http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14044

• B.E.D. on Vimeo
  B.E.D. B.E.D.Building Emotion Detector is an initiative to help people understand their impacts to the surrounding space.By analyzing,recording,translating people s presents and volume of voice, the installation itself is able to give feedback to the occupants. It overthrows the general knowledge that buildings are cold,passive,incapable of having emotions and establishes a novel type of communication between people and architecture. qi su
  (tags:ifttt vimeo video )
• S3 Storage for WordPress Blogs

  (tags:web )

• BBC News – Watch deposit flight, not the eurocrats
  @paulmasonnews: Blog: Watch deposits, not the Eurocrats: http://t.co/7FOIc6hP http://twitter.com/paulmasonnews/status/202745980993548289
  (tags:ifttt twitter editmytaglaterwarren! )
• The power of cool: Whatever became of Starlite? – tech – 16 May 2012 – New Scientist
  @sumit: Why did the inventor of Starlite, a fireproof wonder material, never reveal its secret? > http://t.co/BxgVwbPi < a riveting @rifish yarn http://twitter.com/sumit/status/202701321026027520
  (tags:ifttt twitter editmytaglaterwarren! )

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/austsfnewsconduit/~3/E8MMDrpXdXc/

http://aussiespecficinfocus.wordpress.com/?p=2405

Echoed via dw:ソ-ラ-バ-ド-のおん. comments at Dreamwidth.

http://hnn.us/jim_loewen/articles/146241.html

http://www.delicious.com/url/fd401414816b25db490d458cd9084b0c#andrewducker

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/05/120516115859.htm

http://www.delicious.com/url/786a03d8cabdda49fb8e62addedd74e0#andrewducker

http://nm.twistyfoldy.net/archives/693

http://nm.twistyfoldy.net/?p=693

Sometimes the quick sketches at life class come out kinda interesting. This is three 5 minute sketches on the same sheet. I think I will just start firing drawings on top of one another from now on because it really makes for an interesting page.

A longer study for a portrait. The eyes are too high I think but the model had really deep set sockets. Still struggling with those.

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Comments always appreciated!

http://notesfromthegeekshow.blogspot.com/2012/05/tick-press.html

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/geekologie/iShm/~3/eeAKfDPNVfs/suck-it-the-avengers-a-justice-league-mo.php

http://www.geekologie.com/2012/05/suck-it-the-avengers-a-justice-league-mo.php

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/geekologie/iShm/~3/c_LIqIa0mbw/nasa-its-not-for-everyone-father-and-son.php

http://www.geekologie.com/2012/05/nasa-its-not-for-everyone-father-and-son.php

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/geekologie/iShm/~3/bXq5GbjEs5I/back-the-future-on-a-budget-delorean-bra.php

http://www.geekologie.com/2012/05/back-the-future-on-a-budget-delorean-bra.php

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14040

CASANOVA, one of my very favourite comics, reaches the end of its third volume on June 20.  After the cut, please enjoy a preview of CASANOVA: AVARITIA #4 by Matt Fraction and Gabriel Ba.  And then go and buy all the books if you haven’t already and then squat by your comics store or iPad like a stoned gibbon with a sore bum until this wonderful comic is released.  Begin.

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14041

I asked designer, writer and researcher Justin Pickard to write to you about whatever was interesting him currently… a few months ago.  Today, he came back to me with an entire document, entitled A GONZO FUTURIST MANIFESTO.  You will find the link to that document, a free PDF, at the end of what follows.  But he called out the following section as being a nice central piece to run, and I agree.  So Justin Pickard presents to you:

ACTION AND DECISION-MAKING FOR THE PROFESSIONAL WEIRDO

In 1991, Bruce Sterling gave a speech in San Jose. Extolling the strengths and virtues of the power weirdo, he urged the audience to avoid the spring-loaded bear-trap of mediocrity:

You don’t get there by acculturating. Don’t become a well-rounded person. Well rounded people are smooth and dull. Become a thoroughly spiky person. Grow spikes from every angle. Stick in their throats like a puffer fish.

