tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post3073344039563891590..comments2024-03-29T05:59:55.834-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: Technological marvels & advancesDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger114125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-21028025111188707772021-03-26T16:56:38.173-07:002021-03-26T16:56:38.173-07:00onward
onward
onward<br />onward<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79443682135754284012021-03-26T12:47:14.446-07:002021-03-26T12:47:14.446-07:00"Of course I took it as another sign of the a..."Of course I took it as another sign of the apocalypse..."<br />Of course you did. Sorry you were disappointed, Treebeard.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49739335854328770552021-03-26T12:46:33.380-07:002021-03-26T12:46:33.380-07:00Hey JIM! You'll like this:
https://news.googl...Hey JIM! You'll like this:<br />https://news.google.com/articles/CAIiEIL6V82z6Mz1OU3Q-i-RjSgqFwgEKg8IACoHCAowjuuKAzCWrzwwqIQY?hl=en-US&gl=US&ceid=US%3Aen<br /><br />Suez ship casts doubt on glob alization...<br /><br />Matthew, you are utterly, utterly wrong and tactically obstinate, pushing a line that has prevented liberal agility for 20 years. "Overton Window" my shiny metal ass! We shift the window by ACTION and shifting national income to the working classes instead of the oligarchy is not moving "rightward!" What a dumb thing to think!<br /><br />We need to break logjams to do that and we have NOT competed the draining of supporters from the GOP who might be reachable. That is a dismal and utterly unproved assertion and a deeply sad and PATRONIZING one that give up on the one thing that has recently Worked!! Biden reassured enough moderate whites to join him and join us... without proving himself one SCINTILLA to be a "DNC corporatist sellout."<br /><br />You think Raphael Warnock would have won in Georgia without a flood of fefugees FROM the GOP down there? We need and can get more and we need and can get demolition of Fox only by hammering where they'll hurt most.<br /><br />===David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39997352938409212672021-03-26T12:26:58.210-07:002021-03-26T12:26:58.210-07:00No amount of evidence will break the GOP diehards ...No amount of evidence will break the GOP diehards away from their party at this point. <br />All negotiation-ready conservatives have already left the party - what's left are the racists and the loony, the tribal and the bullies. <br /><br />The Democratic Party now contains almost all of American political positions from the 70s except the John Birch Society-types and the Klan. <br />We should not attempt to reach out any farther to the GOP. Doing so just moves the Overton Window in their direction. <br /><br />Instead, we need to focus on building consensus within the Dems, which is a task exactly as hard as building consensus across the GOP / Dem split of the 1970s. <br /><br />And messaging, messaging, more messaging to drive home that all the sane adults are under one tent and that tent *excludes* the GOP. <br /><br /><br />matthewhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17757867868731829206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-70972560408806382662021-03-26T11:23:37.689-07:002021-03-26T11:23:37.689-07:00I was out walking last night and I looked up and s...I was out walking last night and I looked up and saw some lights streaking across the sky. Was it an airplane on fire? Shooting stars? Multi-warhead nukes heading for Seattle? Aliens? Putin doing something nefarious? No, supposedly it was a Space-X rocket on re-entry. It looked very close. Of course I took it as another sign of the apocalypse.Treebeardnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-16558407029108481552021-03-26T09:39:32.310-07:002021-03-26T09:39:32.310-07:00Greg B Again my aim is not to actually pass such a...Greg B Again my aim is not to actually pass such an amendment righjt away. Maybe long term as a consensus solution, But near term the aim is to add one more major area in which 30 million decent republicans feel internal pressure to finally admit: " am waxtching the villain meme network and need to change channels no2.<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87156517117301778402021-03-26T06:39:35.099-07:002021-03-26T06:39:35.099-07:00Heh. "Onward" is now the title of a rece...Heh. "Onward" is now the title of a recent Pixar film about a couple of brothers who go on a quest to find the unresurrected half of their deceased father. It has an interesting resolution.Tony Fiskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14578160528746657971noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-72628447263176540732021-03-26T02:57:09.538-07:002021-03-26T02:57:09.538-07:00David Brin said...
