Tl;dr Derp, I'm a grumpy Luddite.

I adore Yahoo news. I swear they live in a parallel world that’s similar but not identical to our own. Whenever I head to check my yahoo mail they always seem to be reporting on things either long before other news sites or things that weren't reported elsewhere. However many of their opinion pieces do tend to get on my nerves. A lot of them tend to be "how to get your bikini body for summer" or "Things to avoid when taking out a loan," the sort of brief quite shallow articles that suggest the author failed to get a job at a glossy magazine you find within arms reach of a supermarket checkout or tucked inside a weekend paper.

Anyway what got my goat (didn't know I had one! ahem) was the Yahoo! Finance article called "The possessions you need to dump or sell." Something about bits of the article as well as the concept of the article as a whole got a little under my skin. It suggests things we all have that we font need to keep buying or keep using, generally suggesting they are old or inefficient which is a fair proposal in theory. Anyway she (Felicity Hannah) suggests several things.

Books

Ms Hannah suggests we get rid of our books and replace them with e-books on kindles, ipads or other e-reader style devices. Now, I'm not opposed to the concept of e-readers. They can be useful if you lack storage space, have problems lifting books or perhaps have sight problems and I'm not opposed to buying new books on them or getting books from things like Project Gutenberg or everything Cory Doctorow has written. However when I'm finished with book I can lend it to someone else, or borrow one from someone else or donate books to a school or charity shop, its a lot harder to do with e-books. I love going into second hand bookshops or charity shops and finding random books I never thought of buying and then loving them when I do. Also, if I had, say, an iPad to read from. I'd be buggered, I lack the willpower to sit and read when the internet, or endless games are available (this problem would be lessened with a kindle). 

Its a decent point that not using paper and many e-readers being fairly energy efficient does limit the environmental impact of e-books compared to books but that’s not the reason she gives. It also doesn't take into account the impact of making the e-reader but I couldn't comment on that.

Oh, and Libraries! Use them! That kind of trumps e-books on the cost side of things anyway, if not the range.

TV License

Okay, she's almost got me here. I don't watch a lot of TV, not on a TV anyway. I mostly watch things on 4od (worryingly named for something so addictive) or BBC iplayer but its the latter that brings me back onto the side of paying the license fee. A significant amount of the BBC's funding comes from the license fee and as Mitch Benn has taught me, the BBC has and continues to make a hell of a lot of good programming. Notably, Doctor Who, enough said for me. Yes you can watch iplayer without a license fee but its a bit of a crap thing to do.

Plus from my experience most of the BBC bashing I've seen is in the Express and I really, really don't want to agree with the Express (Daily or Sunday!)

CDs

This one is just stupid. My laptop recently died and I had a lot of music I'd bought digitally or borrowed from friends and ripped to my hardrive (please don't sue me, I have no money). So when it died I was buggered and had to either re-borrow the CDs or rip my own to my hardrive again. Now I'll admit I should've perhaps backed my data up but that’s a lot of space and sometimes a lot of money to spend. I'd rather backup important things like academic work or my CV. I've got a backup of most of my music, its called having a copy on CD. Digital downloads have a lot of benefits but I'm not ready to convert yet. (Slowly turning into a Luddite, or a man in his late 50s)

Also, am I wrong or is she suggesting we re-buy albums we already own on CD? its not like they take up space, buy a CD wallet. 

Landline telephone

OK, I might agree with her on this. If you have a mobile, having a landline does become far less important. When I was at university we had a landline that usually came with the house but I never really used it. However it doesn't mean its useless. If I've lost my phone, its lost power and I've lost the charger or if its out of credit a landline is a useful backup. Although its limited to your house its that or someone walks round to your house and speaks to you that way.

Maps

Seriously? Her logic is that no longer did one of them have to be a navigator on journeys has "saved her marriage," either that’s a really naff joke or she needs to sort out her marriage. Yes Satnavs are useful, compact and can be used by one person on their own and you should probably get one. This doesn't mean we should ditch maps all together (which is what she's suggesting). They're useful as a backup if something goes wrong with your satnav.

Away from the car she suggests smart phones which can be useful but many times (to my annoyance) I've been using google maps on my Blackberry and its run out of power or I've wanted to save the power to ring someone in a minute. Furthermore it can pretty internet-usage heavy. A little book or fold out piece of paper is worth keeping. Her flat can't be so tiny that she doesn't have room. 

