A while back, I switched to jrising.dreamwidth.org, along with much of my LJ community. I was cross-posting entries here, but that system broke down at some point. See more recent content there.

Edit: It turns out that economists have investigated the corresponding mortality costs from a recession-- and they're negative! Mortality rates go down in recessions. Add that to the environmental benefits of slowing down the global economy, and lock-downs look a lot like a clear boon for society.We are observing a fascinating social phenomenon. ( Read more... )

In the wake of the UK landslide defeat of the Labour Party, Democrats in the US are asking if the same will happen to them. I believe that we can defeat Trump, but only by radically reconnecting with our roots ( Read more... )

I recently discovered all four seasons of Monty Python's Flying Circus on Netflix, and now I'm fired up about making some surreal animations. I have a particular vision for a series on the life and times of James Rising, born 1618. It would be an inseparable mix of historical research and mythologizing, childhood and adult themes combined in Walt ( Read more... )

I came upon this bit of literary engineering by D. M. Thomas in Best SF: 1969 (ed. Harry Harrison and Brian W. Aldiss). I love the project idea, but I don't endorse all the content.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMN
1Body of:
2PriestSoldierWhoreGardenerSadistVirginPsychologistStakhanoviteScientistComposerMasochistSurgeon
3Heart of:PriestBending sadly over his enemy he ( Read more... )

"Elstir's studio seemed like the laboratory out of which would come a kind of new creation of the world: from the chaos made of all things we see, he had abstracted, by painting them on various rectangles of canvas now standing about on all sides, glimpses of things, like a wave in the sea crashing its angry lilac shaded foam down on the sand, or a ( Read more... )

I have fish! Two lovely creatures, my current obsession. I have not had an aquarium since I was 14 (when, at my height, I had tanks' worth), but my new tank is at the center of our London flat.


( Read more... )

Flame got me a 23andme genetic testing kit (report? procedure?) for Christmas! I'm excited to get some cliffnotes to my user manual, but I was surprised at how daunted I would feel. Preparing my saliva sample felt fatalistic, like each spit was nailing closed the possible; though, I suppose it was just a knock on the door to the actual ( Read more... )

Whence comes consciousness?

I am reading Homo Deus, and Harari claims, "When thousands of cars slowly edge their way through London, we call that a traffic jam, but it doesn't create some great Londonian consciousness that hover high above Piccadilly and says to itself, 'Blimey, I fell jammed!'" How would we know if it didn't? And with so many ( Read more... )

People often assume that since I have background in computers, I must be an enthusiast of blockchain technology. I have never seen much use for it, since anything that blockchains can do, a traditional database can do more efficiently. But I understand that blockchains have an application, a situation in which they are the right tool for the job ( Read more... )