Report from the Westercon, and what I’m planning for the Worldcon (1―5 September, Chicago), including stickers, badges, and the Man and Atom Briefing Book. (This is the button machine that was recommended to me.) Also, the situation in France ― when will the Europeans learn that Germany is a source of bad ideas? You’d think the lesson would have sunk in by now! And I try to remind myself to be for rather than against, despite the excessively negative tone of last week’s show.
Tag: weekly post
ASFO 2022–07–02
Live broadcast from Westercon 74. Not an especially tight show, for that reason, and also because of the Klondike Bar I was eating part of the time ― another blessing of the high energy society! The theme, such as it is, appears to be “our true enemies are habits of thought”. If you want to see pictures of the art I exhibited (although so far I have no pictures of the exhibit itself), you can find the Kelly Freas posters here, and the Interatom art prints here and here.
ASFO 2022–06–25
Westercon 74, here I come! Also, as you have come to expect from me, I state a Moral Imperative. And I have some commentary on current events, but it essentially dovetails with things I was planning to talk about anyway.
ASFO 2022–06–18
Have we built a society which is not oriented toward our needs as humans? This is a key question of our times, and I do little more than ask it, although in the process I get nauseated by a Starbucks corporate communication. Also “Back to Atomic Power!” in Germany ; antinuclearism on the rise in France despite all facts, logic, and common sense ; idiocy from Elon Musk and the Biden Administration ; the new Federal holiday ; and how LambdaAI is like the Impossible Burger, even though Bill Gates is probably not killing cows in Kansas. Also, I finally got around to finishing and uploading the pre–recorded shows for 23 October of last year and 4 June of this year, as part of the SDF 35th anniversary celebration.
ASFO 2022–06–11
Rant, glorious rant! Mostly I roundly curse every politician since 1973 who has not seen it as imperative to diminish the use of fossil fuels, which inspires me to mention the long–planned but never–implemented use of heat from Pickering to replace oil and gas heating fuel in central Toronto. I also mention the abortive attempt of some of the major oil companies to get into nuclear energy (and, by implication, out of fossil fuels) in the 1970s and early ’80s. And in the last minute or so I explain that Elon Musk, no matter what else you can say about him (and there’s plenty to be said), is not enriching himself at the expense of NASA.
ASFO 2022–06–04
Western 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 ShowASFO 2022–05–28
Speech! 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 ShowASFO 2022–05–21
Doomsayers 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 ShowASFO 2022–05–14
TANSTAAFL! 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?
ASFO 2022–05–07
Who pays for your power? What have we learned from Chernobyl, and what does that have to do with airlines? How do we make the human the focus of a machine civilization? Where and when can you watch my newly–transferred films? And why do I keep buying light bulbs? All this and more in a sizzling new episode with an experimental audio setup!
2 Supplementary Shows