Centipedes

Here's a great new metaphor from Bruce Sterling (if he first coined it, not sure).

Feed me funk and soul

On my Spanish course, I've been pushing some sources of 60s and 70s soul and funk. Often old Latin American and Cuban goodies. Might as well post them here for others to enjoy - so much music from back then that just needs to be (re)discovered...

http://www.waxingdeep.org

http://www.soulstrut.com

http://www.djferrari.com

The radio channels, podcsts and archives of WMFU: http://www.wmfu.org

Terraforming Suburbia

A romantic and glamorous name for the activity of shoveling dirt and debris into wheelbarrows, nudging them 50 meters away, just to empty them again.

My garden needs a lot of extra earth on one side to become level to the property boundary - and time is running out because people are coming to plant the hedge. I reckon I must have moved at least 60 loads at about 50 kilos a piece today. That's 3 tonnes worth of crap-moving. I'm completely broken...limp and almost drooling...and just a little bit proud.

Busdriver, go vote!

So it's Pennsylvania today - I hope youngsters do their duty...Obama will likely need it.
Saw an interview with HC today - and while she says many smart things and seems sincere, I also sense a undercurrent of camouflage. She is very smart at turning critical questions in her favour...usually ending any answer with a minute of predictably formal political speechiness. That just does not go down well with me. In comparison, Obama actually seems to dig into the question, not dig into getting away from it.

My new favourite gave a show here this past Wednesday - 30 people showed up, yet he gave 120%. My friends and I (and most of the crowd) were thoroughly impressed. I bought 3 of his CDs and stated that one of my best memories of LA (his hometown) was in fact riding a public bus, drunk. He must have figured me completely insane. But then again, he cannot really complain...listen to the man.

[EDIT]
I found this image of the venue, courtesy of Jint.dk:

Way cool

This is way cool.
And I am wondering how the Hell they did it. Of course, they have the angle of the photo material...and they have some offset factor compared to the regular 2D maps - but I would assume that height infomation is needed to determine which buildings shadow what and how much. Looking at some of those buildings, there is a near-perfect correlation between overlaps and stitching. Que es possible?

Redirected from there, I discovered Swivel, a magnificent concept for data geeks. I'm not heavy on statistical data - but my escapades into 3D and visualisation make me naturally curious about all this. There are magical mashups just waiting to be uncovered in this realm...

Super Feary Animals

Courtesy of Susanna Hertrich

D-E-L

One of my old favourites is back after a long hiatus. Well, only concerning solo albums - he's been in tonnes of projects...not least Gorillaz, of course.
The new album is good - I am not quite sure if it's great. Musically, you get something completely unique...but I feel the critics are right when they say most of his topics are too shallow for his calibre.

Barcelona express

Back this week from a "long" weekend in Barcelona. What a bloody great city.

I was there by leisure albeit with my company department - a bonus trip earned through good results the past year. A really nice trip but much too short and much too socially anti-social.
By this I mean the general problem in moving in large tourist packs of foreigners. It will never be my thing. I saw my chances to get away on my own a few times but at the end of the trip I had only spoken 2-3 times to any native Barcelonian, not related to trade.
It was not much I got to train my beginner's Spanish - although I suspect I would not have anyway, since everyone was very keen to speak English :)

Best site was by far the Temple Expiatori de la Sagrada Família which everyone must see before they die. I have seen many impressive buildings in my life but this takes the prize - not in grandeur, though it certainly is huge, but in sheer uncompromising creativity.
Gaudí was apparently a mathematical genius which I can certainly see the importance of, since those spacy ideas would have never been possible to build, had he not himself figured out the foundational engineering behind it. The scale of his projects are simply enormous, considering how many details they contain - looking at the amount of modern building project fuck-ups that seem to come in abundance, Gaudí's achievements are really blinding.

New markets

Seeing as Danish exports to the Middle East, for obvious reasons, are in a sharp decline, we need a 'next big thing' to substitute feta cheese.

New science together with careful evaluation of the number of Danish pigs' bladders compared to the level of Middle East regional violence seems to indicate a vast market, waiting to be exploited. Question is, will regrown limbs make up for the eternal damnation of soiling yourself with wee-wee powder from those filthy animals?

Make this viral, plz

Lars brought it to my attention - but this deserves to go front page. A lot of details I didn't know - but the part about means over principles fits nicely with a hunch I have had for some weeks now. I was beginning to think it strange that Obama had not been more aggressive and 'Rovean'...thinking exactly what Lessig describes; "That's necessary in politics".
However, it seems that Obama refuses to sink to those levels of argumentative engineering. Thanks to Lawrence for summing it up so nicely - I hope this gets some airplay.