(Sterling, 1991)

With an idiosyncratic outlook and skill set, the power weirdo — and its subset, the gonzo futurist — is particularly well-placed to deal with a turbulent decade. With an eye on the road ahead, she can meet or dodge situations as they arise, charting a clear course through the VUCA battlefields of a turboparalytic world. One thing we can say: in 5-10 years time, ours will be a world of ubiquitous computing (in some form). When sensors are everyone, and the ‘big data’ of the post-normal threatens to bury us all in a torrent of noise, finely tuned sense-making capabilities may prove to be your greatest asset. For futurist Scott Smith, ‘warehousing massive amounts of data is simply an exercise in hoarding if we can’t see, contextualize, and use the patterns in the noise.’ (Smith, 2011) The pattern analyst is less likely to find her job outsourced or automated, but, to effectively lever the patterns in the noise, we have to be able distinguish between real patterns and the faces in the clouds.

We need pattern recognition. Pattern Recognition. The protagonist of William Gibson’s 2003 novel of the same name, Cayce Pollard, though something of a ‘self-facilitating media node’, provides a model for the gonzo futurist. For Cayce, the lived experience of 9/11 flipped a switch somewhere, hyper-sensitising her to the aesthetics of corporate branding. By the time the story begins, she’s found a niche as a coolhunter and creative consultant, exploiting her body’s physical, pre-cognitive reaction to logos (the bad ones induce nausea and panic).

Dorotea removes an eleven-inch square of art board from the envelope. Holding it at the upper corners, between the tips of perfectly manicured forefingers, she displays it to Cayce. (…) There is a drawing there, a sort of scribble in thick black Japanese brush, a medium she knows to be the in-house hallmark of Herr Heinzi himself. To Cayce, it most resembles a syncopated sperm, as rendered by the American underground cartoonist Rick Griffin, circa 1967. She knows almost immediately that it does not, by the opaque standards of her inner radar, work. She has no way of knowing how she knows.

(Gibson, 2003)

Though Cayce’s ‘base’ of domain-specific knowledge is both wide and deep — note the reference to Rick Griffin — she has no way of knowing how she knows. She’s aware of an ‘inner radar,’ but, as something separate from her conscious mind, has no idea how it works. Though Cayce leverages her capacities as a source of income, her role of sensitive-slash-coolhunter is more bodily disposition than career. Unpicking the details and implications of Gibson’s novel, literary theorist Lauren Berlant describes how Cayce’s disposition allows her ‘to ride the wave of the moment, to make her situation what it is, a thing to live through, be embedded in, and feel out’. Sounds a bit gonzo, doesn’t it?

Lacking Cayce’s near-supernatural capabilities, our gonzo futurist needs a prosthetic substitute; some kind of cognitive aikido. This would be a general framework that would allow her to easily grok the dynamics of the post-normal world, and identify the key sites and tipping points for action. To my knowledge, the closest currently existing equivalent is the OODA loop. Originally devised by US military strategist John Boyd, the OODA loop is a rolling heuristic cycle, a structure for those who need to make quick decisions under pressure. OODA. Observe, orient, decide, act.

The gonzo futurist is a super-empowered hopeful individual. She may have been a ‘graduate with no future’ (Mason, 2011), or the victim of public sector cuts, but has since grieved and moved on. She plays, tests, and play tests; making the best of the tools and technologies at her disposal. Comfortable calling on (and being called on by) her friends, peers, and tribe, her sense-making skills are social and connected. Her thinking may, occasionally, ‘be located inside the brains of other people.’ (Wheeler, 2011)

The gonzo futurist is a ‘deep generalist’ (Cascio, 2011) and ‘analytical polyglot’ (Smith, 2011). She has an ‘almost supernatural awareness of impacts and implications … [is] ready to adapt when necessary, building long-lasting systems when possible.’ (Cascio, 2011) Like Cayce Pollard, she is a ‘woman of affect, not of feeling (…) [an] empress of the amygdala.’ (Berlant)

The gonzo futurist is resilient. She works smart, not hard. She has one eye on the ‘adjacent possible’, switches codes, and contributes to the commons. She may be privileged, but has no time for competition, alpha male dick-waving, or beggar-thy-neighbour. Her success does not come at your expense.

Bombarded by stimuli, the gonzo futurist is an OODA cyborg. Observe, orient, decide, act.

