Mat Bowles

The BBC's future

Wed, 08 Sep 2021 16:13:31 GMT

So, made a very long comment on an old contact (psythor) Substack, in response to his The BBC is heading into a death spiral and we should worry about it and having never commented there before it might've got lost in the shuffle

As I'm sat at my desk (weirdly, appears my desire to sit at a desk grows in August/September?), you lucky lucky people get to read it as well, just in case. I'm not formatting it too much tho because, well, effort ;-)

==
I think, overall, you're right, but...

There are two points regarding the BBC competing with streaming that are something that could be solved easily, because it's to do with the mindset within the Beeb

Because even on a much lower budget, they're not even trying--most of the bigger, succesful streaming shows, especially Disney, are genre based, superhero, SF, fantasy, supernatural. The BBC still, despite decades of evidence to the contrary, thinks of that as kids stuff, and therefore we get Doctor Who and occasional attempts to replicate a "family" show

The idea that YA/teens/40+geeky adults might want to watch genre stuff aimed at them is culturally beyond them (yes, I am still bitter they cancelled The Fades for spurious reasons)

The other is costs--a lot of the cost of US big budget TV is cast/crew, US shows famously overpay their stars by international standards, and that is dragging pay up in competing global sectors but...

The BBC can make similar shows, in a similar style, on a much smaller budget

The biggest problem is they don't, at all, want to try :-(

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HAVE YOU EVER: COOKING EDITION

Wed, 12 Aug 2020 22:39:55 GMT

Five years. Five years without posting. Oops, that wasn't intended. We've moved house, new desk I've setup with the laptop and a spare monitor--the linux desktop doesn't appear to have survived 6 months in storage, propably fixable, it''s On The List, but nowhere near top. Anyway, going to try to start posting regularly, because, well, Facebook is evil, Twitter sucks and Mastodon is a bit of a loss. So, memes are easy, right?

( long Q&A about cooking )

That was long. Oops, was meant to go to Tesco before it shut, ah well.

And the DW markdown editor doesn't like number dot format posts it thinks it's an ordered list, ah well, fixed now I hope

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Snack of the day: battered halloumi and quorn in a wrap

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 23:19:18 GMT

I love gram flour. It's awesome, you can do so many things with it and it's gluten free¹. OK, mostly what I do with it is make a batter an deep fry stuff, but that's just nice.

I've messed around making bhajis, pakoras and, well, stuff. Tonight, I went for chunks of halloumi cheese and some quorn cocktail sausages I'd forgotten to use when we had guests Sunday.

An ounce of flour, enough water mixed in gradually to make it a cream consistency, poured over the chunks of stuff then deep fried at 180°C until it's golden brown.

Because I can handle low amounts of undeveloped² gluten I've replaced wraps with my old approach to sandwich making, so while that cools a bit (the 180°C bit is your hint it's hot) I put some rocket (USians: arugula) and spinach (everyone: the stuff popeye got from cans, some dressing (Tesco cheap salad cream) then put the battered stuff in and wrap it up.

Lovely. And, vaguely, healthy, if you ignore the transfats from the super hot sunflower oil.

1) ground up dried chickpeas, also known as chickpea or besan flour
2) you know breads and pizza dough needs kneading? Yeah, that's to develop the gluten, if it's had that done I can't eat it

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OOOK!

Sat, 29 Aug 2015 01:09:46 GMT

by AnActionfigure, on Flickr

via: jimhines | Cool Stuff Friday and The old man of the forest | The Brothers Brick | LEGO Blog

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Science Fiction Double Feature redux

Sat, 22 Aug 2015 00:48:24 GMT

I still love Rocky Horror, despite the age now showing, especially with the gender politics stuff (it was radical and progressive at the time).

Going through my archives^[1] I found the video I posted 5 years ago has succumbed to bitrot and a takedown notice, so I had a quick look and found two alternative versions:

That one's just a different fan edit of clips from all the films referenced, I think it's fairly well done but for some of the clips I prefer this one:

Which claims to be close to what O'Brian wanted for the film before test screenings and similar.

Neither has the jarring NuWho Cybermen in that, I suspect, caused the takedown of the original, and I really love the timings of the film title sequences with the lyrics for the first. Anyone got a favourite?

1) For the London Calling 2014 Worldcon promo vid as it's far far better than the Dublin 2019 vid.

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Corruption scandals make good telly (and film)

Tue, 30 Jun 2015 14:30:36 GMT

7 film and TV series set in the exciting world of municipal government::

Gritty political thriller about a corruption scandal in which car companies buy up Los Angeles' streetcar network, purely so they can rip it up, thus forcing the public to buy more cars. Also features a cartoon rabbit.

By that strange bloke jonnelledge.

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Humans: Relentless, tribal pursuit predators

Mon, 29 Jun 2015 10:38:21 GMT

I like working on open source projects—just updated the gameplay description for humanity in Free Orion:

Description:
Humans are bipedal, clannish and omniverous, with incredible endurance capabilities. Humans evolved tool use in order to better hunt their pray, and would pursue much larger animals for days if necessary in order to bring it down and then eat it. Modern humans still have a strong fight or flight response but any threat an individual cannot handle will be met by a larger group working together to defeat it with overwhelming force. Humans have been known to eat items they know to be indigestible, simply to prove they can do it, and use toxic substances as seasoning to flavour their food.

