There are some fascinating complexities to living in an age of massive engineering. For example, what happens to a lake when an oil drilling platform on its surface punctures a salt mine underneath? Or how do you refill a lake that sprouted a few sinkholes?

It’s really only logical when you think about it. The relationship between industrial agricultural and the land, sun and rain is as tenuous as anything in this post-post-modern world, so why not snip that thin cord and grow crops underground?

Cory Doctorow’s got a new writing gig at Locus. His first column is vintage Doctorow: it’s all about copyright, content, and how science fiction writers get it when it comes to connecting to an audience.

Here’s a quick, interesting overview of the directions designers are taking email clients.

The political debate in this country, such as it is, takes place primarily on television and radio. What astounds me is that the debate is rarely about the substance of political issues, but is instead about the race. Everyone wants to talk about what a poltician’s positions mean to their electability, and no one wants to talk about whether a politician’s positions are right or wrong. Jimmy Wales of Wikipedia fame proposes a different kind of political discourse, one that claims what we, the un-telegenic masses, do matters. I’m enough of a cynic to think that the Campaigns Wikia will be only a different kind of bad, but I’m not so much of a cynic that I won’t watch this with interest.