Justin Pickard is a self-described ‘gonzo futurist’, freelance researcher, and associate at London-based design practice Superflux.  You can find him on Twitter @justinpickard.

And this is the direct link to A GONZO FUTURIST MANIFESTO.

http://www.warrenellis.com/?p=14046

Matt Staggs interviewed me for The Disinfo Podcast, and now it’s online. 

(Using, I have to note, a photo of me that must be 12 years old, complete with now-shaven head-hair.) 

I haven’t been interviewed over the phone for, frankly, years, and I’m terrible at it.  I can’t even bring myself to listen to this.  But you know, feel free to listen in and cringe for me.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ChinaLawBlog/~3/MpA0UIZJnek/selling-your-product-into-china-what-you-need-to-know.html

http://www.chinalawblog.com/?p=14556

ABC News is pushing (I received two different emails from ABC on it) a Diane Sawyer/ABC News clip entitled, “‘Made in America’ Products Selling in China.” Though it is the proverbial 3.28 minute puff piece, it is right on the big picture. There are huge opportunities to sell American product and American products are viewed very highly in China.

It starts out noting how “the Chinese spent $104 billion in U.S. exports in the last year — up 542 percent from 10 years ago.”  For more on how China has been greatly increasing its purchases of American goods, check out Selling Into China: The New Wave.  The clip then highlights a number of large and small U.S. businesses that are either trying to sell into China or have succeeded in doing so. Everyone is happy, everyone is at least a little bit jingoistic, and everything looks as easy as simply putting your product on the net and waiting for the hordes of Chinese consumers to come to you. Of course, real life (as opposed to the media’s portrayal of it) is quite different.

The clip completely fails even to touch upon the following extreme basics:

• Logistics
• Customs/Duties/Regulations
• Organizational structures
• Intellectual property
• Getting paid

So we will.

Logistics.  We are lawyers, not logistics people, but we know enough to know that if you are going to sell product into China, you need to figure out the best way to get it there and the cost of doing so and whether the costs are prohibitive or not.

Customs/Duties/Regulations. Just yesterday, I received an email from someone asking me why it was having to pay 18% at China customs for its food product, while one of its competitors was paying 7%.  The e-mailer wrote the letter as though we would have an answer right off the top of our heads, but our response was essentially that we had no clue.  We then talked of how it may be because of a difference in processing of the product, it may because of a difference in sizing of the product, it may be because of a difference in from where the product originates or was processed, or it may even be because one of the numbers was wrong.  We would need to know a whole lot more even to guess.  A few weeks earlier, someone had called me because China customs had just refused entry of their product into China because it did not meet China’s safety standards. The caller kept saying how it had “never even occurred” to him that China might have tougher safety standards than the United States.  Well, it should have. The U.S. Government has a very helpful website dealing with China customs.  Check it out before you ship.

Organizational Structures.  How exactly are you going to sell your product into China?  Are you going to do it exclusively from the United States? If so, you will not be able to take RMB unless you use some sort of intermediary.  Are you going to use a distributor in China to get your product sold? If so, will this be an exclusive or non-exclusive arrangement? Who will pay for marketing?  Who will repair the product when something goes wrong? How will you make sure that the distributor does not do something to tarnish your reputation? Or will you set up an entity in China (a Wholly Foreign Owned Entity (WFOE), a Joint Venture (JV) or a Representative Office) to handle your China sales?  Do you have even a basic understanding of how China retail works?

Intellectual Property.  If you want to prevent others from using your brand name or your logo in China, you absolutely must register those as a trademark in China and you should do so before you sell any product there.  For more on registering trademarks in China, check out WHEN To Register Your China Trademark. You face similar issues regarding copyrights and patents as well.