Society:
Modern humans have formed geographic nation states with a strong basis in historic tribes. These states compete with each other, sometimes to the extent of going to war, while still cooperating on other issues. Differences over religion, resource use and even the correct way to cook a particular meal are still used to justify aggressive acts, and these wars act as spurs for further technological progress.

I took inspiration from two Tumblr posts which diverged from the same source in that annoying "how are you meant to follow all this" manner that Tumblr tends to encourage. I rather like that (the description was "Mostly Harmless", this is a bit more accurate).

We're working on the final coding for the next stable release (0.4.5) at the moment, test builds for Win and Mac are normally released weekly here and, well, a bughunt is ongoing.

It's a 4X space exploration and conquest strategy game, taking inspiration from old classics like Masters Of Orion but definitely not trying to ape them, although it's nowhere near finished, it's definitely very playable, if you like strategy games generally it's rather fun, more details on the FreeOrionWiki, but that's always out of date (every time I update a bit we do more work).

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Chilled citrus cheesecakes, individual serving & gluten free

Mon, 01 Jun 2015 12:57:37 GMT

My own recipe, adapted from multiple sources with some, *ahem* suggestions from friends. Multiple flavourings are possible.

You will need:

10-12 small glass ramekins (you can buy these in department stores, I use the ones that come with Gu Puds, we've got about 30)

For the base:

1 200g(ish) box fine milled oatcakes (I use Nairns which is 218g, I don't personally need to worry about buying the guaranteed gluten free ones which are more expensive, these are made in a factory that also makes gluten products)
125g unsalted butter
some sugar: I recommend a couple teaspoons of molasses sugar with the lumps broken up as best as possible and a couple teaspoons caster sugar.

For the topping:

one 250g tub ricotta cheese
100g white chocolate (I've tried other chocolates, it tends to not work, plus miss_s_b can eat white chocolate without risk of dying, which is good). I recommend Sainsbury Belgian Cooking Chocolate for cost/benefit quality wise

Flavourings:

Either 2 limes, zest and juice, with 2-4 teaspoons of ground ginger for taste (I think 4 is too much, others disagree)
or one large orange, zest and juice, 1-2 teaspoons cinnamon, 1-2 teaspoons nutmeg
You could almost certainly try other fruit+spice combos, this is what I've done, successfully, so far.

Method:

First, make the base: crush the biscuits as much as possible, you want breadcrumb style crumbs. Melt the butter in the microwave, careful not to overheat it. Mix the butter and the sugars thoroughly through the crushed biscuits, you should end up with a very loose, crumbly dough. NB: You can use 200g of any biscuits for this, including standard sweet digestives, but if you use sweet biscuits omit the extra sugar.

Share the mix out amongst the ramekins and press it into the bases, you'll likely get just over 1cm depth per tub, don't worry about exactness here. Put them in the fridge to cool.

Whisk the ricotta in a glass bowl. Using a different glass bowl, break the chocolate up and carefully melt in the microwave, if you're not used to doing this, full power for 30 seconds, bring out stir thoroughly, repeat until it's all just melted, be careful not to over melt as the chocolate can crystallise or otherwise stop being nice.

Whisk the melted chocolate into the ricotta. Then whisk in the flavourings. Share the topping mix about the ramekins, you'll find the lime is a fairly tough mix, you might want to add some more lime juice to soften it further, the orange will likely be a fairly loose mix depending on size and juiciness of orange. Try to press the mix down and spread it out.

Put back into fridge to chill for a minimum of 2 hours (the topping really does need to set). Serve and enjoy.

I am grateful to cosmolinguist and A_C_McGregor for their assistance putting the ingredients together yesterday and their, um, help in choosing the spice quantities—I suspect both would've happily put even more ginger in, but I think 4 teaspoons is too much.

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In Weird West America, Deputy shoots you

Wed, 13 Aug 2014 04:47:46 GMT

Doomtown Reloaded is launched at Gencon this coming weekend, with a worldwide release date set for September 8th.

Writing the official pre-launch FAQ for a card game from scratch is even less fun than I thought it was going to be. Doing it just from PDFs of the cards and rulebook? Yeah…

My brain hurts. Still, one of the AEG forum mods made this rather nifty set of Doomtown Avatars including ones scaled for DW/LJ size, so you get Deputy Wendy Cheng pointing a rifle at you for now.

There's even a chance I might consider changing my default icon, if I'm to be the Sheriff of this game then I might as well be the Sheriff, at least on occasions.

Reading around various news sites, and the pre Con buzz for several of them is that D&D5th and Doomtown are the games people are anticipating at Gencon. Given some of the other games launching, that's impressive. It also means a whole lot of geeky gamers asking me pesky questions for quite some time. Which, on the one hand, is good, a succesfull (re)launch means the game has legs. On the other hand…

Oh, I setup doomtown, but haven't a clue what to do with it yet.

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Lime and Ginger cheesecake

Wed, 14 May 2014 11:13:51 GMT

Just had a second slice, it hadn't quite finished setting before I turned in last night so a very late pudding. Based, loosely, on two recipe's in Mary Berry's Baking Bible but with a few variants of my own.

Ingredients:

The base:
Half a packet of Tesco Value Ginger Nuts (150g)
2 ounces butter (I used Tesco own brand salted, that's about 1/5th a pack).
1 ounce brown sugar (any will do, recipe calls for demerara, I used light brown baking sugar).

