Capitalism in the 22nd Century of A.I.R.

Capitalism in the 22nd Century of A.I.R.

By Geoff Ryman (excerpt)

Remember the morning it snowed? Snowed in Belém do Para? I think we were l3. You can round and round inside our great apartment, all the French doors open. You blew out frosty breath, your eyes sparkling. “It’ beautiful!” you said.

“It’s cold!” I said.

You made me climb down all those 24 floors out into the Praça and you got me throwing handfuls of snow to watch it fall again. Snow was laced like popcorn on the branches of the giant mango trees. As if A Reina, the Queen, had possessed not a person but the whole square. Then I saw one of the suneaters, naked, dead, startling, and you pulled me away, your face such a mix of sadness, concern – and happiness, still glowing in your checks. “They’re beautiful alive,” you said to me. “But they do nothing.” Your face was also hard.

Your face was like that again on the morning we left – smiling, ceramic. It’s a hard world, this Brasil, this Earth. We know that in our bones. We know that from our father.

The sun came out at 6.15 as always, and our beautiful stained glass doors cast pastel rectangles of light on the mahogany floors. I walked out onto the L-shaped balcony that ran all around our high-rise rooms and stared down, at the row of old shops streaked black, at the opera-house replica of La Scala, at the art-nouveau synagogue blue and white like Wedgewood china. I was frantic and unmoving at the same time those cattle-prods of information kept my mind jumping.

Capitalist future of the mankind. Photo by Elena

“I’m ready,” you said. I’d packed nothing. “O, Crisfushka, here let me help you.” You asked what next; I tried to answer; you folded slowly, neatly. The jewels, the player, a piece of Amazon bark, and a necklace that the dead had made fro nuts and feathers. I snatched up a piece of Macumba lace (oh, those men dancing all in lace!) and bobbins to make more of it. And from the kitchen, a bottle of cupuaçu extract, to make ice cream. You laughed and clapped your hands. “Yes of course. We will even have cows there. We’re carrying them inside us.”

I looked mournfully at our book shelves. I wanted children on that new world to have seen books, so I grabbed hold of two slim volumes – a Clarice Lispector and Dom Cassmuro. Mr Misery – that’s me. You of course are Donatella. And at the last moment I slipped in that Brasileiro flag. Ordem et progresso.

“Perfect, darling! Now let’s run!” you said. You thought we were choosing.

And then another latch: receipts for all that surgery. A full accounting of all expenses and a cartoon kiss in thanks.

The moment you heard about the Voyage, you were eager to JUST DO IT. We joined the

Co-op, got the secret codes, and concentrated on the fun like we were living in a game.

Funny little secret surgeons slipped into our high-rise with boxes that breathed dry ice and what looked like mobile dentist chairs. They retrovirused our genes. We went purple from Rhodopsin. I had a tickle in my ovaries. Then more security bubbles confirmed that we were now Rhodopsin, radiation-hardened and low-oxygen breathing. Our mitochondria were full of DNA for Holsten cattle. Don’t get stung by any bees: the trigger for gene expression is an enzyme from bees.

“We’ll become half-woman half-cow,” you said, making even that sound fun.

We let them do that.

Programming Languages

Programming Languages

Much has changed in the computer era and subsequent post-1990s Internet epoch. For example, surveys show that online surfing takes up a significant portion of people’s leisure time. Clearly, the World Wide Web has revolutionized the way individuals and societies communicate, interact and collaborate.

Linguistically speaking, jargon, dialect and language dynamics underline the evolution of the phonetic environment. For instance, neologisms arise as if documenting the changes taking place. So new words and expressions appear, such as the Net, cyberspace, cyberworld, cyberreality, cyberpsychology, cyberneuroscience and so on…

Futuristic Toronto. A futuristic scene. Image: © Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Also, in addition to digital media and social networking Websites, computers introduced virtual or online gaming communities, or MMORPGs (massively multiplayer online role playing games). Perhaps the best known of these is World of Warcraft, featuring a commercial with American legendary figure, martial arts specialist and actor, Chuck Norris.

Ada was the first programming language and was named after the daughter of the inventor credited with laying the foundations to the process. Basic, likewise one of the early languages is a distant precursor to Visual Basic, a modern code allowing for photorealistic graphic design. Alternatively, HTML refers to the commands used on the Internet in Webpage and Website creation and display. Additionally, C++, JAVA, Delfi, Fortran fail to even begin to complete the list of known programming languages. What’s more, Python (likewise used in CGI [computer generated imagery], animation, modeling, rendering and digital art production), and other applications for graphics (Windows and other platforms based languages and/or programs allowing building of animations, such as flashing stars in the sky, fireworks and bewegende gestalt (moving figures or animated shapes).

