Rick York

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• Commented on Do my Homework
  The reality today is that we are already living in the Panopticon. From China to Google, technology has enabled any institution to observe and even modify human behavior. The best we can hope for is David Brin's "Transparent Society" where...
• Commented on Why I barely read SF these days
  Big T? Please? I have no idea what the reference is....
• Commented on And the Rabid Nazi Raccoons shall inherit the Earth
  So Charlie, could you please leave the Cascadian Subduction Zone alone??!! Those of us who are its likely victims would rather persist in our denial....
• Commented on Just plain icky
  I don’t have the time, or the energy, to read all the comments. However, there is one critical point that Charlie and all the commenters seem to have missed. Stress, in all its forms, has a profound effect on both...
• Commented on A plaintive request
  Maybe this will cheer you up. As in, things could be worse? Yes, you do have Merry Terry and Boris the horror. However, you do not have Trump. What's much more important, you do not have hundreds of people being...
• Commented on "Tomorrow belongs to me"
  I'll repeat a comment I just made on Facebook: Unfortunately, it's a pretty clear demonstration that Americans are not the only people who vote consistently against their own self interest. Fear is the mother of demagogues. Frighten people and substantial...
• Commented on Where Have All the Women Gone?
  Whenever I read comments like those from the Elderly Cynic and Mr. Tingey, I am reminded of Jon Stewart's discussion with Bill O'Reilly about white privilege. I am 71. I lived the early part of my life, up until my...
• Commented on Thoughtcrime
  Stefanmom, The ongoing problem with "reductio ad absurdum" is that the bar for absurdum keeps getting lowered. Every time one thinks that "They couldn't mean THAT, could they?", we find out THAT (imprisoning someone for "dangerous thoughts"?) really is what...
• Commented on An exercise in futility
  I may have missed someone else making this point. There are a number of comments here talking about people altering a text once they've "bought" it. Yes, they can do anything from bowdlerizing it to changing the names of the...
• Commented on An exercise in futility
  One woman's euphemism is another's curse....
• Commented on The Ferguson Question
  Some of the following may have already been said. Also, I apologize for the length. Seitling is correct about the origins of the whole militarization thing. He’s also right about Peelian principles mostly being the foundational philosophy of American policing....
• Commented on Down tools
  Given the distress you seem to be enduring, shall I gather then Mr. Stross that, in addition to the rigors of writing long works, you also went out and saw something nasty in the woodshed?...
• Commented on Can We Avoid a Surveillance State Dystopia?
  Ramez,thank you for citing David Brin. Even though it was written 15 tears ago, Brin's "The Transparent Society" remains, if anything, more relevant today....
• Commented on Why I want Bitcoin to die in a fire
  With respect to Libertarianism and almost all other "isms", I paraphrase Von Moltke's warning about battle plans. To wit, no ideology survives first contact with human beings....
• Commented on On Syria
  At 69, I know I should be past this, but I am still stunned at the persistent and toxic inability of the US and the UK to learn from either their own or anyone else's history. Though it goes back...
• Commented on Lies, damned lies, and popular beliefs
  Unfortunately, this is another step in the Americanization of the world. If 40+% of the American people believe "god" created the world in 6 days 7,000 years ago, it's no surprise that they believe in other magical numbers. We've just...
• Commented on "Fuck every cause that ends in murder and children crying" — Iain Banks, 1954-2013
  Thanks Charlie, Like many, I feel the loss of Iain Banks in a deeply personal way. Every year since I discovered him, I have watched for his latest work. Now, there will be no more. One of the reasons I...
• Commented on A message from our UK sponsors (again)
  For those in the US: AbeBooks has it for delivery to the US. This is also a good source for UK sf....
• Commented on The Curious Experience of Middle Age
  "Ah, but I was so much older then. I'm younger than that now." (I'm 68 and far more radical than I was at 38.)...
• Commented on The Fumes of Mordor & Other World Building Models
  People have observed that the ruination of American government started with the introduction of air conditioning. AC allowed the Congress to sit for 12 months which gave them much more time for mischief. Washington's climate makes it a pretty unpleasant...
• Commented on The map is not the territory.
  Color perception is a fascinating example differences in viewpoints. There have been a number of reports about how a substantial number of people have the ability to see higher and lower in the spectrum. Particularly, 50% of women may have...
• Commented on The permanent revolution
  Eternal (or, infinite) growth has always seemed to me to be inherently destructive, if not contradictory. If I'm correct, the only two things in nature which grow "infinitely" are cancer and funghi. Oh, I guess one would have to add...
• Commented on What are the big issues of 2013 going to be?
  I've been reading the original post and the comments. They all, as usual, are stimulating and entertaining and sometimes both. Unfortunately, at 68, I can only say "plus ca change, plus c'est la meme chose" (please excuse the lack of...
• Commented on Customer Satisfaction Survey
  Of course, you decide to replace 2012 just as my warranty expires. You must be following the Apple model. 2012 has given me a whole host of problems; knee replacement, Romney (although that ended better than I thought it would),...