The Topping:
4/5ths a pack of Tesco Full Fat soft cheese (about 175g)
150 ml double cream (I used some cheap stuff)
1 tin condensed milk (again, one of the cheap brands is fine)
Zest and juice of 4 limes

And yes, I know I mixed imperial and metric in the ingredients list, it's fine.

You also need a 23cm cake tin or flan tin, I used a Sainsbury Cook's Collection springform thing I got in a sale awhileback, the Cook's Collection stuff is REALLY good but pricey, they put it on sale fairly regularly, buy what you can afford when they do, seriously. From experience, line the base of the tin with a bit of overlap, I didn't do this hence you're not getting a picture.

Crush the biscuits in a bag using a rolling pin or similar—an empty cereal bag is perfect for this, cheap thin plastic bags not so much, but I managed to avoid spilling too much…

Melt the butter over a low heat in a medium pan, once all melted remove from heat, mix in the sugar and the biscuit crumbs—note, don't do this in a milk pan, it's not big enough and you'll spill stuff (note the trend here). Once mixed in you'll have a nearly solid mix, push that into the base of the tin and put it in the fridge.

Next up, put the cheese, cream and condensed milk into your mixing bowl with the lime zest (but not the juice, yet). I heartily recommend an electric whick or mixer for the next bit, I bought a cheap one from Wilko last year and it's So Much Easier. Whisk all this together and keep whisking for a bit. Slowly start adding in the juice in small amounts, keep whisking. It'll start to thicken, for me it started to really thicken after the juice started being added so be careful from now on, miss_s_b tells me the acid in the juice reacts with the cream to thicken. Keep going, slowly adding the juice, until the mixture is very thick.

Now, pour, prod and spoon the cream mixture into the tin on top of the biscuit base. Try to get as much in as possible and resist the temptation to taste too much (I almost managed this bit). Put in the fridge to set, it'll take at least 3 hours in the fridge, probably more, overnight is best. Don't be tempted to take it out before set, it'll make a mess.

You can, if you want, put some whipped cream on top, top with strawberrys, etc, but I didn't bother, it didn't need it. Total cost about £4 depending on ingredient quality, plus £30ish of equipment, you could do it with a hand whisk but, um, you'll need strong whisking muscles.

Enjoy.

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Baked: Shredded Lime Cupcakes

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 23:11:52 GMT

Made these to follow on from Jennie cooking a sausage casserole (separate Quorn for me) based on a Grauniad recipe from yesterday, as the oven was on I made pudding. They're very nice, and very sour, citrussy cakes. And I really do mean sour.

Theoretically, I bake these so we've something nice to finish and some left for the next day. 12 of them, 4 of us, 3 each, they're all gone almost immediately, every time...

3 oz Butter/baking fat/margerine (softened if necessary)
3 oz Caster Sugar
1 large egg
3 oz Self Raising Flour
1 oz dry Semolina (or ground almonds or rice flour, I'm allergic to almonds so I substitute)
Juice of 2 limes (or just pour in what looks like enough from a bottle of lime juice)

Plus, for the topping

Zest of one lime, pared using a zester
Juice of 2 limes (or see above)
2 oz sugar (any, I used granulated)

Right, simple method. Preheat oven to 180^oC, 12 cake cases in a tray ready for you.

Cream the fat and sugar in a bowl until light and fluffy, slowly beat in the egg in smallish amounts (if you've never done this before say in comments and I'll do more detail). Add the flour and semolina (sifted if necessary to get lumps out), folding in, then fold in the lime juice. Divide into the cases and put in oven for 20 to 25 minutes.

In the meantime, make the topping, put your zest into a pan, add the juice and the sugar, mix it then put on the hob on a low heat, slowly bring it to the boil, stirring regularly. When it's boiling, lower the heat to minimum to simmer it until it turns into a nice sticky syrup, normally takes about 5 minutes. NB I did this bit while eating the main course, stirring regularly is not the same as stirring constantly.

Ideally, the syrup'll be ready just before the cakes are-they need to be a golden brown colour. Get them out of the oven, immediately prick the tops with a skewer or just a fork, then spoon some of the syrup (including zesty bits) over each cake, try to make sure most of it soaks into the cake not flowing over the side. It is a sugar syrup just off the heat, it will be HOT, bear that in mind.

When you've got all the syrup spread around the cakes, put them onto a wire rack and allow to cool until, ideally, actually room temperature, but normally they don't last long enough in our house. The syrup itself is very nice in small quantities on its own, but very sour. Which we like.

Right, job done. You can use the exact same recipt for oranges (one orange instead of two limes) or lemons (1 and a half lemons), and theoretically more sugar in the syrup'll reduce the sourness, but I wouldn't want to. You could also add a bit of ground ginger to the cake mix (for lime) or ground cinnamon if you're doing the orange variant.

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A medical statement of the obvious

Wed, 17 Oct 2012 13:47:03 GMT

I've had maybe 10 hours proper sleep in the last week. As a result, my Doctor has prescribed me some sleeping pills, Promethazine Hydrochloride.

I collected them from the chemists on the way home from work and have just opened the packaging. Instructions are:

Take ONE at night
WARNING. THIS MEDICINE MAY MAKE YOU FEEL SLEEPY...

Really? Pills I'm supposed to take at night to make me go to sleep may make me feel sleepy and I need to be warned?

Thanks, wouldn't have figured out that sleeping pills might make me sleepy...

(Ok, the rest of it is the standard don't drive or do silly things after taking it, but, really, they actually need to warn people this?)