Calculator/personal organiser/most gadgets

I didn't really know anyone who had a personal organiser before decent mobile phones came about and those who did probably now have fancy phones and use them well and have long thrown away any electronic organisers. My only quibble with this is perhaps replacing a paper organiser with an electronic one simply because if you're reliant on it and it dies you're in trouble but this goes for paper ones too so perhaps backups are useful. My main disagreement on most other gadgets is locating them. Its a simple matter of ease. Cheap things like calculator get acquired over the years and having several is just a matter of having one to hand when you need it and you'd have to throw them away. No one is going to buy a calculator from you and they'd just clutter up charity shops until a real 80s fanboy decides he really wants your old casio.

Newspapers

Ah, this ones difficult. I really don't know where I stand with this one. I don't really read national papers and just use news sites instead, most of which are run by newspapers. However I'm a young trendy 20 something (possibly). My parents buy the paper at least at the weekends and enjoy sitting down and reading it (And doing the crossword but that's another matter). Newspapers do take you away from the computer, they're reasonably portable. OK I think I'm just defending this one on principle. Most studies suggest papers are going extinct anyway and I'm not personally doing much to help

In conclusion I generally dislike this article for its very nearly blind technophilia. Perhaps I'm just enough of a Luddite to like older technologies sometimes (mostly books) and skint enough to be jealous of Ms Hannah and her fancy gadgets. Plus my inner pessimistic self is worried about the lack of hard technologies and records when the nuclear apocalypse comes but perhaps that’s not a valid argument.

Being the sad little unemployed puppy that I am I was on Twitter for a while on tuesday morning (I think it was Tuesday) after the second or third night of London riots and the thing that amazed me (one of the many things) was that how every political type I followed (And some I didn't) were doing a half-decent job of using the riots to justify their political ideology. The Tories were blaming Labour, the lib dems were blaming Labour (in a slightly different way), Labour were blaming the coallition, socialists were blaming bankers (And the coallition) and regularly blaming "rampant capitalism", even libertarians were blaming the Social safety net depriving Children of social mobility an lling them into a pit of no escape (my words, not theirs... i think). I'm not quite convnced by the last one but I think it proves how wide the causes (or potential causes) are.

So I've been planning for a day or two to write about the myriad potential causes and how so many people are leaping at specific problems from bloggers to he Prime Minister.  Then this morning I read a google+ post (get me being cutting edge, via twitter, so slightly less cutting edge) post from Robert "Electrical scrapheap-car" Llewelyn and he sums up a lot of the causes and trends quite well, particularly in this section.

We are all responsible for the riots, me, you, Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and the Cameron bloke, the Labour party, the Tory party, the Lib Dems, right wing bigots and left wing whiners. We have allowed our society to be ruled by a super elite who live offshore, don't pay tax, have the power and money to lobby governments and 'adjust' legislation to suit their goals. 

I reccomend the rest of the post, obviously but he sums up how its not just kids being selfish prats (But they are, dont get me wrong on that). But a lot of people were involved in their upbringing directly or indirectly and them ending up in a mind space where they thing its not just the ok thing, but the right thing to do. Given the years of crap they, and their parents have faced I doubt we'll see any carefully thought out solutions and definitely none that involve the government (or opposition) owning up to any responsibility in the rioters actions.

Speaking of the opposition. Check out this Collosal Yellow Vs up at the Labour party. Not perfect, but makes a point I think.

Take care everyone.

I stand with Veganism where I stand with a lot of things. I'm interested in it but perhaps lacking enthusiasm. I like the idea and I see it as making sense if you're going to go vegan, which when purchasing my own food, I am (I'm not going to make my parents go out there way to buy me specific food while I'm living at home). If you're going to become a vegetarian on ethical or environmental reasons, it makes sense to, if you can go Vegan, either partially or fully. Many of the ethical issues on the treatment of animals remain even wen only consuming dairy products and eggs. Cows are still bred for their milk and males frequently desposed of at a young age and the same goes for male chicks as the demand for females is far higher.