Getting Paid. Presumably, you are seeking to do business with China so as to increase your profits. Unfortunately, selling product internationally has a much higher risk of non-payment than does selling product domestically. We discussed this in The Basics Of Getting Paid When Selling To China:

If you are going to sell product into China (or anywhere else internationally), you should consider employing the following to increase your chances of not getting stiffed:

1. Secure all of the payment in advance. Sophisticated buyers typically will not accept this unless you put up a performance bond or open a standby letter of credit so that it can get its advance payment back. Note, however, that it can sometimes be difficult for Chinese companies to obtain government approval to make full payment in advance.
2. Conduct due diligence on your buyer.
3. Secure some of the payment in advance. This obviously will not guarantee you full payment, but it is better to lose some as opposed to all from a sale.
4. Secure a Documentary Letter of Credit. With this, you will be paid when there is documentary evidence you have shipped the product according to the terms and conditions of the letter of credit. Smart buyers typically require an inspection certificate to ensure the product complies with the specifications in the contract or the purchase order. This sort of letter of credit mitigates your risk because your buyer’s bank has irrevocably guaranteed to pay upon presentation of the required documents.

We generally recommend our clients secure this letter of credit from a major (not a tiny) Chinese bank, such as Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Development Bank, and Bank of Communications, or a  branch of a known American, Asian or European bank. WARNING:  We have seen more than our share of fake letters of credit.

To encourage exporting, many countries, including the United States, make it fairly easy and cheap to purchase insurance to cover an improper non payment on the letter of credit.

There are all sorts of variations on the above, but these are the basics.

So yes, Ms. Sawyer, selling into China is rife with great opportunities and we would be the last people to say “don’t do it.” But it is not nearly as simple as you portrayed it, at least if you don’t want to lose your shirt.

What do you think?

• Wed, 03:22: Going to see #Ultravox in Bristol, Nottingham, Birmingham and Glasgow. The time in-between the last two will be spent at a Dutch beerfest.
• Wed, 03:29: @cstross had better appreciate the front row seats I got us to see #Ultravox at the armadillo in Glasgow.

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http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/GoogleMapsMania/~3/Js7lu18aTRw/isometric-maps-of-world.html

http://fullfact.org/factchecks/nursing_jobs_cuts_RCN_NHS-27231

http://www.delicious.com/url/eebeecdfeccdc370a76b6bf78ed3c9e7#andrewducker

http://www.out-law.com/en/articles/2012/may/companies-could-have-to-top-up-final-salary-pensions-by-as-much-as-100bn-new-research-claims/

http://www.delicious.com/url/94dd87ca4510821e6cf7fb7f660b8906#andrewducker

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/print/2012/05/how-the-professor-who-fooled-wikipedia-got-caught-by-reddit/257134/

http://www.delicious.com/url/f14ae0743290144867274792ecd168b5#andrewducker

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/fury-as-blind-people-hit-by-benefit-reform-7754452.html

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http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-18083178

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http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2012/05/16/152736597/pizza-delicious-bought-an-ad-on-facebook-howd-they-do

http://www.delicious.com/url/d8349395b6f39bb6c1c19ef95404caf2#andrewducker

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/may/15/carlos-texas-innocent-man-death

http://www.delicious.com/url/16bac8df97c540bcd06d84318583d991#andrewducker

Anna’s Kickstarter project for Faerie Blood (her first novel) and Bone Walker (the soon-to-be-published sequel) is in its final six hours. Fewer, by the time you read this. It will fund, which is awesome, and not just because we’re doing the soundtrack album. If you want to get in as a backer on this – have your name in the book’s thank-you pages, and all that? Or other tasty awards? Go back the books!

Also, extra money thrown in lets us do extra things. I’ve already spent time and money building out my little studio to handle this larger project, and I’ll be building more toys soon. Plus we have guest musicians coming in. It’s a big deal! So if you’re going to jump in, now is the goddamn time! Not tonight, not tomorrow: now. MOVE IT SOLDIER THIS MEANS YOU! :D

There’s a review raffle going! Play Cracksman Betty and write a review about it, and you’re in a drawing for a copy of the album. Plus, it’s good, dammit! The review doesn’t have to be long, but it needs to link to the album. Oh, and tell us you wrote the review. Thanks!

Play this:

Cracksman Betty (Remixed and Remastered)
CRIME and the Forces of Evil

Download   Share

Link to this in your review.

Oh, I also think there’s a Google Hangouts live thing tonight, too. Watch on G+ for details!

Mirrored from Crime and the Blog of Evil. Come listen to our music!