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NHS Reform, the bill "no one voted for"? No, not really.

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 05:34:27 GMT

Jennie links today to an article on the OpenDemocracy website about the BBC coverage of NHS reforms. I'm afraid I didn't finish reading it. I generally have a little rule, if I'm reading something that claims to be factual and come across something that's egregiously annd blatantly false, I find it hard to take anything else it says seriously, if it gets something wrong that I know to be wrong, how many other things wrong are there that I don't know about?

If the article is headlined two years of censorship and distortion , then I expect it itself to not distort facts. That's fair, right? So, here's the the first substantive point the article makes:

1) Legitimacy – the bill no one voted for

In the run up to the 2010 general election, David Cameron frequently pledged that under a Conservative government there would be “no more top-down re-organisations” of the NHS.

Note, no citation there; he only actually said that once that I'm aware of, in a speech (a long time before the election as well). But how many times have you heard politicians and activists and campaigners opposed to NHS reform parrot that line out?

It's a lie. It's not true. Anyone saying it is either willfully distorting the facts or hasn't bothered to check them.

Y'see, Page 45 through 47 of the Tory 2010 manifesto^pdf includes such things as

We have a reform plan to make the changes the NH S needs. We will decentralise power, so that patients have a real choice.
...
We need to allow patients to choose the best care available, giving healthcare providers the incentives they need to drive up quality.
So we will give every patient the power to
choose any healthcare provider that meets NH S
standards, within NH S prices. This includes
independent, voluntary and community sector
providers.
...
We will strengthen the power of GPs as
patients’ expert guides through the health
system by:
• giving them the power to hold patients’
budgets and commission care on their behalf;
• linking their pay to the quality of their
results; and,
• putting them in charge of commissioning
local health services.

Centrepeice of the manifesto. Couldn't be clearer. That article starts with a lie, and then builds on it, therefore I gave up.

Saying "I disagree wtih this" is fine, in 2010 I was out there campaigning heavily against them, but saying "no one voted for it" is a blatant lie. 44% of voters in my constituency voted for a candidate backing these reforms. 39% did nationally.

The Big Lie is beginning to spring to mind about this one.

Wouldn't it be nice if the opponents of measures would actually argue their case? Y'see, I don't know what to think about the Govts NHS reforms, but when those opposed spend more time lying about them, distorting facts, scaring people, and similar than they do actually addressing the substantive issues, it doesn't make me think they've actually got valid arguments. If they did, why lie all the time?

How about you?

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It was thirty years ago today...

Wed, 03 Oct 2012 22:30:41 GMT

Well, actually, thirty years and two days ago, the first commercial CD was released^via.

Which got me thinking. I bought my first CD player, and my first 2 CDs, on holiday in France (I'd been saving up for ages to buy one but the holiday cottage Dad'd rented was so horribly remote we were dying of boredom in the evenings). They were:
The Beatles Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
The Art of Noise The Best of The Art of Noise

I was approximately 16, so this was roughly 1990. I've still got both.

What was the first CD you bought, if any, why, and how old were you?

(yes, the title is inspired by the opening song on the first CD, for those that would otherwise insist on asking the obvious)

(And yes, it's been over a year since I last posted, no particular reason, but, y'know, this seemed like a good idea for a post so I'm posting it)

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Clegg commits shared parental leave as Govt policy-Yay!

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 15:01:23 GMT

Clegg's speech at conference includes the line

A new economy that works for families. Where men and women can choose how to balance work and home. That’s why Liberal Democrats are bringing in shared parental leave and more flexible working.

This is a very cheering thing to see. I knew it was likely on the cards and was being worked on, but actually having it confirmed in the Deputy Prime Minister's conference speech is a very cool thing.

Because, basically, it's my idea and policy. It wasn't just me, but when I first took Jennie to conference she stewarded a consultancy session and suggested it to the policy working group that included people who're now ministers. At her next conference when she was a fully accredited voting rep, it was in the policy paper that working group created out of the consultations. Jennie swears it wasn't just her talking about it, but I wasn't there & I know she did propose it.

But we'd been talking about it at home in advance as it was something I felt would be very helpful, not just for our family arrangements but also to help solve ongoing disparities. Scarily? I first started thinking about it after Tim Worstall convinced me maternity leave was a big contributor to the gender pay gap issue, both directly and through covert discrimination. So, there we go. A flagship policy that grew out of a conversation I had online with a former UKIP press officer and candidate...

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Interesting Links for 29-8-2011

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 15:02:25 GMT

Collected links from around the web

The Grand Moff's inspiration? - I did post some links to a Dr Who blog that might interest

I called what the title meant ages back (and if anyone can tell me where I did it as it wasn't a post I can find I'd be very grateful), but the Wikihistory story is just brilliant *anyway*, so you should read it.

(tags: Doctor+Who steven-moffatt)

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Interesting Links for 27-8-2011

Sat, 27 Aug 2011 15:01:52 GMT

Collected links from around the web

Want a friend/relative to fix your PC? Read this first. Really really read this. Kismet on timing

I was going to link to this when I next did a linkdump anyway, but today the timing's awesome.

(tags: funny humour computers family)

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Absolutely Fabulous anniversary specials

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:53:34 GMT

Absolutely Fabulous tickets. I post this not because I'm interested in attending (although you may be). I post this because of the bits I've put in bold.

