So I blazed through the last quarter of Gnomon by Nick Harkaway.

So I blazed through the last quarter of Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. This may very well be my favorite book of the year. Certainly every other book in 2018 has a stupefyingly high bar to clear if they want to take the prize. Here's hoping I find a couple of them.

Anyway, go read Gnomon, it's great.

Last year I was listening to The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson podcast.

Last year I was listening to The Butterfly Effect with Jon Ronson podcast. This first season looks at how the rise of free on-line porn has up-ended the porn industry. One of the side effects of this disruption is that a number of people are doing "custom porns" -- you send in a basic scenario, they film it for you. Not only is it a source of revenue for porn businesses that see most of their work pirated almost immediately, it tends to be rather quirky because these fetishes can be very specific and aren't generally produced.

Anyway, I bring this up because they just released a short bonus episode where they talk with Mike from Ohio. Mike has one of the most sweet and wonderful fetishes I've ever heard about and the custom porn he commissioned must have been delightful to work on. It's also a case study in how fetishes form and how even the most stringent methods parents use to protect their kids from knowing about sex can backfire. The whole series is pretty good but this five minute bonus episode might be the best piece of the lot.


https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-butterfly-effect-with-jon-ronson/id1258779354?mt=2

OK, so it's an ad...but it's fun...

OK, so it's an ad...but it's fun...




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwzoDS3zL_4

I support a Universal Jobs Guarantee for the US.

I support a Universal Jobs Guarantee for the US. Even on smaller, limited scales, the concept produces valuable social outcomes:


https://www.denverpost.com/2018/01/16/denver-day-works-program-homeless-jobs/

Title

So I'm 2/3rds of the way into Gnomon by Nick Harkaway and it continues to be outstanding. Jere Genest, I think you'll really love this one. Here's a sample quote, and the book is full of great lines like this:

"Poetry is a shotgun aimed at our shared experience, hoping to hit enough of the target that we all infer a great bulk of information conveyed as implication and metaphor in an approximately similar way. Making a unity between poet and reader.”

and this one, which is less lofty, but which I rather like:

“I’ll take that one,” she says, pointing, and at the same time picks up some light paper, a box of soft pencils and a hard steel clipboard debossed with the head of Oliver Cromwell on a spike. The sales assistant is very keen to sell her a lucite one instead, but the Mohs scale of hardness awards acrylic glass no more than a four, as against steel’s five or six, so the Inspector demurs, wishing the shop’s inventory stretched to products in tungsten carbide."

Do I know folks who are going to Dreamation this year?

Do I know folks who are going to Dreamation this year?

I think the usual suspects Emily Care Boss, Julia Ellingboe, and Meguey Baker(?) are doing Intercon (curse their dueling schedules!).

Emily Care Boss among others -- agroforestry!

Emily Care Boss among others -- agroforestry!


https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/06/the-latest-cutting-edge-technology-changing-our-landscapes-trees

Drought in the Andes is a perennial issue and heavily contributed to the cyclical rise and fall of various empires...

Drought in the Andes is a perennial issue and heavily contributed to the cyclical rise and fall of various empires in the region. Many of them used various engineering projects to keep water flowing. In the current era of global warming, a number of these old projects are being restored:


http://news.trust.org/item/20180108125341-hnw6b/

Soon, our long national nightmare will be over...

Soon, our long national nightmare will be over...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAp-Sq9XDis

Epic trope adventure in about 2 minutes....

Epic trope adventure in about 2 minutes....


https://vimeo.com/klomp/kortmaarkrachtig

Ring ring...

Ring ring...


https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/magazine/how-robo-call-moguls-outwitted-the-government-and-completely-wrecked-the-do-not-call-list/2018/01/09/52c769b6-df7a-11e7-bbd0-9dfb2e37492a_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_robocall-1235pm:homepage/story&utm_term=.90429c8c6a39

OK, so I'm only 10% of the way in , but I'm enjoying the hell out of Gnomon by Nick Harkaway.

OK, so I'm only 10% of the way in , but I'm enjoying the hell out of Gnomon by Nick Harkaway. I'm a fan of his work in general, but after the slightly flat Tigerman, I was getting a bit worried.

My fears were unfounded, this book is great. I mean, sure, still lots of pages for him to screw up on, but I'm betting this one will hold to the end. This is my not-unsubtle pitch to get other people to check it out so we can babble about it at some point in the future.


https://www.amazon.com/Gnomon-novel-Nick-Harkaway-ebook/dp/B071R1GVX2

Don’t pirate or we’ll mess with your Nest, warns East Coast ISP

An article showing why net neutrality is important and why you shouldn't hook everything you own to the Internet...


https://www.engadget.com/2018/01/05/pirates-risk-being-left-in-the-cold/

Remember how you liked stickers as a kid? You'll like them more now:

Remember how you liked stickers as a kid? You'll like them more now:


https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/02/these-psychedelic-stickers-blow-ai-minds/

Charlie Stross looks at the future of AI through the lens of history and discusses the "slow AIs" all around us.

Charlie Stross looks at the future of AI through the lens of history and discusses the "slow AIs" all around us. It's a long but interesting, if sobering, talk.


http://www.antipope.org/charlie/blog-static/2018/01/dude-you-broke-the-future.html

Thai penis whitening trend raises eyebrows

In Thailand, you can get your penis whitened. They use a laser to break up the melanin in your skin. It's a relatively new offering which was partially inspired by their vagina whitening process. Because of course there's a vagina whitening process. Anyway, the whole article is fascinating/depressing all at once.


http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42575155

The ‘Frequent Flier’ Program That Grounded a Hospital’s Soaring Costs - POLITICO Magazine

Good healthcare relies on more than hospitals...


https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/18/parkland-dallas-frequent-flier-hospital-what-works-216108

North Korea Designed A Nuke. So Did This Truck Driver

Everyone should have a hobby...


https://www.npr.org/2017/12/26/570806064/north-korea-designed-a-nuke-so-did-this-truck-driver