The WELL: inkwell.vue.262: Bruce Sterling: State of the World 2006

#129: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Fri 13 Jan 06 05:23

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 05:23:00 PST

Perhaps a haiku is the perfect way to end this state of world rant. [Read entire topic]

#128: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Fri 13 Jan 06 02:41

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 02:41:00 PST

People with big checkbooks are starting to complain at me that it's time to shut up on the WELL and get back to work.

And you know what? They're right.

Hasta la vista, as the Governor of California said before he fell off his unlicensed motorcycle and had to have his busted mouth stitched up.

I don't want to end this thing on a note of uncharitable schadenfreude, but, you know, life is full of justice and poetry, if you can make time to look.

bruces http://blog.wired.com/sterling/ [Read entire topic]

#127: Bruce Sterling (bruces) Fri 13 Jan 06 02:00

Fri, 13 Jan 2006 02:00:00 PST

We're on a slider-bar between the Unthinkable and the Unimaginable. [Read entire topic]

#126: Jon Lebkowsky (jonl) Thu 12 Jan 06 17:10

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 17:10:00 PST

I like that sign that says "I made love in this fridge last night."

Cities like New Orleans could become the rule rather than the exception, based on some climate change scenarios, or time bombs like La Palma: http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami.shtml [Read entire topic]

#125: Gail Williams (gail) Thu 12 Jan 06 16:30

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:30:00 PST

I dunno... there are aspects of NOLA right now that are like no other place! The vast ghost-town of grey, drowned, rotting neighborhoods with a tiny rim of functioning city -- and the current fight about whether the city should return in a smaller footprint and who is not allowed to rebuild -- is pretty unusual. (I was just there, and posted pictures and comments here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/gail/sets/1747668/ ) [Read entire topic]

#124: Carl LaFong (mcdee) Thu 12 Jan 06 16:26

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:26:00 PST

Good point. [Read entire topic]

#123: William F. Stockton (yesway) Thu 12 Jan 06 16:19

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:19:00 PST

We have about a quarter of a world "like New Orleans". Check out Mogadishu, Madagascar, Manila, Mexico City, Mosul and that's just a few of the M's. [Read entire topic]

#122: William F. Stockton (yesway) Thu 12 Jan 06 16:12

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:12:00 PST

Make sure to include a well funded Land Trust in your Gang. [Read entire topic]

#121: Carl LaFong (mcdee) Thu 12 Jan 06 16:09

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 16:09:00 PST

There's a big difference between having one New Orleans and having an entire world like New Orleans. [Read entire topic]

#120: Gail Williams (gail) Thu 12 Jan 06 15:54

Thu, 12 Jan 2006 15:54:00 PST

Yeah. And with the new eminment domain law one can imagine a court deciding that private wilderness was economic blight, for that matter, and handing it over to a corporation.

In some ways, with communication and garbage reaching the whole planet, wilderness as John Muir or even Ansel Adams knew it -- in a "modern" non-adversarial but "pristine" sense -- is already gone. Not that fighting for some land to be other than real estate is not worthwhile. Good for you for setting some aside. [Read entire topic]