Knitties (NSFW, I guess)
22-May-09
Human sexuality is so weird.
An Engineer’s Guide to Cat Yodeling
22-May-09
Via Debra M.
National Geographic covers The Seasteading Institute design contest!
Steve’s War on Drugs
20-May-09
Sam and Kim’s San Francisco trip
19-May-09
mighty-sam and kimatha came to San Francisco last week! We met at their hotel at Fisherman’s Wharf then walked to the Top of the Mark via the Embarcadero. After a refreshing, if brief, round of drinks, we had dinner at Fino’s. I had the salmon and vegetable pasta–delicious! Then we walked back to their hotel via Leavenworth. It’s a delight to talk with them (How many people do you know have been serenaded by Anne Margaret over a can of baked beans?), and I highly recommend their company if you ever get the chance to meet them.
Sam and Kim at the Top of the Mark:
Ephemerisle scouting trip
18-May-09
The Seasteading Institute (TSI) is organizing Ephemerisle this October (think “Burning Man on the water”). The festival will be held on the Sacramento delta, as it’s protected water and already hosts raucous houseboat parties. In preparation, TSI organized a scouting trip to find a good location, and invited me to come along. Here’s some of the pics.
On the houseboat!
This guy showed us how to operate the houseboat. Very enthusiastic! The Paradise Marina treated us well. Among other things, they gave us a ride in their rowboat when we made a wrong turn, and let us switch from a pontoon boat to a speed boat on the second day.
Liz organized the trip and fed us a delicious steak dinner.
Kevin at the wheel of the houseboat. Kevin has been vacationing at the delta for several years, and was invaluable in making sure that we didn’t kill ourselves.
James got the first crack at the speed boat.
Then me… What fun! Breaking over the wake of a passing boat is rather exciting.
Island for sale
Seasteading social tonight
18-May-09
6:00 p.m. at the The Rose and Crown in Palo Alto. There will be a Canadian documentary film crew there to do interviews.
Tyler Cowen posted some of his thoughts on seasteading. Here’s my response to some of his criticisms (and others):
I would expect more freedom in the Lockean sense but less of the positive freedom that comes from living in a larger, more diverse, and yes also a more stupid society.
Why would you expect that seasteads would be less diverse? Most seasteads aren’t going to be separated from the rest of the world. Seasteaders will still trade and travel between landbased societies. In fact, since seasteads will allow people to trade and immigrate much more freely than they can now, seasteads will be arguably _more_ diverse than land-based societies.
any given venture just can’t be that credible until it has succeeded for a very long time.
Credible to whom? Seasteads may not currently offer sufficiently better amenities or laws to appeal to someone like you, secure in a comfortable tenured professorship in the U.S. But to someone who lives under the thumb of a dysfunctional government (Cuba, North Korea, Burma, etc.), seasteads offer a fantastic opportunity to escape.
And if the pace of regulation, inflation, and confiscatory taxation continues to increase, the prospect of moving to a seastead will become increasingly appealing even to U.S. citizens. Look at the growth of Las Vegas, which offers a relatively minor haven from some U.S. taxes and regulations.
What are the seasteads going to do when the Somali pirates of the future show up?
What does the Royal Caribbean “Freedom of the Seas” do when the pirates show up now? The existence of pirates has not stopped the growth of a multi-billion dollar cruise ship industry.
Just like on land, the risk of attack depends on the neighborhood. If you avoid bad neighborhoods, you’ll avoid most crime. Initial seasteads will simply choose regions of the sea that are safer than others.
As seasteading becomes more popular, seasteads will have the resources sufficient to defend against most potential attackers.
Happy Mother’s Day
11-May-09
A day late, I know, but nonetheless:
Via daemonwolf.
Spock dies!
08-May-09
…in Star Trek II:The Wrath of Khan.
However, this is a review of the latest Star Trek.
Good movie. Worth seeing in the theater. I particularly liked the “origin stories” for the characters, and the actors did a good job, particularly Chris Pine as Captain Kirk. I thought Zachary Quinto looked like Spock should, but came across as a man who was experiencing carefully controlled rage, rather than the calm logic of Nimoy-Spock. Simon Pegg was fun to watch as the new Scotty.
The movie is fast-paced, despite covering the origin stories of the main crew members in some depth.
My main criticism is that the film relied too much on deus ex machina plot crutches for my taste. For more details see below the cut.
Spoilers ahoy!