A doomer quant produces a plausible economic model for why the axe begins to fall in 2015 and the available solutions won't help. You scared yet? Don't mind me, I'm just indulging my usual pessimism. 
http://ourfiniteworld.com/2014/01/29/a-forecast-of-our-energy-future-why-common-solutions-dont-work/

The comment below caught my eye, especially in the light of the Cameron-Osbourne view of the world; that combination of austerity and fracking. I've been wondering what they know that we don't because their policies look so brutal and self(elite) serving. Perhaps they aren't showing any long term views on planning because they've been advised that there is no long term for business as usual. But there is short term mitigation that allows a select few to enjoy a wealthy lifestyle and use it to build a defensible position.

I am also wondering if this unusually coherent, world-wide motivation to forestall collapse implies a sort of stair-step phenomenon rather than a fast, continuous dropoff. Say, on a roughly 6-10 year cycle, we have a financial crisis and sharp economic dropoff, followed by a series of “extraordinary measures” to cloak the reality of the situation, ala 2008-2009, a few years of steady-ish state, then another crisis. Human misery spreads, but propaganda, financial market manipulation, and increasingly oppressive governments keep things from spiraling out quite as fast as you predict. Given the unusual shared-motivation of world powers to figure out creative new ways to coordinate on mitigating the crisis, perhaps this cycle might repeat itself 2-3 times before the stresses finally start toppling major governments. 

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Stories to help us imagine the future
The Archdruid uses a bunch of old SciFi books from his childhood to try and introduce a new way of thinking about the future via story telling. These are stories to help us make sense of a future after this civilisation has squandered its resources. But they're post-apocalyptic stories without the apocalypse. Somewhat like AD 700 Europe post the Roman Empire, where the artifacts remain but the social organisation is long gone. And done without the diabolus ex machina of a nuclear war or pandemic or whatever to bring civilisation crashing down.
http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/return-of-space-bats.html

- M. John Harrison - The Pastel City
- Edgar Pangborn - Davy
- Marvin Kaye and Parke Godwin - The Masters of Solitude
- Walter M. Miller - A Canticle for Leibowitz

This stems from a feeling that we currently only have two stories about the future. Either we have an inability to imagine a future that’s actually different from the present. Or the only alternative is no future at all. What we find difficult is a story of gradual decay of current structures allied to a transformation into something else. This is the danger of thinking that climate change or resource limits or whatever necessarily produce a Hard Stop. That's actually the least likely outcome. Our current institutions won't just stop over night any more than the baker stops baking bread because the government has been overthrown. Even in the local revolutions and wars of the last 50 years, life carries on.

I wonder if this inability to imagine the future is why 5 minutes in the future SciFi is quite common and appealing, as in William Gibson's collapsing present. As I've said before, accelerating exponential growth (reducing doubling times) means we've forgotten the past so it disappears from view quicker and quicker. We don't remember the lessons of the past because they're behind the wall of progress. And we can't see the future because the changes are coming too fast. So we sit in this bubble of the present where both sides are mirrors reflecting our present back at us. And that bubble is now months wide instead of decades. And that's not a good thing like some Buddhist detachment from the world of illusion but rather the madness of a disconnection from reality.

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The picture says it all

http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2014/01/signifying-nothing/
http://www.craigmurray.org.uk/wp/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/empire.jpg

Those serried American flags beneath their burnished and distinctly imperial eagles.

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It’s as though they think some good fairy promised them that there would always be enough energy to support their current lifestyles, and the only challenge is figuring out where she hid it.

http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/seven-sustainable-technologies.html

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Towards a new form of music criticism in a post, post[1] world.
http://www.tinymixtapes.com/features/the-trouble-with-contemporary-music-criticism

I especially liked the critique of List criticism that just gives you a
list of retro-historical references. I find myself wanting to do this all the time. "This sounds like that (and they did it better!)" As he says: This type of review says so little it might as well read: #ChewedCorners #Paradinas #chillwave #italodisco #pianohouse #hiphop #hardcore #footwork #UKfunky #house = 7.1/10. 

http://thefantastichope.blogspot.com/2014/01/further-to-this-debate-about-retromania.html has a dissenting view.

