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alexsarllPerhaps I'm being oversensitive, but I detect a certain snottiness in this report about US plans to combat global warming with giant mirrors or reflective dust. But if I'm right, it's another sign of how much environmentalism is being used as a stalking horse for neo-Puritanism. Reducing emissions isn't in and of itself a good thing - it's an unfortunate necessity if we're to ameliorate the effects of global warming. And even if we go much further than the current targets, it will be too little too late. So if we're actually planning to save human civilisation, we need mad science; an exclusive concentration on emission reduction when other options present themselves is counterproductive sackcloth hippy crap.
"Just to recap, then, sexually progressive cultures gave us mathematics, literature, philosophy, civilization and the rest, while sexually restrictive cultures gave us the Dark Ages and the Holocaust. Not that I'm trying to load my argument, of course." - Alan Moore, in an excellent essay on the history of p0rn, available in a free pdf magazine here. Which also features a massive piece on Joanna Newsom, for those who like that sort of thing. I might yet, I don't know; I want to hear her new album but I'm not confident enough to buy it on spec.
It's great news that some US networks are streaming hit shows on their websites, but this attack on TV filesharing fails directly to address the larger issues. Namely, in a world where the metaphorical water-cooler is online, it's absurd that simple accidents of geography can delay people's viewing of water-cooler TV by months. Sure, a new show needs time to pick up an audience before foreign channels decide whether they want to buy it, but there's no reason at all that a returning hit - say 24 - not be launched in all territories simultaneously. It must be easier than doing it with books, after all, and they manage that for Harry Potter. And when it's a co-production with one of our channels, such as Rome, the delay is even more inexplicable.
Am deeply unimpressed that Denise Mina chose to end her Hellblazer run by turning the plot on footballism. I expect better in the treatment of John Constantine. Though would at least have been less shocked if a male writer had pulled such a lame stunt; I forget that while fewer women are infected, they're not actually immune to the horrid meme.
"Just to recap, then, sexually progressive cultures gave us mathematics, literature, philosophy, civilization and the rest, while sexually restrictive cultures gave us the Dark Ages and the Holocaust. Not that I'm trying to load my argument, of course." - Alan Moore, in an excellent essay on the history of p0rn, available in a free pdf magazine here. Which also features a massive piece on Joanna Newsom, for those who like that sort of thing. I might yet, I don't know; I want to hear her new album but I'm not confident enough to buy it on spec.
It's great news that some US networks are streaming hit shows on their websites, but this attack on TV filesharing fails directly to address the larger issues. Namely, in a world where the metaphorical water-cooler is online, it's absurd that simple accidents of geography can delay people's viewing of water-cooler TV by months. Sure, a new show needs time to pick up an audience before foreign channels decide whether they want to buy it, but there's no reason at all that a returning hit - say 24 - not be launched in all territories simultaneously. It must be easier than doing it with books, after all, and they manage that for Harry Potter. And when it's a co-production with one of our channels, such as Rome, the delay is even more inexplicable.
Am deeply unimpressed that Denise Mina chose to end her Hellblazer run by turning the plot on footballism. I expect better in the treatment of John Constantine. Though would at least have been less shocked if a male writer had pulled such a lame stunt; I forget that while fewer women are infected, they're not actually immune to the horrid meme.
