• soundcloud.com
  Bruce Sterling Closing Remarks – SXSW Interactive 2013 Acclaimed science-fiction writer Bruce Sterling will again deliver the Closing Remarks at SXSW Interactive. Sterling's state-of-the-industry, state-of-the-world rants are one of the true highlights of the event, so don't miss the 2013 version (vision).
  (tags:music ifttt soundcloud )

• Astronomers conduct first remote reconnaissance of another solar system
  "The results are "quite strange," Oppenheimer said. "These warm, red planets are unlike any other known object in our universe. All four planets have different spectra, and all four are peculiar. The theorists have a lot of work to do now.""
  (tags:space )
• Team discovers adaptations to explain strategies for survival on Mars
  "Research from the University of Maryland School of Medicine has revealed key features in proteins needed for life to function on Mars and other extreme environments."
  (tags:space )
• Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments | MIT Technology Review
  "They say the stones contain fossilised biological structures fused into the rock matrix and that their tests clearly rule out the possibility of terrestrial contamination. "
  (tags:space )
• Saint Death becoming more popular in the US
  "It is believed that 5 percent of the Mexican population worships the saint, whose other names include Holy Death, The White Girl, The Miracle Worker, and The Skinny Girl."
  (tags:cult )
• Support Cells Found in Human Brain Make Mice Smarter – News Room – University of Rochester Medical Center
  "In humans, individual astrocytes project scores of fibers that can simultaneously connect with large numbers of neurons, and in particular their synapses, the points of communication where two adjoining neurons meet. "
  (tags:neuro )
• Franken-Teeth | Ultraphyte
  "So how do they know the teeth are “human”?"
  (tags:med )

• Dolphins may be calling each other by name – CNN.com
  "It seems one dolphin can call another specifically by mimicking the distinct whistle of that other dolphin. "These whistles actually turned out to be names. They're abstract names, which is unheard of in the animal kingdom beyond people.""
  (tags:language )

• MeCam Could Be The Perfect High-Tech Accessory For Narcissists – ReadWrite
  "When does social media become pathological narcissism? Maybe when you broadcast your whole day via a tiny voice-controlled personal-surveillance drone that hovers in the air and follows you around."
  (tags:drones social surveillance )
• The Syrian Civil War comes to Iraq, as 8 Iraqi and 48 Syrian Troops are Killed on Iraqi Soil | Informed Comment
  "So on Saturday, Syrian rebels in the east of the country attacked another government checkpoint along the Iraqi border, al-Ya`rabiya, and took it. Some of the besieged Syrian troops, many wounded, escaped to the Iraqi side and were being escorted by Iraqi troops south when they were ambushed early on Tuesday and 48 were killed, along with 8 Iraqi border guards. The attackers had rocket propelled grenades and left three vehicles burning. It is not clear if the attackers were Syrian rebels in hot pursuit across the border or if local Sunni Iraqi clans, who are related to the largely Sunni insurgents in Syria, struck for themselves."
  (tags:pol war )
• Q U B E (QR-Code Rubik’s Cube plus Content) | Hacker Farm
  "Q U B E is a handmade Rubik’s Cube with QR-Codes – a physical object that links to pages containing digital content: videos, audio files (music!), images and text. The idea here was to reintroduce some form of physical, human, ‘hands-on’ engagement with post-physical content, rather than pander to the ubiquity of one-finger DOWNLOAD culture."
  (tags:music design )

• TED2013: Bluebrain’s location-aware albums – Boing Boing
  "Imagine strolling through New York's Central Park with earbuds, listening to music that changes its melody and emotion as you pass each statue, monument, pond, and play area. For instance, if you are walking towards Bethesda Fountain, the orchestral instruments might build to a dramatic crescendo as you approach the water, and walking past a pond might sound the way a Zen monastery feels. This is the kind of experience TED Fellow Ryan Holladay creates with his "location-aware albums," music apps that use GPS to accompany specific landscapes such as The National Mall and Central Park."
  (tags:music locative )
• How Daytrotter Creates Scarcity in a Digital World | Evolver.fm
  "This is the Daytrotter model, essentially. Active since 2006, the site records bands “live, in a studio, with no overdubs, auto tune or remixing,” and fans can listen to the sessions in real time (upcoming sessions) or later, using the archives. Daytrotter — not the band, or their record label — owns these sound recordings. So far, it has over 2,000 sessions you won’t find on iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, Rdio, or any other commercial service, other than DayTrotter. Users can subscribe after a seven day free trial. The cost: $2 per month, after a seven day trial. Daytrotter switched to this model last year, making more sessions available as it added the subscription requirement."
  (tags:music net money )
• Arctic ice loss amplified Superstorm Sandy violence
  "Cornell and Rutgers researchers report in the March issue of Oceanography that the severe loss of summertime Arctic sea ice—attributed to greenhouse warming—appears to enhance Northern Hemisphere jet stream meandering, intensify Arctic air mass invasions toward middle latitudes, and increase the frequency of atmospheric blocking events like the one that steered Hurricane Sandy west into the densely populated New York City area."
  (tags:eco weather doom )
• The ‘habitable edge’ of exomoons
  "Astronomers have their fingers crossed that within the haul of data collected by NASA's Kepler mission, which has already detected nearly three thousand possible exoplanets, hide the signatures of the very first exomoons."
  (tags:space )