[1]Try this. http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/473/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page04.html#post84
Elsewhere in media art, the unprecedented use of the word “post” is unprecedented to the point where culture is so over itself to the point that what remains is a “super-hybrid” mélange of unicorns, kittens, animated GIFs of lactation, and the truckload of memes.

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On Silicon Valley "extracting financial value from the economy and transferring that financial wealth, which changes who holds real physical wealth, but doesn't much increase it." 
http://www.reddit.com/r/dredmorbius/comments/1vc481/howling_at_the_end_of_net_neutrality_and_an/

With a wonderful re-statement.

With apologies to Alan Ginsberg: I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by viral social media, screaming hysterically naked at video-advertising pre-rolls, dragging themselves through the mobile gaming marketplace looking for an angry fix, angelheaded hipsters burning for the ancient heavenly connection to the starry dynamo in the machinery of night.

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Yay! Looks like Winamp will be able to go on whipping the llama's ass.
http://www.engadget.com/2014/01/14/radionomy-acquires-winamp-and-shoutcast/ They've promised that development will continue.

I wonder what that means for the programming team?

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I'm a bit sad that the latest Mogwai - Rave Tapes is so forgettable after a first listen. Seems I'm not the only one.
http://www.drownedinsound.com/releases/18029/reviews/4147325

Slightly surprising because "Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will" was excellent, as was their soundtrack for "Les Revenants".

Never mind, I've got Grails for my Post-Rock needs and the tickets for the London gig (Dalston, 12 Mar) to prove it. "Black Tar Prophecies Vol's 4, 5 & 6" ‎ was a stand out from 2013.

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A 5 year retrospective on the Viridian movement 1998-2008
https://medium.com/5-viridian-years

Lots of brain food here. Now why are there so many quotes from Hakim Bey in the articles?

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ASAP - American Society of Adaptation Professionals. Climate change is inevitable so here's ASAP to the rescue.

Nice Acronym!

http://adaptationprofessionals.org/

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Gorgonzola as cooking oil in a Mondo2000 recipe from back in the day when The Cyberpunk Handbook was "edgy".

Slice two endives long wise and steam, strain and drain.

Take a large frying pan and get it medium hot. Take a big chunk of gorgonzola, maybe 1/4 lb, hack it into small chunks and chuck it in the pan. The cheese will instantly separate into golden oil and vile crufty scum. Skim out some of the scum if you must.

When the oil is sizzling, add the endive and turn the heat all the way up. Fry until slightly crispy.

While all that is going on, cook 1.2 lb of squid ink pasta in plenty of water until al dente. Drain. Toss it energetically with the juice of one lime and a cup of bruised blueberries. Add the crisp and scummy endive slices.

Slick grey pasta, with purple streaks and blue black beads topped off with strips of scummy gold-green, crispy, cheesy endive. Enjoy with something like Monster-Vodka-food colouring cocktails and a black light (Gin, Tonic, Colouring also works well).
[from: Google+ Posts]

The Mystic Borgeoisie
Every once in a while my news reader burps up a bunch of posts from back in the day. It prompts me to ask "where are they now?". And none more so than the Black Prince of Gonzo Marketing and the most interesting quarter of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Here's Christopher Locke deconstructing the denizens of the (mostly) Californian personal development industry.
http://mysticbourgeoisie.blogspot.co.uk/
Last updated 18-May-2010

seeAlso: https://www.facebook.com/kat.herding last updated 18 minutes ago

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#StopKillingCyclists in #yearofthebus

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5 companies who don't deserve any slack, any more. Because this is the whirlpool where Capitalism, Politics, Really Big Money, the Secret Police and The Internet collide and collude.
http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/01/07/five-companies-to-fear-fondly/

I'd probably add eBay/Paypal and Yahoo to that list. And Twitter.

