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The increasingly inaccurately-named blog of journalist and futurist Chris Taylor. Either the most sporadically brilliant amateur blog, the most brilliantly amateur sporadic blog, or the most amateur sporadic brilliance on the Web since 2001.
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Daily Blah FAQ
Who are you?
I'm the newly-appointed Future editor at Business 2.0 and the former San Francisco correspondent for Time Magazine.
Wow, so does this mean everything you write reflects Time Inc's opinion? Or do you perhaps have some sort of standard disclaimer to the effect that it doesn't?
Naturally, the opinions contained in this blog are not those of my employers. In fact, some opinions may be the polar opposite of my employers. Some may be the same, for all I know. Hey, it's not like I ask my employers their opinions about everything in the news, okay? Let's just say that if this were a Venn diagram with one circle marked "my opinions" and the other one marked "my employers' opinions", there would doubtless be some overlap. But neither I nor my employers are able to pinpoint exactly where that overlap is.
What is this Daily Blah thing?
An experiment for a column I wrote about blogging back in December 2001. All these years later, I haven't been able to kick the habit.
Do you write any other blogs, by chance? Could that have something to do with the fact that Daily Blah isn't always Daily?
Yes -- the Future Boy blog for Business 2.0. And yes. If you want true, editorially-mandated daily coverage from me, that's probably the best place to look.
Mister, you talk funny. Are you one of them furrners?
Why yes I am, as it happens. I was born, raised and educated in Great Britain. I've been living in the U.S. since 1996 and identify as British.
I say, old chap, you forgot the "u" in "colour."
No I didn't. I may identify as British, but I am also an American journalist writing for an American audience about mostly American issues. These two different sides of me are a constant source of tension. Nevertheless, Daily Blah will adhere to American English grammar and spelling.
Praise for Daily Blah:
"It is fun to watch the author's navel-gazing joy." - Sunday Times (UK)
"It's really funny and informative." - Dave Eggers, author
"The Blah is becoming a daily destination for me." - Richard Marsh, Playwright
"I like it, and I don't." - Fiona Hogg, Teacher
"Better than Xanax." - Lessley Andersen, journalist
"Dude, lay off the crack pipe." - Souris Hong-Porretta, gamesmith
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Daily Blah for... Wednesday, July 24, 2002
Heads Up, Chicken Little
My good friend Stephanie, a star reporter for the New Orleans Times-Picayune, has of late become a connoisseur of gloomy news about asteroids. She spent the majority of her July 4 trip to San Francisco telling anyone who would listen about Earth's near-miss last month with a rock the size of a soccer field and the Hiroshima-like effect on any inhabited area in its path. "Don't you think it's terrifying that we can't detect asteroids like that until after they hit us?" she'd earnestly inquire of unassuming strangers at parties, who would squint at her, nod, take another sip of beer and return to their regular July 4 business, like worrying about non-existent terrorism threats.
Of course, there's nothing I like more than feeding someone else's obsession. So as soon as news came through that scientists worry such an asteroid strike might trigger an accidental nuclear war, I had to forward that to her. Someone up there must like feeding her obsession too, because today comes the piece de resistance: news that a 1.2 mile-wide object may possibly be heading for a date with our heads on February 1, 2019. Mark your calendars now. The best part of it all is that Stephanie still hasn't seen Deep Impact, so I get to inflict the last half-hour of that on her next time she comes to visit this coast. That's if we haven't all been struck down by rocky soccer fields before then. Hey, you know, it could happen.
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