From an economic and environmental perspective. For eggs and dairy products animals still have to be kept. This adds an extra step in the production chain. Food has to be grown to be fed to animals and this simply increases the resources needed ((and carbon emitted) compared to non-animal based products. 

As with eating meat some of these ethical problems diminished by careful shopping, purchasing free range and organic products and with all things local products. They're less likely to be factory farmed and the animals will generally travel shorter distances. Plus it gives more money to small and local businesses over large supermarkets and food manufacturers. So it makes sense for leftists and anticapitalists to go Veggie too. This is something I really fail at at the moment. In my defense I can put this down to a lack of money and independence at the moment. 

In a weird way I find vegetarian and vegan recipes easier, its much easier to make them healthier and its an extra way to make life more interesting. Simple and quick foods are easy enough if you're tired or feeling lazy. It just takes a little bit of research.

However, at the same time its not the end of the world if you do eat dairy products. One person going vegan wont counter a coal powerstation or deforesation of the amazon to graze cattle (Well, it might a tiny bit, you never know).  It change the world but at the same time we only have our personal choices to change the world with. Just because it doesn't make much of a difference it is some kind of difference. Everyone can change the world a litle bit and this alone makes it worthwhile.

You didn’t leave the house today

Which is a shame, it was sunny

You didn’t leave the house today

So you didn’t bump into the old man with the dog

Which is shame, but perhaps good, in hindsight

So you didn’t bump into the man with the dog

And that man didn’t not make it to the post office before it shut

Which is a shame,

So he made it to the post office before it shut

So he used the last of their envelopes

And they had to order some more

Which isn’t a shame, it’s fairly inconsequential

So he used the last of their envelopes

And they had to order some more

And the postmaster had to go and buy them

Arrived home a bit later

Which is a shame, it was chip night.

And the postmaster had to go and buy some envelopes

Arrived home a bit later

And didn’t play football with his son

Which is a shame, it would’ve been the first time his son scored a goal

And so the postmaster Arrived home a bit later

And didn’t play football with his son

And his son didn’t slip, and break his arm

Which is  a shame, believe it or not

And So didn’t play football with his son

And his son didn’t slip, and break his arm

And that son didn’t, while resting, write a story

Which is a shame, because the story was good

And that son didn’t, while resting his arm, write a story

And he didn’t get commendation for the story

And the teacher didn’t read it out

Which is a shame, although you might’ve saved the boy some embaressment

And he didn’t get a commendation for the story

And the teacher didn’t read it out

And the boy didn’t go to university, to write

And he didn’t meet a girl

She didn’t fall in love with him, and he her, and her with his writing

Which is a shame, I should say anyway.

And he didn’t meet this girl

She didn’t fall in love with him, and he her, and her with his writing

And they didn’t have a child

Which is a shame, unless, well, you’re grumpy like that

She didn’t fall in love with him, and he her, and her with his writing

And they didn’t have a child

And that child didn’t grow up to become a doctor

And didn’t save lives

Which is a shame, for their patients,

And their children,

And the lives the doctor saved

And the people who read the boys stories

All didn’t go on

And didn’t fall in love,

And Didn’t fight wars

And Didn’t write music or play sports,

As a way of getting me writing (however badly) I'm now taking subject requests for songs.

There are a few conditions. 

a) They're allowed to be awful. I'm doing this for practice after all.
b) If I come up with a decent song. I'm allowed to use it myself/With the band
c) Music shall be pretty much uke+Keyboard only, with vocals
d) Music shall be badly recorded, until otherwise.
e) You're allowed to request covers
f) I'm allowed to turn requests down I thoroughly impossible (but only if I really have can't write anything

g) I'll upload the results onto bandcamp or youtube or something.

hurrah, more slightly pretentious Scifi for you. 

