The Black Horse of the Blog World

So, as you probably know, Amanda is due any day now, and we’ll be very soon experiencing the joys and frustrations of going to the hospital and coming home with a bundle of ‘change your life’.  In this context, I’m going to open a few channels and close a few as well.  For starters, I’m putting together a mailing list for communication only on this topic.  Rather than post all over the public web.  Please let me know if you would like to be on this mailing list.  We’ll be sending out news and announcements as well as calls for help.  Because there’s a strong chance we’ll want or need help.  Some of you are already on the list, whether you know it or not.

Along those lines, one of my jobs as Dad is to be the gatekeeper. I’ll be the one who has to tell people that they can’t come over, or that they have to leave.  Don’t take it personally.  Also, we know you’re going to want to see the new youngling, but it would be -really- helpful (and more likely to get me to say yes instead of no) if you can also offer some support in visible or tangible forms. Anyone who brings us a meal, offers to mow the lawn, wash the dishes, do the laundry, or otherwise do a small or not so small errand is going to receive eternal gratitude and more time with us.

Fall, Mortality, and the Machine: Tolkien and Technology – Alan Jacobs – The Atlantic.

 

The above link is to an article discussing one of Tolkein’s enduring bequeaths to Fantasy literature – that technology is the enemy.  This still plays out in literatures and stereotypes today.  How many boffer larpers talk about what they do as a chance to escape modern technology? The SCA has more right to aim for this ethic, as it aims to tackle things from a historical bent, but again there are lots of people who describe it as their opportunity to escape the computers and cell phones, and to portray a fictional character. The dominant element in almost every Fantasy setting (in fact, one of the usual defining elements of the genre) is a world without technology. Not that all fantasy worlds are pastoral and idyllic (Lieber and Martin are clear examples of urban and gritty works), but that somehow, if you include technology you are either ‘Urban Fantasy’ or ‘Sci-Fi’. Or perhaps, ‘Steampunk’ depending on the technology in question.

So, I ask you, help me make a list of Fantasy genre items where Technology is not a banished evil or a hallmark of the enemy.  Off the top of my head, Pratchett’s Discworld embraces technology, although in his characteristic tongue in cheek nature.  Rosenberg’s Guardians of The  Flame starts in a standard world, but with the element of ‘Mundane transported to fantasy world’ addresses the introduction of modern sciences and technologies to a fantasy setting.  Stasheff layers a fantasy world on top of a sci-fi universe in the Warlock series. Piers Anthony has mirrored (almost literally) sci-fi and fantasy worlds in the same books, but in many ways this only serves to reinforce the ‘technology bad, pre-industrial good’ vibe.  Harry Potter likewise uses the notion of pre-industrial/post-industrial as a separator and implies that the post-industrial world is inferior.

Where are the things that can be definitively lumped as Fantasy, but don’t try to claim, outright or through inference, that ours is the wrong world to live in, and that technology is the ruin of all?

The news is now out with today’s press releases.  This is what I’ve been working on for months.  Evaluating initiative proposals, working on grants, meeting with vendors, establishing technical and policy frameworks, and holding up the bulk of the efforts to train and support faculty.  It’s a blue sky move, and one I hope pays off, but either way it’s pretty exciting.

Regis becomes an all-iPad college – BostonHerald.com.

Regis College Press Release

As seen on my morning commute, NStar is currently clear cutting large swaths of the MetroWest and other parts of the state. {{1}} {{2}} {{3}} {{4}} {{5}} {{6}}

Suffice to say, many, many residents are upset.{{7}}  However, there is not a lot of recourse, as NStar has the right of way in these corridors where the high voltage power lines run, claim that the clear cutting is necessary to prevent the sorts of extended blackouts we’ve had in recent years (and saw recently in the Mid-Atlantic region), and that they are about 20 years behind on their standards of tree trimming, so of course residents are going to see changes.

Residents, correctly or not, claim that NStar is well exceeding what is needed to keep these lines safe from tree damage, are damaging healthy parts of the environment, are cutting down trees outside of their right of way, including trees planted by the residents, and in general are being a giant nuisance.  They’re also claiming that NStar is only being this aggressive because it is cheaper to clear cut everything than to do proper maintenance.  In this they might be right, but our governments have ceded that decision to NStar, so it is difficult for complaints to go very far.

I acknowledge that even if complaints do go somewhere, it won’t bring back the thousands of trees and hundreds of acres now cleared of all vegetation more than three feet tall.  My concern going forward is what this is going to do in the future? Are we going to have other environmental concerns now? What about local wildlife? What will happen to this land without adequate vegetation? Is NStar setting themselves up to have telephone lines washed out by erosion now?

And ignoring all that, now we have these wide open spaces with only thin wires overhead.  I suggest NStar put solar panels all along the route, and use this as an opportunity to balance the environmental and societal scales a little.

 

[[1]]Boston.com overview, July 19th: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2012/07/19/nstar_takes_heat_on_tree_removal_policy/[[1]]

[[2]]Burlington, 2011: http://www.wickedlocal.com/burlington/news/x898067416/Residents-upset-over-NSTAR-clear-cutting-trees-in-Burlington[[2]]

[[3]]Framingham, May: http://framingham.patch.com/articles/neighborhood-upset-with-nstar-s-tree-cutting[[3]]

[[4]]Mashpee (Cape Cod) questioning by a conservator: http://www.capenews.net/communities/mashpee/news/1603[[4]]

[[5]]Cape Cod, 2011: http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20111012/NEWS/110120317[[5]]

[[6]]Wayland, June: http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/photos/x836125498/PHOTOS-NSTAR-continues-clear-cutting-trees-in-Wayland[[6]]

[[7]]Sudbury, June: http://boston.cbslocal.com/2012/06/26/vandal-hits-crew-clear-cutting-trees-in-sudbury/[[7]]