Public Service Announcement: Porn sex Vs. Real sex

Watch this video, both informative and entertaining, and it does so using food.

Data Vampires

A more reputable vampire

Okay, I'll admit here that I am not "a great socialite"  - or putting it in a different way, I prefer action to jaw flapping or thumb tapping. Empty vessels make the most noise, of course.

First there was Farcebook asking for my personal email password, schools I attended, places I worked and pretty much anything they could get . .  no, no and NO again. One day someone will give me a decent reason for providing personal information like what school I went to . . . and I will provide it - but this bunch of data vampires don't even pretend to have a good reason.  
My email password? weeeeeellllll, maybe if I was fifteen and stupid you might get it but I don't fit either category.

And now . . . . . a new scavenger has appeared, someone gave my name to LinkedIn and they tried the same thing, I ask you, dear reader,  what would YOU say if some strange kid turned up at your door and said "Gimme your email password dude, I promise I won't tell anyone else or keep it, honest!" : Would you trust him?

For me, "Networking" is what PCs do. Humans get together and talk in the real FIRST so that you know who the heck you are sending a message to - and what was wrong with email? Why are we supposed to need Yet Another Stupid Messaging Program? (Worse still, some are so full of holes that they are regularly hijacked by children for their entertainment!)

I do keep a Farcebook ID so people can potentially find me but I don't get any messages from there except to tell me that a freind has written something on his page . . . . . maybe over the long, long run (years) someone will actually find me through FB but I am beginning to doubt it. Apart from those who knew me already I have made zero new friends on FB because almost none of the people I contacted via it were prepared to meet me as real people - apparently because they weren't.

Dunbar's Number

For years I knew that there was an ideal size for social groups,  small enough for everyone to know each other but not too small, big enough for a workable community. Well, thanks to Dmitry Orlov who has a blog here (and this article is a good read too, makes you think about what might be coming for us down here in Oz)  I now know it is called "Dunbar's number" and that it is about 150.
I bought his book,  "The Five Stages of Collapse" as well. Although not so uplifting it is full of interesting observations and definitely though provoking - okay I admit I haven't read it all yet, I have read excerpts on his blog though.

Electric Flying Bicycle, anyone?

It's pretty awesome, really: a video shows it actually flying albeit indoors and the Czech engineers who made it did it because they wanted to: NOT for sale. 
but . . . . .
WIRED, why attach the dumbass term "Jedi" to it?
Science Fiction  existed long before George Lucas and Star Wars.  I expect that now it has been sold to Disney there will be even more plastic crap filling the shelves (if that's possible!) soon.

It really is awesome though: a man-carrying all-electric helicopter is an achievement in itself.
Note that there are two props in each end cage and two smaller ones either side.  
I'm tempted to create my own variation in virtual.

The Golden Android

If anyone is wondering where all my time and money go, here it is: my first 3D produced "graphic novel", titled as above.  I  have put it on DeviantArt in low res with watermarks on all pages so you can read it, but if you want the real thing you will need to buy it when it's done or pay by the page which might be expensive (but who am I to complain? this is not a cheap venture folks*).
I decided to use DA since you don't need an ID to look at the pictures unlike Renderosity which does, but then I still post there too since it is where I get a lot of good feedback and a lot of the models used came from there.
Of course, all comments are welcome: critical or otherwise.

A few bits . . .

Been busy with my 3D graphic novel so I haven't posted for a while so things have accumulated:
Here it all is in one lump:

1. DSM V hits the shelves and it is exactly as many people warned: read the dirt here.

2. Bleeding obvious no.2 : Diversity of lifeforms is essential for survival.  . . . or put another way "Something other than adaptation is driving evolution".   

3. Video: "Theorist and de-growth activist Charles Eisenstein talks about the benefits of a 'gift-based' economy. He argues that such a model aims to bring about a workforce driven by passion rather than coerced by money and profit and he highlights certain co-operative schemes already proving the ideal can be made real"    - here.

Mon(k)ey Business

I have been following the whole "economic" situation for a long time, as should anyone who cares about their future: Bitcoin is the most recent development. You can read more about it here from WIRED. A very good article and carefully thought out.
What I don't see written anywhere is what seems to me to be an obvious problem with Bitcoin or any other virtual currency that is "secured" by an encrypted number: computing power is always increasing, so if your money is kept secure by an encryption, eventually those with enough Megaflop muscle will be able to hack it, and fake it. 
On the other hand, if that distant event  can be kept as far into the future as possible,  we can probably expect  some sort of VC (virtual currency) to take over from the present mess simply because there are so many parasites and gamblers sucking value out of the world's currencies that it will be necessary just so people can survive.
None of that will solve the basic problem though: the problem of humans wanting to gamble - or worse still, wanting to get money for nothing. Even providing employment for everyone won't fix that, no, what is needed is a trade system that cannot be speculated upon. The alternative is to provide a speculation system that is disconnected somehow from the real economy (consumery) so that the loonies can gamble all they like without wrecking nations or currencies.
Well, that's a nice idea. Not sure how you would do that.
If you think I'm cynical about economics, you should see what Max Keiser has to say.
Search "Keiser report" on Youtube.