---

There was a hushed silence as Auric entered the bar. He looked across the locals for the person he was looking for. This was a small town, with little more purpose than a stopping point for traders crossing this vast wetland, why did Mother want to meet him here? He walked to the bar; he'd restructured his appearance to look like a local and spoke in their language, ordering a drink. Like all others in the room he was tall and thin with a deep green colour to his skin which was almost permanently slick and smooth. He disliked the form, but it was only temporary. When handed his drink he held the glass with his three long tri-jointed fingers and turned to face the patrons of the bar. 
Last time he'd met mother was at a party thrown by the High Master of the Lightless not long after Auric's ascendance. The long years of study after a cataclysm had struck his race had finally paid off, he'd bid fair well to his dying home world and headed to the stars. He was no longer a man but a living colony of nanorobots which could form the world around him to whatever he needed. At the party many had been similar, the post-mortal society, each with a tale to tell. Those who'd decided to leave their paradise worlds and explore the universe. Auric had found the whole thing confusing and if he was honest, decadent. They'd reached godhood only to continue as if mortals once again but this time with a sense of irony and deconstructionism about it all.
Here he'd met Mother, the only one who'd seemed modest and rooted in what reality Auric still clung to. Yet this came from a feeling that she had such a greater understanding of reality, even beyond Auric and the others with their godlike intellects and reality spanning powers. Amongst all others, beyond a token gesture from his host, she had been the only one to talk with him. They'd shared a drink, apparently drunk by a species not far from their location, where they'd only just discovered the existence of atoms and were now trying to crack them open and use the power inside like an animal with a nut. Mother had spoken of this fondly, like a Mother about a child. With this Auric had given her that name, and she'd accepted it with gratitude and a little pride.
As Auric walked over to her he realised he hadn't changed. Of course she'd taken on the appearance of the local species. She'd gone from two eyes to the local's four and lost the long silver hair she'd had when they last met but she still carried herself in the same relaxed but effortlessly imposing way and she greeted him with the same sort of smile of pride and care that suited her name. "Hello Auric," she said warmly before sipping her drink. 
"Hello Mother, I got your note, it found me exploring the Echo deeps," he, looking to her.
"I thought it might, I hope it didn't confuse anyone," She replied politely
"No, I was alone, though a hand written piece of paper in a dark matter nebula might have spooked the locals," he smiled, he couldn't help it, she was just to welcoming.
"If they knew what a tree was of course," she smiled
"Or soil, or water," he added, then continued, "anyway, How are you?" he asked forgetting about the note for a moment. "How have you been?"
"Oh very well, living here mostly, I think I've fallen in love with their outlook on life, it's been fifteen thousand years since they discovered the wheel and they may not get to space for another ten thousand, yet they're happy, living within their means with true contentment," she smiled, her eyes full of a childlike wonder, looking at the patrons of the bar. "So rare in the universe," she smiled, "I never thought they'd end up like this," 
"What do you mean? You made this world?" he said frowning, his skin wrinkling with a wet squelch. 
She nodded "a long time ago, I mean, I predicted the world wouldn't form liquid water, despite being perfectly habitable for carbon based life. I thought this was a shame so I set things in motion," Auric smiled, he remembered back to hearing a talk from one of his own world's most famous explorers, it was a similar feeling. "So you created these people?"
"No, not in this case, I let the world evolve after that, and these people turned up, usually I'd be happy to keep the world without sentient life," she said quite casually
"I've seen a lot of cases where it damages the world, or at least the ecosystem," Auric, feeling like he had to make an effort to sound well informed. Mother nodded at this and sipped her drink before continuing. "Well quite, I suppose I got lucky this time," Auric raised an eyebrow at this
"This time?" he repeated. She nodded. He continued. "You've given life to planets before?" he asked
"Once I've made them, yes, which takes time, if you work that way," he nodded at this, amazed, feeling as far below her as the patrons of the bar were below him. She continued in the same casual but interested tone. "Sometimes I stop at the planet and see what happens; sometimes I tweak the world, to shape evolution,"
"Isn't that a bit unfair?" Auric, "What if you'd stopped one race from evolving for the sake of another, who are you to say who lives and who dies?" There was a silence, and she grinned at his words. "Exactly, anyway, I should continue, I've got an art class in a short while, I just wanted to tell you of a little project I've been working on and well, I think it needs a new perspective," Auric listened carefully as she continued. "There's a planet I've made, it's nothing special, main sequence star, rocky planet, liquid water, rather nifty comet defence mechanism, I use a gas giant to keep it all protected, means I don't have to remove the blasted things by hand like I did with this place, and I've decided, if you want it, it's yours" Auric sat back, surprised for the first time in quite a while.
"Well, thank you, but," he paused "And I don't mean to sound grateful, why me?" she gave this a moment then replied. "Because of all beings I've discovered you've stayed modest, modest and quite meek. I'm not the only one to create planets with life, nor is all life nor sentient life created by some outside force, but so often they intervene, quite literally play god, so their creations aren't even worth being sentient, you might as well build a machine that worships your every move," she finished her drink, getting the last drops out of the cup then set it down. "Or put your own ideology on the people, huge swathes of the cosmos have been controlled, fought over or destroyed just because some arrogant God or post-mortal decided they knew better," she sat back,
"And if there's one thing I've learnt over my years, which is many" she said quite insistently, almost like she was inebriated. "Is that no one knows better than anyone else," before adding "except perhaps me," she smirked. "Anyway" she leant over and picked up a simple cloth bag and pulled out another piece of paper. "This where you'll find it, my little gift to you," she then stood, Auric followed instinctively and she stepped around the table and looked to him. "I have faith in you, I have faith that you'll do well with this," he walked with her out of the bar and into the humid town street. "I'll let you decide what to do with it of course, though I predict there should be sentient reptilian life in approximately 1.5 billion years," Auric frowned at this. 
"No offence meant to the locals around here, but I've always preferred mammals, it's what I was, perhaps I could work with that, maybe it'll work out better for them"
She chuckled at this and gave a sad smile "that's a little vain isn't it Auric? Making beings in your own image?"
"Well I don't know, this will take some thought,"
"Like I said, I have faith," she chuckled again "that you will make a fine god, if you want to," she smiled, and leant forward, giving him a light hug and a kiss on the cheek. "Goodbye Auric," she began to walk away, he called to her.
"What about intervention?" She turned back to him
"That's something I've learnt as well, you don't get to where we are without having to make some decisions that have consequences," he quickly replied
"But what if I'm wrong?"
"Auric, you're a god, you're never wrong," she paused then added "You're also never right," and turned and walked away. Auric was left standing, unsure what to say or do. He looked up at the sky; the three moons all hanging above him. Then down at the Earth under his feet. "Earth," he chuckled and walked off, wondering how far he'd have to go to be able to leave without scaring the locals.

