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 Ten years in simmering gestation. Well over a year of howling labor pains, far longer than it was supposed to take. Born in San Francisco under a full, neo-pagan moon during a semi-eclipse of the Dog Star alongside a drunken meteor shower whilst Shakti was doing to Shiva that thing with her tongue that drives him absolutely wild. Made of: wood pulp and ink, sweat and blood, tears and coffee, scotch and sake, spit and come, laughter and bliss. Weight similar to: small ferret/large avocado/your left thigh bone. Smells like: lavender/leather/spurious desire. More than 85 million people have died since I took the first real step toward this thing's creation, back in August of '08. 126 million more were born. People had sex an estimated 71 billion times, globally speaking. I contributed a relatively paltry 217 incidents to this fine number. You do what you can. But it's finally here. It has arrived. I have a wild new book, called "The Daring Spectacle: Adventures in Deviant Journalism." It's shipping right now from my printing house, also pre-orderable via Amazon(though they won't have actual stock for a week or two), available everywhere else very soon. I'd simply love it if you'd grab a copy, or three. Will you?  Some details: I call TDSa "mega-compendium." It's a glorious collection of my wildest, weirdest and most popular columns from the Chronicle and SFGate, spanning nearly 10 years but focusing mostly on the more recent stuff, because I prefer to keep it reasonably fresh, my writing has improved tremendously over the years, and some of the really old stuff is downright embarrassing. The book includes more than 90 columns, with commentary. There's a whole bunch of horrifying hate mail, hundreds of photos, all sorts of messy rock 'n' roll design goodness. I'm happy to say, looks and reads like nothing else out there. I'll be doing readings, signings, prayings, hurlings, bake sales, yoga demos, whatever else I can think of, soon, to the point where you will likely be quite sick of hearing about it. I apologize for that in advance. But what can I do. I'm a writer. It's a livelihood. And it's a damn cool book, if I do say so myself.  Did I mention it's self-published? That it's a grand and weird experiment, that, by purchasing a copy, you're taking an active stake in my livelihood? And my rent? And my sake budget? Because you are. Full details at daringspectacle.com. And yes, for the record, it helps me much more if you buy it at full price through AtlasBooksright now, sted of Amazon. But I begrudge no one wishing to order it anywhere, at any time, for any reason whatsoever. In fact, I'd simply love it if you'd ask your fave local bookstore order some stock as well. The ISBN is 978-0-9842997-0-6, if that helps, which is sometimes does. Upcoming newsletters will list out my appearances and readings and such. By the way, if you're a bookstore owner in a largish city and want to host a reading/signing, let me know. We could have much fun. There is my humble plea. I hope you enjoy the book. I hope you love it like sunshine loves chocolate, all sticky and melty and good. Go forth and purchase. | |
The report is pessimistic on the chances that existing business models will ever transition successfully online. It notes that only one in seven UK news consumers declared a willingness to pay for content. However, the trust factor should embolden publishers to seek more innovative revenue models, including advertorials and transaction fees.
Up yours, scientists.
It is possible in this day and age to fly south in December and three hours later land in a city where you can sit comfortably in your T-shirt and linen jacket and eat your dinner at a cafe under palm trees and still enjoy the protections of the U.S. Constitution, which is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Paradise, in fact.
LOS ANGELES – On a strip of California's Mojave Desert, two dozen rare tortoises could stand in the way of a sprawling solar-energy complex in a case that highlights mounting tensions between wilderness conservation and the nation's quest for cleaner power.Oakland, Calif.-based BrightSource Energy has been pushing for more than two years for permission to erect 400,000 mirrors on the site to gather the sun's energy. It could become the first project of its kind on U.S. Bureau of Land Management property, leaving a footprint for others to follow on vast stretches of public land across the West.
The construction would come with a cost: Government scientists have concluded that more than 6 square miles of habitat for the federally threatened desert tortoise would be permanently lost.
The Sierra Club and other environmentalists want the complex relocated to preserve what they call a near-pristine home for rare plants and wildlife, including the protected tortoise, the Western burrowing owl and bighorn sheep.
"It's actually a good project. It's just located in the wrong place," said Ileene Anderson of the Center for Biological Diversity, a Tucson, Ariz.-based environmental group.
The dispute is likely to echo for years as more companies seek to develop solar, wind and geothermal plants on land treasured by environmentalists who also support the growth of alternative energy. In an area of stark beauty, the question will be what is worth preserving and at what cost as California pushes to generate one-third of its electricity from renewable sources by 2020.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100101/ap_on_bi_ge/us_solar_showdown
Scampering back to Washington -- "hotfooted" or otherwise -- would have been the worst possible thing that Obama could have done. It would have created a climate of frenzy and panic and thus helped to terrorize the country even more -- which, one might want to recall, is the goal, by definition, of Terrorists. The fact that Obama doesn't hysterically run around like some sort of frightened chicken with his head cut off every time Al Qaeda sneezes -- or swagger to the nearest camera to beat his chest and play the role of protective daddy-cowboy -- is one of the things I like best about him. As for Armao's "point" about how Janet Napolitano probably took it easy because the "boss was away" -- and her belief that Terrorists will strike more on holidays if Obama isn't affixed to his chair in the Oval Office, as though he's the Supreme Airport Screener: those are so self-evidently dumb it's hard to believe they found their way even into something written by one of Fred Hiatt's editorial writers.
Given the sheer amount of time that individuals spend on Facebook and Twitter, it's easy to make jokes about the hypnotic nature of social networking. However, real-life hypnotherapist Chris Hughes plans on bringing together 
The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) did not commit voter fraud, and it didn't misuse federal funding in the last five years, according to a recently released 
The attempted detonation of an explosive device aboard Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas Day has shifted national attention to the airport screeners who work for the Transportation Security Administration. For nearly a year, the TSA has been without a permanent administrator. 
