Via Mark Thoma, an unbelievably arrogant article by Patrick Moore, a founder of Greenpeace. He is now in favour of nuclear power. I don’t mind that, even though I don’t agree with him — changing your mind is not a bad thing. But something about his article really pisses me off, and it’s the conceit of the man. Look at these excerpts:

In the early 1970s when I helped found Greenpeace, I believed that
nuclear energy was synonymous with nuclear holocaust, as did most of my
compatriots. … Thirty years on, my views have changed, and the rest of the
environmental movement needs to update its views, too…

Here we go. Because he has changed his mind, Moore is now absolutely certain that everyone else needs to change their mind too. There is no modesty here; no asking the question: if I was wrong then, why should anyone listen to me now? no asking the question: if I was wrong then, might I be wrong now? No. Mr. Moore is as certain in his position now as he was then, insisting that everyone else needs to listen to him. Sorry. No can do.

I
don’t want … Continue reading

I’m trying a new way tp make this weblog work with the book. This is why it’s good to start before the book gets published – it takes me months to figure this stuff out.

Anyway, there is now a category for each chapter (see over there on the right, unless you’re using an RSS reader, which you probably are), and any material relevant will be categorized by chapter. What that means is that the pages over on my book site can have links that go straight to some relevant material. I’ve added some links to the table of contents page and the links page. I hope these will get expanded in the next few weeks and months, especially as I finished the index tonight, so it’s one step closer to actually being printed.

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Written (based on a talk, so it is a bit casual and disjointed) a little while ago, but newly relevant given the fuss about the Seymour Hersh New Yorker piece. Sample paragraph:

THE US BUNKER BUSTER | The US government ought to
recognize the taboo is in its favor and not try to develop a new
generation of weapons with the aim of making them somehow useful on the
battlefield. I’m afraid a lot of people in the Pentagon think, “We are
so rich in nuclear weapons, it is a shame not to use them.” They should
learn we are so rich in people and infrastructure that we will risk
losing that if we encourage others, by our own example, to look
positively on the use of nuclear weapons.

Link: NPQ.

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I’d heard about this but not seen it anywhere until now. Orders at drive-through restaurants are sometimes processed long distance — that is, the person you talk to is not in the restaurant, but may be on another continent somewhere. What does it mean? Haven’t a clue. Odd though.

Link: The Long-Distance Journey of a Fast-Food Order – New York Times.

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In a story that will have a familiar ring to it for anyone from Canada, the Grauniad reports on HMV (aka Waterstone’s) being given the go ahead to take over Ottakars: another example of how free markets fail to preserve diversity once economies of scale kick in.

Link: Chain reaction from Guardian Unlimited: Culture Vulture.

"Waterstone’s choose about 5,000 books a year and promote them so that they sell tremendously – at the expense of other books," he said. "If a book isn’t taken up within a month, it is replaced. Ottakar’s, on the other hand, gives books more time to take off. There are two categories of books – the tortoises and the hares. If this deal goes ahead, we will end up with all hares and no tortoises." And it’s not just authors who are apprehensive; figures from across the industry have voiced their concerns. Just last week I spoke to a representative from the Booksellers’ Association, who told me that in his opinion, an Ottakar’s takeover would have a devastating effect on publishers’ chances of introducing debut novelists – or even the lesser-known works of popular authors – … Continue reading

I'd been looking for this poem for some time, and finally found it this evening.

  A BED FOR THE NIGHT

– removed. I don't know what the course is, but someone at Cal State can find a proper source for this poem. Don't rely on random blog posts for material.

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