Thar she blows!

As you can see on my reading list, I have embarked on a journey into Ruby on Rails. Determined to give it a shot, doubtful whether "it" is my foot.

I decided to drop all pretensions and went straight for the Dummies introduction. So far it is very good.
Time will show if I become a billionaire or go down like Ahab.

And the verdict?

Clinton or Obama?

I have been trying to follow the news on this one - I am hard pressed to decide, I'll admit. I seem to have a strictly rational half of the brain that opts for Clinton because of her "seasoning" as a Washington manipulator. And the other brain half, emotionally seduced, wants to see more Obama speeches and visionary statements.

The optimal solution really would be a team - Obama as a puppet president gathering the masses and leading the sheep, while Clinton substitutes Cheney as the Dark Eminence, doing the hardline negotiations in the congressional back alleys.

I think I lean towards Obama - if only for the fact that he represents some kind of innovation...which Clinton clearly does not.

Kiddos

Some other friends of mine have started a social website focused towards parents with kids in Copenhagen. Great work, great design. You'll probably never get a more enthusiastic web socialite than a proud parent - so I am sure that the site will get loads of content and commentary within no time.

I hope they have learned from other socially based guides - and put a time frame on added reviews, so they don't exist forever and prevent "progress of content", if one might call it that. I remember other examples (the Danish national 'Smiley' food vendor rating comes to mind) where those suffering poor reviews are doubly punished, either because the data just sits there forever regardless of real-life improvements, or because the rating criteria hinge on obeying a rigorous rule system. The 'Smiley' may be unhappy - but as a consumer you can never be sure if that's because there were rats in the kitchen, or because the owner had merely forgotten to jot down sanitary actions for a particular day.

I guess that is a philosophy of 'transcience' in some way - acknowledging that environmental data are always essentially outdated and doing your best to respect that when building stuff.

On another note, the little Thor had his old, relocated friend, Matthias, over for a visit today. Once best buddies in kindergarten, they only see each other rarely now. It was a true joy to see the kids' faces when they met up. 20 seconds later they were playing along like old days. Which mainly meant shouting, crying, and clawing at each other's throats.

The sentimentality of child situations like that lies so much in the heads of us adults, it is hard to fathom. The little guys don't give a shit...they just get on with life. Any parent that decides not to do something (relocate, travel, divorce, whatever) because of 'the children' does not really understand children at all. True, they experience sadness and regret momentarily...but unlike whining adults they don't have any existential terror yet. They adapt to life without that eternal doubt that a 'wasted' or 'potential' other course of life brings with it.

February assassinated by madman

Long live March.

Almost a month since my last posting - and I am wondering what the hell there is to tell.
Friends of mine opened a new shop - looks promising...and their talent, backgrounds and personal networks will certainly see them through, I am sure.

Other than that, life goes on in a non-problematic yet sometimes achingly trivial fashion. I've almost been with EG a year now. I am nearing a crossroads without exactly knowing how. I just feel that within maybe a year or so, I will need to make a major decision on my career - mainly because I can feel that my current selection of work tasks is a waste of my talent and general education - even if I am sharpening my technical claws through it and growing wiser each day.

On the side, I am conceptualising a project with some good friends. We had a great design session last weekend and I think we all ended up feeling that our ideas have some real merit. Exciting where this will go - I have been researching some online collabo project management services that might serve as a base for our further design activities. Mingle seems the best but I cannot grasp their licensing policy...they write about a 30 day trial yet also advertise with 5 free users. ThoughtWorks looks like a damned interesting company, by the way. And they have a lot of job offerings...hmm...

In other news, Muhammad is acting up again. This time cartoon re-prints based on death threats are getting everyone worked up again. Absolutism seems to be the order of the day - either you're for or against free speech. Even if free speech should not incourage insulting other people and religious dogma should not interfere with independent editorials. Nuances are lost, it's out of fashion to admit doubt and apply shades of grey.

Oh, and we got a new car. I have been nutured...stripped of about 125 bhp....left crying in the rain with a small, overly practical, diesel-economical family van. It drives adequately, uses almost no fuel (which is actually a huge relief), and is completely boring. I am very happy with the way it matches all the rest.

Gourmet fridge snacks

Leftovers from the christening of my baby daughter this past Sunday.

I made an informal deal with Philippe at www.phil-good.dk and boy, did he deliver.
Salmon tartar rolls, 2 amazing salads, lamb roast with a sweet cous cous salad, several delicious cheeses, and a traditional french apple pie.
Everyone was dribbling, everyone had something they loved. It really is satisfying to shell out a bit extra for stuff like that and then REALLY get value thrown back at you.

