The most recent 20 comments posted to Making Light by mds:

Charlie Stross @8:

On the other hand? Anyone expecting another book about MMOs and gaming is going to be disappointed.

On the gripping hand, it could've been about the collapse of the global banking system, since last year's implosion has switched back to a combination of "business as usual," massive transfers from the public purse to the parties responsible, and electoral surges by those who believe in even more deregulation (see, e.g., Germany and almost Norway). So we're still due for a genuine meltdown.

Carol Kimball @11:

Initially this was read not as a variation on mileage, but as [something]-rage, a comment on an angry as well as pessimistic view.

Actually, I hate Kilomet so much. . .

Charlie Stross @2:

Engaging with the near-present in SF is hard.

Say, how's that sequel to Halting State coming?

Finally forced to confront the reality of anthropogenic climate change, humanity fizzles and factions off into three warring camps

All of the camps are technocratic? That seems wildly optimistic. (Or wildly pessimistic; your kilometrage may vary.)

Take a cardboard box, such as wine comes in.

Yeah, that sounds like my old Scout troop, all right.

Schwartz: "It's been a few years, but not that many, since I was closely associated with preadolescent boys..."

Drebin: "I haven't had this much sex since I was a Boy Scout leader!"

I didn't answer it, because opening the little cupboard door in front of the phone would set off the local elevator alarm (like hitting the emergency stop button), but I would bet it was a robocall.

Or Laurence Fishburne.

So, any guesses as to what the plot is?

With my tinfoil hat firmly in place, I'm going with: gaining and keeping political power by posturing to the Religious Right, proving their bonafides to same by voting to "defend marriage" with a boot to the faces of same-sex couples, and then attempting to hide the evidence that they are actually immoral thuggish hypocrites. Also, Sasquatch.

Terry Karney @ 200:

mds: I'm discussing the idea that mono-culture rotation is the best thing for the soil.

Oh, I get that. I just thought of corn in the Middle East, and couldn't resist the riff on "coconuts migrate." My apologies.

David Wald @ 55:

there is (or used to be; I haven't been there in a few years) a Buddhist vegetarian restaurant in Boston with an entire menu of mock meats.

Last I heard, the original Buddhist Delight was still open. The Buddhist Delight II in Brookline, however, got a name/menu change, and is now closed. A shame; when it was B.D. II it had pretty good vegan Vietnamese-style entrees.

Xopher @ 82:

You know...the Ankh More Pork?

Since I know all-too-well how much it stings to have one's punspiration completely overlooked in a ML thread, may I just say: Bravo and groan.

Terry Karney @ 168:

Xopher: Look up milpas agriculture.

This form of mixing crops has already been mentioned, but I'm pretty sure that the ancient Hebrews weren't trying to set themselves apart from their corn-growing neighbors. Unless... Are you suggesting maize migrates?

The answer to such people is that if they cannot understand books written for grown-ups, they should not talk about them.

Well, that one cuts both ways. Especially given the skewed media coverage Mr. Karney refers to, where for example we're currently listening to supposed Christians spout variations on, "We decry the act of violence against this monstrous sinner who got what was coming to him." It certainly makes me suspect they never graduated from the coloring book version of their religious text.

Serge @ 73:

On the other hand, 29 years from now, all those unix servers will be so obsolete that they and their programming will have been retired and replaced by something without that bug built into it.

And no one uses COBOL anymore, either.

albatross @56:

Hrm. Pardon my little inadvertent Rorschach test. I didn't specify which of those things was not like the others. As a life scientist, I was actually inclined to single out evo psych as not rising even to the level of having models with too many free parameters. Though come to think of it, much of modern economics seems to either have too few free parameters, or completely wrong ones. And, well, I guess I do have a more favorable bias toward climate science, since it involves more evidence-based peer review by sexy physical scientists. My point is, I have no idea where I'm going with this. And this could too easily enter the realm of trailing a line behind my boat with bait that's actually on fire attached to it.

