blatanville

Comment Threads

• Charlie Stross commented on In other news ...
  On the topic of Erik Prince -- why is Ian Fleming dead when we so badly need to read his [fictional] treatment of Prince? I mean, if this guy isn't a real-life Bond villain, who is? (Nobody say "Elon Musk". He's got boiler-suited goons, a tropical island HQ where he builds space rockets, and an electric car, but he doesn't actually seem to want to take over the world. Ahem. Our world.)...
• Charlie Stross commented on In other news ...
  Besson took the term "space opera" a bit too seriously, if you ask me -- I don't recall that scene serving any plot-advancing purpose other than, hey, opera in space!...
• Greg. Tingey commented on In other news ...
  If you want semi-interesting and hilariously funny porn (ish) ... Try THIS entry The preceding and following ones are quite good as well - however, unless you are into railway operation, I would not suggest going any further .......
• bjacques commented on In other news ...
  I think Elon Musk wants to be a real-life D.D. Harriman, in the vein of Heinlein's "The Man Who Sold The Moon." As for Erk Prince, if you read that article all the way through, it looks like the Colombians aren't quite working out. Their "soldier's pay" attitudes didn't endear them to the straitlaced locals. Unlike the great Bond villains, Sgt. Prince and his Howling Commandoes aren't exactly a global threat. In Abu Dhabi, he's just the help. And if the sheiks use him to block the Arab 1848, he could face a war crimes rap as well. Not good...
• brucecohenpdx commented on In other news ...
  I'm not particularly worried about the current super-wealthy setting up the New Feudalism. I agree with you if we're talking about the chattering classes and the absentee owners. But the Lords of Finance seem to be adept at siphoning money out of the economy (and everybody else's pockets). Last I heard, they'd made off with several trillion US dollars and about 9 million jobs. And I see signs that they're setting up to do it again, before the economy has even had a chance to bounce back to where it was after the recovery from the dot.bust....