Monthly Archives: August 2017
Backflips for the Eclipse
Consider this a holder post until the eclipse happens. Gotta contribute to this: https://eclipsemega.movie/megamovie Good guide here: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/08/photo-total-eclipse/537084/ This: https://www.space.com/33797-total-solar-eclipse-2017-guide.html Share this post
The War for Mars United, Chapter 30: The War Room: Talking to the Enemy
Parts of the air battle were going terribly. M.U. had managed to staunch the bleeding of the early phase, where the losses were near 1-to-1. At this point, the A.A. had about 70,000 planes left, and M.U. about 26,500. Perhaps the A.A. had led with its best soldiers, more likely the ones with the most experience in non-Earth g. Perhaps M.U. had overcome an early case of nervousness. Whatever the case, M.U. was doing incrementally better, occasionally knocking out two…
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Waterworld 1.0
Until last weekend, Dar had never been to a water park. Then again, he wasn’t the only one. On our family’s drive out to Waterworld California, I asked wifey, “Have you ever been on a waterslide?” “Of course.” “When?” “Orlando.” “You went to one of the water parks there?” “Sure.” “Really? Cause when I was in Florida I went to four Disney parks and two Universal parks, but not the water parks.” “What is a water park?” After a little…
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Did We All Fiddle With Our Phones While the Republic Burned?
You and I have both read a lot of post-mortems about the 2016 presidential election, a lot of thinkpieces about the unthinking and unthinkable Donald Trump. But here’s a question I haven’t seen anyone take seriously: did we Americans assume that digital culture would gradually lead to a more enlightened population, only to wake up on November 9th and realize that it has only enhanced our more regressive elements? Did we look up for a minute from our smartphones, see…
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The War for Mars United, Chapter 29: Aquinas’ Mansion
Julia Maciel had barely slept during the two nights since her lakeside chat with Godfrey. How could he have known about Martina’s kids? Martina was tabloid-famous, yes, but her kids were born years after the founding of New Dagreb. This little snow-globe-paradise was supposed to be entirely cut off from media, except when new members managed to find the pneumatic tube. Could Isabel or Kenyatta have said something? After bojutsu training, Julia pulled Isabel aside. “Isabel? Do you have a…
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Dogless Dog Days
There’s a new Vice episode about autism, and they pack a lot of good information into 40 minutes. The first featured kid, Griffin, is a lot more like Dar than most media representations of autism. Like Dar, Griffin is seven, male, non-verbal, uses a tablet for a talker, and it’s a minor miracle when he can express his needs. So for those of you who are reading this and want a video sense of what Dar is like (something I don’t…
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Trump and Evangelicals: What About Culture? What About Forgiveness?
Everyone has a theory about why overwhelming numbers of evangelicals and other long-time right-wing Christians supported, and continue to support, the presidency of Donald J. Trump. Trump received 80% of their vote in November, a higher share than George W. Bush – who is, unlike Trump, an avowed evangelical. And they have stuck with him in similar numbers for the first 200 days of his presidency. Everyone has an explanation that accounts for this — but no one has my…
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The War for Mars United, Chapter 28: The Sky Above Mount Sharp
The war had no drone phase. The A.A. hadn’t bothered to bring drones, knowing that it wasn’t worth the trouble of fighting off M.U. jamming signals. Now, the dogfight between Mars United and the Asian Alliance resembled the vision of a thousand microbes, seen through a microscope, exposed to increasing heat. It was total chaos at 10,000 meters above Mars’ surface. Only this time, it wasn’t a sim. This was as real as a heart attack. “Peterson!” Martina barked into…
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Hairy Twitter and the Half-Baked Controversy
Over the last few days, J.K. Rowling got herself into disability-related trouble. The basics of the case are here. The TL;DR version is that Rowling tweet-attacked Trump over mistreatment of a disabled child, the child’s parent corrected Rowling, and Rowling deleted the tweets and apologized to the family but not Trump. The TL;DR version of MY blog post is: keep up the good work, Joanne. Don’t let this setback change the way you advocate for society’s most vulnerable. Parents like me are counting…
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In 2100, an American History Book Explains the First Fifth of the 21st Century in Five Paragraphs
Today’s babies are likely to live until the 22nd century. When they do, how will they think of the first fifth of the 21st century? I don’t mean the history buffs; I mean the average, non-historically-thinking citizens, assuming that there are average citizens in the year 2100. What will they think of the first 20 years of the century that just finished? I believe the TL;DR version can be summarized with two slashified numbers and three “I”s: 9/11, internet, inequality,…
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