Yes, I know—that's why I specifically mentioned that ScarJo had been convincing as a non-human a couple of times and could work as a cyborg. She's just not my first choice for this role. Why she's being considered is pretty obvious.

I'm less concerned about her in the role, though, than just Hollywood's ability to…

I honestly don't think Ghost in the Shell would translate all that well to American live-action if it stayed true to the original. GITS is very inward, weirdly still, in a way that I think of as quintessentially Japanese. ScarJo's been convincing as a non-human a couple of times now, so she could work as a cyborg,…

No, he's definitely not white. It mattered a lot to LeGuin that he not be white.

Ged looks Native American. LeGuin was the child of an anthropologist who studied Native Americans. As a former anthro major I've always appreciated how she worked in her knowledge of non-Western mythologies.

Anyway, when LeGuin wrote a scathing critique of SyFy's version of Earthsea for whitewashing her characters,…

Yes, but that's not permanent. We've had bad droughts before, but it looks like climate change means bigger swings—so it's going to be a question, in part, of water storage. We need, in California, to have a better groundwater regulation. Right now, it's pretty much nonexistent and causing problems.

Oh, I don't mean we take on the monarch, but that we let them keep it as a regional thing. I mean, the Mormons have Utah, a little Queen revering is nothing next to that as far as quirks go.

Yep, the GOP is evil when it comes to green energy and climate change (and science education and research, etc., etc.). One of the reasons why I'm all for spinning off the south—they would be a smaller right-wing country, but less destructive to the planet overall because the rest of us could put through more…

California's a lot bigger than Israel and has a natural water storage facility in the Sierras, so that works in our favor. That said, desalination has its own issues. We need to deal with water differently than we do.

Again, this is where population density matters. South America has a lot of arable land and, I believe, several countries are net exporters of food. Mexico's economy, like Canada's, is very, very entwined with ours. So, no, I don't see Mexico getting itself organized any time soon enough to launch a war on us. …

How is this resource war going to work? Sending over warheads? A land invasion that involves crossing the Pacific? Crawling up through Siberia and motorboating across the Bering Strait?

No, if history is any guide, it's the countries next door that will get hit, not the well-armed country on the other side of the…

I'm not saying there would be zero effects; it's not that big a planet after all. But when a metal or mineral gets expensive to obtain, then recycling becomes more efficient and feasible. It would also mean that there'd be a push to make electronics longer-lasting and less disposable. That sort of thing is doable. …

The beautiful thing about Canada is that it has quite a small population relative to space. So, yes, they'll share because it will be to their benefit to do so—our economies are already so deeply intertwined.

There are days when I would gladly swap out Texas and several of the other southern states and swap in Canada.…

Interesting thing about the military budget is that some of it is used for researching better green technology—I think would-be innovators go where there's money and as long as you can argue a security benefit, there's a possibility of funding.

There's an answer to that question in that Gawker nullo article . . .

Not quite true. Our political system has pretty much become an oligarchy and serves corporate interests, but that's not intrinsic to being human. Even 40 years ago, we were able to heed some warnings and push through things with no immediate economic benefit such as the Clean Air Act, the EPA and the tax-credit…

We've chosen (well our corporate overlords have) to outsource our manufacturing of goods overseas. However, the materials and capability to be self-sufficient are still here. Our goods would be more expensive, but we maintain the capacity to be self-sufficient more than most countries do.

I don't think we'll…

California still has quite a bit of ground water (the Central Valley was once an inland sea.), so water is less of a problem than is reducing the quality of the soil long-term and ending up like a version of North Africa.

That said, I'd still say the Americas are the place to be as we face longterm population growth…

Yeah, there was a mentally disabled adult in SF who got shot by the police while using a realistic-looking SuperSoaker. So toy manufacturers moved away from the real look.

Oh we did, but back in the Olden Days, it was expected that you, as a kid, could use toys properly. This was, in part, because your parents had been through the Depression and WWII. My mother really did milk a cow every morning before walking five miles to school. From their perspective, toys with a bit of a danger…

Oh, I loved Creepy Crawlers. My brother had a set and I learned to use it at an insanely young age. It was actually pretty awesome. You'd spray the goo into the metal molds and then bake it, while it smelled to high heaven. Then the hard part was waiting for the mold to cool off so you could get the monsters out. …