Thursday, February 27, 2014

The Intrade Fall & The Business Of Betting On Real Life

There’s always been a thin line between investing and gambling. As number crunchers like Nate Silver became cultural touchstones, one firm turned the concept into a multimillion-dollar industry until the government shut it down. How does Intrade’s fate predict the future of how we process the world?


-- Note: Click Title Link For BuzzFeed Article by Andrew Rice

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Ghosting

Andrew O'Hagan, the ghostwriter who collaborated with Julian Assange on his aborted 2011 autobiography, has broken his silence to describe his months working with the WikiLeaks founder, which culminated in the acrimonious collapse of one of the highest profile and most lucrative book deals of recent times.

The book deal ultimately collapsed, O'Hagan writes, because "the man who put himself in charge of disclosing the world's secrets simply couldn't bear his own. The story of his life mortified him and sent him scurrying for excuses. He didn't want to do the book. He hadn't from the beginning."


Note: Click Title Link For Complete London Review Of Books Blog Entry By Andrew O'Hagan
(Online Exclusive - 26,390 Words)

 

Saturday, February 22, 2014

Thursday, February 20, 2014

Is This Life Real?

Our species is not going to last forever. One way or another, humanity will vanish from the Universe, but before it does, it might summon together sufficient computing power to emulate human experience, in all of its rich detail. Some philosophers and physicists have begun to wonder if we’re already there. Maybe we are in a computer simulation, and the reality we experience is just part of the program.

Modern computer technology is extremely sophisticated, and with the advent of quantum computing, it’s likely to become more so. With these more powerful machines, we’ll be able to perform large-scale simulations of more complex physical systems, including, possibly, complete living organisms, maybe even humans. But why stop there?

The idea isn’t as crazy as it sounds. A pair of philosophers recently argued that if we accept the eventual complexity of computer hardware, it’s quite probable we’re already part of an ‘ancestor simulation’, a virtual recreation of humanity’s past. Meanwhile, a trio of nuclear physicists has proposed a way to test this hypothesis, based on the notion that every scientific programme makes simplifying assumptions. If we live in a simulation, the thinking goes, we might be able to use experiments to detect these assumptions.

However, both of these perspectives, logical and empirical, leave open the possibility that we could be living in a simulation without being able to tell the difference. Indeed, the results of the proposed simulation experiment could potentially be explained without us living in a simulated world. And so, the question remains: is there a way to know whether we live a simulated life or not?


Note: Click Title Link For Complete Aeon Magazine Article by Matthew Francis


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Cliff Notes - The New York Times

Is The Universe A Simulation? by Edward Frenkel

One fanciful possibility is that we live in a computer simulation based on the laws of mathematics — not in what we commonly take to be the real world.


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Zero-Knowledge Proof: Perfecting The Art Of Sensible Nonsense

In a watershed moment for cryptography, computer scientists have proposed a solution to a fundamental problem called “program obfuscation.”


Note: Quanta Magazine Article by Erica Klarreich


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Weird Science:

A Brief History Of Mind-Bending Ideas About Black Holes

Physicist Stephen Hawking made headlines recently by saying that black holes do not exist. Or they exist, but not how we think. Or something. The truth is complicated. In fact, to really understand where Hawking and the rest of the astrophysics community are coming from, it’s important to know a little history.


Note: Click Link For Wired Article By Adam Mann


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Watch: Three Ways an Astronaut Could Fall Into a Black Hole

Note: National Geographic Article by Charles Q. Choi & Graphics by Jason Treat, NG Staff
Source: Avery Broderick, Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, University of Waterloo, Canada


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More National Geographic:

Are We Living in a Black Hole?

Our universe may reside within a vast, black hole.


Article by Michael Finkel


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Weird Science Cont.: Evolution, You’re Drunk

DNA Studies Topple The Ladder Of Complexity

Amoebas are puny, stupid blobs, so scientists were surprised to learn that they contain 200 times more DNA than Einstein did. Because amoebas are made of just one cell, researchers assumed they would be simpler than humans genetically. Plus, amoebas date back farther in time than humans, and simplicity is considered an attribute of primitive beings. It just didn’t make sense...


