Fear Not This Night (Piano)

Reactionary thought in contemporary China

From China Airborne: The Test of China's Future, by James Fallows (Pantheon, 2012), Kindle Loc. 3326 of 3816

"All reactionary thought in contemporary China is of the same tradition," that philosopher, Ai Siqi, wrote in 1940. "It emphasizes China's 'national characteristics,' harps on China's 'special nature,' and wipes aside the general principles of humanity, arguing that China's social development can only follow China's own path."

 

Fantasy General OST - Track 3

The Wolf Among Us Opening Credit Music

The Forgotten Resources of Space

The Forgotten Resources of Space

There are no unique raw materials waiting for us in space (possible exception of 3He). There are a lot of hydrocarbons on Titan, but because of delta-v costs, it will always be cheaper to derive them from marginal locations on Earth, like oil shales or biofuels. Even if a platinum-rich asteroid were found, platinum would be obtained cheaper by re-opening a depleted low grade mine on Earth.

If extraterrestrial raw imports will never be economical, is there any motivation for going there? Increasingly, it is processes rather than raw materials that are important for industry. Space processes can control the gravity, vacuum, radiation, temperature, and energy density to a degree impossible on Earth. These characteristics, the forgotten resources of space, can produce high-strength membranes using surface tension effects, long whiskers and gigantic laser crystals grown in microgravity, nano-engineering using ultra pure vapor deposition, strong glassy materials produced by exploiting a steep temperature gradient, and alloys mixed by diffusion alone. Relatively small machinofactured and nano-produced objects, including pharmaceuticals and bio-tech, will be the first space imports to Earth.

Phil Eklund, 2009

High Frontiers is an interesting example in the way how high science diffuses through culture and make accessible concepts and ideas that were once the preserve of the specialized few.

The application process

Sometimes I feel that the application process is a bit like FTL. You go into the final stage feeling you have a chance (after all, you've made this far). And then...

Remembering Snowscapes

Something to watch for the weekend

Beats watching.... say, Whitechapel.



the trailer music

A war within the Chinese internet autarky

"Each of the big three is so big, so wired in politically and so vital to the Chinese economy that its survival is assured. An employee at one of the companies likened BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) to Oceania, Eurasia and Eastasia, the superstates of George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, which are so big as to be undefeatable and permanently at war."

 

Chinese internet: Mobile wars 

Neverwinter Nights main theme

Do not mistake wishes for truth

云宮音

Forest Green

Tales of English justice

"[L]ong before 1825, when they were professionalised by being removed from everything except the administration of justice and put on salaries of £5500 or more a year, the judges had been wealthy men. On George I’s accession the puisne – i.e. ordinary – judges had been put on £1500 a year, with large periodic increases until, by 1800, they were on £3000 a year ‘free and clear from all taxes and deductions whatever’, and by 1810 on £4000. The purpose of the Hanoverian introduction of automatic knighthoods for the judiciary was probably to elevate the status of the honour rather than of the bench, and was reportedly resented by the latter. The further pay rise of 1825 may not therefore have been the massive buying-out it is sometimes said to have been; but it does mark a cleansing of the constitutional stables. In 1832 the basic judicial salary was brought down to £5000 a year, and there it remained until 1954, when it was still a pretty good wage in spite of inflation, but was finally raised by £3000 in one go. By then, as the Lord Advocate had written to the Lord Chancellor, it was ‘most unsuitable for a High Court Judge to travel in a public conveyance’. This is why many of them now cycle to work."

Above it all

Tales of English justice

"Mr Justice Hallett... was sent for and asked to resign for ‘asking too many questions’... I was once told by a very old lady what the source of the problem was. ‘We used to be taken to the Halletts’ when we were children,’ she said. ‘My sisters and I would be put in the nursery to play with Hugh, and he would line us all up at one end of the room and lecture us. I could have told the Lord Chancellor he was making a mistake appointing Hugh Hallett."

Above it all

Tony Blair 1987

Tony wrote once for the LRB. Who knew?

In it he spoke about the North Sea oil driven success of Thatcherism, Tories' rule based on ~41% of the votes and a divided opposition, and a vision for government in which power was not simply devolved to the markets.

Then the prophet turned into a preacher on a tank.

Tony Blair - diary

Dragonfall

"You look at a moth and barely perceive sentience. You glance its way, amused, as it flutters towards a bright light in a vain attempt to... what?

To enter? To draw strength? To burn? It doesn't know. Its epic struggle is barely one-hundredth of your lifespan. The sum total of its existence is nothing against the vast scale of your struggles, your hopes, your dreams - which it could not fathom in a thousand thousand years.

Poor moth."

What not to do as a retail investor

Why would anyone trade forex?

It's even harder than making a return trading bonds.

Crime and punishment

I take one look at that picture of her and think she should be sent to bed without any supper.

US woman arrested over nine-year overdue rental video

Damages

Beautiful montage