Non political types- skip this

Just a quick think. I'm fully aware Andrew Lansley (Greed, Andrew Lansley, Tosser) isn't trying to completely privatise the NHS. They wouldn't dare do that...in one go. However the intentions to give greater budgeting powers to GPs is absurd. Not only does it give heavier workloads to GPs, it ignores other key voices in the NHS such a Nurses, surgeons and so on. The greater level of pressure there is to save money the more it takes away from the needs of the patient. A greater private healthcare say in the NHS allows for use of second rate drugs for lower costs or simply higher profits. The focus of attention on GPs gives private healthcare firms a focus. I'm not saying they're all inherently evil sugar-pill pushing quacks but from public to private there is a simply switch of patient interest to personal interest and I'm all for keeping that away from a situation where someones health or even life is on the line.

As a further note the NHS should always remain free at point of use. The introduction of market forces into situations where the lives and health of loved ones isn't giving them choice as some pro-market types may suggest. Their loved one is hurt, their loved one may die, people are scared, people are nervous. They are going to accept more or less any cost givent to them and at least a high cost because more often than not in their mind the cost of their health is priceless. Health firms know this, pharmaceutical firms know this and so do private healthcare providers. Demand is inelastic, they want their loved ones and themselves to be healthy and moreso, alive they would pay anything. Introducing a free market to this is predatory. I don't know if these NHS reforms are at the top of a slippery slope and I don't really want to find out.

I know I'm  a big hippie leftie but I don't trust a for-profit organisation with people's health.

p.s. I haven't event got onto Labour and PFI's but anyway...

I've been playing the ukulele for about 5 months now, pretty much self taught from the internet. I bought one because I saw it in a charity shop for £15 and thought "why not" i had been unemployed for 2 months and wanted a new hobby. After buying a completely different uke I started learning basic chords and simple songs.

And thats about where I've got to. 5 months on and I know a lot of simple songs and can sing along to them. Addmitedly I dont have to strum regularly or at the same time as singing each verse but still. I've slowly started learning plucking on the uke too and I've bought my second ukulele. To replace my £15 lazyboy with the knackered bridge with a slightly less knackered (broken pickup at the moment) Mahalo faux-telecaster. So... yeah. Its fun. Its got me playing the keyboard again (which I've been doing on and off for about 5 years) and to a much lesser extent the guitar (which I've pinched from my brother while he's not at home). 

