http://thebigupshot.com An online chautauqua by your Hosts, Peter, Matt and the Jester Wed, 01 Oct 2008 02:56:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Hi all. Sorry for the long silence. My dissertation is defended – I passed. I'm qualified as a PhD! So this whole presentation and dissertation thing reminded me of some work I did a few years ago. I got it published after a struggle, but one reviewer specifically ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/214 I have tried to avoid making the topic of the Big Upshot political. I've skirted the line with that recent post about Ukraine and Russia. I admit that. For the most part, I just don't think that I can do a lot of good in the political sphere. ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/211 F.L.O.W. is a new documentary on water. On Democracy Now Sept. 12 2008, they discussed the it and, in particular, bottled water. When I was in Ukraine, I was told both by locals and by the tour guide that it was not smart to drink the local tap water (unless ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/194 The news – the puppet theater – is enough to scare the bejuzus out of me. I can hardly bear to watch TV news. Half the time, I watch them say the most absurd things as though they were legitimate and the other half, I strongly suspect them of ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/188 My mind is on the Ukraine a lot these days. My dear betrothed lives there. For those of you living in a cave, Russia and NATO were having a little tiff over Georgia. Last month, a US official, Richard Holbrooke, predicted that Ukraine would be next. I ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/183 The Hob Series at Dresden Codak seems to have resolved. I can tell you that it is a good story because I am still thinking about it. It's funny that it would resolve today. Coincidentally, I was thinking about the Simpsons quote which I remember imperfectly: Flanders' son: ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/178 I was driving today behind a blue-hair and a piece of crap blew out of the bed of his truck. It flew under my car and blew two of my tires. I managed to get my car stopped safely – thank God for run-flat tires. I'm also sick – I've got ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/173 I wrote up a little piece a bit ago on the complexities of the food-or-fuel choice implied in the manufacture of biofuels. Richard Jones at Softmachines.org wrote about biofuels a while back (Driving on sunshine). He has returned to the matter more recently. "It seems that some of the drawbacks ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/159 Tell me that's not a great title. It inspires the imagination. Magnetic cows? Some kind of robot, perhaps? Large enough to be visible from space? About to crush Manhattan under an Iron Hoof? I'm sold! Tell me more! I hope you are as excited as I was ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/152 I'm back! I've just read a perspective over at Science that made me think of Blink.  I have mentioned Blink before. It's even linked over in the sidebar. It's a book I like to think about. Some have denigrated it as anti-intellectualism, but I disagree. In ... http://thebigupshot.com/archives/149