I don't have a Kindle, so I won't be downloading the book. Today, at least, you can download this free book from Amazon.
"Optimal" by J.M. Berger is about living in a world of ubiquitous information freedom in a hyper-networked society. The summary says it is "a unique dystopian vision of a total information society built by Silicon Valley, where today’s trends have become tomorrow’s reality." It's topical, at least.
For ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
frith, who recently mentioned the story and movie, "The Last Unicorn". Nicely done artwork, by the way.
Apparently I never blogged it at the time, so I guess it was during the reign of Google+ where I mentioned a special event on social media. When Peter Beagle did his movie tour a decade ago, I caught the showing at a theater here in the Twin Cities. He had a book signing in the theater before or after the movie (I forget which), and he signed my very old copy of "The Fantasy Worlds of Peter Beagle", a hardback book from 1978 that's still on my shelf, after winnowing my small library over the decades. It remains.
Personally, I enjoyed the schmaltz of the movie music, but I agree that the moping in the castle continued a bit too long.
My overdue #ALittleGoodNews tag leads us instead to a lot of good news. :)
Energy: The headlines include lots of encouraging developments. Both in the USA (in 2023) and in the world (by 2025), renewable energy sources are overtaking coal energy generation. And that trend will continue to improve, thanks to forecasts like USA utility-scale new solar capacity outpacing new fossil fuel plant construction.
Environment: We have proof that farmers devoting 10% of their land to wildlife-friendly planning can lead to improved bird population. The Nature Conservancy uses easements this way to make the environmental practice continue even with private ownership of land tracts. Obviously, they're using a good tactic that can provide meaningful results. A startup company named GaeaStar is developing a 3d-printed clay alternative to disposable food containers, preventing a common daily source of plastic waste. Researchers in Japan have found a "cheap" (gold nanoparticle) catalyst that can convert plastic waste to more useful substances.
Legal (Social and Anti-Capital): Gender bias in academics is improving, and now "tenure-track women are at parity with tenure-track men in three domains (grant funding, journal acceptances, and recommendation letters)", but the details get more nuanced the deeper you look into them. Progress, though, is progress. Librarians are celebrating a lot of creative works entering public domain this year. I maintain that we all do better when we all have access to the sum of human creative endeavors. (I suspect that most claims in favor of creative control boil down to some form of capitalist need.) Also, Time magazine is removing their digital paywall. Even a Fox News poll found that "57% think political attacks on families with transgender children is a major problem". Yes, that Fox News, but their viewers continue to vote for politicians who do it anyway. Colorado becomes the first USA state with a right-to-repair law for farmers. This anti-capitalist move is very welcome, and we should celebrate those farmers for their important victory!
We can turn this ship from its doomed course. Accept that we'll have to do it with the usual malcontents kicking and screaming their opposition. Do the hard work of turning this civilizational construct anyway. I'm convinced that it's possible for us to succeed. :)
Hey, a quick alert for anyone who might want a history of their purchases at Amazon since 2006 Jan 01. They are discontinuing their CSV exports. Technically, the end date has already passed, but the page still functions as of this morning. darkoshi has more details at this post.
I downloaded my history. I ordered plenty of books from 2006-2012. Apparently that's when I figured out that they were turning evil, since my next order (for tools) wasn't until 2015.
The retreat from Scott Adams has begun.
"Scott Adams, creator of the Dilbert comic strip, went on a racist rant this week on his Coffee with Scott Adams online video show, and we will no longer carry his comic strip in The Plain Dealer.
This is not a difficult decision."
- https://www.cleveland.com/news/2023/02/we-are-dropping-the-dilbert-comic-strip-because-of-creator-scott-adams-racist-rant-letter-from-the-editor.html
The Daily Beast has links to more details. I'm okay with these consequences. Quick reminder: Scott Adams blocked me on Twitter almost a year ago, thanks to this tweet (archive copy).
It seems a lot of people are coming to the same conclusion. J.K. Rowling, Scott Adams. I wonder which famous creative person will be next to prove that they're not a great example of a human being?
