http://www.pamelasargent.com/ en Copyright 2008 Sat, 10 May 2008 11:03:32 -0500 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Nick Bostrom hopes that the search for extraterrestrial life is unsuccessful. In the May/June 2008 issue of Technology Review, he writes: "What could be more fascinating than discovering life that had evolved entirely independently of life here on Earth? Many people would also find it heartening to learn that we are not entirely alone in this vast, cold cosmos. "But I hope that our Mars probes discover nothing. It would be good news if we find Mars to be sterile. Dead rocks and lifeless sands would lift my spirit. "Conversely, if we discovered traces of some simple, extinct life-form--some bacteria, some algae--it would be bad news. If we found fossils of something more advanced, perhaps something that looked like the remnants of a trilobite or even the skeleton of a small mammal, it would be very bad news. The more complex the life-form we found, the more depressing the news would be. I would find it interesting, certainly--but a bad omen for the future of the human race." Find out why he thinks so here. ]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/05/where_are_they.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/05/where_are_they.html Sat, 10 May 2008 11:03:32 -0500 Barack Obama can be found here, and seems more relevant than ever.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/05/obama_vs_the_phobocracy.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/05/obama_vs_the_phobocracy.html Fri, 02 May 2008 10:43:34 -0500 out in Future Americas, edited by John Helfers and Martin H. Greenberg for DAW and available for sale on June 3, 2008.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/04/after_too_long_a_new_story.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/04/after_too_long_a_new_story.html Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:11:25 -0500 writes about wasted food and what might be done to keep so much food from being wasted. ]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/04/food.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/04/food.html Wed, 16 Apr 2008 10:45:03 -0500 here, at Salon. Conason points out: "What his story shows, once again, is that the durable old stereotype of the military man who yearns for authoritarian rule and brutality is largely false...[Diaz] has proved that the most reliable defenders of the Constitution these days are not in the civilian ranks of government but among the senior military officers. It was the neoconservative law professors and political bureaucrats who authorized, encouraged and justified the worst depredations against human and constitutional rights, from Abu Ghraib to Gitmo. It was the men and women in uniform who warned against those policies and tried to amend them." Well worth reading, especially after the declassification of John Yoo's evil memo. ]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/04/an_american_hero.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/04/an_american_hero.html Sat, 05 Apr 2008 10:09:27 -0500 discusses the battles in Basra, and Arianna Huffington talks about looking at Iraq through a "glass eye." ]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/whats_going_on_in_iraq.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/whats_going_on_in_iraq.html Fri, 28 Mar 2008 10:22:01 -0500 buried yesterday in Sri Lanka. Today, the New York Times offers an op-ed piece written by Sir Arthur in 1994 and still timely, with a warning we should all heed.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/rip_arthur_c_clarke.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/rip_arthur_c_clarke.html Sun, 23 Mar 2008 11:29:08 -0500 Richard Russo imagines Eliot Spitzer as a fictional protagonist.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/a_novel_take_on_an_ending.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/a_novel_take_on_an_ending.html Sun, 16 Mar 2008 12:37:14 -0500 Farseed has been selected by the New York Public Library for their annual Books for the Teen Age list. An exhibition of all of the selected best books will be held at the Celeste Bartos Forum in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library at Fifth Avenue and 42nd Street in New York City on Saturday, March 22nd, from 12:30 to 4:00 pm.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/news_about_farseed.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/news_about_farseed.html Sun, 16 Mar 2008 10:23:04 -0500 here about recent events in my home town. Update: Glenn Greenwald has more.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/spitzers_loss_is_wall_streets.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/03/spitzers_loss_is_wall_streets.html Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:24:27 -0500 Ezra Klein, I found this provocatively titled and subtitled piece by Ronald Bailey: Why Are People Having Fewer Kids? Perhaps it's because they don't like them very much." My thought is that it's because having kids is basically regarded as an extremely expensive hobby, at least in the U.S., with its lack of any real support for parents, but never mind. ]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/02/no_kids.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/02/no_kids.html Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:10:19 -0500 this piece by Garrison Keillor.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/02/grouchy_old_men.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/02/grouchy_old_men.html Wed, 27 Feb 2008 09:12:23 -0500 George Zebrowski, I will be attending Boskone 45 on February 15-17, 2008, at the Westin Waterfront Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/02/boskone_45.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/02/boskone_45.html Sun, 03 Feb 2008 15:34:03 -0500 favorite candidate is dropping out of the presidential race, but as Ezra Klein points out here, "John Edwards' campaign...triumphed. The progressivism of the race, the focus on ideas, the courage of the Democrats -- all were products of his early example...his candidacy, even if it fails, will have been far more successful than most." Update: More from Ezra Klein here. ]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/01/john_edwards_drops_out.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/01/john_edwards_drops_out.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:20:32 -0500 Slate, Fred Kaplan tells us some bad news about the Army's newer recruits. For more about losses among the officer corps, read Andrew Tilghman's article for the Washington Monthly, "The Army's Other Crisis," here.]]> http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/01/not_ready_for_a_fight.html http://www.pamelasargent.com/2008/01/not_ready_for_a_fight.html Fri, 25 Jan 2008 16:48:32 -0500