Absolutely Fabulous
BBC One | 9, 16, 23 September

The cast reunite for three 20th anniversary specials.

Due to the popularity of this show we are operating a random draw for tickets.

You can apply for tickets at any time until Thursday 1 September at 4pm.

You can apply for a maximum of two tickets and one recording per household.

Good luck with your application.

All information is correct at time of publication.

Absolutely Fabulous is 20 years old.

I am coming to terms with the idea that in two weeks time I will become 37. I am coming to terms with there being junior Govt ministers younger than me. I am coming to terms with being served by people who weren't born when I was their age.

But Absolutely Fabulous is twenty years old? Seriously?

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Bucky does Einstein - E=MC2 explained in a telegram

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 16:27:47 GMT

How cool is this? Letters of Note:

Back in 1936, renowned sculptor Isamu Noguchi was in Mexico working on a 72-ft-long public mural when he hit a snag: for some reason, he couldn't precisely recall the famous formula, E=mc². Rather than risk a mistake, he decided to seek advice and wired his good friend, Buckminster Fuller — a famed architect and great admirer of Einstein — for clarification.

I find telegrams almost impossible to read (ALL CAPS SHOUTING IS HARD OK), so while there's a picture of the telegram and a transcription, I thought I'd try some CSS to get rid of the caps without needing to retype the whole thing:

EINSTEINS FORMULA DETERMINATION INDIVIDUAL SPECIFICS RELATIVITY READS QUOTE ENERGY EQUALS MASS TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT SQUARED UNQUOTE

SPEED OF LIGHT IDENTICAL SPEED ALL RADIATION COSMIC GAMMA X ULTRA VIOLET INFRA RED RAYS ETCETERA ONE HUNDRED EIGHTY SIX THOUSAND MILES PER SECOND WHICH SQUARED IS TOP OR PERFECT SPEED GIVING SCIENCE A FINITE VALUE FOR BASIC FACTOR IN MOTION UNIVERSE STOP

SPEED OF RADIANT ENERGY BEING DIRECTIONAL OUTWARD ALL DIRECTIONS EXPANDING WAVE SURFACE DIAMETRIC POLAR SPEED AWAY FROM SELF IS TWICE SPEED IN ONE DIRECTION AND SPEED OF VOLUME INCREASE IS SQUARE OF SPEED IN ONE DIRECTION APPROXIMATELY THIRTY FIVE BILLION VOLUMETRIC MILES PER SECOND STOP

FORMULA IS WRITTEN QUOTE LETTER E FOLLOWED BY EQUATION MARK FOLLOWED BY LETTER M FOLLOWED BY LETTER C FOLLOWED CLOSELY BY ELEVATED SMALL FIGURE TWO SYMBOL OF SQUARING UNQUOTE

ONLY VARIABLE IN FORMULA IS SPECIFIC MASS SPEED IS A UNIT OF RATE WHICH IS AN INTEGRATED RATIO OF BOTH TIME AND SPACE AND NO GREATER RATE OF SPEED THAN THAT PROVIDED BY ITS CAUSE WHICH IS PURE ENERGY LATENT OR RADIANT IS ATTAINABLE STOP

THE FORMULA THEREFORE PROVIDES A UNIT AND A RATE OF PERFECTION TO WHICH THE RELATIVE IMPERFECTION OF INEFFICIENCY OF ENERGY RELEASE IN RADIANT OR CONFINED DIRECTION OF ALL TEMPORAL SPACE PHENOMENA MAY BE COMPARED BY ACTUAL CALCULATION STOP

SIGNIFICANCE STOP

SPECIFIC QUALITY OF ANIMATES IS CONTROL WILLFUL OR OTHERWISE OF RATE AND DIRECTION ENERGY RELEASE AND APPLICATION NOT ONLY OF SELF MECHANISM BUT OF FROM SELF MACHINE DIVIDED MECHANISMS AND RELATIVITY OF ALL ANIMATES AND INANIMATES IS POTENTIAL OF ESTABLISHMENT THROUGH EINSTEIN FORMULA

BUCKY

That's Richard Buckminster-Fuller explaining Einstein in a few sentences. I now need to go close about 50 billion wikipedia pages on various related subjects including Fullerenes, carbon-nanotubes and space elevators. But I felt the need to share

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Interesting Links for 16-8-2011

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 15:02:07 GMT

Collected links from around the web

China plans massive international high speed rail network, could go from Singapore to London

How cool would this be? That China also expects international travel to be more and more common is indicative of movement in certain other areas as well. Would be great if it can happen, suspect logistics are going to be a headache though.

(tags: transport china railways)
Apple's Profit Share Among Top Mobile Phone Vendors Rises to 66% - iPhone clearly overpriced?

Look at that change in fortunes-Nokia once taking a massive slice of smartphone sales profits, now making a loss on them and Apple clearly way out ahead.

(tags: apple mobile-phones)
Spatial Economics: why central London is short of retail space - I love learning this stuff

I love this sort of thing, using the opening of a new fashion store to understand more about the dynamics of an environment.

(tags: economics london shopping)
30% of passengers take longer routes as London's Tube map misrepresents distances between stations

Follow up from the link the other day about the redesigned map, one of the reasons why changing might be a good idea.

(tags: london maps london-underground tube-map)
Andi Osho's dating experiment continues | she's still single. This is wrong.

Still no luck in Edinburgh for Andi. She needs to tour the country and come to West Yorks.

