On June 14, a bystander shot this video of a Seattle police officer punching a 17-year-old girl in the face during an altercation with her 19-year-old cousin. My pal David Forbes tweeted this bit of news to me this afternoon, and I’ve been trying to wrap my head around both the video and the responses to the video ever since.…
Tag: politics
Haxx0rd
I got hacked this weekend. My pal René Walling let me know about it in an email Sunday morning, and I immediately phoned up my host to ask for help. I’m hosted through Superb, a company recommended to me by the late, great Emru Townsend (through whom I met René). When Emru made this recommendation, I had no concept of…
How is right not like a particle?
So glad you asked. Recently, there’s been a lot of discussion about modifying Miranda warnings, or the warnings suspects are given upon arrest in the United States that inform them about their rights to silence, an attorney, termination of questioning, and possible contact with a consular authority. Current Attorney General Eric Holder is pushing Congress to modify the rules for…
What fandom can teach us about cycling:
C. Wess Daniels has a great post wherein he explains Henry Jenkins’ definition of fandom thusly: Appropriation – A person appropriates in their own life a particular text, work, and practice relating to their fan object. Often these objects are reinterpreted in their own life. Participation – There is an openness for people to participate at all levels within the…
Can the Church baptize robots?
I was raised Catholic. I should know the answer to this. But somehow it just never came up, in catechism. If you asked me what various theologians would have to say on the issue, I might be able to speculate (Augustine would likely say no, on the grounds that robots have no soul to save; Aquinas wouldn’t know his own…
Why we should teach evolution:
“We are evolving every year, every decade. That’s a fact, whether it is to the intensity of the sun, whether it is to, as a chiropractor, walking on cement versus anything else, whether it is running shoes or high heels, of course we are evolving to our environment….” —Canadian Science Minister Gary Goodyear, responding to criticism about his refusal to…
How I spent the inauguration:
Sitting in council chambers, next to the person who invited me specially, taking photos and eating cookies and being offered coffee by friendly cameramen. And clapping for science.
Why I'm glad I'm here:
Last night my old roommate IM’d me with: “Dude! We just elected a black president! You missed out!” I replied that I was still a citizen of the United States of America, and I had voted for him two weeks ago, and that the things he had promised her as a candidate were privileges that I already enjoyed, like socialized medicine. …
indecision 08: the bridge choice
Tonight a thought blossomed in my head whose seed was planted the Saturday afternoon that I saw The Dark Knight. And if you couldn’t infer it from the title, that thought is this: This whole election is The Bridge Choice. The Bridge Choice has a long history in comics. It starts with Spider-Man and Gwen Stacey, but TDK gave it…
Is it bright where you are? Have the people changed?
There have always been many reasons to be proud of reading and writing science fiction. But today we’re reminded of some of the best. Today, Election Day, when so much hangs in the balance and when America has a chance to re-define itself, we can see how that what was once a conservative genre is now looking toward a different…