About New Worlds Blog
What’s this blog all about, eh? It’s something I’ve intended to do for a very long time but always figured that it would take weeks if not months of web design, testing, etc. to get it off the ground. Fortunately, while I’ve been waiting, the blogging phenomenom has taken off like crazy and now there are a lot of tools and pre-built systems for getting started. I chose WordPress based on a review I found online which hyped it as very powerful, customizable, and easy to get started with. I’ve found all of these claims to be true. The look and feel is based on a “theme” called Stucco which I found linked from the WordPress site along with many others. The available themes vary greatly in appearance and somewhat less in functionality, though some have a lot of fancy plugins that I might dabble with later.
I’ve structured the blog to suit my interests, with the main categories accessible from the menu items across the top of the page. Click the “read more” link below for a quick tour of what you should come to expect in each of these categories.
Art- Links and commentary regarding some of my favorite artists; such as Sonya Val- whose sculpture in stone I greatly admire and the painter Ellen Buselli. Kees Veenenbos is a brilliant artist who specializes in digital renderings of space scenes- particularly Mars. The header image, showing a portion of the Tharsis region on Mars, is from one of his recent works.
Ecology- A great interest of mine is the fate of the Earth and our fossil fuel based society as we reach the end of the cheap petroleum era. I’ll be commenting on this situation and linking to some visionary writers on this topic such as Richard Heinberg and Jim Kunstler.
Music- As a former member of the progressive rock band Jupiter Sheep, I have more than a little interest in music. My tastes are very broad, but of course, always excellent 
Once I figure out how this thing works a little better, I might try uploading a “track of the week” or something along those lines.
Politics- I tend toward a leftist bent and my writings and resources here will reflect that viewpoint. My vision of ideal government is closer to that of the founding fathers than the neo-con corporatist elite we now have running (and demolishing) things.
Science- I have a degree in Geoscience, but I’m really a wanna be scientist. Both science fiction and fact will be included here. On the fact side I’ll start with a couple of interviews I’ve done with NASA scientists such as Bill Clancey and Chris McKay. Gregory Benford will be featured on the fiction side, along with possibly my favorite author on any subject, Kim Stanley Robinson.
Technology- I make my living as a software developer, so this will be the geeky section, including reference links of interest mostly to myself as well as links and commentary regarding the latest developments in this field.
Random Thoughts- Just what it says.
Just for Fun- This will be a catch all for my less-serious interests including sports and recreation. I’m a die-hard Pittsburgh Pirates fan, so you may find some passionate rants about their usual state of non-success and what I would do about it if I were running the team.
Who can contribute?
Currently, anyone. I have the blog set up to allow users to self-register and the default role is “author” which means you can comment and post. If you decide to get involved, I urge you to maintain civility- at least as you define it. If things get out of hand I might have to play with the admin settings a little bit, but for now it’s wide open. Have fun!
It looks like you began well. I like the title of your blog. Now I have a topic for you. How do you think the government will act when it becomes apparent that we need to quit using fossil fuel for vehicles right now? I figure the time will come when drastic action is absolutely necessary and, even then, people in the larger cities might die from the pollution before things get better.
Comment on March 12, 2006 @ 9:14 am
Hi Ellen,
Welcome to New Worlds! Believe it or not, you’re the first total stranger to find your way here (and comment at least). It can be a lonely pursuit starting a blog and I appreciate your involvement. Please let me know how you found your way here.
I don’t have a clear answer to your question because there are so many possibiliities, so all I can do is speculate for now, and the picture in my crystal ball changes dramatically from day to day. I assume you mean quitting using fossil fuels for personal transportation rather than industrial uses such as the moving of food and essential resources? The government will probably act for quite awhile to protect the status quo until it becomes untenable; i.e, when it no longer is profitable. I think the higher and higher cost of gasoline will push major breakthroughs in clean energy alternatives and these will be applied to personal transportation. This should have a very beneficial effect on pollution- at least in first world countries where these changes will be implemented first. On the flip side, we may be forced to use more coal for power generation which could contribute even more to pollution problems- but my hope is things gradually begin to improve in this regard.
The more serious concern is global warming which will be extremely difficult to reverse and could take centuries if not millenia to stabilize and reverse course. The Earth is a pretty huge system with a lot of inertia.
You touch on an idea with a nasty name- die-off. The larger question becomes, what is the Earth’s real carrying capacity and have we exceeded it? I think it is very likely we have, because we’ve been harvesting the product of millions of years of solar energy in the form of fossil fuels which has given rise to enormous increases in population worldwide. When these resources are gone- or much less readily available- we will have a very hard time sustaining the populations we have now and the numbers can only decrease=- potentially catastrophically. We’re not immune to the forces that affect all other species in that population is dependant on resource base.
I hope this helps. You can probably see that I’m groping in the dark as much as anyone, hoping for a light at the end of the tunnel. This was a long, mostly doom and gloom comment, but I’m not entirely pessimistic. I’ll soon be posting “Mars and Progressive Thought Pt 2″ (and maybe pt 3). You’ll see that my view of the future is ultimately optimistic for the most part if we can find a way through the immediate crisis we face.
Glad to hear your thoughts, and feel free to register and post for yourself.
Comment on March 12, 2006 @ 9:57 am
[...] It’s been a half a year or so since New Worlds lumbered into flight and perhaps time for some thoughts on its nascent development. I had hoped, as expressed in the “About New Worlds” post, that it would become more than just “my blog” and more of a self-sustaining community of sorts. Of course, founding a community implies some sort of government, the principles of which I am admittedly insufficiently knowledgable. [...]
Pingback on July 29, 2006 @ 10:39 pm
Finally, I see a link for an RSS feed for comments on this post. But where is an RSS link to subscribe to the blog as a whole. want to subscribe in order to keep up with your blog. I’m also going to add your blog to my favorites.
Comment on December 29, 2008 @ 8:54 am
Here you go Tusconsam:
http://new-worlds.org/blog/?feed=rss2
I’m a little busy with holiday family duties and haven’t been doing my usual welcome stuff. For now I’ll just say welcome to New Worlds and happy posting!
Comment on December 30, 2008 @ 10:55 am
Babelfishy moderation queue poetry:
Comment on April 26, 2010 @ 9:53 am
A sequel!
As in Engrish, perhaps this is babelfishgrish?
Comment on April 26, 2010 @ 3:24 pm
Here’s a variation on #6 that seems to call for a little help from the ghost of George Harrison:
Comment on May 3, 2010 @ 10:53 am