I’m presently reading Ken MacLeod’s newest book, The Execution Channel, and it is outstanding. MacLeod is one of my absolute favorite authors, and this book is one of his best. It hits imediately much closer to home than most of his scifi; it’s a near-future alternate world, where 9/11, 7/7, Iraq, Iran, and all the rest happened. Where the War on Terror has defined our reality for the intervening decades. By fast-forwarding us through the near future, to the start of his book where a nuclear explosion in Scotland may signal the start of something even bigger, MacLeod is able to explore the cultural, technological, and political consequences of the decisions we’ve made since September 11th.

He does it with style, but pulls no punches. This paragraph (referencing detention without charge for purposes of national security), for example, drove me out of my chair to pace about, and eventually write this post:

Tears sprang to her eyes, as they always did when the thought struck her that that particular prerogative was back: the right of the sovereign to condemn, to put to the question, without due process and for reasons of state; that on that sore point all the Revolutions in Britian and America had been for nothing. That America had been for nothing; that dismayed her.

And it’s (so far) a rollicking good story too. How can you beat it!? Thanks, Ken!

I’ve been doing some Amazon ordering lately; I normally just click around after logging in and get to the tracking status page, but I just noticed in an email notification that there’s a specific redirect you can use: http://www.amazon.com/wheres-my-stuff. I like it!

My first takeaway from Jon Udell’s most recent post is not about the main subject; it’s the reminder to narrate the work. As mentioned in one of his first comments off of that google search, the narration is valuable to both others (via search pickup), as well as to the writer. It helps them clarify their thinking, improve their craft, and expose their ideas. Some of my favorite posts are of exactly this type. Thanks for reminding me, Jon…I’m going to try to pick up with more of that type of posting again.

(though note, I said first takeaway…I’m a big fan of open science and the concept of the scientific web. It’s just not what this quick rant is about. *grin*)

The newest social networking nerd site, Pownce, has some great back-end cred: The website is made with Django, which is Python powered, and we use a MySQL database. The servers are powered by Debian, and our webservers run a combination of Apache and Perlbal. File storage is supported by S3 from Amazon Web Services.

Yowza. Me like.

Just some links to some essays and podcasts I’ve found particularly good recently. Cameron Reilly at G’day World has been kicking out some outstanding interviews recently, including the following:

• Eli Yudkowsky of the Singularity Institute (podcast part 1 and part 2)
• Rod Adams of the TPN Atomic Show on atomic energy AND religion (podcast)
• Jamais Cascio on futurism and sousveillance (podcast)

Couple of other links:

An
excellent rationalist/humanist podcast called Point of Inquiry had a particularly good recent episode. It’s an interview with R. Joseph Hoffman
about the Jesus Project…a new project involving scholars from many
disciplines that is trying to determine the likelihood of Jesus of
Nazareth having ever existed. Excellent interview. ( podcast )

From the writings list at Eli Yudkowsky’s website, I downloaded
and have started reading Artifical Intelligence and Global
Risk. It’s a chapter for a book on global risk, and definitely recommended.

And for a complete change of pace, check out Steam Brigade at Manifesto Games (heck, almost everything I try from Manifesto rocks). I’m still playing the Steam Brigage demo, but I’m heading over to buy it tonight or tomorrow. It’s quite a cool little game.

Bush commutes Libby’s prison sentence — Wow. I’ll comment more later, after I do some more reading. But I honestly did not expect Bush to do anything here. And the commutation appears to be particularly interesting…it’s rare. My first thoughts are that he looked at it as see, it’s not like I granted him a pardon; relax! But my initial reaction is…what? You acknowledge he’s guilty, you just didn’t like that he was actually being punished?? Hmm…actually, kinda par for the course now that I think about it. But really…wow. More later.

UPDATE: Oh, and a quick response to the hey, being a felon affects his ability to be a lawyer, yada yada, argument. Puh-LEEZ. I mean, really…c’mon. This sumbitch isn’t going to do anything the rest of his life but write books, give speeches to conservative organizations for beaucoup bucks, and groove the political talking head scene. Hell…the felony hanging around is probably a positive from that standpoint; it makes him a martyr. I am NOT impressed with that argument; please keep it to yourself if you don’t want me to take off the rhetorical kid gloves. *grin* But I welcome comments from the peanut gallery!

UPDATE: After re-reading a couple of times, I realize I didn’t make this clear; my first reaction when seeing this was to laugh out loud. Just the thing to do, I guess. Not that I think it’s funny; it’s insane, but it’s hardly the most outrageous or maddening thing this administration has done. It’s just out in the open; bold. The man is bold, I’ll give him that. *sigh*

Dave Slusher (of Evil Genius Chronicles fame) just posted an insightful comment on selling out in the blogosphere. Hear, hear, Dave! Well said.

I’m trying a new option for my podcasts; I actually record my ENTIRE run (30-60 minutes, depending on length), and I comment on whatever I’m listening to as I think of something to say. Since I’m recording all the time, I don’t have to turn on the device, etc. Lowers the activation threshold. On the down side, there’s more prep afterwards, cutting just the comments I want out of what would otherwise be an hour of hearing me breathe heavy while I run!

Note: this is an addition, not a change. You’ll still get to hear me drive to work, never fear. I’m just experimenting with something new. Once I upload the file from today, I’d love to hear what you think!

Pleistocene Medicine for Battling HIV: Freak-y… — …scientists could not find a fully-functioning human endogenous retrovirus. So they resurrected one instead.

Wow. Why on earth do people have to believe in mythologies, when the actual world is so fascinating??

I’ve been poking about on Amie Street again recently, because I really like their model; music starts out free, and the price rises as it’s popularity does (to a max of 98 cents per track), and the artist gets 70%. Makes it easy to try things out. And MP3s only, so no DRM issues.

So I just bumped into an artist I kinda dig, so I think I’m going to actually try throwing their flash player thingie up here! It’s for Paul Fidalgo and the Conflict of Interest…kind of reminds me of Jonathan Coulton (another awesome Net artist if you’re not familiar). So here goes nothing…the song is he Immediacy of Now (Robot Curiosity Remix), and I’m quite liking it. I went ahead and bought his entire Amie Street collection: 18 songs for I think 2 bucks. Hard to beat.