I'm tempted to try and link all three, as well as singing together on some poorly made recording and I shall endeavour to do so some time soon. In the mean time I'll keep practicing.

Songs I know and could probably play live-

Radiohead- Creep (with added keys+bassline if neccesary) 

Dresden Dolls- Coin Operated Boy (Creepy but fun to creep people out with)

The Flaming Lips- Yoshimi battles the Pink Robots pt1

Israel Kamakawiwo'ole- Somewhere over the rainbow/what a wonderful world (a neccesity I think)

Vera Lynn- We'll mee again

The Animals- House of the Rising sun.

Songs I know kind of well-

The Tiger Lillies- Start a fire (With falsetto!)

Legend of Zelda- Song of Storms

Amanda Palmer- Leeds United 

And others I'm sure.

Anyway, I'm done waffling for now, expect recordings/vids in the coming weeks.

So, I have a blog. Its like a fancy barbeque. I have it, I'm kinda proud of it, but I mostly use it out of the feeling of requirement. On top of this, perhaps until recentl was a feeling of pretention and desire to "be a blogger" until I realised I have nothing to blog about. Not a lot. I can write about stuff I do, which at the moment at least isn't a lot. In turn a lot of blogs are commenting on other things, or in the case, just showing other things. In the case of the former, there are a hell of a lot of people doing that these days, covering the topics I "feel I should" or that I wan't to. So first of all. I thought I'd share a few blogs I follow.

Boing Boing: For those of you who don't know about boingboing. A centralised nerdish blog for all things generally considered neat cool and interesting. I often think this is just for the blogger's interest, but to be honest they know they aren't alone and its a become a sort of geek-hub for cool stuff, not to mention relevant politics.

The New Statesman Blogs: Political commentary by people who can do it properly. Definitely leaning in the direction of my kind of politics, but brilliant none the less. The semi-permanent home in particular of Stephen Baxter (formerly Anton Vowl) and Laurie Penny. The former a wickedly clever and funny media-analyst (who I'd recommend following on twitter)  and Laurie Penny, an angry ball of feminist left wing awesomeness and the only political analyst I know of to be recommended by Warren Ellis.

Others I recommend include Bright Green and Gaian Economics on Green politics and thought. and Charlotte Gore for being the third most entertraining and interesting libertarian (After Penn and Teller). I'm currently looking for more geek-ness to follow.

Anyway. I'm going to return to blogging, minus the pretention and just on little things I like. I don't know whether to stick to tumblr. The thing is, I want a blog, not just a fancy facebook wall. Somewhere I can blog stuff I want to talk about rather than just stuff. I think The key is balance. We'll see.

So, I've blogged, Ive blogged about blogging, shall I try and blog about blogging about blogging?

Just a scene I saw. While waiting for a bus I popped into a nearby charity shop, I'm hardly a fully fledged craphound but I like to browse. When I find clothes there that I like, they're often in good condition and cheap. This suits me fine. Anyway I left the charity shop and to see a group of people, suitably described as chavs in full designer sportswear, presumably authentic. I apologise if I'm being judgemental but one would assume by the way they dressed and spoke that they come from lower income families (this is stereotyping but probably true). Whereas I come from a middle class family, You would think I, generally speaking, with a higher income, would purchase the more expensive clothing which theoretically would be of better quality and they would purchase cheaper clothing as they possibly have a lower income.

Anyway, straying very close to seeming like a prick here just demonstrating a point. Once applied to the real world most ideas of a free market are hardly relevant. In a free market mankind has thought of a lot of ways to manipulate the market, to increase sales regardless of function and even of product quality. Advertising and brand loyalty alone allow businesses to raise prices and present goods as more valuable in both price and use than they are. This is on the whole to prevent a market from competing with each other and having to lower the price to a competitive level. This is obvious in brand name goods. Captive and "loyal" markets will accept higher prices.

Anyway, I'm repeating myself. It just presented itself as an example of market imperfection. Not to mention externalities, unequal resource distribution, imperfect knowledge and monopolies. With all these factors, why do we hold the free market to be so sacred? However, what’s the alternative?