. A turn-key web site! For easy to use BASIC, it occurred to me that someone could set up a web site consisting of a single big BASIC window. Use Ajax to connect it to a server running one of the free BASICs to do the computation. Retain the BASIC session between visits using cookies. This isn't too hard, it could be whipped up in a week or two. Some of the letters Ive received pointed out that JAVA is the one language so ubiquitous that maybe it might do. Only, alas, the syntax is so difficult and unfriendly to beginners that its just not help, after all. Unless... a coterie of Java guys created some plug-ins and maybe a few dozen sample programs that would accomplish dual goals (1) illustrate something cool from math/physics curricula or a classic game or moving pixels with math and (2) enticed with software elegance. Such a set of small programs might entice textbook publishers and teachers, in turn, to go along. And Javas universal distribution could then do the trick. (And yes, I admit TOTAL ignorance about both Java and Javascript... which are apparently VERY different... which shows how long this road may be.) Alas, from the majority of the responses I received, it seems that most of those who already know software see absolutely no problem arising from the fact that nearly all computers today lack a universally accessible beginners; language. Nearly all of them have
Re: Brin: basic is evil, why it must be eradicated
For those of you who are thinking about implementing an online BASIC interpreter, here's one that's already running: http://www.pachesoft.com/rockerferbasic/ This is a great idea. But need to make a list of attributes that such an implementation would need. 1. A good welcome page that gave extremely simple instructions for use, just clicking a button and beginning to type in the code from, say a textbook. But with links that can lead to tutorials and other info, if students want. 2. tested with some of the more common textbook examples, to be sure they work, with a minimum of steps. 3. link to a LIBRARY of cool games and short demo programs... with a method for people to inload their own contributions. 4. A very easy to use graphics pop-up screen, that shows pixels moving in response to the program. 5. Something I think would be great. a button that lets you iterate the value of n each time you press it, instead of just letting the program zoom ahead. Great for students who want to watch the algorithm gradually change in time. 6. A list of cooperating institutions and text publishers. Obviously if you add my laundry list. This starts to look like a substantial project. The good news is that a version that works basically could then lead to a grant to finish it... ...But I am more an instigator than finisher. Alas, now I must go on to hurl OTHER grenades! PS: The Good Doctor's eulogy for BASIC is mentioned in the Maturity section of the Wikipedia entry for BASIC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BASIC Kewl! ___ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