• Green Pages | Near Future Laboratory
  "For those of you who haven’t subscribed, or don’t know about it, Green Pages is Design Fiction operationalized. Green Pages makes Design Fiction into something the entertainment industry can use directly."
  (tags:future writing design+fiction media )
• World’s first process to reuse rare Earth metals extracted from nickel-metal hydride batteries for hybrid vehicles
  "the rare earth metals were extracted from nickel-metal hydride batteries collected from 386 Honda hybrid vehicles that were stored prior to being on sale but became unusable by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Further, as soon as a sufficient volume is secured, Honda will begin applying the same process and recycle rare earth metals extracted from used nickel-metal hydride batteries collected by Honda dealers through battery replacement."
  (tags:energy eco )
• LHC team observes first instance of D-mesons oscillating between matter and antimatter
  "Put simply, antimatter is identical to matter except that it exists with an opposite electrical charge. In this new research, the team was studying mesons—a group that along with other particles are made up of quarks. Mesons are made up of just two quarks, one matter, the other antimatter. Research over the years has led to theories that the quarks that exist as part of mesons, can oscillate between matter and antimatter."
  (tags:sci )

• How the British Gov’t Stripped Alleged Militants of Citizenship before they were Droned to Death | Informed Comment
  "The government has secretly ramped up a controversial programme that strips people of their British citizenship on national security grounds – two of whom have been subsequently killed by US drone attacks."
  (tags:pol war drones )
• Stretchable Batteries Could Power Devices Embedded In The Body [Video] – ReadWrite

  (tags:energy tech bodymod )

• Connbox: prototyping a physical product for video presence with Google Creative Lab, 2011 – Blog – BERG
  video calling as "always-on, ambient, background presence." I love it when BERG do these breakdowns.
  (tags:berg design tech )
• New Book Suggests Return from Death Possible : Discovery News
  “Although most people think this takes place in only four or five minutes, we now know that actually brain cells are viable for up to eight hours … We now understand that it’s only after a person has turned into a corpse that their cells are undergoing death, and if we therefore manipulate those processes, we can restart the heart and bring a person back to life.”
  (tags:med )

• Japan robot suit gets global safety certificate
  "A robot suit that can help the elderly or disabled get around was given its global safety certificate in Japan on Wednesday, paving the way for its worldwide rollout."
  (tags:robots med bodymod )
• Wow
  "Evidence exists that a large natural nuclear reactor formed and operated on Mars in the northern Mare Acidalium region of Mars"
  (tags:space )

• Discovery of a the pyramid of a Ramses II Vizier at Luxor
  "A metal-poor star located merely 190 light-years from the Sun is 14.46+-0.80 billion years old, which implies that the star is nearly as old as the Universe"
  (tags:history )
• Nearby ancient star is almost as old as the Universe
  "A metal-poor star located merely 190 light-years from the Sun is 14.46+-0.80 billion years old, which implies that the star is nearly as old as the Universe"
  (tags:space )
• Future evidence for extraterrestrial life might come from dying stars
  "Even dying stars could host planets with life—and if such life exists, we might be able to detect it within the next decade"
  (tags:space )

• soundcloud.com
  Igaluk – To Scare the Moon with its own Shadow Igaluk is the creation myth of the Inuit moon. With simple words, the story reveals the complexity of our morals. It inspired me to create a music that, I hope, retains the enigmatic beauty that the moon bears. This live electronic piece was developed in collaboration with the pianist Sebastian Berweck. It is the sonic result of a reflection on performance in electronic music. The performer manipulates (with a keyboard and midi controllers) piano recordings he has previously done in the studio. Igaluk was realized in 2011-2012 at the studios of Technische Universität Berlin, University of Huddersfield and University of Montreal. It was premiered during the Piano+ festival 2013 at ZKM | Institue for Music and Acoustics. Thanks to Sebastian Berweck and Stephen Harvey for their help. piano, live, moon, ambient, electronics
  (tags:music ifttt soundcloud )

