On a motorcycle I know I’m alive.

When I ride, even the familiar seems strange and glorious. The air has weight and substance as I push through it and its touch is as intimate as water to a swimmer. I feel the cool wells of air that pool under trees and the warm spokes of sunlight that fall through them. I can see everything in a sweeping 360 degrees, up, down and around, wider than PanaVision and higher than IMAX and unrestricted by ceiling or dashboard.
David Karlotski via ironandair.com

So it goes.

Has Physics Made Philosophy and Religion Obsolete? - Lawrence Krauss on nothing.

But I don't really give a damn about what "nothing" means to philosophers; I care about the "nothing" of reality. And if the "nothing" of reality is full of stuff, then I'll go with that.

Compute this, Mr Friedman!

If markets not only reveal our preferences but also modify them, then the relation between what we want now and what we wanted before — or what we will want in the future — becomes deeply ambiguous.

This piece starts out as an exploration on how hit music is made (note: not in the studio) and ends with a swan song to predictions.

JT Nesbitt from Hell for Leather about his yearnings for 80s motorcycles

I dig motorcycles that have jumping spider faces, square taillights, and mysterious blocky, forward slanting two tone words like “EXUP”, “SACS”, “GENESIS”, “NEAS”, “FULL FLOATER” and “PRO ARM.” And, oh yeah and it’s GOTTA have a slanty “R” on it somewhere.

Nearly makes me want to dig out the '89s Duc fairing and put it back. Nearly - still loving my Punkrockcaféracer con Espresso.

Marshall McLuhan's anniversary

We miss the old days, when families did activities together, such as watching TV.
Douglas Coupland on guardian.co.uk
He was right, about not everything but a lot.
None of them get's around the medium/message-stuff. I think it's just a key point in McLuhan's narrative. Which, in turn, is quite meta.

Isaac Asimov in 1964, imagining 2014

Communications will become sight-sound and you will see as well as hear the person you telephone. The screen can be used not only to see the people you call but also for studying documents and photographs and reading passages from books. Synchronous satellites, hovering in space will make it possible for you to direct-dial any spot on earth, including the weather stations in Antarctica (shown in chill splendor as part of the '64 General Motors exhibit).

Can a business-model based on disruption deal with being disrupted?

AGENCIES PRODUCE CONTENT THAT DISRUPTS. IT SHOUTS. IT'S A COMMERCIAL BREAK.

I swear. If I spoke to my friends the way that most ads speak to me I'd lose my friends.

Groupon, again.

People have grown numb to the elements of advertising that pander to their fears and hopes, that insult their intelligence with safe, bland approaches at creativity,” says Mr. With, who at nights and on weekends is lead singer in the band Volcano. “We’re mixing business with art and creating our own voice.

I need a scalpel, not a swiss knife

Kevin Lipe on forkbombr.net:
Word processors, around 1993 or so, started getting crappy, and they haven’t really started getting better—not for long-form writing. Writing a novel in a word processor now is filled with fiddling—getting the font right, getting the header right, getting everything in manuscript format, getting everything just so so you feel comfortable enough to worry about the writing and not the computer. They started trying to help—and helping a writer while he or she is writing is impossible.

For me, Scrivener does it. But I don't think I will upgrade to 2.0. Too many features.

Can I use a japanese term to describe my italian motorbike?

The Japanese have a term for this, “Wabi-sabi”. Wabi-sabi can be used to describe the aesthetically pleasing wear of an object as it decays over time. It’s a notion that embraces the transience of objects and celebrates the purity of the imperfect.

Yup.