So when, as a Westerner, I watch the destruction of the Tie Xi district, it's impossible not to think of what was done in the 1980s to South Wales, to Sheffield, to the East End, Detroit, Ohio...we've heard the angry plaint of one worker, sent home with no pension after 30 years of service, who tells one of the film's many shabby offices that 'they said we had a job for life. Pensions, health care, a safety net. Doesn't seem likely now. They don't care if you get sick, much less if you die - and forget about a pension...Next thing you know, the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) will be renaming itself the Republican Party'. In China, too, the neoliberal restructuring has destroyed similar lives, thrown similar people on a similar scrapheap, with a similar total lack of support.

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

Thing is, when I landed on this miserable rock, there were only 4.5 billion humans on Earth. I had everything staked out - I was gonna conquer America, penetrate the Bermuda Triangle, play speed garage on the Great Wall of China!

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

I have weird theories and draw parallels between the two; how salt and pepper can be used as high and low shelving EQ and cooking is compression that flattens out the palette, amalgamating all the elements. The presentation of the meal is mastering.

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

Contour +2, wow! http://contour.com/products/contour-plus-2

The GoPro camera http://gopro.com/ was awesome and it was amazing to see how fast it made it into mainstream commercial tv like BBC2 nature programs. And also of course all those youtube videos of the wingsuit and stuff. Well it looks like Contour just raised the stakes significantly and all for $399.99

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

Ah, K-Pop, you so awesome. Nevermind Psy and Gungnam style, let's have a big warm welcome for Girls Generation!
GIRLS' GENERATION ????_PAPARAZZI_Music Video

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

On the retroptimism of the RNC. Bring back retro-futurism, we need a nice old-fashioned future.

Lovely Simon Reynolds piece on the hauntological ghost world of the Republican Party that is now completely divorced from reality, running on the fumes of it's own nostalgia.

Just take a look at the two major players.

Mitt Romney, born 1947, 21 in 1968. Formative music should have been Jefferson Airplane, Hendrix, Grateful Dead. Was probably Monkees. But grew up as one of the kids in Mad Men. His 10 year old self will remember his mother's certainties as stuck in 50s America. So inherent retromania is hardly surprising. 

It's Paul Ryan that is truly confusing. Born 1970, his mum should have had big hair and shoulder pads in 1980. But perhaps he was actually conceived at Woodstock. Formative influence at 21 might have been grunge. If he'd been in the UK he might have caught the energy flash. First sexual experience was probably watching Ron Jeremy.

The difference in ages does make you think Mitt might be the father Paul never had? So we get 50s certainties, grabbed and internalised by a 10 year old, re-inforced in the negative reaction to flower power, and then becoming a father figure.

Finally these two messed up psyches want to be the stern parental figures for the whole world, wagging their fingers and telling us to sit on the naughty step.

So did the Democratic party absolutely nail it (as Reynolds apparently thinks) with this video that turns them into a 50s Black and White newsreel? Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan Would Take Us Back--We Can't Afford That

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

9 Ways of thinking about science.
I approve of this message. I particularly liked "Science as Aesthetic".

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

In praise of the female roles in Blake's 7 and sadness at the inability of modern SciFi to have so few strong women who do anything other than provide some eye candy and romantic interest.

The real thing about Blake's 7 and Dr Who from that era was that all alien planets looked like a sandy tank-training ground in Surrey that's only a short van journey from Shepperton or White city studios and cheap for on-location filming. So it's entertaining (to me at least) that apparently Mars is exactly like that.

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

Seriously hot, Naga Chilli, dark chocolate bar. Discovered at the Benington Lordship Chilli festival over the weekend. As the owner described it, it does come on strong, grow to a peak and then plateau for a good 10 minutes.

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

Electric Bicycle market worldwide is huge, less so in the USA. Shock!

From the "X market will be Y big in Z years" school of analyst reports comes this tidbit. 2012 world sales of E-Bikes is 30 million with 92% being in China and only 89,000 in the USA.

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

"To these guys a race-deciding mistake is going a foot off-line once in a 45-minutes spent at lap-record pace."

Superb and enthralling MotoGP race at the weekend. And a dramatic contrast with WSB which while fun to watch was actually about who made the fewest mistakes. And boy did they all make a lot of mistakes.

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

Nothing to see here[1]. Move along. 

[1] At least not a whole lot of ice anyway
[2] Seriously, you can come and sail up my north west passage any time.

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

Two news reports, a day apart. Compare and contrast:

Afghanistan music festival organisers hope for repeat of last year's success
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/26/afghanistan-music-festival-organisers-success

with

Taliban behead 17 Afghan partygoers. Officials say 15 men and two women killed as punishment for attending a mixed-sex party with music and dancing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/aug/27/taliban-behead-17-afghan-partygoers

I weep for you, Afghanistan.

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

Nostalgic for the early 90s? Relive the good times with "Back To Reality". Not available in record shops.
[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

Why do the world's media apparently hate Assange so much and is it because they see him as competition?

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

Found this via a Guardian article about Assange. Here's the key quote.

"Third, that if you want a society where everyone hates each other, be sure to create as much competition as possible."

The article is worth reading because of the light in shines on actual hatred in politics and society and the some times absurd and dangerous actions that then result.

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

Revolutions tend to happen when the populace can no longer afford to eat and become a mob. Well "Let them eat McDonalds" Oh, sorry, wrong story. That was the Olympics.

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

Yes, mate. Photosynthesis in Aphids.
as Frederick Pohl famously remarked, it's not enough to predict the automobile. Science fiction's job is to predict the traffic jam that comes after.

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

How to make sure your music doesn't get downloaded for free from file sharing sites.
1. Name your producer alias after a Pokemon character
2. Name your EPs after Pokemon episodes
3. Rely on Nintendo to serve incorrect DMCA take down notices on any copies of your music that appear.
4. Profit!
Nice one, Indigo. For added confusion use a combination of strange capitalisation, spacing and foreign characters with multiple US english conversions so there's a bunch of potential spellings, none of which quite work in common search engines.
[from: Google Plus Public Activity Feed for Julian Bond]

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