Dispatches since 2005
The journal
Announcements, new editions, travel, diving, cooking and the working life of a novelist — 272 entries, all of them here in full.
December 21, 2009 · 1,286 words
ICE Castles
I haven’t commented on the Peter Watts thing, partly because I’ve never met Peter Watts and don’t know whether or not he’s capable of trying to strangle a border agent after being pepper-sprayed in the face. (I know I am. If someone pepper-sprayed me for no reason, I’d do my absolute best to crush his […]
Read entry →December 21, 2009 · 529 words
What Were They Thinking?
So it seems that our Predator drones, on which we depend for so much intelligence and air-to-ground support in Afghanistan, have been using unencrypted communications. Which have been intercepted by Serbs, Iraqi insurgents, and probably the Taliban and al-Qaeda. (Because, y’know, a Western-educated multimillionaire lik
Read entry →December 16, 2009 · 570 words
The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs
Fake Steve Jobs speaks with AT&T’s Randall Stephenson:Randall, baby. we’ve got a hit on our hands . . . And when I say that “we” have a hit on our hands, I’m really giving you way too much credit, because let’s be honest, the success of iPhone has nothing to do with you. In fact, […]
Read entry →December 15, 2009 · 314 words
Oops! Dropped the Palantir!
It’s the 6 Lord of the Rings Characters Who Totally Dropped the Ball. Gandalf’s leadership in The Fellowship of the Ring exemplifies the perils of on-the-job training. Let’s test your knowledge of the trilogy with the following questions: 1. How many horses did Gandalf insist the Fellowship bring? 2. What would Gandalf
Read entry →December 12, 2009 · 510 words
Aigues-Mortes
So here we have two views of the intact medieval walls of Aigues-Mortes, in southern France near the coast. Aigues-Mortes, which means “dead water” in the old local dialect, is built in the marshland of the Camargues, a perfectly flat stretch of wetlands that forms the Rhone delta. Aigues-Mortes isn’t on the sea, but i
Read entry →December 11, 2009 · 277 words
Solar For the Home
Lowe’s now sells solar panels that you can install yourself. Lowe’s has begun stocking solar panels at its California stores and plans to roll them out across the country next year. This shows how far the highest of the high-tech alternative energy technologies has come. Solar power is now accessible to anyone with a l
Read entry →December 11, 2009 · 101 words
Is it Live, or is it HD?
Here is Charlie, our younger cat, watching the nature documentary Winged Migration, which features a lot of eye-croggling footage of birds on the wing. Our cats normally ignore the TV, but Charlie found the film irresistible. He sat in front of the set and watched it for at least twenty minutes. Of course during his [&
Read entry →December 9, 2009 · 282 words
Idea Cool and Insane
Friend of the blog Michael Ruppen pointed me at this article, modestly titled “Blueprint for a Quantum Propulsion Machine.” In recent years, a new way of thinking about the quantum vacuum has emerged which has vastly more potential. And today, one physicist describes how it could be used to create propulsion . . . The
Read entry →December 8, 2009 · 86 words
Who’s Tricking the Watchmen?
Got all confused about the stolen emails from the British climatologists? Suddenly wondering whether the entire scientific establishment is involved in a conspiracy to conceal the truth in order to brainwash us into becoming their Marxist bitches? Here’s science journalist potholder54— who actually knows what the
Read entry →December 8, 2009 · 90 words
More Scenery
For the last few days I was involved in graduating a new crop of karate black belts. I always get the warm fuzzies watching them pound each other (and themselves) into hamburger, the more so because, as a judge, I didn’t lose any skin myself. I still feel as if I’m on vacation, for all […]
Read entry →December 2, 2009 · 45 words
Cuteness
There is some kind of French Cuteness Authority that rates villages. At the top are the villages rated Plus Beau, then villages of Character, villages of Charme, and finally (I guess) the dreaded Unrated. This one is Saignon, which is Plus Beau in my book.
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