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Seems the link between Hugo Chavez and Sequoia voting machines is getting some federal attention.

This link was mentioned in a meeting I attended back in July, sponsored by the Arapahoe County Democrats. The speaker raised a number of valid concerns about electronic voting machines, and was clearly taking pains to appear non-partisan on the issue…but not so the audience.

At one point, the subject of Chavez and his connection to Sequoia came up — the connection being that the Venezuelan government owns 28% of the parent company, Smartmatic, and there was some controversy in Chavez’ 2004 reelection over whether the vote was rigged via such machines. But while that IS the connection, the speaker only stated that the CEO of Smartmatic is barred by the Bush Administration from entering the US, without explaining why. This prompted three women in the crowd to comment:

WOMAN 1: [suddenly excited] “Maybe he’s got connections to Hugo Chavez!”

WOMAN 2: [intrigued] “Oooh…maybe we’ll like that!”

WOMAN 3: [gushing like a schoolgirl] “Maybe he’ll help us out in the next election!”

The tone and nature of the comments clearly implied that a Chavez-Sequoia connection was seen by these women as a desirable thing, because while tampering with the vote by rigging electronic voting machines is clearly a bad thing, it could be a good thing if done by Chavez since it would presumably be done to harm Republicans (specifically Chimpy McBushhitler). In other words, it’s an example of situational ethics: nobody should have the ability to tamper with the vote…unless he’s someone who will tamper with it in our interests. Which really exposed the thinking of the crowd on the issue, in spite of the speaker’s efforts to remain non-partisan and treat the matter as a “patriotic issue” affecting all citizens, regardless of party or district.

Posted on October 29th, 2006 under Miscellaneous. Comments: 1

Mark Whittington points to yet another Shuttle-derived launch system concept.

It makes some good sense (not least because the crew-launch missions would potentially have a lot of extra mass to play with). But as Mark notes, NASA doesn’t seem likely to budge from Ares I. This, despite the fact that the changes they are already mandating for Orion are driving its mass beyond what the “Stick” can lift.

Posted on October 28th, 2006 under Space Technology. Comments Off

David Brin looks at the SETI community’s new obsession, and wonders if it’s such a great idea to do this without discussion.

Posted on October 28th, 2006 under Space Science. Comments Off

…unlike the probable desecration of Atlas Shrugged, we don’t have to wait to find out how Spider Robinson’s vandalization of Heinlein has turned out.

This hyperbolic review is particularly delicious:

Well, it did fail miserably and while no doubt done with the best of intentions, this thing, I don’t know what it is — it is most certainly not a novel — titled “Variable Star” is an express bus to literary hell and has single handedly set back SF three-quarters of a century. I have no idea what its author was trying to accomplish here, nor do I care. The result has entered whole new dimensions of awfulness hitherto unexplored, a parallel universe of grossness where intelligent life can never hope to arise. I wish I could close my eyes and make it go away, but it will not.

Why am I not surprised to find that, in writing a “Heinlein book”, Robinson injected his own hobbyhorses and political slant?

Having referenced Atlas Shrugged in the previous post, I’m reminded of the scene in which Dagny, at a party, hears on the radio what sounds like Halley’s Fourth, but which she quickly realizes is a “reinterpretation” of the composer’s farewell masterpiece by a lesser artist…one whose evident aim is to make a name for himself by defacing a work whose greatness he knows he can never match. It’s sad to think of what a wasted opportunity this project was, and what a decent SF writer might have made of it — ideally setting it entirely within the canonical Future History, and exploring themes and events in that fictional universe that Heinlein himself only hinted at, instead of turning it into an incongruous soapbox for his or her own contemporary politics, an exhibition of puerile humor, and (in spite of Heinlein’s famous attitudes on the subject) a cameo for his or her own religion?

Thinking of what SF writers I respect — such as Niven, Pournelle, Akin, or Card — might have done with the same source material makes me wonder: what might other writers do with a Future History bible? That is, what sort of entirely original stories (i.e. not from Heinlein outlines and notes) might other writers produce if the Future History universe were opened to them, as Niven has opened the “Man-Kzin Wars” period of the Known Space universe to other writers? Various authors could be tasked to write their own stories in their own styles, not claiming to be “new Heinlein works” but simply based in the Future History timeline, using the same events and technologies, and reflecting a similar worldview. That would make for writing worth reading…which, unfortunately, this less-than-a-pastiche from Spider Robinson evidently is not.

Posted on October 23rd, 2006 under Uncategorized. Comments: 3

Looks like Angelina Jolie’s Atlas Shrugged has a screenwriter.

Wallace is not only the writer of Braveheart and the writer-producer of We Were Soldiers (making me wonder what role Mel Gibson might play in this film), but the writer and executive producer of that cinematic gem, Pearl Harbor. Not sure what to expect with a record like that.

[hat tip: Aaron_J]

Posted on October 23rd, 2006 under Entertainment. Comments: 1

The snowstorm here on Tuesday afternoon seems to have screwed up my internet connection, hence the lack of posting and followup to comments.

And Qwest had just gotten my land line back into service on [last] Sunday, too. Along with T-Mobile’s lousy cell service, it’s just one more reason that anyone who needs to communicate reliably shouldn’t live in the mountains.

MONDAY UPDATE: Qwest at least fixed both the DSL and land line problems quickly…by 11:00am today, after a problem call at around 4pm yesterday (Sunday). Now if I could just get T-Mobile to improve their signal strength so I would no longer have to rely on things like cloud density, migrating birds, and the surface reflectivity of the cliff behind the house to bounce my calls to a cell tower…

Posted on October 22nd, 2006 under Meta. Comments Off

Who ever thought we’d be needing these again: Nuclear War Survival Skills. Fun for the whole family!

This chapter in particular brings back childhood memories. If the SLBMs don’t get you, the ICBMs will get you a few minutes later — and if you survive those, well, watch out for the bombers, which will arrive just about the time you think it’s safe to poke your head out of the basement bunker.

Ahh, the good old Eighties…makes me want to dust off those old Betamax copies of The Day After and Testament.

Posted on October 9th, 2006 under Miscellaneous. Comments: 2