Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Chris' LiveJournal:

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Friday, October 3rd, 2008
3:57 pm	"Joe Six Pack" Oh my gosh, this is the best analysis of the Middle Class that I've read, by copperwise. Thank you, Sarah Palin, for getting the liberals thinking and writing about the nonsense you spouted last night. Best, Chris (9 Comments |Comment on this)
3:38 pm	Sarah Palin Debate Flowchart This little graphic sums up my analysis of Sarah "I've only been doin' this fer, like, five weeks" Palin: Click the image to see the story. PS: Here's the debate transcript in case you didn't get a chance to watch last night. Chris (23 Comments |Comment on this)
2:46 am	Palin: Idiot or Slave to Talking Points? Did you see the "debate" tonight between Sarah "I only say what's on my note cards" Palin and Joe "I'm embarrassed to be on the same stage as that woman" Biden? Yeah, then you know what I mean. On an unrelated note, I thought I'd share this definition of Christianity: The belief that a cosmic Jewish Zombie who was his own father can make you live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master so he can remove an evil force from your soul that is present in humanity because a rib-woman was convinced by a talking snake to eat from a magical tree... Sign me up for that SFnal craziness! Chris (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 1st, 2008
11:52 pm	Vote! Continuing my low-content blogging of late with this: I mean, so much has a person down these days, what's to say on LJ? I did save hundreds of buckies on a lawn-mower and a chain-saw tonight - there's some good financial news. Otherwise? I hope everyone is doing well. Y'know... what if maybe everyone stops freaking out about the economy? Then would it maybe not go into the toilet? Because when you get down to brass tacks, money is just a tool for measuring what we think things are worth. It's all consensual reality, not actual reality. Value is what we decide it is. Also, to the pundits and politicos out there: The next time you use the phrases, "Wall Street and Main Street," I'm going to punch you in the eye. Just sayin'. Chris (16 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 26th, 2008
4:08 pm	Ruins Metropolis signing tomorrow in Kansas City Eric Reynolds (ericreynolds), editor and publisher of Hadley Rille Books, is doing a signing of his newest anthology, RUINS METROPOLIS, at Borders on 119th & Metcalf (Kansas City area) at 2:00pm tomorrow (Saturday, Sept 27th). Help support a local publisher and great guy and attend the signing! If he gets a good turnout, Borders might be willing to host more Hadley Rille signings. Best, Chris (Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 24th, 2008
4:44 pm	The Next Dodge Viper Will Be Electric; the Chevy Volt Will Save the World Whoah! America's most-powerful sports car and Chrysler's halo car will be going electric in its next incarnation. This will transform the 600+ horsepower, single-digit-mpg muscle car into a 200kW (268 horsepower), 480 pound-foot torque green machine. Wow, talk about personality change! Click the image to see the story. Chrysler's target is the Tesla sports car. In other electric-car news (and more relevant to regular folks), the Chevy Volt will be out next year. Chevrolet finally unveiled the Volt, their plug-in electric car. It doesn't look exactly the same as the concept, due to aerodynamics necessary for it to go 40 miles on electricity alone, but it is still perhaps the most important car to come from Chevrolet in many decades... maybe ever. I believe this is the car that can not only save the company, but perhaps blow the Priuses of the world out of the market. Click the image to see the story. Imagine: This car uses no gasoline for 40 miles, but still has a small gasoline engine to keep the batteries topped off. You have the freedom drive cross-country like a normal car or around town with zero emissions. Because we have many options for making electricity - including solar and other non-polluting renewables - this car could also be truly emissions-free. Wowee, whatta time for car enthusiasts! This turns out to have been just the right time for the newest oil crisis. Last time, we got craptastic, 100-horsepower sedans that were ugly as sin. This time, we get sexy electrics. Gas shortages? Bring 'em on! Chris (14 Comments |Comment on this)
1:26 pm	"Slacker Uprising" free showing at Lawrence public library Just got this notice. Looks cool: WEDNESDAY, Sept. 24th - 7pm Film Screening of Michael Moore's new movie "Slacker Uprising." Presented by The Lawrence Coalition for Peace and Justice. Location: Lawrence Public Library. Free admission. "Slacker Uprising" traces Michael Moore's 62-city tour of the swing states during the 2004 Presidential election and records the thrilling - and frightening - response he received across the country. Part concert tour, part stand-up comedy performance, and part rock concert, "Slacker Uprising" is an uplifting and patriotic look at the birth of a new political generation in America - a generation of young people who would signal the era of "Obamania" that would take place just four years later. Watch the trailer and read more. Chris (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 23rd, 2008
