The Blog
08 Jun 2013 Apparently it's not just car manufacturers who feel the need to re-invent the bicycle when designing a vapourware e-bike concept.
 Electric Bikes originally shared this post: Yamaha Sets Course for Future in e-Bikes TOKYO, Japan – Yamaha, the company that over a decade ago pioneered in e-Bikes with its PAS system, is once again taking the lead in technological developments for electric bicycles. The company is showing at the Tokyo Motor Show (October 24 – November 4) the ‘PASer’; a Star Trek looking e-Bike that features dual motor assist. One is mounted in the front hub, the other centrally in the bottom bracket and is integrated in the carbon frame. That also houses front & rear suspension. Remarkable detail: sensors pick up the rider’s heartbeat and adjust the power to match. All that is combined with an automatic transmission with electronic shifting. According to Yamaha’s R&D chief Yuki Hosoi it will not take long before a production version is offered. Eco-friendly two-wheelers like the Yamaha PASer are the stars at this year’s Tokyo Motor Show. With virtually no foreign participants the 41st Tokyo Motor Show is the playground of the Japanese brands. Green two-wheelers are featuring prominently in the Makuhari Messe. They account for many world premiers. The Tokyo Motor Show proves that the Japanese embrace vehicles with electric drive or hybrid drive as a major solution for the future. They were present on just about any stand in the three exhibition halls. Cars and bikes. And looking at the avalanche of two-wheelers with all possible variations in ‘e’ and Hybrid technology it’s obvious that these will play a starring role in that development. Even in future generations motorcycles, as Yamaha HV-X ‘technology display’ proves. The designers aim at a whopping 50 percent reduction in CO2 consumption. Interestingly, Yamaha have co-developed a two-wheel drive, 8-speed Nexus, 17 kilogram (carbon) bicycle for Lexus. The renowned automotive brand is thinking of a production version. Yamaha also showed the PAS Brace-L Special. An upgraded version of the electro-hybrid sports bicycle, aiming at maximum performance. It too has an electronic control of the level of assist in all eight gears in the hub. It weighs a slim 23 kilograms and has 240 Watts of power and a lithium-ion battery. Which by the way is the preferred battery choice in virtually all electric verhicles. On two and four wheels.  [from: Google+ Posts] [ 08-Jun-13 5:08pm ] 07 Jun 2013 Yay! Coffee will cure all your ills! And if you wear boot-cut or flares it will make you wear straights.
 [from: Google+ Posts] [ 07-Jun-13 7:50am ] No need to worry. Carry on regardless because that's what you will probably do anyway. This is just some parts of your government showing a rare case of realism and planning for an uncertain future. And it ain't looking pretty.
They're talking about 2040. But maybe they really mean 2020. Don't want to worry people too much. And although the paper is from the MOD, the analysis is from a Guardian Doomsayer. http://www.nafeezahmed.com/2013/06/shock-uk-ministry-of-defence-report.html#more Energy, environmental crises, imminent peak oil, food, water shortages, and sustained recession through to 2040 will create internal unrest. Says UK MOD. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 07-Jun-13 7:47am ] 06 Jun 2013 A (re-)found cultural object from 1976 and my deep and distant past. The USA's Bi-Centenary should have been a celebration but was also a very confused time for America that was just post Vietnam, Nixon's impeachment, Gas crisis and rationing, Altamont, Hendrix. Jimmy Carter was the counterpoint but most of the USA hated him for that. The president of guilt, not catharsis.
The whole Spirit - Spirit of '76 album has this wistful, stoned, blissed out - smacked out feel to it with loads of echo, reverb and phaser guitar. It feels to me like a lament from the Hippy-Boomers for lost opportunities. A reflection of the times. This opening track combines and merges America's other national anthem with Dylan's iconic "Times They Are A'Changin". Except it's not an angry warning the way it was in 1964 so much as sad and dazed and confused. Of course 1976 was also the height of Prog Rock, The Eagles, soft-Alt-country-rock and mere minutes before The Sex Pistols and all that BOLLOCKS. And it was only 2 years before Iran blew up, and the Russians invaded Afghanistan. So the times were decadent, ripe for a change and about to be a'changin in totally unexpected ways. Oh America; what happened to you? In the words of the last stanza of Burroughs' thanksgiving prayer. "Thanks for the last and greatest betrayal of the last and greatest of human dreams." ps. You gotta love a rock star with a name like "Randy California". pps. Bonus track. Cover of "Like a Rolling Stone" from the same album and in the same style. 03 Jun 2013 He may have been doing finals but still found time to do a May round up mix.
