Obsidian Wings

One Way To Connect

by Gary Farber

ONE WAY TO CONNECT can be this:

This is America:

This is something we can do:

To Beat Back Poverty, Pay the Poor:

The city of Rio de Janeiro is infamous for the fact that one can look out from a precarious shack on a hill in a miserable favela and see practically into the window of a luxury high-rise condominium. Parts of Brazil look like southern California. Parts of it look like Haiti. Many countries display great wealth side by side with great poverty. But until recently, Brazil was the most unequal country in the world

Everything connects:

Speak To The Kitty At The Old Address! We're Just That Indecisive: Another Open Thread!

by Gary Farber

The  "Email Me" link under the kitty at the top left of this blog is now open for business and listening again.  That's obsidianinfo at yahoo dot com.

If you wrote to obsidianinfo at yahoo dot com in recent years, and received no answers, which has happened to many of you -- in fact, there was nothing personal about it, I assure you -- you weren't being singled out to be ignored.

Honest. It wasn't you. It's me.

I apologize. Blame me.

The BABBLE Continues: An Open Thread

by Gary Farber.

This is a variant of this post.

Per previous announcement:

The ObWi Bay Area Bloggers Bullsh*t League of Earth = ObBABBLE's second meeting is announced.

WHO: This is an open gathering; anyone reading this is invited.  In actuality, the main connector is that I can get you to read this.  You are invited.  You.

All readers of, and lurkers at Obsidian Wings are especially invited.

You may know me from: blogs.  Science fiction fandom.  Publishing.  My writing.  Anywhere. You are invited.

You may be a reader of blogs, and that's all. You are invited.

You may be a member of the Bay Area science fiction community, or want to be.  You are invited.

You may simply be interested in political discussion, or talk about sf, or tech, or gadgets, or anything smart. You simply may enjoy meeting people who may be congenial and interesting.  You are invited.

If you read this: you are invited.  You are encouraged to pass this along to anyone you think interested, and to repost this information as you like; letting me know, though, would be nice.

WHERE: Crepevine.  Specifically.

5600 College Avenue, Oakland, CA

5600 College Ave, Oakland, CA 94618
Ph: (510) 658-2026

WHEN: Saturday, January 15th, 2010, 1 p.m. until we're done.

PURPOSE: Socializing, meeting each other, fun.  Flame wars dampened with beverages and cheer.

QUESTIONS: put comments on this thread at Amygdala or Obsidian Wings, or Facebook; if necessary, email gary underscore farber at yahoo dot com or at the working, new, ObWi kitty email address.

Name of group still likely to change, as is everything else.

Frequency to start will be monthly, but subject to further detail and change of location/time; possibilities of every other weekend subgroups may occur, or may not.

Further notices are intended to be issued at least monthly, at least one week before the next meeting, preferably two weeks. (Ha!  I have a rich fantasy life.)

This is an open gathering: you are encouraged to bring interesting people who might be interested. 

Feel free to copy and repost this message, but if you do so, it's helpful to say so in public comments, or email gary underscore farber at yahoo dot com, so I'll have some idea how many more people might show up.

R.S.V.P encouraged, but not required.

Gary Farber: Irresponsible Party.

Co-instigators: Jacob Davies, RAL.

Pass it on.

The first meeting had 9 people, including myself, and one person seen only by me.  This means 7 people not me. 

This is not a huge and overwhelming gathering.  This second meeting may be smaller, now that people have met me.  We might have only me and two others.  We may have more.  Come and find out along with me.  Don't be intimidated.  But it's all up to you.  No obligation whatever, obviously.  

This message expires as obsolete no later than Saturday, January 15th, 2010, 1 p.m. PST.

ADDENDUM, 1.11.11, 11:11 p.m.: How you can recognize Gary Farber, aside from the cane and Colorful Blogging Attire, and Sheer Attitude:

My hair is somewhat shorter, and I won't be bringing the cats I'm cat-sitting/sleeping with.  Hello!

