"Ender's Game" author asks "Where have all the honest journalists gone?"

I have been a science fiction fan since the heyday of Robert Heinlein and Arthur C. Clark and I regard Orson Scott Card, the author of the classic Ender's Game, as one of the best of their modern successors. I was surprised to learn that he is also a journalist and political pundit who isn't afraid to criticize both his profession and his political party.

Sci fi authors say things that need to be said but they usually disguise them in futuristic plot lines. It's refreshing to occasionally see them say what they think about the present.

Hat tip to Glenn Reynolds.

If you gotta go, this might not be the place.

I think the Darwin Award winning caption should be "Here, hold my beer and watch this!"

Thanks to Whole Wheat Toast.

(Actually, I doubt anybody who checked out this way actually would win this years Darwin Award. Based upon the current vote count, it appears that Father Adelir Antonio de Carli, the lawn chair balloonist from South America, is well on track to become this year's winner.)

Apparently, elections can kill you.

What with all the fund raising letters, telephone polls, negative campaigning and 24 hour news cycle spin, I guess it was inevitable that someone would discover that elections are hazardous to your health.

In fact, you are 18% more likely to die in an auto accident during voting hours on election day. Maybe it is all those undecideds trying to make up their mind instead of concentrating on the road.

From LiveScience.

The Pink Panzer?

I guess I'm dating myself but I remember when the only muscle powered vehicles that people attempted to build involved orange crates and old roller skates.

Now they apparently involve pneumatic cannon and bizarre urban camouflage.

Via PopSci.

Maybe I should go on a junket factfinding tour.

The New York Times had this interesting piece the other day about how judges are more involved in making foreign policy.