And that's just the US ones and before we start talking about infrastructure or security people. Or the big hitters from SE Asia. And please explain to me again why these are more important than Shell, GlaxoSmithKline, Toyota or Monsanto.
[from: Google+ Posts]

Here's Bruce Sterling's State of the World 2014 conversation on The Well. So I will try this year not to let it get me too wound up and just lurk.
http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/473/Bruce-Sterling-and-Jon-Lebkowsky-page01.html 

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Anyone else fancy this?
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?546239
https://www.facebook.com/events/230888010414550/
Fri, 31 Jan. Autumn Street Studios, Hackney Wick. 
Live: Flako, Throwing Snow
DJ: Synkro, Ital Tek, Jonny Dub

Alight (Throwing Snow) - Iridis, Synkro - Lost here, Ital Tek - Control, all come highly recommended. And also Akkord and Indigo - Storm.

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[from: Google+ Posts]

9 Reasons Why 2013 Was Not The Best Year In Human History
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/12/16/3034511/climate-bad-news-2013/

If news about the world's environment scares you, please look away now. Nothing new to see here, move along. It's all doom, but you knew that already. This post is just troll bait. It's not my fault and anyway I won't be around to see it. Carry on regardless and continue to enjoy your SUV and 3rd world fine green beans while you still can. Maybe a 3rd runway and fracking will let us keep our collective feet on the accelerator pedal long enough to do, ugh, what?

Globally, we've probably hit peak kids and the birth rate is now below replacement levels ( Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - BBC Four http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24835822 ). But people alive now will live longer so total population will continue to grow for a while. It should peak at approximately 11bn and maybe we can grow enough food to avoid too much chaos as it falls back to a sustainable 3bn or so in a few hundred years. It's going to be a bumpy ride but we can get this sucker down on the ground in one piece for a soft landing that most of us walk away from. Or maybe human nature means the best we can hope for are pockets of sanity and not too much attention from the four horsemen.

Here's some stuff that may have happened in 2013 according to the article.
1. Global CO2 levels hit 400 ppm for the first time in recorded history.
2. It's getting hotter, faster. If you think that's on pause, you're looking at the wrong stats.
3. A huge number of animals and plants face extinction.
4. The world suffered deadly heat, drought, and wildfires.
5. Choking pollution shut down population centers.
6. Countries suffer disasters, but still commit to doing even less about emissions.
7. Sea levels broke records, amplifying the effects of storms and floods.
8. Much of the world is going double or quits on fossil fuels.
9. We are woefully under-counting methane emissions.

And I'll add to these,
10. We hit peak fish.
11. A few more multi-drug resistant bacteria appeared

And there's the catch with limited models and modelling. Perhaps population growth doesn't catch up with us, but exponential growth in resource use, energy use and pollution generation still does.

Here's a sound track from back in 1971 in a previous period of strong environmental consciousness. Marvin Gaye's "Mercy Mercy Me" (And it's got a saxophone solo) Marvin Gaye - Mercy Mercy Me (The Ecology) (Lyrics) Back then, we didn't think we'd last 10 years. Here we are 40 years later and it's all the same, just more so. The models can to be quite good at showing trends but they're not good on timescales. Perhaps in 30 or 40 years time our kids will be having the same conversation with their kids. "We got away with it so far. But it looks like you're screwed. Here's what they said in 2014 and it's still true, just more so."

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[from: Google+ Posts]

One of the joys of New Year's Day:

Getting "Happy Birthday" messages from minor social media systems and forums where you put in your birthday as 1/1/1970.
[from: Google+ Posts]

Jon Lebkowsky has been on social media hiatus for some time now. So I wonder if there'll be a "Bruce Sterling and Jon Lebkowsky - State of the World 2014" for me to rant at this New Year. 
http://www.well.com/conf/inkwell.vue/topics/459/State-of-the-World-2013-Bruce-St-page01.html

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[from: Google+ Posts]

The Bechdel Test

"Does a work of fiction feature at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man?"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bechdel_test

Very, very few pieces of modern entertainment and fiction pass this test. Why is that?

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