Aww, aren't we more cuddly looking than you thought?

The BABBLE Begins

by Gary Farber

Per previous announcement:

The ObWi Bay Area Bloggers & Bullsh*t League of Earth = ObBABBLE's first meeting is hereby announced. 

WHERE: Crepevine.  Specifically.

5600 College Avenue, Oakland, CA

5600 College Ave, Oakland,
CA 94618
Ph: (510) 658-2026

WHEN: Saturday, December 11th, 2010, 1 p.m. until we're done.

PURPOSE: Socializing, meeting each other, fun.  Talking about what we talk about on Obsidian Wings and our other favorite blogs.  Flame wars dampened with beverages and cheer.

QUESTIONS: email gary underscore farber at yahoo dot com. 

ObBABBLE

by Gary Farber

The ObWi Bay Area Bloggers & Bullsh*t League of Earth = ObBABBLE's first meeting is proto-organized and is hereby announced.  Name likely to change, as is everything else.  Frequency to start will be monthly, but subject to further detail and change; possibilities of every other weekend subgroups may occur, or may not.

If you're free and interested in a get-together this weekend, in the Berkeley/Oakland area, probably near either the Rockbridge or Ashby BART stations, who prefers Friday nights, who prefers Saturday brunch/afternoon, who prefers Saturday evening, and who prefers Sunday brunch/afternoon?

My own preferences are, very mildly, earlier over later, but any work for me.

One respondent has replied Friday night, Saturday brunch/afternoon, Saturday night, Sunday brunch/afternoon.  Various others, others; I'm not going to summarize all here and now.

Feel free to answer the same question about next weekend, generally, and in future.

Other comments and suggestions on the topic and related issues welcome.

If there were a regular gathering every month, any idea how often you might be interested?

(Obviously, that wil depend on how much fun or interest you find when you show up.)

If there were something every two weeks, would you ever show up?

There's no need to make any plans to lock in stone, and such are always inadvisable and don't work for long, in any case. I'm asking for feedback for future reference.

Location is currently being determined.  Suggestions still welcome, but my own preference is as short a distance from the intersection of College Avenue and Alcatraz Avenues as possible; failing that, as close to either Rockbridge or Ashby BART station's as possible. 

Failing that, we'll see.

Final announcement to be made by Tuesday evening, if not sooner;  Wednesday 5 p.m. Pacific time, at the latest, if necessary.

One suggestion has been Lanesplitter Pizza Pub, 3645 San Pablo Avenue, Emeryville, CA.  They've not yet been communicated with to find out what they think of the idea, so far as I know. 

Does anyone have any feedback on this place as regard their preferences, or other suggestions either closer to College and Alcatraz, or preferences for someplace better, in your view, at an equal or greater distance?

Discuss below, rather than the most recent open thread, or prior.

I'm appointing myself coordinator.  Jacob Davies and RAL are currently co-organizers.  Check with me for further details.

Which Came First: The Regulation Or The Egg?

by Gary Farber

"One big 20-year experiment" has been conducted on what happens when you leave egg safety to lax federal regulation, spotty state regulation, and the market, and the results aren't pretty.

On a July night in 1987, scores of elderly and chronically ill patients at Bird S. Coler Memorial Hospital in New York City began to fall violently sick with food poisoning from eggs tainted with salmonella.

“It was like a war zone,” said Dr. Philippe Tassy, the doctor on call as the sickness started to rage through the hospital. By the time the outbreak ended more than two weeks later, nine people had died and about 500 people had become sick. It remains the deadliest outbreak in this country attributed to eggs infected with the bacteria known as Salmonella enteritidis.

If someone murdered nine people, and wounded five hundred, with a gun, we Americans would have paid as much attention to this as we did the Columbine high school massacre, or Nidal Malik Hassan, or Charles Whitman.