Note: Click Link For Nautilus Magazine Article By Amy Maxmen


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A Valuable Reputation: A Scientist Takes On Big Agriculture

After Tyrone Hayes said that Atrazine, a widely used herbicide, was harmful, its maker Syngenta pursued and plotted ways to discredit him.


Note: New Yorker Article by Rachel Aviv

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

120 Minutes

Promo Featuring Mark E. Smith of The Fall

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Odds & Ends :: Dylan’s 1965 Studio Fragments

Bob Dylan :: You Don’t Have To Do That (00:55)

You Don’t Have To Do That - Recorded at the first Bringing It All Back Home sessions. A catchy solo acoustic thing.


Bob Dylan :: Lunatic Princess Revisited (01:11)

Lunatic Princess Revisited - An improvised, short unreleased song, bootlegged under the title "Lunatic Princess Revisited", but copyrighted as "Why Do You Have to Be So Frantic?". Critic Clinton Heylin calls the song a "weird little one-verse fragment", but claims that the riff is the blueprint of the singer's 1979 evangelical composition, 'Gotta Serve Somebody' from "Slow Train."


Bob Dylan :: Midnight Train (01:00)

Midnight Train - A beautiful dream of a song that Dylan would incorporate into “Temporary Like Achilles,” during the Nashville Blonde On Blonde sessions. It’ll have you pressing repeat over and over.


Bob Dylan :: Jet Pilot (01:29)

Jet Pilot - A riff that grooves along for a minute-and-a-half.


Bob Dylan :: I Don’t Wanna Be Your Partner (01:00)

I Don’t Wanna Be Your Partner - Dylan would rework it later into ‘I Wanna Be Your Lover”


Note: Click Title Link For Song Sound Streams Plus Complete Aquarium Drunkard Entry By T. Wilcox


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Eat the Document:

Wikipedia - Documentary of Bob Dylan's 1966 tour of the United Kingdom with the Hawks. It was shot under Dylan's direction by D. A. Pennebaker, whose groundbreaking documentary, Don't Look Back, chronicled Dylan's 1965 British tour. The film was originally commissioned for the ABC television series Stage '66.





Includes footage from the infamous Manchester Free Trade Hall concert, wherein an audience member shouted "Judas!" during the electric half of Dylan's set. Dylan's band during these shows were The Hawks (later to become The Band). Songs from various shows throughout the tour featured in the film include "Tell Me, Momma", "I Don't Believe You (She Acts Like We Never Have Met)", "Ballad of a Thin Man", and "One Too Many Mornings."

Other scenes include Dylan and Robbie Robertson in hotel rooms writing and working through new songs, most of which remain unreleased and unpublished. Among these songs are "I Can't Leave Her Behind", which was later covered by Stephen Malkmus for the I'm Not There soundtrack.

The film also includes a piano duet with Johnny Cash performing Cash's "I Still Miss Someone".


Hat-Tip: Dangerous Minds

"Watch Bob Dylan in ‘Eat the Document’ (with John Lennon, Johnny Cash and The Band) while you can"


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A Thousand Highways - Shades of Blue

Outtakes and Live Recordings, 1965-1966

I'll Keep It With Mine (Blonde on Blonde Sessions)
Visions Of Johanna (Blonde on Blonde Sessions)
Tombstone Blues (Live - 9.3.1965)
I Can't Leave Her Behind (Hotel Tapes, 1966)
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window? (Highway 61 Sessions)
What Kind Of Friend Is This? (Hotel Tapes, 1966)
Long Distance Operator (Live - 12.4.1965)
Ballad Of A Thin Man (Highway 61 Sessions)
Maggie's Farm (Live - 9.3.1965)
Positively 4th Street (Live - 4.19.1966)
Why Be So Frantic? (Highway 61 Sessions)
Positively Van Gogh (Hotel Tapes, 1966)
Sittin' On A Barbed Wire Fence (Highway 61 Sessions)
You Don't Have To Do That (Bringing It All Back Home Sessions)
From A Buick 6 (Live - 9.3.1965)
On A Rainy Afternoon (Hotel Tapes, 1966)
I Wanna Be Your Lover (Blonde on Blonde Sessions)
Medicine Sunday (Blonde on Blonde Sessions)
Love Minus Zero/No Limit (Bringing It All Back Home Sessions)
Phantom Engineer (Live - 7.25.1965)
She's Your Lover Now (Blonde on Blonde Sessions)