http://whitenoisereview.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/may-roundup-2013.html I haven't heard all of these, but there's some bangers in there. The blog is highly recommended by the way. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 03-Jun-13 1:39pm ] 29 May 2013 Already raining then,
http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/newssite-snaps-portraits http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/data/image/gf033%20-%20JOE%20RUSH%20FROM%20THE%20UNFAIRGROUND.jpg  News - Site snaps: Portraits »The Official Glastonbury Festival Website. Jason Bryant photographs some of the staff down on Worthy Farm this week [from: Google+ Posts] [ 29-May-13 9:04pm ] Got my tickets for tomorrow night's Akkord - Navigate launch on Houndstooth, Rob Booth's Fabric label. Looking forward to seeing DJRum again as well.
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?481944 Akkord, DJRum, Eleven8, Wen. Here's Akkord's Boiler Room set http://basinghouse.co.uk/news/akkord-boiler-room/   Akkord Boiler Room | Basing House of Shoreditch »Basing House News. Cityscape Sessions 077: Fairmont · Forget Me Not – The Stronger EP · Akkord Boiler Room · 1st June – Krush with Fairmont & Jim Stanton · 31st May – Hypercolour Pres. Losing Suki – FREE ENTRY · 30th May – Akkord – Navigate EP Launch (Houndstooth) · Pulse Radio interview Casino ... [from: Google+ Posts] 28 May 2013 Rather better article than usual about batteries and where battery tech is heading. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/05/28/hot_lithium_ion_batts/
It makes a refreshing change from the usual breathless hype of the (mainly) US tech blog coverage to see some real science and facts in there. The downside is that game changing battery tech is probably going to stay a permanent 30 years out. While there are a few more cycles of incremental change to be had, it won't give us the factor of 10 improvement we need. The available 20-30% improvement is still useful, especially if the costs can come down as well. This in turn means that we need to focus on reducing energy needs in battery powered devices as much as increasing the storage capacity. That's a good thing in itself. And for E-bicycles, I want the lifespan and relative safety of LiFePo, with the size, weight and high current capability of RC LiPo (LiCo) at about a 1/3 of the price. m'kay?   Hot new battery technologies need a cooling off period • The Register »Scientists began buzzing about electrochemical energy cells in the 18th century; consumers bought their first low-density Lithium-ion batteries in the late 1980s, and industry became hooked on the things in the 1990s. Ever since, the comedy electronic-device conflagration has been as much a ... [from: Google+ Posts] Look, a post in praise of the iPod Classic is bringing all these other fans out of the woodwork and people who also want an upgrade and a similar device with much bigger storage. Dammit, Apple, where's my 1Tb iPod Classic! It should be here by now.
http://www.engadget.com/2013/05/27/irl-ipod-classic-whosounds-tardis-bluetooth-speaker/ There's a small but real market for a portable device with >250Gb (and preferably 1Tb) of storage and a good audio output stage. If Apple won't build it, then who will? I do understand that the iPod Classic probably doesn't sell very well, have good enough margins and so make Apple enough money to justify the work. But that small demand for an iPod Classic update is still there. Meanwhile are there any alternatives for those of us with very big music collections and the need and want to take it all on the road? And no, Google Music (or similar streaming and locker services) is not a solution. We'll hit the 20k track limit, don't want to pay the bandwidth fees to access it and want access to all that music in places where connectivity is hard. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 28-May-13 8:24am ] 26 May 2013 Damn pesky kids. We would have got away with it, if they'd seen music - in terms of a dialectic in which there's a series of advances that entail jettisoning previous styles that have been superceded.
http://retromaniabysimonreynolds.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/who-are-you-2013.html [from: Google+ Posts] Thursday night, 30 May, London
http://www.residentadvisor.net/event.aspx?481944 Also got a ticket for the following night to see Cottam. If I've got the energy.  [from: Google+ Posts] Past club music as opposed to future. But as someone who was too old to be there at the time... It's still refreshing to have some happy drunk reveller put an arm round your neck at 3am in 2013 and say "I hope I'm having as much fun as you are when I'm your age".
And the piano looped over and over. http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/rave-video-comments-will-restore-your-faith-in-humanity  [from: Google+ Posts] It's still refreshing to have some happy drunk reveller put an arm round your neck at 3am in 2013 and say "I hope I'm having as much fun as you are when I'm your age".