(tags: Andi-Osho comedy relationships)
Android sales through roof, RIM & Nokia holding steady(!), iOS OK, WinPhone7 plummets

Actual sales figures as well as market share. Nokia's Symbian, despite the announcement that it's being canned, still outselling iPhone's and only a small drop in total sales. Android through roof, Windows plummetting, Blackberry up in sales, down in %age, to be expected. Hell, Samsung's new Bada outselling MS. App devs and companies advertising apps need to look at actual figures before going large on advertining their iPhone apps. Silly hype believing marketers.

(tags: mobile+phones android nokia)
Google, Motorola, and a Patent War - Patents, create a tax on innovation. it’s a tax that Google has just paid heavily.

More analysis of the Motorola purchase, even if it's defensive purchasing, it still stinks that so many stupid software patents exist for competing ideas, utterly ridiculous setup that discredits the whole IP system.

(tags: google patents motorola mobile+phones)
Yowsers, Adenauer proposed swapping West Berlin for parts of GDR

To stop the wall, Adenauer proposed a teritory swap. I think that goes nearer the top of my list of counterfactuals that're worth thinking about.

(tags: Germany Berlin history)
Gorgeous planet art | Bad Astronomy on Duhrer's work, with some explanations

Phil Plait goes into more detail on Fuhrer's images, worth a read

(tags: astronomy planets solar-system)
David Fuhrer's planets-gorgeous 3d rendering on the solar system, full size better

Some absolutely stunning renderings of the planets, including some in scale to each other. Dodgy JS gallery makes seeing them in full size harder though, if you right click and 'view image' you should get the actual full size stuff, really worth it

(tags: planets astronomy art solar-system)
Google says "Hello Moto" in blatent patent trolling aquisition

Ye gods, the patent wars continue.

(tags: android google motorola mobile+phones)

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Interesting Links for 15-8-2011

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 15:01:35 GMT

Collected links from around the web

David Starkey is wrong, plain and simple – @Miss_Snuffy's demolishes those defending Starkey's racism

I've rewatched Starkey's train wreck of a Newsnight performance twice now, and I've read both Toby Young and Jerry Hayes defending what they thinks he meant to say. I suspect, actually, that they're right about what he was trying to say. But he used such racist language in such a dismissive and stupid way that he was, quite simply, wrong. Here's hoping he'll stop getting invited on shows like Question Time to rudely talk over every other panellist and refuse to let anyone else get a word in edgeways. If I never see him on TV again I'll be happy. Man's an arse.

(tags: David-Starkey Katherine-Birbalsingh education racism london riots)
Rethinking the Tube map - I quite like the new alternative design, makes location easier to picture

I like the existing map, but it can't half be confusing at times. Stations that're around the corner from each other look like they're miles apart, lines that go straight up actually curve around half of London, etc. And the Overground and other new additions look stupid on it. Why not start from scratch, apply the same basic principles, and see what comes out?

(tags: london london-underground maps design)
Post-Conflict Potter - Foreign Policy journal covers conflict resolution and rebuilding. In the Potterverse

"the defeat of Voldemort by Harry Potter may have been the easy part. Indeed, one might even say it was child's play. The hard work of postwar stabilization still lies ahead. " Not sure I agree with all of their proposed ideas, but I'm ten years out of date in the literature, perhaps readers with more hands on experience in the area might contribute an opinion?

(tags: analysis harry-potter politics foreign-policy)
Apple blocks Samsung tablet from EU markets | WTF? "the order was issued without any hearing"

The interminable patent disputes with the higher end tech markets are really getting to me now, the whole area of law seems in major need of reform, two major trading partners are also suing each other for ripping each other off, etc etc. But to block sales of a product line without hearing or notification? Something wrong with that.

(tags: patents Apple Samsung)
Speculation doesn't increased commodity prices-it stabilises them

If there's a sudden shortage in a commodity because, say, the wheatfields in Russia go up in smoke, then prices rise, partially due to speculators investing. But that rise in prices encourages more production of the commodity, seeing prices start to fall again and stopping massive peaks and troughs in prices. After a lot of reading around this, I've come to the conclusion that the futures market is actually a Good Thing within the current trade framework. This surprised me, but the evidence is clear

(tags: economics speculation)
Sarcastic Responses To Well-Meaning Signs | a couple are a bit off, but...

A couple are, well, offensive, but most are well done and funny

(tags: humour)
The 5 Biggest Disasters in the History of Marketing Ideas - they can't count, it's 6 disasters

Number one is two separate case studies, both ridiculously dull. Nice to see Britain punching above its weight in the stupid department again.

(tags: marketing advertising sales-gimmicks stupidity)

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State of decay?

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 07:18:27 GMT

This pretty much sums up the reactions of large swathes of talking head commentators over the last week:

When I look back to what I've read about previous riots in London over the centuries, when I look at corruption scandals or financial collapses, it really does put into perspective how lucky we are and have been.

I mean, seriously, riots across all of London, ~~no one~~ very few killed^[1] and the London murder rate actually goes down?. Total deaths nationally five, including three men run down by a car.

The bankers are finally brought down, not by deliberate deceit, not by active fraud or theft, but by incompetence and optimism.

Parliament is brought into disrepute in a corruption scandal. What over? A few grand on a duck house, a few grand over claimed on a mortgage, etc. Compare that to many other countries today? Compare that to corruption scandals in the past in the UK?

Moral decay? We've never had it so good.

Scary, isn't it?