HR, almost all of my "...<b>David Brin said...</b><br /><i> HR, almost all of my "judo" proposals involve doing something that almost no liberals or democrats understand (apparently) though any general would. The ONLY path to victory. And that is to BREAK UP THE OPPOSING COALITION.<br /><br /> In this case, the idea is to get enough Republicans to split off and agree to regulate all those weapons like cars. [...]<br /><br /> If that can split off just a quarter of goppers, then the fight is over, except for some Nichols-McVeighs and they need medical care, anyway.</i><br /><br />I think the issue is not that Democrats don't <i>understand</i>, but that they see no path to achieving such a goal.<br /><br />Yes, there are some Republican voters (possibly significant number) who would support such ideas - but very, very few of them will vote for a Democrat over a Republican - even when the Republican candidate is demonstrably a moron or a lunatic (or both) - and often even when the Democratic candidate is a moderate and/or a miltary veteran. And the current Republican party is dead set against any such actions.<br /><br />Given these facts on the ground, how would you propose to pass such a constitutional amendment? Which two-thirds of Congress (or the states) will support it? Which 38 states will approve it?gregory byshenkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08565517478782844083noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23278231913099175422021-03-25T20:49:39.105-07:002021-03-25T20:49:39.105-07:00Some comments I approve occasionally vanish so I a...Some comments I approve occasionally vanish so I assume they went to earlier posting threads after the "onward."David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-78257380939771416612021-03-25T20:48:23.617-07:002021-03-25T20:48:23.617-07:00HR, almost all of my "judo" proposals in...HR, almost all of my "judo" proposals involve doing something that almost no liberals or democrats understand (apparently) though any general would. The ONLY path to victory. And that is to BREAK UP THE OPPOSING COALITION. <br /><br />In this case, the idea is to get enough Republicans to split off and agree to regulate all those weapons like cars. Exactly like cars, through the DMV&G. Clone every car -related law and tweak as little as possible to get licensing (different levels for different types, all the way up to artillery, maybe), and so on. The JEFFERSON RIFLE is a way to say "this one is never registered, never controlled, protected by a NEW amendment with no "well regulated militia" exception." And point to Bosnia as evidence that...<br /><br />..."no future government will come and confiscate all your REGISTERED weapons without triggering an uprising and the bolt-rifles alone will force them to either negotiate or carpet bomb. If it is the latter, then you've already lost."<br /><br />If that can split off just a quarter of goppers, then the fight is over, except for some Nichols-McVeighs and they need medical care, anyway.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-31559658270459022012021-03-25T19:57:18.402-07:002021-03-25T19:57:18.402-07:00Jon S:
...beginning when "self publishing&qu...Jon S:<br /><i><br />...beginning when "self publishing" was not even a twinkle in anyone else's eye."<br /><br />Issue #1 of Cerebus the Aardvark was published in December of 1977. Issue #1 of ElfQuest was published in February of 1978.<br /></i><br /><br />Somehow <i>Elfquest</i> was never on my radar while it existed. <i>Cerebus</i> wasn't either until the 90s, but it was still around in the 90s. And so I exaggerate. Self-publishing was a twinkle in some eyes back then. But keeping to a bi-monthly schedule going monthly in two years and then (on average) keeping to that monthly schedule through issue #300 is nothing like what other self-publishers were doing or have done since.<br /><br />Granted, this was because other self-publishers had a life.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73576579582026519722021-03-25T19:39:13.036-07:002021-03-25T19:39:13.036-07:00Structural batteries
Tesla are planning on using ...Structural batteries<br /><br />Tesla are planning on using structural batteries next year (maybe this year) where the new cells are glued into the frame and provide some of the stiffness of that frame which is then a structural part of the car<br /><br />I think that they are planning on having three big castings as the structure of the car<br />A front casting with the front suspension and motor<br />A rear casting with the rear suspension and motor<br />A middle casting which has the cells glued into it as part of the structureduncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-81805517378238414412021-03-25T19:19:36.430-07:002021-03-25T19:19:36.430-07:00Batteries as bricks? Structural? Leggo my Leg-oh.
