Stewart Brand has written an essay on what he calls “Environmental Heresies” which has ruffled a lot of feathers. Here’s the gist:
Over the next ten years, I predict, the mainstream of the environmental movement will reverse its opinion and activism in four major areas: population growth, urbanization, genetically engineered organisms, and nuclear power.
The Mill Pond and the Granta pub at dusk.
My friends Sean French and Nicci Gerrard are running in today’s London marathon. I get tired just thinking about it. Nicci is one of the wonders of the world. She manages to combine being a terrific mother, a generous host, a great journalist, a best-selling novelist (in collaboration with Sean) and an inspired cook. Two years ago, she broke her back in a riding accident. Now she’s racing round London. Ye Gods!
Update: They both finished in just under four hours (3:58:50)!
From Frank Kane’s admirably robust commentary on the disaster.
The number of politicians hand-wringing their way through Longbridge on Friday – including the Prime Minister – almost made you think MG Rover’s collapse was some great natural disaster that had engulfed Birmingham.
But there is nothing ‘natural’ about the Longbridge scandal; it is no act of God. It is an entirely man-made catastrophe, which can be blamed on a relatively small number of individuals. They can and should be made to pay.
He also points out that Patricia Hewitt, the Cabinet Minister ultimately responsible, has to explain
why she wasted another £6.5m of taxpayers’ money last week – apparently acting on orders from the Prime Minister – when the Chinese had told her in writing more than two weeks ago they were not interested in Rover. As one adviser says, ‘Which part of “no” did she not understand?’
My Observer column about last week’s surge in political PhotoShopping is here.
… in 1961, 1,500 CIA-trained Cuban exiles launched the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in a laughable attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro. In the process, they also taught Jack Kennedy an important lesson about the CIA. 45 years later, the Cuban factor still poisons US politics, especially in Florida, where the next Bush presidential candidate presides as governor.
He thinks it’s amazing. He’s right.
The BBC has put up an audio archive of famous Reith Lectures. I’ve just been listening to the first RL ever — given by Bertrand Russell in 1948. Amazing to hear the old boy’s reedy tones coming across the Net and out of my PowerBook speakers. If you want a justification for public-service broadcasting, look no further.
From Good Morning Silicon Valley…
In opening remarks delivered at the first inaugural Email Technology Conference, Vint Cerf, chairman of the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers and one of the architects of the Net, said he’d recently discussed BitTorrent with at least two interested movie producers. “I know personally for a fact that various members of the movie industry are really getting interested in how to use the Internet — even BitTorrent — as a … method for distributing content,” said Cerf. “I’ve spoken with several movie producers in the last month. They are only just now starting to come to honest grips with the possibilities of using the Internet.”