ETA: Apparently there's been a death in Ealing that I had overlooked, the post is amended to reflect that.

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Electoral Reform Society elections - runners and riders

Sun, 14 Aug 2011 03:25:00 GMT

As a result of their free membership offer, I joined the ERS in July, and received my ballot papers for their Council elections yesterday morning. Several people I know, including two old friends and a few new ones, are competing for my vote. So I need to think it through and prioritise people.

One of the candidates, Chris Carrigan, has written some notes on the elections on the Reform groups site, which was founded in large part by activists heavily involved in the Yes referendum campaign who were very disgruntled with central leadership. I, broadly, shared those worries and concerns, and will be giving those involved, broadly, fairly high preferences, although nowhere near the order Chris has outlined.

Partially because Andrew Hickey has raised some concerns having read through the full set of manifestos already and noticed things I didn't. As I've said in the comments there, I know in some cases his concerns aren't justified, but can't say that for all the candidates.

So, I still need to decide my full running order, but the early ones are fairly close to fixed in my mind.

( 1 - Thom Oliver )

( 2 - Paul Pettinger )

( 3 - Arnie Craven )

( 4 - Jessica Asato )

( 5 - Andy May )

Up to now, all those I've listed have been pro reform of the way the ERS works, although the top two aren't on the Reform slate. My sixth choice? Is the complete opposite of a reformer. He's someone who's talents and abilities I have so much respect for that even if we do disagree on the future of the society, I'd want him to be heavily involved and giving the benefits of his decades of experience. I refer, of course, to ( 6 - Michael Meadowcroft )

To be honest, due to my knowledge of how STV and vote transfers work, I'm not sure after the last three I'll have much left to transfer on to others as I suspect and hope the last three I list will definitely get elected due to name recognition. Consequently I'm open to suggestions for my remaining preferences, I plan to vote for at least 15 people (the size of the Council), but a small fraction of quota after Michael gets on is likely largely irrelevent. Worth paying some attention to though, as I may be completely wrong and misread the field.

I'm also open to persuasion/suggestion if you know anyone else on the candidates list personally or politically and feel I've unfairly overlooked them. I may simply go with the order from Chris's above list, but I'm not sure how confident I am about some of those he favours. For example, Amisha Ghadiali is [one of] the only [two] visibly BAME candidates, and she appears competent, however her statement both on the website and in the ballot pack is riddled with typing and spelling errors, in one case her actual meaning is unclear. While I'm notorious for typos and similar, if I'm submitting something important for campaigning purposes, I always get a competent proofreader, that's just basic.

To most of you, of course, this is all completely irrelevent, as membership of the ERS is an unusual thing to say the least. However of my personal friends, the proportion involved is higher than the general population, and I welcome feedback from anyone with any interest or knowledge.

ETA: It's been pointed out in comments that I overlooked Eric Syddique when I wrote that line, it's now amended.

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Best Bolero performance ever?

Sat, 13 Aug 2011 20:14:20 GMT

OK, so you're in the main train station, waiting for a train. Then a bloke starts beating a drum. And a flute joins in. And there's a bloke waving a stick, and more people just start turning up. Isn't this cool:

The Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra decided to flashmob the local station.

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Interesting Links for 12-8-2011

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 15:02:06 GMT

Collected links from around the web

Disney bans Marvel UK from making comics. Yes, you did read that correctly

OK, it appears to be that they're not going to take original content from Panini owned Marvel UK franchise, but... It was Marvel UK stuff that got me into comics. Somewhere at my parents should be a copy of the Transformers issue that had the very first Death''s Head appearance. I got the complete run of both Dragon's Claws and The Sleaze Brothers. I started collecting Zoids because of the Zoids comic. Looks like we've only got Rebellion left funding original content over here now. Gap in the market?

(tags: comics marvel stupidity)
New leukemia treatment exceeds 'wildest expectations' - cure for cancer on the way? Using HIV? Holy shit

Very very early stages, very experimental, very weird. But a bloke given a week to live is completely cured? We are living in the future.

(tags: cancer science health)
Tachyon TV's take on Torchwood:Miracle Day– close to mine, it's shite

I was really looking forward to Mircale Day. Rusty on good form can be brilliant, give him a budget and co-writers like Jane Espenson? It should be brilliant. It's not. It's close to being unwatchably bad. It's not just that the politics make no sense, at all, even if there's a mass brainwash going on, it's that the whole thing just doesn't hang together. It feels both rushed and deathly slow at the same time. I won't bother watching it live next week, I'll catch up at some point over the weekend, that way I can find out what happened without hoping it might be good.

(tags: Torchwood)
Looters return stuff to Games Workshop - The Daily Mash | I worked for GW for ten years. This is what it's like

11 years of my life I spent working hell week after Xmas. More returns on one day than the rest of the year, guaranteed. I can so see this happening.

(tags: games-workshop looters london riots satire)
So, question. When's @AndiOsho next doing a show in #WestYorks?

I think the only objection Jennie's likely to raise is that she'd want to join in, but seriously, how is someone as attractive and funny as Andi Osho single and unhappy about it? What a weird world we live in.

(tags: Andi-Osho)
Egyptian Chronicles: This is not good for us Mr. Cameron

And, of course, if you declare it's OK for us to turn off communications, then it was OK for Mubarak. It wasn't OK for Mubarak, and Cameron said so at the time.

