George Packer, who wrote the excellent Assassins Gate about the American occupation of Iraq has contributed an article to the current issue of the New Yorker examining just how the Americans are going to get out of Iraq, and what kind of mess they’ll leave when they go.
Concerned about piracy? So was the film industry…when Superman: The Movie was released. Youtube has a hard hitting investigation from 60 Minutes (part 1, part 2) on nefarious movie pirates and their newfangled video-taping instruments. (found on Boing Boing)
Simply put, it could unleash a torrent of terrorism throughout the Middle East and in the United States. Iran, China and Russia could also form an “Axis of Oil” and cut off vital supplies to the US. Salon tells all.
Despite Chris (the “Third Guy”) being set upon by some sort of throat ailment, the RFS crew set forth and valiantly commentated on “The Family of Blood,” the second part of Paul Cornell’s season 3 magnum opus and a corking bit of Who into the bargain. We also miraculously rescued 14 minutes of news from the doldrums of between-season uneventfulness. (feed, web, direct download)
It’s currently fashionable amongst the bookish set to compare America to Rome. After all, both empires ran the world, both choked on their own hubris, and both have had madmen at the helm of government. But Gerard Baker of the Times of London says the comparison is off the mark for historical reasons.
I’ve just finished a book called “The Long Emergency” by James Howard Kunstler (he also has a blog of sorts) about what happens to North American society once the oil runs out. It ain’t pretty, to put it mildly. The suburbs will be deserted, we’ll all revert to an agrarian society and life will basically suck. There are other studies about the phenomenon of peak oil, which is when we hit the top amount of oil pulled out of the ground, after which it costs more to pull it out than it’s worth, but they’re essentially variations on a theme.
Kunstler also says alternative fuels won’t save us, since nothing is as efficient as oil for keeping the global economy moving. Essentially, we’ve had it incredibly easy for the lat couple of centuries, and we might get a taste of life in the 1700s near the middle of the 21st century.
On the other hand, we’ve supposedly got 60-100 years left of usable oil, so you’d think in that time somebody would come up with a solution before we hurtle back into feudalism. Crossed fingers.
Another report on how Bush is readying to go to war with Iran. The depths of this guy’s ignorance is truly frightening.
Get Lamp is a documentary aimed squarely at the heart of aging Infocom addicts everywhere (ie. your beloved author.) Jason Scott, who previously released BBS: The Documentary, has traveled across North America interviewing many of the pioneers that brought you Zork, Adventure and many other classics of the genre. The film isn’t done yet, but when complete it promises to be the best (and only, I think) visual history of text adventures ever created.Bring on the grue eating goodness!
In a rather ballsy bit of writing, Joyce Wadler of the New York Times criticizes the “I remember when…” war story nature of everyone’s 9/11 memories. She’s got a point, in that a terrible day has become a cultural touchstone not just for Republicans to rally the faithful around before they invade the next Middle Eastern country or other enemy de jour, but also for everyone to collectively wring their souls out for a few minutes, and then get back to whatever meaningless nonsense they were doing previously.
I got this link courtesy of trifective, who is also well worth reading.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell and former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld both lend their thoughts to interviews in the is month’s GQ, and what’s interesting is that though Colin Powell apologizes for what he sees as lapses in intelligence during his UN speech in the run-up to the war in Iraq, Rumsfeld apologizes for practically nothing. Powell also point sout that while terrorists are a threat, the only thing that can take down the American way of life is America itself.