Dear Peter Watts[1]: "please stop being right about things that scare the shit out of all of us." As one of the commentators says.
[1]Esteemed SciFi author.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Got my refund from Bloc2012. Spent it on a ticket to Standon Calling.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

A placeholder. RU Sirius documents some of his personal history. It's also a reminder of what was exciting me in the late 80s as I lapped up this stuff. And damn, was it ever exciting. Take this for a manifesto:-
What Are The Reality Hackers Doing
1: Using high technology for a life beyond limits
2: Expanding the effectiveness and enjoyment of the human brain, mind, nervous system and senses
3: Blurring the distinction between science fiction and reality
4: Making big bureaucracy impossible
5: Entertaining any notion -- using what works
6: Infusing new energy into postmodern culture
7: Using hardcore anthropology to understand human evolution
8: Using media to send out mutational memes (thought viruses)
9: Blurring the distinctions between high technology and magic
10: Replacing nerd mythology with sexy, healthy, aesthetic, & artful techno-magicians of both genders. 

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Can we please take this a step further and have it apply to the USA in general. If a post is not about the USA then it's not about the USA and comments should not reference how it would be relevant in the USA. So in a post about radioactive scorpions who eat puppies, "That's why we have the 1st amendment in this country" or "In the USA, scorpions leave puppies alone because they're armed" are not valid comments.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

An automatic post to a G+ Page via Hootsuite.

Zeitgeist - Decade Rhythms
The Rolling Stones and Beatles 50ths have prompted me to think again about the Decade Zeitgeist Rhythms. 

We all use a shorthand to talk about the recent past where we divide up the time into decades and expect our audience to immediately understand. So when people talk about "the 60s" or "80s music" we pretty much understand.

The problem is that the actual rhythm of change doesn't match up with the numbers. So here's a variation. If we look at several examples what we find is actually a three stage process.

02-05, 1st Wave
06-09, 2nd Wave
00-01, Hangover

The 1st wave begins once we're well into the decade and runs for about 4 ears. It starts when the pressure cooker of innovation and disatisfaction with the old order begins to boil over with something new. The 2nd stage is an equal or greater turn round the spiral and is often responsible for what we then go on to apply to the whole decade. Then we have a short period of pre and post decade angst that is something like the hangover after new year's eve. So this is a 10-4 rhythm broken into 2 bars of 4-4 and one bar of 2-4 (The-Main-Ten/Playing in the band by the Grateful Dead!). 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4, 1-2 So for instance take the 60s. On this basis 1960,61 are actually a hangover from the 50s, JFK has been elected but hasn't had a chance to really get going. Music is still stuck in old school rock'n'roll. Then in 1962 The Beatles and Stones form and all hell breaks loose for 4 years. In 1966 something happens to take this youth culture into left field. We then get 4 years of hippies and psychedelia. In 1970-71 there's then the tail end of the 60s hippiness as there's a recapitulation and resolution. The pressure to change builds up and boils over in 1972 with the birth of Glam Rock.

1962 The English Invasion. Beatles and Stones. Pop-Art. Kennedy
1966 Boomers, Psychedelia. Johnson
1970 Altamont, IoW, numerous deaths. Leave Vietnam. Nixon/Heath.
1972 Glam Rock, Prog Rock - Spiders, Roxy, Dark Side of the Moon, Ford
1976 Punk (duh!), Carter
1980 Reagan
1982 2-Tone, Post-Punk, New Romantics, Madonna, Reagan/Thatcher
1986 Chicago & Detroit House, Golden age hip hop
1990
1992 Rave, Acid, Trip Hop, Clinton
1996 Hardcore, Garage, Drum and Bass, Big Beat, Clinton/Blair
2000 Bush
2002 IDM
2006 Dubstep
2010 Obama   
2012 Brostep

The problem is that the model holds up quite well for the 60s and 70s but fits less well for the 80s, 90s, 00s. I think I can feel the rhythm 80,82,86,90,92,96,00,02,06,10 but I have a harder time trying to names and faces to the peaks.

