Horizon Zero

The Lone And Level Snows

This is just one of several amazing photos of Buzludzha - a Bulgarian monument to Communism and the Communist Party constructed in the late 1970s and fully completed in 1981 - a mere eight years before world communism collapsed under the weight of its own ideology.

Did the architects and workers imagine that they'd built a monument that would be treasured for a thousand years? Did any of them - perhaps in jest - say to themselves, "look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair"?

Rapture on Earth

"I am Andrew Ryan, and I’m here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow? No, says the man in Washington. It belongs to the poor. No, says the man in the Vatican. It belongs to God. No, says the man in Moscow. It belongs to everyone. I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose Rapture. A city where the artist would not fear the censor. Where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality. Where the great would not be constrained by the small. And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city as well."

Well, it's not under the Atlantic but it appears Rapture may very well end up on the map, after all. PayPal's billionaire founder has contributed a cool $1.25 million dollars to the Seasteading Institute, which advocates constructing new, man-made islands beyond the reach of existing nations, where socio-economic pioneers may start society anew.

This is kind of cool. I've long suspected that the lack of a frontier is a root cause to many of our current problems - the ability to get while the getting's good is a safety valve we can no longer make use of. (That's a topic worthy of further exploration. Note to self.)

I'm enough of a nerd, however, that I really must insist at least one of these libertarian utopias be named Providence. Or Avalon. Or even Asteroid M. (Yeah, it wouldn't be technically accurate, but it would still be cool.)

Greece Wants To Quit The Euro?

Athens Mulls Plans for New Currency - Der Spiegel

Isn't this very much too little, too late? Pulling out of the EuroZone might mean that Greece is no longer obligated to do what the euro nations' finance ministers say but it doesn't solve the core issue of sovereign debt. And issuing new currency sure to be almost worthless against the Euro won't help the simmering unrest any when it takes a wheelbarrow's worth to buy a sandwich.

Of course, we're hardly in the position to be lecturing the Greeks - or anyone - about sound finances. We should be watching this very, very closely.

China To Time Travelers: Drop Dead, Don't Reincarnate

Or that's the message to television and/or movies about - to paraphrase -  time travel, compilations of mythical stories, feudal superstitions, fatalism and reincarnation and generally unpositive thinking.

It's bizzare, but in a bizzare political way it almost makes sense. China is cracking down on dissent and the idea of "going into the past to change things" may lead some viewers to fantasize about how neat it would be if someone went back and made some changes of their own. "Mythical stories" are almost sure to include things like, say, the Christian Bible - which is bound to be distressing to China's not inconsiderable Christian minority.

So, no time travel  means no Star Trek, which probably wasn't too popular with the leadership due to all the happy happy Federation stuff. Babylon 5 is right out, since it not only has time travel but devotes an entire season to a war against totalitarian political rule. Awkward.

X-Files? Monster of the week episodes are all about the superstition. Buffy? Undead are mythical, and there's even some time travel there, too. Firefly might have a shot, except for the in your face anti authoritarianism.

It's not hard to imagine Chinese Sci-Fi ending up a lot like a Cardassian mystery novel. Procedural, predictable and dependent on the good graces of the state.

Odyssey Dawn

So we're at war with Libya now.

Fine. I can't say Gaddafi doesn't deserve it. But I don't want to hear one damned word about wars of choice, blood for oil or neocon imperialism ever again.

One Question About Egypt

Why exactly are we celebrating the fact that the military of one of our allies just kicked a sitting President out of office, when we were very much against the military of another of our allies kicking a sitting President out of office not so long ago?

Like He Ever Really Left

Surprising absolutely no one, Vladimir Putin is running for President in 2012.

The Russian constitution doesn't allow for three consecutive terms, but there's nothing stopping a former President from running again after a four year cooling off period. Which is why the Dark Lord of the Sith has been answering to the title 'Prime Minister' for the last few years while his hand picked successor kept the big chair comfortably warm.

I find it bitterly amusing that everyone involved automatically assumes that the election is already decided. Because it is. It brings to mind the old joke: "When there's only one candidate, there's only one choice."

Hey, meet the new boss. Exactly the same guy as the old boss.

Twelve Days in January

Ok, by now you've probably seen that President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. And it wouldn't be outside the realm of probability that your first reaction was something on the order of "bwuh?".

The award committee chair deflected criticism that it was far too soon for that sort of thing saying that it "recognized what he had already done over the past year". Supporters were quick to point to Obama's historic reaching out to the Muslim world and his efforts to 'reset' US relations with Russia and Cuba.

There's just one problem with that.

Obama took office on January 20, 2009. The deadline for nominations for this year's Nobel was February 1st. Are we to believe, then, that this twelve day span saw more done for the furthering of World Peace than all the efforts of any of the other nominees? Seriously?

The Administration was busy settling in during those two weeks - there weren't any bold peace policy measures. The only thing he'd done at that point was get elected, and never before was just being President enough to win a Peace Prize.

Barack Obama may yet do something spectacular to earn the accolades of history. At which point awarding him a Nobel would be a legitimate response. But to give it away on a promise of maybe possibly future results devalues a legacy that has already been tarnished by handing it off to an unrepentant terrorist like Yasser Arafat.

Earn it first.

2016 Olympic Games Go To Rio

The One's Jedi Mind Powers are no match for the International Olympic Committee, it seems.

How long before this gets blamed on George Bush and/or FOX News, I wonder?

Never Put Off Until Tomorrow What You Can Avoid Until November

The big powers have decided to give Iran until November before they start talking about imposing more sanctions on Iran. Since previous sanctions have apparently done zip to forestall Iran's nuclear ambitions, I guess delaying won't make much of a difference.

I have to wonder if we're agreeing to the delay because we don't have any other idea of what to do, or simply because we (or the Israelis) will have made the problem go away by the time November gets here.

Just what exactly went down in Syria at the start of this month?