Dindins

I wonder if all women are experts in the fine genre of Banzai Cooking - which involves blowing up the kitchen and eating whatever dish that manages to escape.

Don't overdo it

I like this comment from Alan Alda on the brilliant World Question Center.
I would have labeled myself an atheist until recently when I began to get an ugly taste from the whole Dawkins hysteria. Suddenly some sort of faction-cult solidified when atheists united. Of course, this way of going about things is inherently American - and by and large understandable considering the evangelical power factors threatening the so-called democracy over there.

Once you start referencing yourself with a capital letter (Atheists, in this case) you're broadcasting to the world your membership of a particular order. I don't view atheism as anything like that - for me it is the natural state, not a team I decide to fight for. I fear the only result from this rally is even more division among people.

I once read an elegant argument of the 'rubbishness' of agnosticism, because it basically says that there is a 50% chance of God being there (as in true/un-true). I can see the point. To a true scientist (Atheist) the chance is 0% because no decisive evidence is available. It is a nice argument but it is too categoric since 'evidence' in itself is open to discussion. And in any event, there exists no 'objective' framework to judge the state of divinity anyway. Miracles do occasionally happen, right?

So, I think Alda is spot on - Atheism (capital form) has now become politicised and is, to some, a religion in itself. It risks discounting the basic analysis of anything that does not fit a priori within scientific descriptive categories. The problem lies in automatically assigning the value 'wrong' to anything not proven true within existing limits of knowledge. Moreover, on a directly humanistic level, vigilant Atheists (again, notice the self-important capital letter) seem to regard religious and spiritual people as stupid by definition - which I think is....hmm...exaggerated, at least :)

To most people religious or spiritual feelings are not at all associated with logical thought - when science geeks try to force a connection on their subject it is really a superficial comparison that, while it shows the unscientific character of religion or spirituality, shows absolutely nothing about that subject's mental capacity in general. You are able to believe in spite of your scientific convictions. Often, Atheist science geeks have a hard time grasping this.

In any event, see this as a critical bark up my own tree, since I do not hold religious beliefs at all. I do, however, become curious about spirituality and mysticism from time to time. I also try to respect people that hold religious views - it's when they start contradicting scientific methods that I get grumpy. I have also been quasi-religious or at least interested in historical religions when I was younger, so I can relate to the chasm between religious feelings and logical thought. And since this chasm is so deeply personal, it should stay entirely in the personal domain - get that stuff out of politics, for sure. But it you think you can abolish it by pointing to science, you are the stupid one =)

Scifi memoirs

I've become quite the science fiction aficionado the past year or so. I always was, actually, but recently I've seen scifi being referenced and almost emulated in blogs and online writings. Thanks to the bogosphere and Wikipedia, most scifi worlds and writers are now being celebrated permanently, one might say.

There was a time when I fell over great scifi stories entirely by accident - no readily accessible media bothered to mention let alone recommend science fiction.
Now it is ubiquitous...and Gibson is even making me feel as if certain parts of it are in the PAST, when 'Spook Country' makes an effort to describe technological phenomena that I already know a great deal about. Weird.

Have a look at IO9, a new scifi blog splicing the playfulness of Neatorama with the intellectual coolhunting of BoingBoing.

Thinking back, I guess these are science fiction books that I remember most vividly:

Jon Bing - 'The Chronicles of the Starship Alexandria'
This series is maybe the earliest scifi literature I remember where I have not forgotten the author's name. I doubt that these have been translated into English, but for a Danish lad of 9-10 years these are thrilling tales of weird worlds and inventions.

Brian Aldiss - 'Helliconia Spring'
Actually part of a trilogy, however I suspect I only read the first novel back as a young teenager. The vastness of the environment and the strange mixture of detached science and struggling characters captivated me, I recall.

Larry Niven - 'Ringworld'
I must have read this when I was 13 or 14...I remember thinking 'Wow'. A grand space opera, bordering on fantasy. Douglas Adams without the silliness. I am planning to revisit this one soon.

Alan Dean Foster - 'Midworld'
A scifi ecological thriller. I was crazy about nature and strange species and stuff like that. This book is full of it :)

William Gibson - 'Burning Chrome'
Although I think that word of 'Neuromancer' got to me first, I seem to recall it being off the shelves at our library due to popular demand. There was however one available copy of 'Burning Chrome' in the entire Eastern part of Northern Jutland, and so this became my first cyberpunk experience. Luckily perhaps, because the short story pieces probably suited a young teenager better than the poetically heavier descriptions of 'Neuromancer'.