Echoed via dw:ソ-ラ-バ-ド-のおん. comments at Dreamwidth.

http://metamagician3000.blogspot.com/2012/05/chrys-stephenson-on-lobby-group-doctors.html

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/16/seriously-what-the-hell/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=18593

Over on Facebook, friends of mine from high school are taking pictures of this bumper sticker, which they allege to be finding out there in the world. The quote comes from something I said on the Alien Encounters TV show, about how even if we find out that aliens exist, we’re sooner or later going to have to get back to our lives, up to and including taking out the trash. So far four or five of them have posted the bumper sticker.

I have to say I’m suspicious about this. The quote is kind of random, I’m not anywhere near famous enough to warrant a bumper sticker, and this is exactly the sort of brain-messery that friends of mine would engage in; specifically, this is the sort of thing my friend Norm Carnick would likely mastermind, because apparently he’s got a lot of free time. The telling detail for me is that as far as I can recall it’s only high school friends and acquaintances that have reported seeing the thing.

All of which is to say I AM ON TO YOU MY HIGH SCHOOL SO-CALLED FRIENDS AND I WILL HAVE MY REVENGE BWA HA HA HA HAH HA unless of course these bumper stickers really do exist non-affiliated to my high school chums, in which case, seriously, what the Hell. I’m definitely not getting a percentage of the profits. I find the picture amusing, however.

Edit, 7:32am: The plot thickens. On eBay!

http://whatever.scalzi.com/2012/05/16/a-childs-treasury-of-deletions/

http://whatever.scalzi.com/?p=18589

Yesterday’s post garnered 800 comments before I put it to bed and I ended up deleting a record number of comments out of it, largely from presumably straight white men enraged at the idea their life doesn’t necessarily suck as much as other folks’ and/or because they ate lead paint chips as children and have impulse control issues (plus a couple from other, calmer folks following up on posts I later deleted, so theirs needed to be deleted too). Whatever the reason, I thought it would be fun to post a compendium of Malletings here for your enjoyment.

So without further ado: The Deletions of May 15, 2012!

Warning: Intemperate language follows.

[Deleted because inasmuch as the author of it admits to not reading the entry at all, anything he has to say will be aside the point for the thread -- JS]

[Deleted for pointlessness. Did some site with exceptionally stupid readers just link in? -- JS]

[Deleted because being a troll isn't merit badge-worthy -- JS]

[Deleted for garden variety racism, misogyny and assholishness -- JS]

[Deleted for trollage -- JS]

[Deleted because That Guy is a homophobic moron -- JS]

[Deleted because Scorpius was already told he was off the thread -- JS]

[Aaaand now Scorpius has earned a place in the moderation queue. Enjoy it, Scorpius! You'll come out again when I decide you're not trolling -- JS]

[Further deleted because That Guy is nowhere as clever as he seems to believe he is -- JS]

[Deleted because That Guy is tiresome -- JS]

[Contentless troll deleted -- JS]

[People who comment to tell me that they didn't read get deleted! Because they're jackassed trolls who have nothing to add to the conversation! -- JS]

[Deleted for pointlessness -- JS]

[Speaking as a white male, I have deleted the comment because of its abject stupidity -- JS]

[Deleted for spittle-flinging assholishness -- JS]

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/geekologie/iShm/~3/1t7qcTk89sw/brutal-the-nine-circles-of-hell-recreate.php

http://www.geekologie.com/2012/05/brutal-the-nine-circles-of-hell-recreate.php

One of my stories set in Japan features a ghost as the villain, and not just any ghost either: she's the main protagonist's ancestor.  

In life she was pretty nasty; she was obsessed with having amazing descendants.  When her son failed to live up to her expectations, she treated him like crap.  Now, as a ghost roaming the earth, she continues to make life miserable for all her descendants (as none of them have ever reached her crazy ideals), namely siccing her unsavory "friends on the other side" on them.

I'm on the fence with this scenario though.  I can see her haunting​ her descendants and making life hell for them, but the using other ghosts/demons to carry out her deeds seems to be stretching it a bit (though she was a medium in life and had a kitsune as an ally) So I guess what I'm asking here is, does anyone know of any other ghost/supernatural myths or legends with similar themes?  (And they don't necessarily have to be Japanese in origin) 

I've done Wikipedia research on ghosts etc in Japanese folklore but nothing really seemed to fit.