Category: Blog

Blog / Culture / Video

Star Trek Fan Fiction

Xaviar Xerexesby Xaviar Xerexes

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3G-ziTBAkbQ?rel=0] I have no idea how this project exists given our copyright regime. And yet, why shouldn’t it?  The original Star Trek series now has been out for more than 40 years, giving its owners ample time to recoup their investment and make a tremendous amount of profit over their creative efforts.  On balance, society is better off with the freedom for others to make their own versions after forty years (I might even argue twenty-five years is plenty of time).  What amazing stories and spins on things people will come up with if they don’t have to ask …

Blog / Comics / Culture / Music

Battle of the Beards

Xaviar Xerexesby Xaviar Xerexes

English Facial Hair Versus American Facial Hair!  Comics Curmudgeon Versus Music Mensch! There is a great article on Rick Rubin in the Daily Beast. Rubin has produced an eclectic range of bands — his most recent effort producing the new Black Sabbath album.  I remember hearing about this guy when the first Beastie Boys album came out and there was a swirl of comments about how much he did on License to Ill versus the Beastie Boys themselves.  He’s gone from rap to rock and back again — he’s not only produced Sabbath but Kanye’s latest album.  This guy produced Adele …

Blog / Culture

Carl Malamud: Free the Blue Book!

Xaviar Xerexesby Xaviar Xerexes

Boing Boing wrote up Carl Malamud’s latest project – this one to convince the law school owners of the standard for legal citation, The Bluebook, to donate it back to the public.  Here’s the broader issue of which The Bluebook is but a piece.  The LAW is a written system of rules for society — procedurally a collection of systems has evolved that we are kind of stuck with unless we collectively convince ourselves to move to something better: more efficient, more open, etc.  (Much like VOTING which in the U.S. as a reality is a kludge of systems and …

Blog / Words

Yes, Thank You Cory Doctorow

Xaviar Xerexesby Xaviar Xerexes

Killing time, surfing Feedly feeds and saw this post from Willy-Bob Wheaton recalling a story about the time he sent his first draft of his a book he was working on Cory Doctorow to read and Cory gave him the honest truth: there’s a good tale in there but the writing ain’t so great.  Eventually Wheaton overcomes self-doubt generated by said tough love, and does the tough work of rewriting and rewriting until he gets his first book published.  Nice illustration of the first law of Ira Glass. Anyhow Wheaton linked to a site called  I Write Like which purports to analyze …