John Houghton @ 34

I suppose your jetpack is powered by a beam of neutrinos, and doesn't get hot, and it doesn't matter if your legs get in the way because they pass right through without actually touching any of your precious atoms.

I don't know about the jetpack, but this certainly raised my temperature. Hubba-hubba. After all, interpose yourself in front of enough of a neutrino flux, and eventually you'll get lepton.

albatross @ 28:

Almost as bad is when there are more degrees of freedom in the model than in the available observation--think about economics, climate modeling, or evolutionary psychology for examples of this situation.

Ahem. "One of these things is not like the others..."

Ken MacLeod @ 23:

But I have a lot still to find out about Science Studies, so I could be wrong. More research is necessary.

Will the Science Studies folk get to critique your research methodology?

(Whereupon the universe collapses under the recursive feedback.)

Fragano Ledgister @ 17:

All they'll do is jump over Putnam into Dutchess

Dirty! (Especially if it's the Earl of Westchester doing the jumping, because he's already married.)

Rivka @ 16:

Yep. I particularly enjoy people who explain to me that psychology is bunk because Freudianism is unfalsifiable.

Be careful with conflating Kass with the naive party-poppers from a physical science background who thow out statements like this. Kass is more of the "Danged cultural relativists, why won't you acknowledge that the literature and ideas I embrace are Objective Truth?" See also Canon, Western, Cult of the.

C. Wingate @ 6:

It wouldn't surprise me that Kass would view McLemee's response as an example of what he deplores.

It wouldn't surprise me either, but that would then be an example of what McLemee is pointing out.

(Whereupon the universe collapses under the recursive feedback.)

And seriously, McLemee is perfectly familiar with Kass' shtick, so the classic "But he doesn't actually use that exact word" method of refutation is not the strongest. The context of "The last thing young people need is cynicism and a belief that the truth about these matters is whatever you want it to be" and "obsessed with theory, they’re not teaching the books the way the students want to read them" are pretty clear to those who have to repeatedly fend off the David Horowitzes of the world.

Actually, if it were me, I would have reduced the talk to "Scolding about morality and timeless truths, directed at liberal arts professors who in aggregate almost certainly believe torture is immoral, from the Bush Administration's resident ethicist" and dismissed the content entirely. So kudos to McLemee for hitting some other points as well.

Ah, yes, the academic humanities variant of "Atwood et al. don't write science fiction, because they're actually good, as opposed to E.E. Smith."

Too bad Michael Bérubé decided to take the rest of the week off from blogging; otherwise, he'd be all over this like a cultural studies professor on deconstructionism. Or he'd merely note that it's Leon again, making a Kass of himself as usual*.

*Okay, I'd probably be the one to make that note, because Professor Bérubé is wittier than that**.

**Usually.

Mary Aileen @ 42:

If I'm going to eschew telephones, I apparently need to learn to type faster.

joann @ 31, Nix @ 38:

Add me to the list of telephobics. I dread making and fielding phone calls, even when it's a query from someone I know. My spouse often has to make informational calls for us, because I get so nervous. Maybe it's because when I was little, my dad got into a knife fight with Ma Bell. Regardless, I'd much rather e-mail, or even fumble with that IM thingy. Maybe we should form a club: Unhooked from Phonics, or some such.

kthxbye.

I'd love to see how this could come through on a voicemail message. I don't have nearly enough experience with spoken TagaLOL.

Dave Bell @ 237:

Look at how many people blame Clinton for the ills which a Republican-controlled Congress missed.

You misspelled "Pelosi."

See also: Obama recession.

As for yet another Transformers-style summer blockbuster abomination based on not-particularly-deep source material: Well, at least this "G.I. Joe" one helps Christopher Eccleston keep body and soul together. (Though I'm slightly disappointed that he isn't wearing Destro's metal mask. Yet.)

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