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Add one part satire to two parts sincerity. Sprinkle on a couple of rants. Stir liberally.
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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.
If it's called Daily Blah, how come you don't ... hey, wait, you're writing every day!
See? Told you I'd try harder.
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.
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Daily Blah for... Thursday, February 26, 2004
End of the World x 2
Speaking of space, it seems we nearly had a close encounter of the nasty kind with a little rock called 2004 AS1. Sky-watchers spotted it last month, mere days before -- they thought -- it was headed for a date with the northern hemisphere. They were about to pick up the phone and call Bush. Astronomers really ought to have special red rotary phones in glass boxes for such purposes; what fun is the end of the world if you can't employ all the cliches?
Anyway, they re-checked the numbers -- someone must have used imperial instead of metric again -- and the rock missed us by a couple of moon orbits. However, it also turned out to be 70 meters wider than they thought, which would have made the difference of a billion deaths or so. Is it not terrifying how little we know about these natural missiles? Isn't it time to start taking the space rock threat seriously and devote some serious dollars to it? Couple this with a leaked report from the Pentagon, of all places, that says global warming could cause more and bloodier wars than international terrorism, and even the most strident defender of Bush's record on national security -- his only strong suit in recent polls -- has got to admit the possibility that our priorities may well have been skewed all along. If the end does come, at least, Bush is going to damn well make sure that only the straight corpses are wearing wedding rings.
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