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Bob Dylan & The Band - Sessions from The Basement Tapes:

June - Oct. 1967

Bob Dylan - A Tree With Roots (Disc 1 - 28 Songs)

Bob Dylan - A Tree With Roots (Disc 2 - 28 Songs)

Bob Dylan - A Tree With Roots (Disc 3 - 25 Songs)

Bob Dylan - A Tree With Roots (Disc 4 - 27 Songs)


Bob Dylan & The Band - A Tree With Roots (104 Songs)

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

The Nation: Skip Meals or Go to Jail?

How the For-Profit Probation Industry Preys on the Poor




Thomas Barrett spent months in jail because he could not afford heavy probation fees. His original crime: stealing a $2 can of beer. (Human Rights Watch)





A new Human Rights Watch report released Wednesday, Jan. 5th, documents how the growing use of for-profit probation companies traps poor Americans in the criminal justice system—sometimes jailing them—for misdemeanor crimes or even minor traffic violations.

The report, titled “Profiting From Probation: America’s ‘Offender-Funded’ Probation Industry,” describes a for-profit model that incentivizes probation companies to prey on poor misdemeanor offenders, ensnaring them in debt and threatening imprisonment if financial obligations are not met. As Chris Albom-Lackey, the researcher at Human Rights Watch who authored the report, writes, “In fact, the business of many private probation companies is built largely on the willingness of courts to discriminate against poor offenders who can only afford to pay their fines in installments over time.”

Here are some of the HRW’s key findings:
  • Under the “offender-funded” model, private firms levy fees on poor probationers that are are financially crushing and often times impossible to pay off. On top of exorbitant supervision fees, many offenders must pay for their own electronic monitoring (up to $360 per month) and drug tests (up to $1,250 per year).
  • Some courts sentence offenders to probation simply because they cannot afford fines and court costs, a practice called “pay only probation” that Human Rights Watch deems “a legal fiction.” In effect, poorer offenders stay on probation longer and end up paying significantly more, due to supervision fees levied by private firms.
  • Private probation officers routinely use “abusive” tactics to collect debts from offenders. These range from coercive demands (“I hope you have all my money today”) to threats of imprisonment.
  • Though the US Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to incarcerate probationers who genuinely cannot afford fines, there is little effort made to understand offenders’ financial situations. The report says many probation revocation hearings last just minutes, and few offenders are offered legal representation.
  • There is practically no transparency in the industry. Private probation companies aren’t required to disclose revenues they make from probationers and do not offer that information voluntarily.
  • While it’s impossible to get exact figures, HRW used a law unique to Georgia to estimate that private probation companies make roughly $40 million in minimum annual revenues in the state alone. 

Note: Click Title Link For Complete Nation Article by Steven Hsieh plus HRW Video


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Ralph Nader: The Law Must Be Free and Accessible to All -- Not Secret and Profitable

If the law is to be understood and obeyed, it must be public information. How can we follow the law if we don't know what it is?

This is the astonishingly unfortunate reality for a large number of our nation's laws -- fire codes, building codes, electrical codes, food safety regulations, state and municipal codes and more. Obviously, there is a significant difference between highway laws and technical safety codes, but the root of the issue is the same -- the public must have ready access to the law. The "signs" must be in plain sight for all to see.

Many of these technical codes are drafted by nonprofit corporations, associated with industries, but are incorporated into law by local, state and federal governments -- they are, in effect, corporate laws enforced by the state. If you want to read these legally binding rules of law you must purchase them yearly for $1000 or more per copy. (In other cases, the laws are simply so dated or difficult to locate that the simple act of acquiring them creates significant obstacles to knowing your rights and obligations.)