And now we get to 2012. We're half way though it and we should be able to feel the drop or the wave beginning to break that defines the next 4 beats. But what is it? Perhaps it started last year.

ps. As usual I'm mostly using music trends as a glass to look through. There are parallels in the other arts, social movements and of course politics.
[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Limits to Growth (again)

Read these. Do it now. You can skim read them as long as you grok the conclusions.

http://physics.ucsd.edu/do-the-math/2011/09/discovering-limits-to-growth/
http://cassandralegacy.blogspot.com/2011/09/cassandra-and-limits-to-growth.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limits_to_growth

If it's still TL;DR. then here's the precis.

1) We live in a closed system although it is one with a very high solar energy input.
2) Thus there are finite resources and finite limits on by-products such as pollution.
3) Growth in resource usage is exponential, human thought models things linearly.
4) There are delays in feedback.
5) Thus there is a lag in between our perception and the current resource usage and any actions we might take to mitigate it.
6) This lag is the source of the instability which makes overshoot and catastrophic collapse inevitable.

The thing that makes our current growth an existential threat is the fraction of planetary resources that are being controlled by humans at this point. There aren't really spare resources to provide a cushion to a shock.

Now for the tinfoil hat problem.

Imagine that there are some wealthy and/or politically influential people out there who understand this existential threat. If they wanted themselves and their descendants (ie their genes) to survive the instability what would they do? And would the policies and actions they take with this goal increase or decrease the threat? These people are not just in the West. 
[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Old Records outselling new records (in USA)
Takeaway quote: It could also be that the kind of people who still bother to buy music at all (either as physical CDs or legal downloads) are older, and thus skew away from buying new releases in favour of familiar favourites.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

So farewell then, Lol Coxhill. 'A true national treasure and a top geezer.' - John Lewis, Time Out 
http://blissout.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/rip-lol-coxhill.html

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Mammoth compilation of un-released tracks from electronicexplorations.org Some good stuff on here and he's one of the good guys so worth contributing £5.00 to keep the website and podcasts coming.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

10 Science Fiction Novels You Pretend to Have Read (And Why You Should Actually Read Them)
That's a pretty good list. And I'll claim to have read 7 of them.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Perhaps us Brits should all move to the west coast of Eire. At least then it will be supposed to rain all the time.  Galway was a lovely town when I last visited with just a gentle drizzle the whole time.
[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Keep Calm Until The Bass Drops

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Kindle-only book releases? What's wrong with dead trees?
[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

I know someone who knows someone who has a weekend ticket available at list price for Bloc 2012 if you left it too late.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

The Guardian (post)Subgenreifies 2012 music. Genius take out quote: "if you refuse to come up with your own name for the music you're making, eejits like us will have (to [sic]) do it for you."

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Here we go again. M/C parking charges in Westminster. Then Camden, Islington, Hackney, etc, etc.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

My ticket for Bloc2012 has just turned up. Excited, and just a little nervous about this.

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Yum. Affogato made from two shots of Veluto Nero expresso from the Algerian coffee stores and a couple of big scoops of Tesco Finest Madagascar Vanilla ice cream.
http://www.algcoffee.co.uk/scripts/prodView.asp?idProduct=30

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[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Just a link really so I can go back and find it again in August come the first anniversary of the London Riots.

"The question on people's lips is 'why are these people rioting', but perhaps the question should be 'why wouldn't they'?"

"Politicians can't see any political message to be drawn from the eruption into the public consciousness of thousands of people around the country with so little stake in society, so little to loose, so little to do with a long hot summer and no EMA, no spending money, no youth centres to do anything in that they're willing to risk jail time for the thrill of a firebomb and a new TV."
http://dominjapanround4.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/atari-teenage-riot.html
[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]