12:37 pm	free credit monitoring Seems that the banks weren't the only financial crooks over the past decade: "A settlement worth at least $75 million has been reached with Trans Union LLC and Acxiom Corporation in a class action lawsuit that claims the Defendants violated state laws and the Fair Credit Reporting Act when they sold lists containing personal and financial consumer information to third parties for marketing purposes." Isn't that special. Naturally, "the Defendants deny any claims of wrongdoing in this case." You need to have applied for some kind of credit over the past decade to be eligible. Reparations include a few dollars if you so choose, because of course the lawyers will get most of the cash. Or you can make 'em work for it: six months of credit monitoring services with a couple bucks tossed in as a bonus, or nine months of enhanced monitoring services. Make sure no one's messing with your identity, check who's looking at your credit, and find out your score. For free! But you need to register by tomorrow on this site to get the benefits. I just registered. Note that the challenge words are really bad; I had to try about six times. Thanks to NPR for the heads-up! Chris (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 22nd, 2008
1:20 pm	$700 billion bailout You do realize that it's our money that's bailing out these f'ed-up Wall Street companies (rather than the homeowners who'll be losing their homes)? And that this means we will be the ones holding the keys to the banks? Hm. 1) Let's examine this proposal. It's our money, after all, so we if we're buying into an almost-incomprehensively expensive deal, I have to object to a few things. Let's start here: Sec. 8. Review. Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may not be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency. Really? No review by anyone, eh? So the people who brought us The War on Terror, The Iraq War, and, oh, The Most Massive Budget Deficit and Economic Fuckups Ever should have "non-reviewable" control of $700 billion of our money? Um, how about NO. 2) Another of my favorites: Wacky-finances bank Lehman Brothers has gone bankrupt, tons of its employees have lost their jobs, we American taxpayers are going to shoulder their bills... but some of its top execs will get a bonus totaling $2.5 billion. How about FRACK NO. 3) Doesn't this smell like socialism to you? The folks proposing this deal are from the Republican party, once known as socially conservative and anti-big-government. Hahahahahaahahaha! I laugh! Except that the laugh is angry and frustrated rather than humored. 4) Finally, if you and I are buying up a lot of "bad loans," why help the damn fools who made these loans? Mind you, "bad" mortgages belong to people who were often talked into taking loans they shouldn't have at indecent rates. Why not instead spend the same amount of money to ensure that these homeowners can keep their homes? That would help, y'know, people instead of the assholes who brought us this mess. And infusing security into the housing sector would save the economy in every single way, providing a foundation to the market that collapsed with the housing market. That's no more "socialist" than what the Bushies are suggesting right now, but would help people rather than once again dumping money into corporations and the executives who messed up in the first place. PS: Wouldn't this be a handy time to have that $500 billion we've wasted on the Iraq War? I'm disgruntled. How can we stop this horrible, horrible thing from happening the way the administration thinks they should do it? Chris (28 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, September 20th, 2008
1:24 pm	...and a bit of politics for Canadians and Battlestar Galactica fans Chris (Comment on this)
1:18 pm	John McCain = banking catastrophe Great article on "Innovative Products" about how John McCain: By Josh Marshall John McCain: "Opening up the health insurance market to more vigorous nationwide competition, as we have done over the last decade in banking, would provide more choices of innovative products less burdened by the worst excesses of state-based regulation." Late Update: Obviously, to rejigger that wonderful line, this is not excellent news for John McCain. If the Obama folks are smart - and they are - they'll ride this one all the way to the election. But among ourselves let's admit that you could only be surprised by this statement if you were willfully ignorant to what McCain and his key advisors believe. Remember, McCain's top economics advisor is former Sen. Phil Gramm, the legislative architect of the banking and financial services deregulation that led to the current crisis. And his health care proposals are all off-the-rack Heritage Foundation-style initiatives based on the premise that people have too much, not too little insurance. The only thing jarring about the statement is the degree to which it has been overtaken by events as McCain now tries - a la Palin the Earmark-Killer - to rebrand himself as a Mr. Wall Street oversight and transparency when he's been pushing deregulation for 25 years. ===== This is the kind of message that Americans need to hear before the election. Chris (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 18th, 2008
