Undulating Ungulate

* Unexpected short must read: William Gibson on Google.

Cyberspace, not so long ago, was a specific elsewhere, one we visited periodically, peering into it from the familiar physical world. Now cyberspace has everted. Turned itself inside out. Colonized the physical. Making Google a central and evolving structural unit not only of the architecture of cyberspace, but of the world. This is the sort of thing that empires and nation-states did, before. But empires and nation-states weren’t organs of global human perception. They had their many eyes, certainly, but they didn’t constitute a single multiplex eye for the entire human species.

* Leaked German military report says

Peak oil has happened or will happen some time around this year, and its consequences could threaten the continued survival of democratic governments, says a secret Germany military report that was leaked online.

According to Der Spiegel, the report from a think-tank inside the German military warns that shrinking global oil supplies will threaten the world’s economic foundations and possibly lead to mass-scale upheaval within the next 15 to 30 years

* Exo-psychology revisited: what looks like a totally fascinating article about consciousness migrating off the planet, based off Leary’s notions and updating them.

* China’s lead negotiator on climate change, basically saying rich nations must go first; but definitely interesting perspective:

We cannot blindly accept that protecting the climate is humanity’s common interest – national interests should come first. Individual enthusiasm and willingness to make sacrifice for the sake of the climate is worthy of respect and praise. I myself usually walk or take the bus to work. The individual can choose not to drive, but China cannot choose not to have an automobile industry. The individual can save power, but there are 600 million people in India without electricity – the country has to develop and meet that need. And if that increases emissions, I say, “So what?” The people have a right to a better life.

* Crowdsourcing for environmental change. Interesting project. Got an idea? Tell them.

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Seemed like there should have been more people there to dance it out in an old stamping ground. Hadn’t been there for aaages, and a flood of impressions and memories came back. End of an era. Something amazing happened there a decade back. At least it seemed that way. Long gone, long gone. Everything changes. And now. And now?

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* wrote my first piece of fiction in several years and submitted it somewhere

* made what felt like a majorish life decision; a hard one, anyway, in terms of thinking it out

* went to my first ever dance class; interesting

* submitted finished documentary to crucial festival

* probably should have slept more

go the full moon, I guess.

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So, that documentary the moose has been making? It is done. After a lengthier than anticipated process full of learnings, we have final cut, and are ready to submit to festivals and whatnot.

You can find the official (though somewhat beta) website here: combust in unity. That would be the place to check for progress reports and updates.

You can view the first trailer (again, a bit beta) there.

Or below.

Feel free to get all viral on this…

(Holy, shit, I’ve made a movie. Feels a little abstract.)

Filed by billy at 1:44 pm under culture,the moose
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Over the past few months (90 days, even) I have been doing an exercise program, the p90x. Finished it yesterday.

The program is a mix of resistance/weights training, cardio, martial arts, yoga, all combined into a full body ass-kicking. The workouts pack in a lot of variety and change over time. It works out at an hour to an hour and a half each day, with a fairly rigorous and restrictive dietary guide. The combination is what sold me, I think – it seemed comprehensive, in a way that infomercial stuff doesn’t.

After looking into all things body-modification a little, I went the whole hog on what seemed to work, taking whey protein and a recovery drink after workouts, and creatine as a supplement. In particular I have noticed the effect of the creatine – a definite initial feeling of being superhuman, and being able to go harder than maybe expected, and a definite slowing down on cycling off it. And the whey and recovery stuff makes hella difference post workout. (P90 has its own brand everything but I just found locally available equivalents.)

Over the course of the program, I gained 7 kg and my overall body fat went down 2%. My body is definitely a bit of a different shape beneath my ever shapeless clothes. And yeah, I must be substantially fitter, though it is hard to tell exactly without an external benchmark. Although there is a post- test to do, maybe that will give a clear picture.

The program is probably not for everyone. You need a certain level of fitness to start – not unreasonable, but not nothing. Sticking to the diet seems crucial, and is harder than the exercise. There is a lot of gear you need to acquire (though you get to keep it after, of course). And Tony Horton may get on your nerves as he yells motivating shit at you non stop for 90 days (although: respect. Mofo is seriously fit.), though I didn’t mind it. Depending on your actual goals something else may be better suited, but on the whole it seems like a good highly compressed program for total body fitness.

So yeah. Was good to do some intensively body focused stuff  to hopefully balance out the writing etc. And hopefully I will keep active and maintain this as a new baseline of fitness.

Filed by billy at 8:20 pm under the moose
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(Thought I had blogged this already, but maybe it got lost in the shuffle when the server changed?)

Have been on the road working 6 days a week for most of this month. It has been a serious blur, with not much time for most other stuff. Though it has been a fascinating learning process in lots of ways, and I have been thinking a lot in the background.

As far as I know my contract ends at the end of this week. No idea what next, but am open to most things, so if anyone hears of anything, do let me know

Today I got my first ever passport.

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Work seems like it will be sending me all over the place for the next month or so, so maybe not around so much either online or in meatspace for the next little while. We’ll see.

Filed by billy at 8:13 pm under meta,the moose
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I have a job. (Thanks, Vicki! ) Just a 6 week contract, mind you, but still. Madness.

So yeah. Maybe in a month or so I will be looking again, so keeping your ears open is much appreciated…

Be aware though that this was written of as a sign of the end of all things.

Also, the All Whites went undefeated at the World Cup.

Filed by billy at 8:30 am under culture,the moose
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Yup.

Getting funded to do awesome positive things hasn’t worked out so far, and pragmatism and my travel plans now require that I get anything, now, to hit the savings goals in time.

I can read and write real good. I can do monkey work, or complex analysis. I can drive and carry heavy things. I can use computers pretty good. I learn new things real fast. I can organise large complex projects, and figure out hard stuff. Etc. I can probably do most things if given a shot, and am not that fussed what I do.

So yeah. If anyone knows of or hears of anything going… let me know.

Filed by billy at 2:17 pm under the moose
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As you know, I have unplugged from the close-following  of world events and hardcore-media-trawling of a few years ago.

The other day at random I clicked on whatdoesitmean, the uber news aggregator (just ignore the articles by the site), for the first time in ages, and came across a couple of things that had escaped my minimal information channels but which seem like they, well, matter.

One was Lula, President of Brazil, announcing that the BRIC (Brazil Russia India China) must create a new world order.

Just read that sentence again. And tell me if that was reported in whatever media you are following.

“We are four large countries with abundant resources, large populations and diverse societies… We aspire for rapid growth for ourselves and for an external environment that is conducive to our development goals,” Singh told the second Summit of the four-nation grouping here in the Brazilian capital.

Contending that the people of the four countries “expect us to work together so as to bring the benefits of inclusive social and economic development to them”, he identified energy and food security as two specific areas where they can work together.

“Our grouping includes two of the largest energy producers and two of the largest consumers in the world. We can cooperate in both upstream and downstream areas, and in the development of new fuels and clean energy technologies,” he said.

The other BRIC related article, which I seem to have lost the link for, was about how they have decided they want to retain their own currencies, and have them be independent. Likewise, this matters.

Filed by billy at 12:37 pm under the moose
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