William Gibson & Bruce Sterling - 'The Difference Engine'
I never finished this at the time. At 14-15 years of age I suspect some of the very rich social and environmental descriptions in this book turned me off. At least that is what I remember. I am quite sure they would thrill me today. The book did actually serve a noble purpose since it primed me for the title below - several years later. It shares some of the neo-/pseudo-Victorian vibe.

Neal Stephenson - 'The Diamond Age'
I liked 'Snow Crash' like everyone else but this is probably his best true scifi work. An amazing story filled with emotion, technological gadgets, social perspectives, and murky motives.
And guess what? I never finished it! Why? I simply forgot it on the plane, coming home from a trip to Thailand in 2001. I am still missing the last 50 pages, goddammit!


Recent honorable mention:
Iain M. Banks - 'The Algebraist'. Very refreshing (and quite funny) after a long time of absence from the spacier part of science fiction.

[EDIT]
Today, in a strange cooincidence, IO9 suddenly talked about this which I suddenly recalled was also one of my favorite book series when I was 12-ish. Of course, at the time I was reading the Danish translation, first of which was named "Telekattene". This is a childhood space mythology not to be missed - bring it to your pre-teens now!

1st time's a winner

I don't know if he is referencing someone else or quoting a paraphrase from his own work - but it instantly rang intuitively true to me.

[anything done for the first time releases demons...]

I think a big reason that people my age develop forms of mid-life crisis is the lack of "1st timers". Not necessarily because there exist fewer but because family life, mature social circles, and career structures make it quite hard to encounter 1st timers. You have to make an active effort to meet them, whereas in my younger days I would run across them daily or weekly.

Maybe that would constitute a fine New Year's resolution; weekly 1st timers...or maybe just monthly, depending on your degree of Weltschmerz and suburban assimilation.

Radiohead technician

Merry whatever and happy likewise!

Christmas has come and gone. December was as always the shortest month of them all...3 weeks passing like a runaway freight train. Food was great, gifts were good, company was laid back and soothed a weary mind, tired of repetitive labour.

My brother and I managed to gift-cross each other with Gibson's new 'Spook Country' which I am now enjoying. Gibson has a special gift with urban and trendish settings, expanding the vocabulary of literature through lifestyle observations. Sometimes he gets a bit too poetic but it's ok - and actually more easily deciphered in his recent 'scifi-now' novels.

A lengthy mention goes to my immense accomplishment today - I managed to get my car stereo to work! This project has been haunting me and my car for 2-3 months now. Facts are, I bought a budget car radio to replace the one that was wrecked when our car was stolen last year. Ever the wanna-be handyman, I have also bought a Saab 9000 Haynes manual and expected the replacement of a stereo to be a walkover. But, it soon turned awkward because the new stereo did not come with a simple ISO connector - and even if it had, the old car stereo was itself a replacement during which the former handyman had opted to snippet ALL the in-bound wires and attach them to the old stereo through tiny, singular screw couplings.

So, I needed to attach 13-14 wires which was only possible after I had dislodged the entire glove compartment so I could get my hand in from behind to fixate the wires properly. On top of this, old Swedish Saab engineers seem to have been less rigorous with the colouring of wires than might be expected - I was juggling 3 different reds, 2 different greens and 2 different white-browns, constantly hoping that I would hit the right match to the stereo wires. I half expected the entire fusebox to blow up whenever I went out to reconnect the battery for testing. Testing in itself became a pain, because 3x2x2 gives 12 different combinations, 11 of which are unforgivingly wrong.

Since this all took forever, and my weekends were mostly booked for other things during the daytime, and the Danish winter dusk made it even more difficult to see wire colours, the project just dragged on and on. If I wasn't having a fit of rage the umpteenth time a test didn't even let out a single sound from the speakers, I was usually procrastinating, trying not to think about it. Stubbornly getting my music needs fulfilled through my portable MP3 player instead. Really a sad story of a frightened academic lost in the woods.

Then yesterday, I gave it another go without any luck. This morning I had a thought about switching two specific wires, and I decided on one last try. It worked. It must have been the single most uplifting moment since I was contacted on my job applications. But all things considered, I think I am better off earning money to pay people to do that! It just does not interest me enough, I'm afraid.
I will, however, try to install a new automatic aerial - once my handyman anxiety has subsided a bit.

New Year's Eve? A night with the neighbours, celebrating mostly through tonnes of food. This might have a chance of getting some airplay in the background. :)