Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Dystopian Bias

Judge Dredd Writer: My Nightmare Vision Of A State Gone Mad Has Come True (from Sunday Herald)
"It's not funny anymore. I find it hard to write Judge Dredd now, I really do."

...Grant and Wagner would read tabloid newspapers to find social trends such as youth gangs, unemployment, overcrowding and neighbour rage that they exaggerated and placed into the future.

"It's pretty horrific when you realise that what you've written, admittedly an extrapolation of a trend, has got stronger and stronger," said Grant. Going to Glasgow airport and seeing police officers armed Judge Dredd-style confirmed to Grant the state of society. "We are living in a dystopia, and pessimistically I can only see it getting worse. I think the world that we, and I include myself, are bequeathing to our grandchildren, is a horrible, horrible place."

(caveat: I read a lot of Sci-Fi.) I have to agree with Grant that our society resembles more closely the dystopias that early generations imagined than it does the utopias - but that's because there's very few utopias involving humans in Sci-Fi. Indeed, the numbers of dystopias massively outweighs and has always outweighed the utopias in all forms of writing, from Asimov to Borges to Corinthians. The elements where writers have conceived of positive things has been in man's innovations, which our current society excels in - the do-all terminal of Ian Banks' Culture novels, touch-screens, consumer-led location and organisational systems. Yes; the sh*tty bits of Britain have got no better and we're more aware than ever of those crapulences; but we're more aware because, firstly, we focus on the negative more than ever in the media and, secondly, Grant originally sourced those story ideas from the press - indicating they were a problem at that time too!


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Monday, January 28, 2008

SHARIABOT SAYS KILL

Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)
Cairo, Asharq Al-Awsat- A controversial new electronic device could revolutionize the field of Islamic jurisprudence and allegedly issue more accurate Shariah fatwas [religious edicts]. The device, currently in production in France, will be known as the 'Electronic Mufti' and will depend on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to issue opinions on contemporary Muslim affairs and matters.

Engineer Dr. Anas Fawzi...describes the device as "a very large capacity computer on which all the information that is relevant to a given [historical] figure is uploaded; everything that has been mentioned in history books or chronicled documents that indicate his/her responses and attitudes towards all positions adopted in his/her life. Through a process that relies on AI, the computer then simulates responses based on the available data so that the answers are the expected response that the person in question would give if they were alive," said Dr. Fawzi.

Would a simulated prophet, the product of sometimes-conflicting historical records, be coherent or plain insane?


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Thursday, January 24, 2008

HAHAHAHA. We're all dead.

'Safe Ebola' created for research

HAHAHAHAHA. We're all dead.


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DON'T ASK WHY I'M SEARCHING FOR THESE THINGS.

Sexual lifestyle of long distance lorry drivers in India: questionnaire survey
The table shows that 87% of subjects (4949 men) were sexually promiscuous, of whom only 11% (563) used condoms during commercial sex. The percentage using condoms decreased with increasing age. In the 21-30 age group (n=1766), 78% of unmarried sexually promiscuous men (331/425) reported having 31-60 sexual partners during the past 12 months.


It appears that Indian lorry-drivers are some of the most promiscuous people in the world; combine this with relaxing in a cab all day, eating crap food from roadside caffs and being hero-worshipped by legions of of Lorry-Spotters and one might say they have the world's most fun, irresponsible lifestyle.

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Monday, January 21, 2008

People are Too Much about buses.


The other side of Greenwich, originally uploaded by Hot Grill.

Claire Pendrous Pro User says:
DVLA details for this old Volvo bus are:
Date of Liability 01 12 1996
Date of First Registration 23 11 1979
Year of Manufacture 1979
Fuel Type Heavy Oil
Vehicle Status Unlicensed
Vehicle Colour MAROON

Hot Grill Pro User says:
Where the hell did you get those details from?

budgie2007 / Rich B. Pro User says:
This Volvo Ailsa B55 with Alexander 79-seat body was one of a batch of 20 of the type delivered new to Central SMT between October & December 1979. It was number AH25 in that fleet.

Budding Photography #2



Grasshopper's Suda 51 Interview // Eurogamer

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Budding Photography

No More Heroes director SUDA51 talks punk, violence and Wii games.

The event I was doing on Monday and Tuesday was hosting interviews for Suda 51 at the Wii flat. But, see! People are using my photos! Excitement!


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Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Bananas + Ham + Cheese = MMM, mmm!

Heavy Metal Madness: You Are What You Eat


Thatsa tasty, uh, banananaanana. (Hmm, gotta learn how to stop saying that word...)


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Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Pulpit Rock.

Preikestolen



The next place I want to go walking. Hmm. 600m up, a random lump of stone 25m by 25m, floats above a Norwegian Fjord. Looks nice, nu?




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