Wednesday Evening

02009-03-04 | Uncategorized

This morning I rode my fixie to Mellow Velo. Almost didn’t make it there. Riding over a bump the chain came off the chain wheel and torqued the wheel to one side, locking it up completely. Luckily there was no traffic and I was able to skid to a stop. Since I didn’t have a wrench with me I carried the bike back to my house. Love how light even steel frame fixies are!

The repair only took a few minutes and then I rode to the store without incident.

Thought I had a 46T chainwheel with a 16T cog, but discovered that it is actually 48T/16T. I had ordered 46T/18T but the San Francisco dude talked me into 46/16 and then shipped the bike with the 48/16 combo…

David wants to put a 44T chainwheel on the bike, which would make it 44T/16T, which I think will work well in town…

From Mellow Velo I walked to Ohori’s for a cup of coffee and from here home. Bike should be ready tomorrow.

Found this on Bruce Sterling’s blog today:

Kim Stanley Robinson: Postcapitalist
Does the word postcapitalism look odd to you? It should, because you hardly ever see it. We have a blank spot in our vision of the future. Perhaps we think that history has somehow gone away. In fact, history is with us now more than ever, because we are at a crux in the human story. Choosing not to study a successor system to capitalism is an example of another kind of denial, an ostrich failure on the part of the field of economics and of business schools, I think, but it’s really all of us together, a social aporia or fear. We have persistently ignored and devalued the future—as if our actions are not creating that future for our children, as if things never change. But everything evolves. With a catastrophe bearing down on us, we need to evolve at nearly revolutionary speed…
(Via Beyond the Beyond)

I think we will see more of postcapitalism. Unchecked capitalism is as useless in the long run as untempered socialism. I sense that the best way is in the middle somewhere. We might have to blunder about, searching for the right mix for a while.

More on Kim Stanley Robinson, who wrote one of my favorite books, The Years of Rice and Salt.

The sun is almost down and I am leaving to have dinner with a friend.

We can do better

02009-03-01 | Internet

What Bruce Sterling Actually Said About Web 2.0 at Webstock 09 | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com
But you know, I’m not scared by any of this. I regret the suffering, I know it’s big trouble — but it promises massive change and a massive change was inevitable. The way we ran the world was wrong.

I’ve never seen so much panic around me, but panic is the last thing on my mind. My mood is eager impatience. I want to see our best, most creative, best-intentioned people in world society directly attacking our worst problems. I’m bored with the deceit. I’m tired of obscurantism and cover-ups. I’m disgusted with cynical spin and the culture war for profit. I’m up to here with phony baloney market fundamentalism. I despise a prostituted society where we put a dollar sign in front of our eyes so we could run straight into the ditch.

The cure for panic is action. Coherent action is great; for a scatterbrained web society, that may be a bit much to ask. Well, any action is better than whining. We can do better.

Inspiring, I think. Works better for me than this collection of 40 inspirational speeches.

Kidnapped on Facebook

02009-01-18 | Funny, Internet

Kidnapped on Facebook | Beyond the Beyond from Wired.com
My Facebook account was hacked approximately 40hrs ago. I discovered this
when I was called by a concerned friend who wanted to confirm that I was
being held at gunpoint in London and desperately needed him to wire me cash
(via Western Union) so I could escape the country and return to Australia.
Of course, I was not in London, and it was not me he was chatting to on
Facebook.
(Via Beyond the Beyond)