• Roko’s basilisk – RationalWiki
  "According to the proposition, it is possible that this ultimate (future godlike artificial) intelligence may punish those who fail to help it, with greater punishment accorded those who knew the importance of the task. This is conventionally comprehensible, but the notable bit of the basilisk and similar constructions is that the AI and the person punished have no causal interaction: the punishment would be of a simulation of the person, which the AI would construct by deduction from first principles."
  (tags:ai future mad funny )
• New Publishing Hybrids | desktop
  "And let’s not forget, magazines themselves are still an incredibly fluid idea. We must keep exploring, especially as there will be even more incredible hybrids around the corner, when the so-called “internet of things” really kicks in."
  (tags:magazines )
• Facebook Admits Critical Bugs Caused Page Reach To Be Misreported For Months | TechCrunch
  "Eventually, Facebook started getting bug reports and questions from clients and sales people about discrepancies in Page Insights. A few weeks ago, it decided to do an audit of Page Insights. A few hours later it discovered the bugs."
  (tags:web )
• Circus Maximus – By Gianni Riotta | Foreign Policy
  "In January, former Italian prime minister and current candidate Silvio Berlusconi praised Benito Mussolini, Italy's dictator for some 20 years, saying that the racial laws of 1938, which barred Jews from universities and many jobs, "are the worst fault of Mussolini, who, in so many other aspects, did good." A few days later, Berlusconi questioned a young woman in front of a laughing crowd, asking, "Do you come? Only once? How many times do you come? With what sort of time intervals?""
  (tags:pol )
• Under Tomorrows Sky Think Tank Introductions: Rachel Armstrong on Vimeo
  Rachel Armstrong at our Eindhoven thing. She is brilliant.
  (tags:video sci tech bio architecture )

• SoundCtrl – Zankme: A New Spin on Digital Download Cards
  "Zankme’s digital download card service allows musicians to upload music, videos, or photos and print custom download cards right with real-time customization.  Fans can redeem these cards, while artists can gather information on their fans including email addresses and location, helping them to pinpoint solid target markets for future tour plans."
  (tags:marketing )
• Time reversal findings may open doors to the future
  "Imagine a cell phone charger that recharges your phone remotely without even knowing where it is; a device that targets and destroys tumors, wherever they are in the body; or a security field that can disable electronics, even a listening device hiding in a prosthetic toe, without knowing where it is."
  (tags:time timetravel sci tech )

• Parallel Campaigns | Notes on Metamodernism
  "At the same time, Ulrich and Agathe begin their private attempt to live in the utopia of the ‘other state’ which they have designed. The development of the ‘other state’ is based on Ulrich’s study of the writings of mystics and on the idea which he refers to earlier as the ‘sense of possibility’ which implies that everything which exists could just as well be different, and so presents an opposite to the ‘sense of reality’."
  (tags:pol alt )
• CDC app lets you solve disease outbreaks at home
  "The nation's public health agency has released a free app for the iPad called "Solve the Outbreak." It allows users to run through fictional outbreaks and make decisions: Do you quarantine the village? Talk to people who are sick?"
  (tags:ios med )

• What if Google Could Think Like You Do? – ReadWrite
  "The New York Times reported Monday that the Obama Administration is close to announcing the Brain Activity Map, which scientists quoted by the paper say could be on the scale of the The Human Genome Project, a $3.8 billion project to map the human genome that, the Times reported, returned $800 billion in jobs and other benefits."
  (tags:sci med neuro )
• The nuclear reactor in your basement
  "How would you like to replace your water heater with a nuclear reactor? That's what Joseph Zawodny, a senior scientist at NASA's Langley Research Center, hopes to help bring about. It would tap the enormous power of the atom to provide hot water for your bath, warm air for your furnace system, and more than enough electricity to run your house and, of course, your electric car."
  (tags:sci tech energy )
• Curves in spacetime violate Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle
  "If an object traveling through spacetime can loop back in time in a certain way, then its trajectory can allow a pair of its components to be measured with perfect accuracy, violating Heisenberg's uncertainty principle"
  (tags:sci timetravel )
• BBC News – Tenerife beheading: Murder suspect ‘haunted by voices’
  "Answering questions in Bulgarian via an interpreter, Mr Deyanov said voices had told him he was "an angel of Jesus Christ who is going to create a new Jerusalem"."
  (tags:crime )