The inability of citizens to know the law poses a very large problem in our democracy. To be informed of the law one needs free and easy access to it. What if dedicated citizens want to educate themselves and others on the many technical standards that govern the infrastructure we all regularly use? What if citizen watchdogs want to engage in debate on policy and regulation?

Fortunately, the Supreme Court has several times affirmed the obvious notion that the public law should be free and available to all. Relying on those decisions, the U.S. Court of Appeals in Veeck v. Southern Building Code Congress decided in 2002 that a building code incorporated into law belongs in the public domain. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer even once said, "if a law isn't public, it isn't a law." Unfortunately, legal precedent has not stopped certain private organizations from fighting to keep their codes off the Internet, entangled by copyright law and out of the public's hands.


Note: Click Link For Complete Huffington Post Commentary by Ralph Nader


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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Pizza Boxes & Cauliflower Crust




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Thursday, February 6, 2014

The Replacements: Rarities & B-Sides

PAUL WESTERBERG RARITIES

Dyslexic Heart (Singles soundtrack)
Waiting for Somebody (Singles soundtrack)
Seein’ Her (b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Men Without Ties (b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Dice Behind Your Shades (Festicle version, b-side of Knockin’ on Mine)
Can’t Hardly Wait (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Left of the Dial (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Another Girl, Another Planet (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Answering Machine (live ’93 Whiskey a Go-Go, b-side World Class Fad)
Daydream Believer (live, b-side British single?)
A Star is Bored (Melrose Place Soundtrack)
Backlash (w/ Joan Jett) (Notorious LP)
Let’s Do It (w/ Joan Jett) (Tank Girl Soundtrack)
Sunshine (Friends Soundtrack)
Stain Yer Blood (Friends Soundtrack)
Make Your Own Kind of Music (Eventually Bonus Track Japan)
I Want My Money Back (Grandpaboy Single)
Undone (Grandpaboy Single)
Wonderful Copenhagen (Suicaine Gratification Bonus Track Europe)
33rd of July (Suicaine Gratification Bonus Track Europe)
Nowhere Man (I Am Sam Soundtrack)
Be Bad For Me (Folker Bonus Track Europe)


Bonus: Show More Songs


Medley Includes: "Hello, Goodbye" – The Beatles; "Lost Highway" – Hank Williams; "Born to Be Wild" – Steppenwolf; "Stupid Girl" – The Rolling Stones; "I'm Eighteen" – Alice Cooper; "I Am a Rock" – Simon and Garfunkel; "Rocket Man" – Elton John; "Dandy" – The Kinks


3oclockreep – 26:15
Finally Here Once – 3:00


REPLACEMENTS RARITIES

If Only You Were Lonely (b-side of I’m In Trouble)
Hey Good Lookin’ (b-side of I Will Dare)
20th Century Boy (T Rex cover) (Let It Be Outtake)
Who’s Gonna Take Us Alive (Let It Be Outtake)
Temptation Eyes (Let It Be Outtake)
Street Girl (Let It Be Outtake)
Nowhere Is My Home (Boink LP – England)
Bundle Up (PTMM Rehearsal, Jungle Rock w/ new lyrics)
Empty As Your Heart (aka PO Box) (PTMM Rehearsal)
Time Is Killing Us (PTMM Rehearsal)
Kick It In (PTMM Rehearsal)
Run For The Country (PTMM Rehearsal)
Going Out Of My Head (PTMM Rehearsal)
(“We’ll learn it tomorrow. Think of another one.”)
Trouble On The Way (PTMM Rehearsal)
Make This Your Home (PTMM Rehearsal)
Cool Water (PTMM Rehearsal)
Route 66 (b-side of Alex Chilton)
Tossin’ and Turnin’ (b-side of The Ledge)
Ought To Get Love (Don’t Tell A Soul Outtake)
Kissing In Action (All Shook Down Outtake)


Note: Click Title Link To Listen @FuelFriendsBlog.com

Tuesday, February 4, 2014