12:38 am	Still life with hamster. And not so still. Playing along with the Self-Portrait Meme: Take a picture of yourself right now. Don't change your clothes, don't fix your hair... just take a picture. Post that picture with no editing (except to reduce the size, of course). Post these instructions with your picture. Here's me with my little hammie in front of part of my bookshelves. He's the brown-and-white lump on my arm, just below the photo of Theodore Sturgeon: And just to prove I've followed the rules, a bonus shot. Guess who just dove from my arm? I think I'm saying something along the lines of, "Oh, no! Mr. Hammie-Boy!" (No worries; he landed on a cushion.) Chris (32 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 16th, 2008
1:10 pm	ancient recipe for long life begins with Chianti According to a 1715 recipe discovered among the shelves of a pharmacy in one of Italy's oldest pharmacies, the elixir of long life might be a concoction of honey, cherries, and secret herbs infused in a true Chianti-grape wine. Click the Sangiovese grapes to see the story. Wine for life? Cheers! Chris (9 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, September 15th, 2008
4:17 pm	Astro-Image of the Day: Direct photo of alien world! What we have here is a historic image: This is the first photo of a planet orbiting a Sun-like star outside of our solar system. The object is about 8 times the mass of Jupiter, so still smaller than a star. The odd part of all this is that its presumed orbit is 11 times that of Neptune’s - extremely far away. Click the image to see the story. Right now astronomers are calling it "1RXS J160929.1-210524." Um, any better ideas? Wow! Chris (8 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 12th, 2008
4:32 pm	possible tornado headed toward Lawrence, Eudora, Vinland Moving 29 mph, about 12 miles out. Get to safety... or go somewhere safe to watch! (2 Comments |Comment on this)
1:42 pm	Free lecture by Steve Hawley, five-time NASA astronaut and KU professor Just got this from KU: Come meet KU's only astronaut professor! The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences is kicking off a new interactive lecture series with a free presentation from Steve Hawley, five-time NASA astronaut and KU professor. In his presentation, “My Life with the Hubble Space Telescope,” Dr. Hawley will share his experiences in space, his perspective as a NASA insider, and his unique space memorabilia. This lecture, which is part of the new College of Liberal Arts and Sciences-sponsored CLAS ACTS series, is free and open to the public. The community, alumni and friends are encouraged to join us this Sunday, Sept. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. at Spooner Hall on the KU campus in Lawrence. Seating for the free lecture will be limited and available only to ticket-holders. Free tickets are available at the public library in downtown Lawrence. For those out of town, tickets can be sent via e-mail. Parents are encouraged to bring their children. If you have any questions about the lecture or obtaining free tickets, contact Jessica Beeson at 785-864-1767 or eliasb@ku.edu. This event is the first of eight monthly presentations, which will touch on a wide range of subjects, encompassing immigration policies, monsters, childhood obesity and more. All presentations take place on Sundays from 2 to 4 p.m. See you Sunday! Sounds cool! Chris (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, September 11th, 2008
4:02 pm	remembering 9/11 I wrote this essay a few days after the 9/11/2001 attacks. I stand behind those feelings and beliefs, and still believe that what I called for would have been the correct response: Treat it as a police mission, not a call to war. I grieve not only for those lost on that day, but for what this country has lost in the interim because of how our government failed to respond, how they responded in the worst way possible, and how they have polluted humankind's image of the United States of America. I am also angry: Furious with the current administration, of course, but also with those who allowed the NeoCons to ruin our nation over the course of the last seven years. How can they live with themselves? Do they really believe people like John "Bomb-Bomb-Iran" McCain and Sarah "Sack O' Lies" Palin will do anything to restore American honor? Or has their guilt for keeping the Bushies in office long enough to nearly destroy our nation driven them deep