• Hannah Donovan – Notes from New Adventures
  "IDEAS WANT TO BE UGLY! This one goes in all caps because it was one of the most important lessons I learned that day. So many times I’ve apologised to my peers for the scratchy, ugly looking sketches I did in that rushed moment while I tried capture a fleeting idea. Never again will I do that! Of course it’s ugly, it’s an idea."
  (tags:working )
• The Human Division gets serialized and serious about experimentation | Ars Technica
  "“Today, publishing is where film was in the 60s and 70s," Scalzi said."
  (tags:books )
• BBC News – Lab rats ‘acquire sixth sense’
  "An experimental device allowed the rats to "touch" infrared light – which is normally invisible to them."
  (tags:sci tech bodymod )
• Iran Leader: Having Nukes is ‘Crime Against Humanity’ – US Sanctions Actually Target Fuel Enrichment
  "Long-time readers know that I think Iran wants nuclear latency or ‘the Japan option,’ i.e. they don’t want to make or stockpile nuclear warheads, but do want the deterrence of invaders that comes with the known ability to put one together in short order"
  (tags:pol war )
• Christian woman in Egypt Shoe-whacks Salafi Fundamentalist for Calling her a Harlot (Photo)

  (tags:pol cult culture photo social )

• New Chapters
  " "5 Unexpected Factors That Change How We Forecast The Future," is my first essay for Co.EXIST, a FastCompany spinoff focusing on "world changing ideas and innovation""
  (tags:future )
• Water on the moon: It’s been there all along
  ""Because these are some of the oldest rocks from the moon, the water is inferred to have been in the moon when it formed," Zhang said."
  (tags:space )

• NASA study finds that Middle East’s water is disappearing fast | FP Passport
  “…the Tigris and Euphrates basins — which are ripe with border disputes, conflict over Kurdish minorities, and now major conflicts in Syria and Iraq — might be more prone to the insidious effects of water instability than other places around the globe.”
  (tags:eco war pol )
• Neon Gods & Funeral Strippers on Vimeo
  Neon Gods & Funeral Strippers Video shot and directed by Alex Zhang Hungtai. from “The Statement” LP 4 way split Slim Twig, Dirty Beaches, Ela Orleans, U.S. Girls, 2012, Clan Destine Records clandestinerecords.bigcartel.com/ Alex Zhang Hungtai
  (tags:ifttt vimeo video )
• The beginning of BotWorld « Magical Nihilism
  “The world of domesticated, tiny AIs that Matt was talking about two years ago is what BERG is starting to explore, manufacture – and sell in every larger numbers.”
  (tags:berg tech little+printer future )
• The best videos of the Chelyabinsk meteor | FP Passport
  “The extraordinary developments were captured on video, in part through the automobile dash-cams that are nearly ubiquitous in Russia.”
  (tags:video )
• 4,000-year-old shaman’s stones discovered near Boquete, Panama
  “Archaeologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have discovered a cluster of 12 unusual stones in the back of a small, prehistoric rock-shelter near the town of Boquete. The cache represents the earliest material evidence of shamanistic practice in lower Central America.”
  (tags:history shamanism )

I have a terrible habit of using Instagram to capture interesting bits of books I’m reading.  I provide the following, without explanation, shame or sourcing (I have the sourcing saved, but these go into a file where I can rediscover them independent of sourcing, so I can make new connections).

I personally think this should be a Thing People Do.

At the stroke of midnight on New Year’s Eve, I walked across this.

I was in the Los Angeles Times yesterday.  Probably some other things have happened too, but here in the second week of Book Launch I am frankly pretty fried, and am looking forward to taking some time off and hiding somewhere at the end of the month.

Almost all writing stopped when the book launched, and I’ve been a professional emailer for ten or eleven days at this point.  I’m getting itchy: to go back into New Novel, to develop whatever SPIRIT TRACKS ends up being called, to work up some graphic novel ideas, to kick around a couple of notions for other media.  Or even for the time to finish reading this excellent Ian Rankin book before we interview each other next week.

I’m hoping that today is the day that everything calms down and I can get back to making things.  Which is probably ridiculously optimistic.  But my fingers always crackle a bit at the top of the year, wanting to write new things down and start some changes.

(This could be psychosis brought on by quitting Red Bull.)

This was today’s post.  One every weekday until I get all the way back on the horse.

Wyrd is a good old Anglo-Saxon word that may loosely translate as “fatedness.” 

“To become.”  “That which happens.”

There is strangeness in wyrd, an active supernatural process of destiny.  Its descendant word “weird” retained its paranormal context until fairly recently.

I have been listening a great deal, this winter break, to the music of Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, in which I hear a little of the wyrd, in relation to hauntological narrative.  We here in this old country remain surrounded by our archaeoacoustics and the myriad layers of our musics.  The more I think about the future, somehow, the more present the deep past seems to me.

There’s a wyrd to futurism, or perhaps just a wyrd futurism, out of Charles Fort, where we are looking for the steam-engines just before steam-engine-time comes.  The fatedness of future things.  The thunderheads of destiny.

Wyrd and the future are where I’m going to be living, this year, I think.  Maybe I always was.

Let’s have a good weird year.

This is warren ellis dot com.  Hello again.