What a most excellent collection of images.
http://datacide.c8.com/what-is-this-future/

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Next time somebody tries to tell you that big pharma is hiding medical cures, or the illuminati, sorry, the 1%, are manipulating world society, or big oil invaded Iraq, or similar conspiratorial bullshit, just say:- 

"That's all a bit 'lizard people', isn't it?"
[from: Google+ Posts]

After the Big Bang is it Space-Time that expands or the distances between the things in it?

Something I continue to have trouble getting my head round is the idea that there are bits of the universe that are so far apart (and accelerating away from each other) that there hasn't been enough time since the Big Bang for light to travel between them. So there's a kind of quantum foam of light cones that can't interact. But if nothing can travel faster than the speed of light, then how did these bits of stuff get further apart than light could travel in the available time?  

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_expansion tries to explain this and I think I'm beginning to get it. It also helpfully points out that lots of highly qualified physicist have trouble with understanding this as well so it's not just me! There are bits of it that still feel like handwavium. In particular it feels a bit like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copenhagen_interpretation in that it's only difficult to think about because you're treating the equations as objective reality. It's all very well to say that it's space-time that's expanding not the stuff in it but, but, 

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[from: Google+ Posts]

What do we want?
Evidence based medicine.

When do we want it?
After full, transparent publication of all trial results both future and historical, peer review and without being encumbered by long term patents.

And we want our governments to subsidise this for the good of society as a whole and to properly enforce the rules with realistic penalties. And without the market being hopelessly skewed by mandated oligopolies bought with high priced lobbying. And without government money being wasted on high priced stockpiles that do nothing. (like Tamiflu: here's looking at you, Roche).

As the article points out, EU regulations pushing for greater transparency on clinical trials are a good thing, but not if they ignore historical results and are never enforced.

https://www.pirateparty.org.uk/party-magazine/clinical-trials-and-tribulations-role-europe

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Global Warming won't be as bad as the IPCC predict and will peak at the low end of their predictions.

Because society will have collapsed by then.

So that's all good then!

http://ourfiniteworld.com/2014/04/11/oil-limits-and-climate-change-how-they-fit-together/

ps. Have you noticed how 2030 is no longer the far future? The doomsayers are predicting major disruption by 2030 which is now only ~15 years away.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

There's really only one choice left for the US Republican Party:

Vote Putin-Palin in 2016!

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/pix/Vladimir-Putin-riding-a-bear.jpeg
IN PUTIN'S RUSSIA, BEAR BAREBACKS YOU!!

via
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/04/books-i-will-not-write-yet-ano.html

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[from: Google+ Posts]

The best thing about the end of life of Win XP is that Microsoft will stop:-
- forcing a monthly reboot
- popping up messages about updates being available
- filling up the hard disk with update roll back files
[from: Google+ Posts]

The #FridayNightCocktail

This one has no name yet; feel free to suggest one. It's the martini glass version of a variation on a Boulevardier.

- 60ml Bourbon
- 15ml Aperol
- 15ml Carpano Antica (Probably the best red Vermouth)
- Dash of orange bitters
- Stirred, martini glass, orange twist.

Somewhat like a Manhatten, somewhat like a Boulevardier. Somewhat like a Valentino. Softer than any of them but still a manly drink!
[from: Google+ Posts]

One of the social problems of having no job or no conventional job is finding answers to that awkward question, "What do you do?". These days, it's couched slightly differently, just before the rant about unemployed, suntanned men on benefits shirking in the pub, "So have you retired?".

One solution is simply to lie. "Well I'm mostly resting, but I'm also doing a PHD in PsychoGeography". But then Charles Stross came up with this in the comments to his article comparing Osbourne's call for full employment to the return of slavery.

"I have found that answering the 'what do you do' question with 'I tell lies for money' really weeds out the sheep from the goats."

Oh yes. 'I tell lies for money' is exactly what an awful lot of us do and did in our normal white collar jobs. Or is that too cynical even for moi?

http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2014/04/a-nation-of-slaves.html#comment-1951978

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[from: Google+ Posts]

So farewell then. Frankie Knuckles has left this thing we call House Music. And the piano looped over and over.

Frankie Knuckles Boiler Room NYC DJ Set

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[from: Google+ Posts]

So farewell then, last.fm radio. I used to be a big fan and contributed code to make it possible to stream the radio into winamp. But using the radio though the API was dropped a few years ago and I always disliked the official player so I haven't used it in quite a while. I even had a subscription once making last.fm one of the very, very few things on the internet I've ever paid for. And way back when they operated out of a loft above a Whitechapel sweat shop and lived in tents on the roof, I even went for an interview for CTO. I've now got 112492 plays since I joined in 4 Apr 2004 (just coming up on 10 years). So I take last.fm's life and future a bit personally.

