Variable Gravitas Content: June 2006

Big Pictures of Small Things - and they're ever so very pretty too!

Russian sites have the bestest stuff, don't they?

Ran Prieur medusaheaded. That is all.

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Coming soon: My Adventures in the Medical-Industrial Complex; Stay Tuned!!

What's that, Old Yeller? Washington DC is flooded due to rain? Over the weekend, you say? Don't lie to me, Old Yeller, don't lie to me or I swear to God I will take you out behind the woodshed, you see if I don't.

Note to self: Remember that "ideological structure hitter" idea of yours (you know, the one you stole from a throwaway in Atrocity Archives)? Yeah, if you combine it with the "concept gun" from your Ideas.doc file, the latter *finally* makes some ficking sense, don't it.

Billie Piper Leaving Doctor Who

What? No, no, no. I do not approve of this message and/or product. No.

High-frequency Ringtones - The New Notepassing

A high-pitched alarm which cannot be heard by adults has been hijacked by schoolchildren to create ringtones so they can get away with using phones in class.

The technology exploits the degraded hearing of the neoteny-impaired (read: anyone over, say, 30). Apparently, once you're over a certain age spread, you can no longer hear sounds in the 18 to 20kHz range.

I guess we now have a destructive ~~to the ego~~ test for whether or not one is Too Old^TM. Here's a sample of the actual sound for your amusement if you can hear it (and pain if you can't :D).

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Some dumbass at the end of the article actually asked why the kids don't just set it to "vibrate." Have you *heard* "vibrate?" That bidness is loud!

Ran Prieur is effing scary, but eminently readable.

In spring of 2006, the Bush Gang attacks Iran, a mountainous nation almost four times the size of Iraq with a much stronger military. No problem -- they use nukes, and they don't have to cover it up for the people at home, because Americans know "we" would never do that, so we didn't. The rest of the world, though, is appalled. The EU imposes trivial sanctions. Tony Blair calls it "regrettable." Venezuela threatens to cut off our oil again, and one or two countries start trading oil in Euros. Ordinary Americans see this as "rabid anti-Americanism," and are horrified by Iran's relatively tame counter-attack. Bush's approval rating goes back up to 60%, and because our enemies are now attacking us, he dissolves congress and cancels the 2008 elections. The Democrats, afraid of seeming weak in a time of war, make mild objections.

He posits a number of theoretical future scenarios based on current events and Western human nature.. He still has a virulent loathing for transhumanism

but he's incisive and thoughtful and gut-twitchingly funny for all that. Go. Read. Now.

Ahhhh .... Don't Care About Anyone Else But Meee/ ...

Reading: Complicity - Iain Banks (hot sordid adulterous sex, second-person POV of a serial vigilante, gripping mysteries; what more could you possibly want out of a book?)

Re-reading: The Cassini Division - Ken Macleod ("My stars, it's full of gods!")

Read: Olympos - Dan Simmons ("Helen of Troy awakes just before dawn to the sound of air raid sirens.") The Cassini Division - Ken Macleod, The Collapsium - Wil McCarthy,

Will Be Reading: Learning The World - Ken Macleod, Counting Heads - David Marusek

Listening: "Tell Me When To Go" - E-40, "Winter Nights" - Hitman Contracts, "Facility" - Goldeneye, "Ridin'" - Chamillionaire

Doing: Other than typing this? Finish up email, go to bed, off to work on the morrow.

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Good night and G(g)od(s) bless, gentle reader (and I do mean "reader" in the singular; there can't possibly be more than one person reading this crap, can there?)