(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) Here's another histogram which may seem a little grim but, I think, is worth contemplating. Suppose someone was born in the year 2004. If… Read the rest of the article: Charts: 2

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) I have always enjoyed drawing charts and graphs as a means to enhance my understanding the world. The histogram above addresses the most fundamental… Read the rest of the article: Charts: 1

Charles Platt is a guest blogger Earlier today I wondered what the actual text is of H.R.1, the bill to authorize an $819 billion "stimulus package." Newspapers don't generally go… Read the rest of the article: Stimulus Details

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) Undeveloped land is still cheaply available in Northern Arizona, for anyone willing to live off the grid. This piece which I own, consisting of… Read the rest of the article: Homage to Arizona: 5

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) This brain cactus is another of the plant species found in the botanical gardens in Phoenix, one of the most peaceful environments that I… Read the rest of the article: Homage to Arizona: 4

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) I found these looping cacti in the botanical gardens in Phoenix, where exotic species display the most amazing attributes, all of which they developed… Read the rest of the article: Homage to Arizona: 3

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) A friend of mine built this cabin by hand, using raw wood from a local saw mill and loose stone gathered on the 40… Read the rest of the article: Homage to Arizona: 2

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) Today I'm going to include some photographs of Northern Arizona, the part of the United States which I find most visually, politically, and socially… Read the rest of the article: Homage to Arizona: 1

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) Alcor Foundation, the larger of two companies that maintain people in cryopreservation, stores cryopreserved bodies, heads, and pets in beautifully made stainless-steel cylinders known… Read the rest of the article: Cryonics: 2

(Charles Platt is a guest blogger) This man is Curtis Henderson, one of a handful of people who took the concept of cryonics seriously enough to devote his life to… Read the rest of the article: Cryonics: 1

At an indoor minimall in Aomori I found this skin-tight black-and-gold-printed t-shirt, apparently catering to a Japanese teen subculture that pays lifestyle homage to punk bands of the 1980s, especially… Read the rest of the article: Suburban Japan: 4

If I were more of a global traveler, I'd like to compile a book of pictures of table settings in different nations, showing the remarkably different ways in which human… Read the rest of the article: Suburban Japan:3

This pachinko parlor in Aomori raises typically unanswerable questions about choices of packaging and vocabulary. Why the big "X" at front-center? Why pictures of big cats? And then there's this… Read the rest of the article: Suburban Japan: 2

During 2008, I found this pharmacy while visiting the town of Aomori at the northern end of Honshu. In the United States, of course, such a name would be condemned… Read the rest of the article: Suburban Japan: 1

In 1981, the first Motorola cellular phone, consisting mostly of a big battery, was marketed almost exclusively to police and emergency services. Few other customers could afford it. The development… Read the rest of the article: The Motorola Museum: 4

By the late 1950s, postwar prosperity enabled Motorola to advocate a radio in every room in the house (as shown in the graphic that's partially visible here). The radios were… Read the rest of the article: The Motorola Museum: 3

Car radios in the 1930s were plagued with electrical interference from naked electrical sparks in the automotive ignition system. This Super Power Auto Radio contains a “Magic Eliminode” (presumably, a… Read the rest of the article: The Motorola Museum: 2

As guest blogger here for the next two weeks, I'm going to introduce myself mostly by using the word “former.” I am a former science-fiction writer and editor, former publisher… Read the rest of the article: Yet Another Guest Blogger Signs In