I'm sure I'll go on using the unofficial scrobbler for winamp and will still use last.fm for music discovery but even there, discogs is generally more useful these days. There is huge value in the audience generated wiki-style tags, artist descriptions, scrobbling, events and so on, but other people now do each piece of the puzzle better. 

CBS doesn't appear to know what to do with the property. Perhaps like AOL and Winamp they should put it up for sale. I kind of wish CBS would sell last.fm to Google but they would probably kill it. If there is some kind of future, then last.fm should go out of it's way to link to and partner with other services like Google Play, Discogs, Songkick and so on. But I suspect that just like AOL, Apple and a few others, corporate pride means they're unable to work with others. Google play especially really should have an official scrobbler for all the different platforms where Google Play Music is available.

http://www.last.fm/forum/21717/_/2226535/1
http://www.last.fm/user/jbond

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Nice little round trip on the bicycle in the sunshine today. I've now checked off the River Ching so only a couple of minor Lea Tributaries left to do. Enfield Lock, High Beech to the source of the Ching. Connaught Water, Woodford, Highams Park. Then just North of Banbury Reservoir to the Old River Lea, And then the Lee navigation towpath home. Almost all of that is off road with some good mountain bike trails following most of the Ching's course.

None of it's that hard to follow given a map, though I did get a bit lost in Epping Forest. Which way is South?

I can recommend the Lea Side Cafe, just here 
https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@51.610429,-0.041019,3a,37.5y,93.83h,86.94t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sgBZtj7pFlhrLw067rf1PcA!2e0
by the towpath. One of the best bacon sarnies and coffees I've had in ages. Not entirely sure what nationality they and they're customers are but I'd guess Turkish.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

So farewell then, Lucius Shepard. RIP.
http://boingboing.net/2014/03/20/rip-lucius-shepard-gone-too.html

Huge fan of his all the way back to The Scalehunter's Beautiful Daughter. Life During Wartime and Kalimantan also stick in the head in the same kind of way as Samuel Delayney's Dhalgren. There were lots of short stories too, Delta Sly Honey for one and the collection, Eternity and Other Stories for another.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

The Aeropress. Not only better coffee and just as easy as single shot systems like the Nespresso, but more environmentally friendly as well. Do you recycle your coffee pods? Even if you do, there's the oil used to produce disposable polymers, using a finite resource to create garbage because it's convenient. Coffee pods are not exactly the worst use of oil but they're symptomatic of the first world approach to resources. 
http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2014/03/coffee-k-cups-green-mountain-polystyrene-plastic

Meanwhile, the Aeropress needs a small redesign to make it a travelling companion. It needs a stainless steel re-usable filter (already available from 3rd parties[1]) and the plunger turned into a sealed compartment for coffee grounds (also already available[1]). And finally, a way of protecting the rubber bung without fully fitting the filter cap.
[1] http://ablebrewing.com/collections/products/

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Happy Equinox day!

March Equinox: March 20, 2014, 16:57 UTC (GMT)

http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/march-equinox.html

And no, it's not the last day of Northern Hemisphere winter or first day of spring. That was Feb 28-Mar 1. Take a look around the UK and Spring is clearly in full flow already with loads of Blackthorn, Cherry and Magnolia blossom and the first green leaves on the early trees.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Do you ever have days when life makes you despair and you want to just mash a Burger King Whopper into your face while sobbing uncontrollably to the sound of death metal?

It is not a lack of love, but a lack of burger king that makes unhappy marriages

No, neither do I.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Do you ever have days when you feel like this.
scrape mess

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[from: Google+ Posts]

Such commentary. Much thoughts.
From http://corydoctorow.net/post/78171742952

Is Red Bull the new CocaCola or Disney of imperialist aggression symbology?

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[from: Google+ Posts]

First world problems seen on a G+ comment. Ugh! So much fail here.

I've been thinking for a while about how to give homeless people money on the street now that I don't carry cash anymore. I think there can be a device of since sort that everyone would carry for that purpose. Of course, those of us with smartphones would use our bitcoin (or whatever) wallet app.
[from: Google+ Posts]

The first day of Spring is here. Since Winter was cancelled and we got an Endless Autumn instead, expect snow and blizzards any day now.

Meanwhile the new leaf, buds and blossom seem to be only days away. And the animal life is going at it in full noisy tilt with all the mating rituals as everyone pushes, shoves, shouts and sings in their quest for a mate.
[from: Google+ Posts]