Rich asks: What characteristics of other systems do you consider desirable? Interesting discussion precedes that question, of course.
Tag: politics
A No-Brainer Still Requires A Little Brains, I Guess
Apparently so. WASHINGTON, Nov. 8 — With construction of many new nuclear reactors under discussion, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission is grappling with the question of whether they should be designed to withstand a Sept. 11-style airplane attack. Ask yourself an obvious question, and the obvious answer becomes… well, obvious. Especially given that there are potential domestic threats in America, just as there are everywhere else in the world. Oklahoma, people. Remember? You can’t be serious thinking that no water on planes to America makes sense, but that a plane crashing into a nuclear plant and having a remote chance of …
한국 리포트 (Korea Report) by 왕 샤오링 (Wang Xiaoling)
Lime, my girlfriend, was reading a book by a Chinese exchange student named Wang Xiaoling (I’m guessing, from the Hangeul 왕 샤오링?) who’d visited Korea, called 한국 리포트 (Korea Report). She was quite excited to find another Asian voice criticizing Korea in the way she does, personally, and doesn’t see others around her doing. Generally speaking, I, of course, cannot read the book. (I did trudge through a couple of passages she pointed out to me, but the whole thing would be waaaay too hard for me.) But I can repeat a few of the things that Lime translated to me with glee. …
THANK GOODNESS! by Daniel C Dennett
Here’s an excellent little piece by Dennett on why he thanks goodness, and not God, for his survival of a medical emergency. Quite worthwhile to athiests out there. Here’s a snippet: One thing in particular struck me when I compared the medical world on which my life now depended with the religious institutions I have been studying so intensively in recent years. One of the gentler, more supportive themes to be found in every religion (so far as I know) is the idea that what really matters is what is in your heart: if you have good intentions, and are …
Sometimes I think of Olaf Stapledon…
You know, the guy who wrote Star Maker, that novel in which a man wondering if all intelligent species just destroy themselves is taken on a trip through spacetime to see that, indeed, they probably do. Sometimes the news puts me in mind of him, and I wonder what he’d say or write if he saw this: THE SPECTRE of a nuclear race in the Middle East was raised yesterday when six Arab states announced that they were embarking on programmes to master atomic technology. Then again, there’s always Martin Rees.
Pyongyang back in six-party talks
Ah, so the little shit and his gang are willing to talk sensibly now? I doubt it, but they’re still planning on showing up, at least.
On the Goooo-oo-oood Ship… Neocon…
This is a musical number I’d love to see that little brat Shirley Temple sing.
On Foley
This is such an obvious ploy that it’s embarrassing. Come on, rehab and a history of abuse? Eh? Well, now we know what kind of defense Clinton should have used. “I’m a marijuana addict and some older girl molested me in high school, so… uh…”
N. Korean leader regrets test?
According to this report, Kim Jong Il is sorry. Not half as sorry as he’ll be later on. Probably much less than half, since it sounds like the familiar, “Oh, did I do that? Sorry.” I wonder what the original report says — did he say, “pardon this unfortunateness,” version of sorry, or the “I apologize,” kind. Oh, damn. He said it to someone from China. So who knows what language it was said in.
Melissa on the Death of Freedom
Melissa Lipscomb’s recent domestic disturbance column is well worth reading.