[LIVE]: Chinese Pop Music w/ qingfeng with gaoliangcai
Back from the Worldcon, hopefully back to doing regular shows. Yes, I have a report to give on the convention (photos here), as well as opinions to express about people who think refrigeration is wasteful, and a campaign in the Netherlands to conserve gas by getting people to bathe less. But first : poetry!
Does electrification lead to moral laxity? Pinball machines are electric–powered, after all! I give my account of a California public hearing on the possible life extension of Diablo Canyon, and muse on what seems to me the similarity between the anti–nuclear movement and cults or thought–reform movements. Also, mail call! And an acknowledgement of gifts of support.
Supplementary ShowMy plans for the upcoming World Science Fiction Convention in Chicago, revealed! Also, two new films ; worries about the inexplicable Russian assault on the Zaporizhian Nuclear Power Plant, and the effect on world public opinion if something goes badly wrong there ; and a tiny bit of good news about the food supply.
2 Supplementary ShowsFinancialization, the scourge of the modern world ; a distinction between directed and undirected growth ; “lifestyle environmentalists” ; why the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022” is unlikely to do anything useful ; a brief animadversion on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ; and a mention of the situation in France (will have to get back to that next week).
2 Supplementary ShowsThere’s a shortage of fresh water in the East Cape region of South Africa, and I (to employ a little contemporary argot) get salty about it. Also, the gas crisis continues, and the Europeans continue to avoid facing facts ; and I find myself working on something I call the Man and Atom Briefing Book.
2 Supplementary ShowsWhy do people listen to Alex Jones, and not to me? how come, when you give people what they say they want, they don’t like it? and some musings on the surprising ineffectiveness of trying to make democracy work by picking the right people to participate in it. Also, two new films : one in French from France, and one in Russian from the USSR. Up soon will be one in Italian from Germany! (Live transmission started a minute or two late, unfortunately, but I think I made the best of the remaining time.)
As a reminder, if you want stickers which you can slap over stickers or graffiti promoting other, lesser cranks, just send a self–addressed envelope (I’ll even cover the postage!) to “Man and Atom”, Post Office Box 1035, Fort Worth, Texas 76101, with some kind of note to indicate what you expect to receive in return, and I will happily send them to you. I’ll be even happier if you send money, but it’s not required.
Supplementary ShowWestern converts to Buddhism are somehow in my line of ire? Honestly, it’s more about writers who begin statements consisting of bare assertion with the phrase “we know that…” This show is notable for long quotations from people I whose positions I feel the need to assail. As Levar Burton always said on Reading Rainbow, “don’t take my word for it!” Also I use backyard swimming pools as an extended metaphor, or something.
Supplementary ShowSpeech! It is at the heart of what we do and how we experience the world, as humans, and yet it is inherently limited by distance and ephemerality. That is, it was limited until the second half of the 19th century, when the telephone and the phonograph utterly changed that key aspect of human existence. Was this the “real” Singularity? What kinds of technologies might come in the future which could have any such effect on the human condition?
Supplementary ShowDoomsayers and death–cultists receive a stinging rebuke, as I explain why ― even if you are chary of trusting me with a billion dollars ― you ought at least to vouchsafe me a hundred million to rehabilitate the NS Savannah. Also, what is my beef with solar power, anyway?
Supplementary ShowTANSTAAFL! But that doesn’t preclude reduced–price lunches… Also, Power Outrage! Also also, why Starlink is exactly the wrong way to do satellite broadband ; the latest film transfers (here and here) inspire the question of what deserves to be called democracy ; a nifty DVD ; “activist investors” ; and high–end overcoats. Where else would you get this value?