Just try and remember that these are the days (right here, right now) that you'll look back on fondly at some time in the future. And the piano looped over and over. [from: Google+ Posts] 25 May 2013 Buzz data is going to be moved to Google Drive according to an email doing the rounds. This comment caught my eye though.
"Bradley Horowitz said at the time that the lessons that Google learned from the products short existence would be used in other services like Google+" So what features that used to be in Buzz do you wish were in Google Plus now? 1) A tab on profiles listing all my comments 2) An RSS/Atom feed of my public posts 3) Vanity Profile URLs for everyone 4) Auto-import of posts from feeds. But to a separate tab on profiles, not to our public streams 5) Easy Location tagging of public posts when using the desktop web interface. I'm sure there's more. [from: Google+ Posts] [ 25-May-13 8:35am ] There's an email from Google doing the rounds about the final act for Buzz. Our old posts are going to be archibved to our Google Drive, apparently.
http://thenextweb.com/google/2013/05/25/more-than-a-year-after-its-shutdown-google-to-move-all-buzz-posts-to-its-drive-service-on-july-17/ It's prompted me to go back and re-read my burblings from 2 years ago! https://profiles.google.com/106416716945076707395/buzz "Bradley Horowitz said at the time that the lessons that Google learned from the products short existence would be used in other services like Google+" I wonder what those lessons were. Because there's still some function that used to be in Buzz but is not in G plus, that I miss.   More than a year after its shutdown, Google to move all Buzz posts to its Drive service on July 17 »Google is taking the "last step" in its shutdown of its Google Buzz product. Starting July 17, the company announced in an email that all posts will be saved to Google Drive. Back ... [from: Google+ Posts] [ 25-May-13 8:30am ] 23 May 2013 Good interview with the Ginger Twat, or Tony Carter as he's better known. Familiar to anyone who watches motorcycle racing on Eurosport.
http://www.paddockchatter.com/2013/05/tony-carter-exclusive-2-stroke-passion.html [from: Google+ Posts] [ 23-May-13 8:30pm ] How should YouTube - Google Music - G All Access integration work? Given that YouTube is now one of the foremost ways of consuming music and especially very new, preview and obscure musics.
This question was prompted by Last.FM integrating videos from Muzu into their system. http://thenextweb.com/insider/2013/05/21/last-fm-joins-forces-with-muzu-tv-to-bring-90000-music-videos-to-its-internet-radio-service/   Last.fm joins forces with MUZU.TV to bring 90,000+ music videos to its Internet radio service »Last.fm has teamed up with MUZU.TV today to bring over 90,000 music videos to the Web version of its Pandora-style Internet radio service. The partnership will add relevant videos ... [from: Google+ Posts] [ 23-May-13 5:19pm ] It's a Bloody Mary, Jim, but not as we know it.
http://boingboing.net/2013/05/23/extreme-bloody-mary-wisconsin.html [from: Google+ Posts] [ 23-May-13 4:23pm ] Just seen in a comment:
Fossil fuels are made from once living things and burning them releases their joy back into the world Think about it. All that carbon locked up in fossil fuels is unavailable to photosynthesis and hence life's food chain. We're setting it free to be turned back into life. What's a few millennia and extinctions between friends? Which raises the question. If the industrial and anthropogenic total use of fossil fuels and other resources wipes us out, how many millions of years would it take to lay down another fossil fuel supply and for another intelligent animal to appear to make use of it? [from: Google+ Posts] 20 May 2013 This promises to be a good comments thread.
http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2013/05/the-language-of-alienation.html can you come up with some examples of sentences that would be incomprehensible (without explanation) to a denizen of 2003 that don't revolve around ephemeral tech or pop culture churn? And can you provide and deconstruct some sentences from 2023 that, if we had sufficient foresight, we ought to be able to understand and interpolate a context for? My fav so far. "Skype trojan forces Bitcoin mining, security firm warns" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22064534   The language of alienation - Charlie's Diary »Some examples, culled from reddit, to get you started: hang2er: "I can't get a 4G signal here, I'll skype you on my droid as soon as I hit a hotspot, I need a coffee anyway." Retinence: "The headline, 'Galaxy Nexus: Android Ice Cream Sandwich guinea pig.'" (But tech is easy ...) ... [from: Google+ Posts] 
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