(tags: egypt social-media David-Cameron censorship)
'In defence of anarchy' - Boff Whalley (of Chumbawamba) - brilliant article

"Over the years, as a musician and as a writer, I've watched how traditional hierarchies in the workplace create divisions and arguments. I don't think I'm alone in not wanting to have a boss tell me what to do. I refuse to have a boss tell me what to do. The bargaining tool that's unspoken in that statement is that I will happily relinquish the power to tell other people what to do. That, for me, is anarchism. I won't order you about, if you don't order me about. And together we'll make it work." For those liberals unaware, JS Mill's liberalism and his views on economics were heavily influenced by Proudhon, and for a damn good reason. The Chumbas sometimes play gigs in pubs around here, I really need to pay attention to this and go see them soon. We'll be singing, when we're winning...

(tags: anarchism philosophy liberalism)
UK Prime Minister's Anti-Tech Crackdown: Stupid, Useless, and Wrong

More on the Cameron is a moron meme, with added censorship is bad goodness. However, the comments? All about gun control. Gotta love the US gun nut and the monomaniacal approach to everything.

(tags: politics David-Cameron freedom social-media)
Riot strategy-‘why calls for tougher cops are missing the point’ -someday, I may disagree with @johnb78. But not this day

John's spot on here. A select wuoted paragraph "These riots are the difference between WWII and Vietnam: the insurgents didn’t have a front line, but tried to appear, attack and disappear – and the authorities just didn’t know how to handle the new kind of conflict. Adding water cannons and CS gas into the mix wouldn’t have done anything to stop the looters, and I’m sceptical that rubber bullets would have achieved much. Live automatic weaponry would’ve done the job, but if you think that’s an acceptable solution to teenagers robbing shops, then you’re a dangerous lunatic who shouldn’t be allowed out in public." I keep looking at the YouGov figures saying 33% would've supported live fire. Then I go back and reread one of my many "why YouGove are talking bobbins" posts to make myself feel better.

(tags: riots london policing)
Six more arrests over Huddersfield disorder - they're trying to riot in Hudds? Better not hit Patriot or t'Parish

Ye gods, how stupid are some people? It only really worked in London as it was happening everywhere at once and the Met's always busy. Huddersfield? Gah! FWIW, I live just off Bradford Road, it'd be a bit of a walk but the Asda they tried to loot is literally "down the road from me", even if it's several miles down said road. Hang on. They tried. To loot. An Asda. USians? Asda is owned by Walmart. Says it all really.

(tags: Huddersfield riots)
Damn good presentation. - video on how people react to atheism and rejection

Seems to make sense, the reactions of a theist to finding someoen is an atheist are very similar to a suiter being turned down. Anyone know better? Definitely makes the rhetoric used worthy of thinking about a bit.

(tags: atheism psychology religion)
IBM Leads the Way in the Post-PC Era | bit of a puff piece, but interesting-agree with him on the Lenovo deal

IBM engineer bigs up how his company works. Bit of a "aren't we wonderful" feel to it, but I don't think he's actually wrong, getting out of the PC market, the market they effectively created, was a canny business move.

(tags: IBM computers)
Only 1.2% Of American Spending Actually Ends Up In China - another in the "we still make stuff y'know file

OK, these figures are for the US, but odds are the UK figures would be very similar, this whole "we don't make stuff anymore" meme really gets to me at time, I live 5 minutes walk from a factory FFS.

(tags: manufacturing trade china)
The monogamy monopoly - New Statesman has article proposing the state should get out of regulating relationships

"In a liberal society, it is no business of the state's how people conduct their private lives." Exactly. It would be really good if we can figure out a way of allowing people with multiple partners to register those relationships, if that's what they want to do. We certainly do.

(tags: poly marriage relationships)
Bum-vertising: Beach volleyball aces sell bum ads - I don't know what to think about this

OK, sports kits tend to be emblazoned with sponsor logos and similar. I'm fine with that. Beech volleyball, being, y'know, a beach sport, tends to involve wearing very little. I'm fine with that. Due to lack of space, the sponsor has a QR code on the arse of each member of the British beach volleyball team that leads to the Betfair mobile site. So watchers are encouraged to take pictures of the teams arses. Um...

(tags: Sports advertising qr-codes)
New drug could cure nearly any viral infection - if true? this is massive

How cool is this? A drug that identifies anything with a viral infection, and kills it. If it works as advertised, it could be phenomenal.

(tags: science research health)
Today’s emergency riots debate in the House of Commons told us one thing: MPs don’t understand social media | Jon Worth

Can't argue with Jon here. OK, I rarely argue with Jon, but he's spot on on this. as the riots started, I used Twitter and similar to find out what was going on, check friends were OK, spread information that was useful. I saw elected officials coordinating their constituents, reassuring people, etc. I saw people coming together to organise cleanups, pass on information to the police warnings, etc. A communication medium is neutral, it can be used for good or bad. Overwhelmingly, over the last week, online communication has been a medium for good. Why some MPs think otherwise is beyond me. Lib Dems? I feel an emergency motion coming on, anyone want to help?

(tags: politics social-media house-of-commons)
America's Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books - lving the top two are British

I saw a link to this and though "there's a meme in this", and within half an hour saw multiple people copying it out and bolding their faves. Some very good choices on here, some very interesting choices, and a few low points. Surprised to see S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale as high up the list as it is, but, y'know, I love the book so perhaps shouldn't be.

(tags: books fiction sf)

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