...Batteries as bricks? Structural? Leggo my Leg-oh.<br />David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-4906146906137332042021-03-25T19:13:57.591-07:002021-03-25T19:13:57.591-07:00Big Breakthrough for “Massless” Energy Storage: St...<a href="https://scitechdaily.com/big-breakthrough-for-massless-energy-storage-structural-battery-that-performs-10x-better-than-all-previous-versions/" rel="nofollow">Big Breakthrough for “Massless” Energy Storage: Structural Battery That Performs 10x Better Than All Previous Versions</a><br /><br /><i>The batteries in today’s electric cars constitute a large part of the vehicles’ weight, without fulfilling any load-bearing function. A structural battery, on the other hand, is one that works as both a power source and as part of the structure – for example, in a car body. This is termed ‘massless’ energy storage, because in essence the battery’s weight vanishes when it becomes part of the load-bearing structure.</i><br /><br />Hahahah aw hell that IS clever.TCBhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08153506222271955110noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75448364090280722522021-03-25T18:26:01.623-07:002021-03-25T18:26:01.623-07:00Robert and I both mentioned how readers of certain...<i> Robert and I both mentioned how readers of certain writers start seeing patterns in everything</i><br /><br />That was scidata, not me.Robertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-82010951575995889792021-03-25T18:06:39.683-07:002021-03-25T18:06:39.683-07:00"...beginning when "self publishing"...<i>"...beginning when "self publishing" was not even a twinkle in anyone else's eye."</i><br /><br />Issue #1 of <i>Cerebus the Aardvark</i> was published in December of 1977. Issue #1 of <i>ElfQuest</i> was published in February of 1978. Unless you're alleging that the Pinis managed to set up WaRP Graphics, establish publication, and churn out the beginning of their story in a grand total of two months, this claim seems unlikely. (Not to mention all the zines that were being self-published even before then...)Jon S.https://www.blogger.com/profile/13585842845661267920noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55313814816839690802021-03-25T13:40:59.666-07:002021-03-25T13:40:59.666-07:00Dr Brin:
I cannot see a reason why any aspect of ...Dr Brin:<br /><i><br />I cannot see a reason why any aspect of this DSim character merits a darm or mote of my attention.<br /></i><br /><br />His philosophy, probably no reason. He does deserve recognition for actually (himself and one illustrator of backgrounds) writing, drawing, and marketing 300 issues of a comic book over a 26 year period, beginning when "self publishing" was not even a twinkle in anyone else's eye. And for supporting other self-publishers as they came into existence.<br /><br />It's his writing and drawing skills that made his comic worth reading before it ended in 2004. Robert and I both mentioned how readers of certain writers start seeing patterns in everything, and Dave did that for me. For many years, I was part of an online Yahoo Group which discussed "Cerebus" and Dave, which meant that for one brief shining moment, I could use a "Cerebus" reference to make a larger point and be sure the audience understood exactly what I meant. It's so much a part of me that I continue to do that here, despite knowing that I have to explain the references.<br /><br />That and the fact that Dave personally answered correspondence from readers in all that time (and for many years after) is probably why I remain focused on him. As the Republican Party becomes more openly treasonous, a part of me is always metaphorically asking Dave if he thinks they're still on God's team. Metaphorically because it's been almost 10 years since I actually corresponded with the guy.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55465605540076511212021-03-25T13:21:59.179-07:002021-03-25T13:21:59.179-07:00From descriptions by several folks, I cannot see a...From descriptions by several folks, I cannot see a reason why any aspect of this DSim character merits a darm or mote of my attention.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-85075325093845205362021-03-25T12:42:21.510-07:002021-03-25T12:42:21.510-07:00Robert:
"That was especially evident during ...Robert:<br /><i><br />"That was especially evident during our "Global War On Terror" phase, in which he [Dave Sim] was ashamed of Canada for essentially sitting that one out, while waxing fanboyish over the accomplishments of the US military."<br /><br />We didn't really sit it out. No drone strikes, kidnappings, and so forth, but we went into Afghanistan in 2001 along with you Yanks. We sat out the Iraq War, ...<br /></i><br /><br />It was the Iraq war he was talking about.<br /><br /><i><br />I don't know Dave Sim at all, but he seems to have fairly standard far-right views, although with flakier justifications<br /></i><br /><br />In a way, that's spot on. Dave is hard to describe unless you've read a lot of his stuff--the "Cerebus" comic and his back-of-the-book essays. He defies categorization, intentionally so as he refuses to be pigeonholed.<br /><br />His main bugaboo is not conservatism or liberalism, but feminism. He claims to have turned against feminism as far back as the late 70s, but only "came out" as an anti-feminist in a comic printed in 1994. But what he calls "feminism" isn't always the same thing, which makes it very hard to argue the point with him. He has stated that "all women are feminists and all feminists are Marxists." He has also stated that most women aren't feminists, but they're held hostage by a few aging harpies who control policy. As far as I know, he hasn't stopped believing one of those things after being convinced that the other is true, but believes both at the same time.<br /><br />I often can't tell when he's acting contrary to what he's saying on purpose in order to make a point. An infamous screed of his was called "Tangent" in which he attempted to prove (among other things) that women don't argue logically, but instead rely on stories and anecdotes to imply their points. He did this by writing 20 pages of stories and anecdotes to imply his point. It's hard to believe that <b>wasn't</b> intentionally, but he never gave any indication that it was.<br /><br />After he read the Bible in order to parody it, he fell in love with Scripture instead and became a religious monotheist, though in Dave style, not a member of any particular religious sect, but simply a believer in The One God. That One God being male, of course. In his pre-religious days, he asserted that women were too religion-oriented, distracting men from the productive work they would have been accomplishing on their own. After becoming religious, it became feminist women are atheists whose only "god" is themselves, and they distract men from what would otherwise be their work on behalf of God. He honestly believes that men with wives or girlfriends are forced to believe Impossible Things (Before Breakfast) in order to preserve the relationship, and he doesn't recognize that someone whose every thought or action is dominated by whether it leads to Hell is in the same position.<br /><br />Dave wasn't a political conservative until 9/11, but during the Bush years, Bush and Cheney could do no wrong because they were on God's team and we liberals and feminists were on God's adversary's team with the terrorists. It's been close to 10 years since he and I have conversed, so I have no idea what he thought/thinks about Donald Trump and the Republican Party's embrace of Trumpism. I'm afraid I don't want to know.<br />Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-12983040972401663272021-03-25T10:49:59.523-07:002021-03-25T10:49:59.523-07:00That was especially evident during our "Globa...<i>That was especially evident during our "Global War On Terror" phase, in which he was ashamed of Canada for essentially sitting that one out, while waxing fanboyish over the accomplishments of the US military.</i><br /><br />We didn't really sit it out. No drone strikes, kidnappings, and so forth, but we went into Afghanistan in 2001 along with you Yanks. We sat out the Iraq War, not trusting the intelligence used to justify it (correctly, as it turns out), but ramped up Canadian involvement in Afghanistan in order to free up American forces for the Iraq War.<br /><br />The "war on terror" isn't particularly popular up here — the steady drip of mostly-Republican politicians and officials blaming Canada for lapses in American security, the ignoring of basic human rights (especially of Canadian citizens) because 'tewwow', the lack of recognition of Canadian contributions, the use of 'security' to justify arbitrary trade actions — all have contributed to a growing section of the population feeling that it not only isn't solving the problem but is probably making it worse.<br /><br />Support remains strong in the Fox-viewing neocon base, where it's basically a loyalty marker (like anti-LGBT sentiments). And just like in America, those most worried about terrorism live in places that are the least likely to ever be attacked. (Also the places least likely to comply with Covid restrictions, most likely to attack non-whites, receiving more government funding than they pay taxes… sound familiar?)<br /><br />I don't know Dave Sim at all, but he seems to have fairly standard far-right views, although with flakier justifications. If I had to be, I'd guess he supports the Peoples Party (because the Tories are too left-wing).Robertnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-86555954484360355562021-03-25T10:19:57.893-07:002021-03-25T10:19:57.893-07:00Alfred Differ:
Nowadays I avoid using 'magnet...Alfred Differ:<br /><i><br />Nowadays I avoid using 'magnetism' as a force name because it's just the spatial half of the anti-symmetric field tensor for E&M. History just snorts in my general direction,...<br /></i><br /><br />Heh. One of my favorite Asimov quotations (from an article describing the discovery of vitamins, and that the name "vit-amine" came from the misguided idea that they'd all be amines) seems appropriate here. Paraphrasing, but very close to an exact quote: "We've known for centuries that 'oxygen' is a misnomer too, but what can you do?"<br /><br />* * * <br /><br />scidata:<br /><i><br />If you read enough Asimov, you see connections everywhere<br /></i><br /><br />If you read enough Dave Sim, that is also the case.Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-25540029682190642292021-03-25T06:35:12.292-07:002021-03-25T06:35:12.292-07:00Robert:
She's also a Canadian looking at Amer...Robert:<br /><i><br />She's also a Canadian looking at America from the outside. I'd be surprised if she sees what you do when you look at America.<br /></i><br /><br />I can second that notion. Years of conversing/arguing with Dave Sim over the feminization of society forced me to understand that the reality he sees around him in Canada is very different from the one I see around me in Chicago. I can't speak to how realistic his view on his own country is, but I did have to get past the sense that he was talking about mine. That was especially evident during our "Global War On Terror" phase, in which he was ashamed of Canada for essentially sitting that one out, while waxing fanboyish over the accomplishments of the US military.<br /><br /><i><br />I remember talking to someone in the 90s who had lived for a year in a small town in the bible belt. She said that before she went she thought The Handmaid's Tale was rather wild science fiction, but after she lived in the south for a year she thought it was more an "if this goes on" cautionary tale instead. The sheer religiosity and hypocrisy she encountered were totally alien to her. (This from someone who had lived in Canada, France, and I think Germany.)<br /></i><br /><br />That's what I was getting at about <i>The Handmaid's Tale</i> extrapolating from the ascendancy of the religious right in the 80s. Larry Harthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01058877428309776731noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-79586128647322446402021-03-25T05:12:22.050-07:002021-03-25T05:12:22.050-07:00If you read enough Asimov, you see connections eve...If you read enough Asimov, you see connections everywhere (perhaps a combination of his erudition and our (esp my own) over-active pattern seeking nature). I read his Neutrino book while slogging books in a Doubleday warehouse (summer job). I never knew that momentum was such a deep subject. I may re-read it to see if any of Alfred Differ's professor's ideas were in there (I don't just recall any). I always liked "The Last Question" because I had a religious upbringing but hit a computational asymptote, and because it was Asimov's own favourite short story. His favourite novel was "The Gods Themselves", with that line taken from an old play about Jeanne d'Arc. A Triumph :)<br /><br />A less arcane quote from Asimov captures the same sentiment:<br />"When stupidity is considered patriotism, it is unsafe to be intelligent."<br />scidatahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04992209167553267488noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-88062232431920818342021-03-25T04:48:43.605-07:002021-03-25T04:48:43.605-07:00Dr. Brin, I recommend this spirited, Brin-esque de...Dr. Brin, I recommend this spirited, Brin-esque defense of liberalism: <a href="https://whiterosemagazine.com/the-radical-liberal/" rel="nofollow">The Radical Liberal</a> by Leon Wieseltiermondojohnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06955135765312864576noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87934013058489133732021-03-24T21:34:16.853-07:002021-03-24T21:34:16.853-07:00David,
Yah. We were all excited about it. I got t...David,<br /><br />Yah. We were all excited about it. I got to talk about it at one gravity conference and experience Kip Thorne's gentle but pointed question. Why should we learn that? Heh. I stuck with the honest answer which was "You don't until you have too many unsolvable issues with GR." 8)<br /><br />Nowadays I avoid using 'magnetism' as a force name because it's just the spatial half of the anti-symmetric field tensor for E&M. History just snorts in my general direction, of course. For the gravity version of a very classical looking linear field theory, half the field tensor is spatial again for exactly the same reasons. Periapsis shifts have to happen, so it's mostly a matter of checking to see if the first order prediction for Mercury lines up. It does with no curvature needed.<br /><br /><br />What they are doing in the paper that Acacia links to is GR, though. I don't have the chops to read far into it, but it will be fun to try anyway. Far more fun than thinking about Atwood's fictional universe. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.com