They're remaking Mr. And Mrs. Smith.

Remember when I said Pop Culture was drowning in its own faeces? Remember that?



Yeah, thankfully we're not that far gone yet. But don't let down your guard just yet, it could still happen!

The World is Full of Soon-to-be-lightsabered Fanfic Writers.

There's nothing wrong with fanfiction. I like it as much as the next guy; hell, probably more! Most of the time, the creators of the original work don't mind; it pretty much counts as free advertising. I know I'd never have heard of Ranma or countless other fandoms without it.

The problem arises when you decide, instead of posting it on livejournal or wherever, to publish it on Amazon* and Barnes and Noble for Chrissake! To make matters nuttier, this Lori Jareo person appears to be employed in in the publishing industry. How could she not know what a colossally bad idea this was?

Sheeeeit, I got no time for this; John Scalzi has the full story here. Enjoy.

*Bwahahahaha! As I type this up, it appears it's been taken down from Amazon. The Barnes and Noble version is still up though.

The Disposal Society vs. The Disposable Society.

To put it simply, the former is what we have now i.e. Buy!Buy!Buy! (Throwaway!) Buy!Buy!Buy! (Throwaway!) Buy! some more etc. Repeat till everyone dies.

The latter is almost identical in principle with just one fundamental difference i.e. Buy!Buy!Buy!, (Throwaway!) Recycle! Rebuy!Rebuy!Rebuy! Reuse! Throwaway! Repeat till you can repeat no more.

One is the usual cannibalistic zero-sum madness, waste by any other name. The other is sustainable, affordable and surprisingly plausible (at least when you consider the source ... )

But let us look at things in a slightly more complex light. To fully adapt to a Disposable Society, we’d have to significantly modify the cultural tendency towards status symbols. This is because, for a Disposable Society to work, everything must be disposable and made of recyclable materials i.e. paper, plastic, cardboard (while I'm certain we'll come up with technology that allows us to recycle everything, I’m working with the now, for now).

Now perhaps, you're saying "Aight, cool, cool, but how the hell is this s**t gon' work?"

Look at the rate of improvement in electronic devices (cellphones, computers etc) – I just read Stross’ saying his cellphone is more powerful than a 1977-era Cray supercomputer. With Moore’s Law still intact so far, we can expect cellphones eighteen months (or is that two years?) from now to be twice as powerful as that. Then there’s that hand-cranked laptop the MIT folks want to ship to Africa. With stuff like that around, I can see some particularly bright Nigerian secondary schooler making a working cardboard cell-phone with two-year old spare parts.

Now imagine mass-producing that. Result? Ridiculously cheap cell-phones you can throw ‘way after a week and get another one. Hell, they could even be free (given away in cereal boxes and Happy Meals). As for keeping the same phone number, that’s not difficult – them thar information networks gettin’ into everything these days. Think non-evil ubiquitous computing.

But I’m not on the singularity tip today – we’re talking Green, not Spike. If we have deep market penetration of cheap-to-free cellphones, paper clothes of shocking utility and comfort, toilet paper iPods and so forth, recycling becomes a good business model for all concerned.

Think Disposable, not Disposal - wouldn't it be nice.

The Flashbag Flash Drive



A flash drive that physically inflates and deflates according to how many files you have on it. Talk about blobjects! Talk about spimes! Talk about firmware! Talk about web 3.0! Talk about the internet of things! w00t!

Seriously though, 'tis a lovely piece of kit and symptomatic of a sea-change in the whole technology thing.

Man Gets $218 Trillion Phone Bill

Cue mean Bender-laughter.

'Yummy mummy' worms feed their skin to offspring

An amphibious wormlike creature has been found in Kenya whose young feed on their mother’s skin. The creature may constitute a missing evolutionary link between external egg-hatchings to the live births seen in modern mammals, the researchers believe.

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All the pleasures of alcohol, with no downsides

CASUAL drinkers are unlikely to have raised their glass to the news last month that most people who suffer severe alcohol-induced liver disease are social drinkers not alcoholics. Nor to the finding that moderate drinking might not, after all, help prevent heart disease.

There may, however, just be a solution to our drinking woes - one that will allow us to go to a bar and drink as much as we want; get merry, not legless; wake without a hangover; and never have to worry that one of our favourite pastimes may be killing us. It's a cocktail of drugs that mimics the pleasurable effects of alcohol without the downsides. The idea is only on the drawing board, but there is no scientific reason why it could not be made right now ...

Chevy Tahoe - Make your own ads

Somehow, I have a feeling this was not what the folks at Chevy had in mind. HA! My favorite is "Peak Oil Has You."

Hell, I think I'll go make one!

Yoinked from Posthuman Blues

Judas may Not Have Betrayed Christ After All



Apparently, he was under orders from Jesus. If true, would certainly put a different spin on him hanging himself, no?

Oh, and apparently ...

Jesus Walked on Ice, Not Water

Hello? Uh, I'm not sure what weather's like in Isreal, but here in the Northeastern US, when water freezes, it's usually because it's too cold for goddamn sandals.

Nof would have been better off just saying it never happened.

My MySpace page has been medusaheaded.