into a pit of self-hatred that they cannot face, so instead they push for more evil to be wrought upon the world in the name of... I don't even know what they believe it's all for. "The War on Terror" is the biggest load of crap. Ask any terrorism expert who hasn't allowed support-Bush guilt to delude him or herself, and you'll hear that you cannot fight terror with war. Let me amend that: You can fight terror with war, but you will lose. You cannot beat terror with war. Terrorism is a crime. Nations cannot wage effective war against terrorism by waging war; that only incites more acts of terror and grows the support base for terrorist activity. How do you fight crime? With police activity. You arrest the bad guys, break up the bad-guy rings. Meanwhile, you try to fix the society that breeds bad guys. For most people, it's as simple as ensuring that everyone has the basic rights that we in the US declared a couple hundred years ago to be self-evident. The motives of psychotics will always be beyond our ability to comprehend, their behavior beyond correction. But we can help ensure that they don't get widespread support by helping remove the hopelessness inherent in many societies - especially in the Middle East. The absolute worst thing we can do for the forces of good - and the best thing we can do to assist psychotics to enlist the hopeless - is wage endless war. This creates fear, anger, sadness, loss... it breeds more hopelessness and it breeds hate. If the goal of our administration's "War on Terror" is to build resentment against the United States of America, it's been overwhelmingly effective. If its goal is to ensure a endless supply of America-hating terrorists, they've succeeded. In the essay I wrote right after 9/11, I suggested that the only way to stop this from happening again was, "Nations all across the world must join forces to capture every single terrorist and every single accomplice to terror." We did not do that. Can we do that now, effectively? Yes, but it's a bigger job now, what with so many more people having been harmed by "The War on Terror" and so many fewer supportive of the US. But we can still do it. It also makes a lovely "what if?" alternate-history scenario. What if we had mobilized the world's crime-fighting forces to arrest the bad guys instead of bomb the nations where they lived (except Saudi Arabia, of course)? What if we had spent the money we've spent on "The War on Terror" instead on reducing the hopelessness of those who succumb to the call to join terrorist organizations? What if? Chris (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, September 10th, 2008
12:16 pm	"One short trip for a proton, but one giant leap for mankind!" The world's largest particle accelerator fired for the first time today successfully - and without destroying the Earth! The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) fired a beam of protons at almost the speed of light through its circular, 17-mile tunnel that passes beneath villages and cow pastures along the French-Swiss border. This is the largest experimental device ever built. Click the image to see the story. Researchers intend to use the LHC to recreate post-Big Bang conditions and study the Higgs boson and dark matter. “It’s a fantastic moment,” said LHC project leader Lyn Evans, “we can now look forward to a new era of understanding about the origins and evolution of the universe.” Click the image to see the story. And I get to work with one of the CERN researchers, Philip Baringer, for the Spring "Science, Technology, & Society" class. Cool beans! Chris (15 Comments |Comment on this)
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
12:36 pm	Giant SF Book Sale - going on NOW at KU! Do you want some classic SF? Perhaps some more-recent stuff? Well, I have just what you need! Huge Science Fiction Book Sale (thousands of books!) today, tomorrow, and Thursday (September 9-10-11), from 9am to 5pm at KU's Watson Library. Whoah, that's NOW! Click the image to see the story. There will be a lot of amazing material in this sale, partly because of how the KU Library has changed what they consider for the rare-books collection. Also duplicates of things they do consider important for the collection. Oh, and prices are obscenely low. So check it out! Best, Chris (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, September 5th, 2008
3:37 pm	Astro-Image of the Day: NASA spacecraft to study the Sun's transition region The transition region is an area just above the Sun's surface where strong magnetic fields seize affect solar winds and plasmas. It looks a bit like this: Click the image to see the story. Next April, we'll get a good - if short - look at this region using SUMI, the Solar Ultraviolet Magnetograph Investigation spacecraft. The transition region is where solar flares and coronal mass ejections are shaped and where the solar wind is accelerated to a million miles per hour. "It is, in short, the birthplace of space weather." Chris (1 Comment |Comment on this)