Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 226 entries, all of them here in full.
March 15, 2012 · 256 words
Après sam@alshahba.com le déluge
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer dictator. Turns out that Basher al-Assad and his wife got their private email hacked by the Supreme Council of the Revolution, Syria’s chief opposition group. The hack was exposed when Anonymous launched an attack on Syrian government sites and inadvertently exposed the Supreme Council
Read entry →March 14, 2012 · 227 words
Each to His Drone . . .
Via Bruce Sterling, the news that Liam Young and his Tomorrows Thoughts Today cronies have created a cheap drone network capable of embodying a nomad Internet. The key role that the internet has played in the last year of protests and activism was one so important that it saw Governments cut off internet access nationw
Read entry →March 13, 2012 · 454 words
The Joys of Broadband
Since I got broadband, six or seven years ago, I’ve had it through the local cable monopoly, Comcast. No one loves Comcast— they’re too big, too slow, too expensive, and have infamously bad customer service (which, however, seems to be improving— when I had trouble last year, they really did their best, for
Read entry →March 9, 2012 · 255 words
Reviews Too Late: Rin
Netflix suggested that I would like the anime series Rin, the subtitle of which is Daughters of Mnemosyne. Very brave of anyone, let alone Japanese, to put a word like “Mnemosyne” in the title. Rin is an immortal who is also a private detective, sharing an office with her girlfriend Mimi, who is also immortal. [&hellip
Read entry →March 8, 2012 · 158 words
I Alter My DNA Daily
Finally, a scientific discovery made just for me! In the current issue of Cell Metabolism— my basic light reading— researchers report on beneficial changes to DNA achieved both through drinking caffeine and through exercise. “The DNA changes in question are known as epigenetic modifications and involve the
Read entry →March 7, 2012 · 473 words
Blows Against the Empire
Okay, so at least we know the dimensions of the problem. NASA has admitted that their computers are riddled with hackers, having logged over 5400 intrusions over the last couple years. The most spectacular of these, originating in China, actually seized control of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s systems, “gaining the a
Read entry →March 5, 2012 · 393 words
Connections
I was thinking today about James Burke’s admirable television series Connections, where seemingly unrelated historical events were shown to have contributed to a modern scientific discovery. As a fond hommage to that series, I’d like to trace some connections myself— though I’m not going to do science history, be
Read entry →March 4, 2012 · 62 words
Mandelbox Set
Last night we went to the First Friday Fractals show at the local Imax, just to get our dose of insane psychedelia. Here’s part of what we saw— only you have to picture this stretched out as wide as the night sky, with full digital sound. I would advise clicking the “full screen” box on […]
Read entry →March 2, 2012 · 594 words
Crowdsourcing the Law
Remember that scene in Fahrenheit 451 when Montag is on the run, and the announcer on television talks to his “friends” (in Bradbury’s future, television has friended the entire audience), and the announcer tells the friends to go outside and look for the fugitive? In the François Truffaut film, this scene was particul
Read entry →February 29, 2012 · 69 words
The Little Receipts They Raineth Down . . .
What have I been doing today? Sorting through hundreds of little receipts, many marked with indecipherable scrawls, in order to enter the results into Quicken and prepare my tax forms. Which, after many hours and an aching back, I have achieved. Only to find that Quicken refuses to print the results. May I just remark
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