Even though Computer Generated Imagery transformed the world of visual arts, displays cover a distinct range: from conventional drawing methods to ultramodern 3D, graphic, and Web design, including photo art. Image: © Image: © Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

Finally, Alice is educational software teaching programming using 3D animation. Cartoons, and especially animations, were literally rendered phenomenal with scientific progress. Alternatively, animation, modeling and rendering software often offers Python scripts and coding. How can one tell apart an animated video made through coding line by line, from one with traditional sequential drawing, and using the most technologically advanced, recently updated version of a program or application?

Copyright © 2011 Image: © ElenaB. All rights reserved.

Safe Bets for the Risk-Averse

Safe Bets for the Risk-Averse

Certificates of deposit aren’t the only alternative for conservative investors

You can always stash your money in the proverbial mattress, where it will not earn any interest at all. But for millions of risk-averse investors, certificates of deposit, or CDs, have seemed a preferable choice. Conservative by nature, CD investors tend to be attracted by the promise that they can’t lose their principal, which is covered by federal deposit insurance, to $100,000 per account.

Until interest rates tumbled, CDs were a respectable way to go. Yields, while never robust, were at least decent by conservative standards. However, the average yields on six-months CDs, among the most popular with individual investors, had fallen to 2.81 percent, about par with the then inflation rate. Once taxes were taken, the return was a negative number. Rates have since climbed up a bit.

CDs are not, however, the only alternative for the risk-averse. Of course, other investments carry additional risks. For example, even when sold by banks, mutual funds don’t carry federal deposit insurance. And the values of stocks and bonds rise and fall with market conditions, which can cut into your investment principal. If interest rates rise just one percentage point in a year, the price of a 30-year bond will fall more than 11 percent. On a bond with a 7 percent coupon, an investor’s annual return would be a negative 4 percent.

New York, Grand Terminal. Photo by Elena

If you stick with CDs, you may be able to find better yields by looking beyond your local bank. Otherwise, here’s a quick look at some things to consider before rolling over another CD.

Short-term Bond Funds: The net asset value of the shares varies with the underlying value of the bonds, and the total return falls if interest rates rise. But the variation is much smaller than with longer-term bonds.

Tax-exempt securities: If the yield on a short-term municipal bond fund is 4 percent, it’s equivalent to a taxable yield of 6.25 percent for an investor in the 36 percent tax bracket. Again, the shorter the term, the lower the risk.

Conservative Stock Funds: Funds that invest in utilities are generally stable and pay decent dividends. Yield-conscious investors tend to like them. In addition, several fund companies offer asset-allocation funds, in which the fund manager decides how much of the portfolio to put into stocks, bonds, cash, and other investments. Another choice: equity-income funds, which invest in stocks that pay chunky dividends.

Money Market Mutual Funds: Money funds sometimes yield even less than six-month CDs, but they’re completely liquid.

Nicotine - Extinguishing Your Habit

Extinguishing Your Habit

Are nicotine patches and nicotine gum an easy way to quit smoking?

The patch may offer hope to the four out of five American smokers who would like to extinguish their habit. Some one billion dollars’ worth of the bandage-like transdermal patches have been sold since they were approved by the Food and Drug Administration in 1991. They work by releasing nicotine into the body through the skin, which alleviates some of the withdrawal symptoms, such as irritability, that are associated with quitting smoking.

The patch is obtained by prescription, and it costs significantly more than the pack of so of cigarettes that it replaces (the patches are changed every 24 hours). Usually, a doctor will start a patient with the largest, strongest patch, and then taper off to smaller patches within a coupe of weeks. Currently, four nicotine patches are on the market – Habitrol, Nicoderm, PROSTEP and Nicotrol.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association showed that smokers who used the transdermal patch and had counseling were able to stop smoking more easily than those who had counseling without the patch. In the study, two groups of smokers were taken through a 12-week regimen. Half ad counseling and used a nicotine patch and the other half had counseling and no patch. After six months, 26 percent of those who used the patch and counseling were not smoking, while only 12 percent of those who were patchless stopped.

Some skeptics argue, however, that the patch’s effectiveness depends less on the patch than on the smoker. The more motivated a smoker is to stop smoking, the more likely he will stop for good. A recent report in the Medical Letter found that patches were effective in relieving initial withdrawal symptoms, but that their long-term effectiveness was “unimpressive.”

There can also be serious side effects for backsliders who smoke while using the patch, including headaches, dizziness, diarrhea, weakness, blurred vision, nightmares, and accentuated dreams. And some people have burning or itching in the area where the patch is placed on the skin.

One alternative to the patch is nicotine gum. Prescribed by a dentist, nicotine gum helps smokers quit the same way the nicotine patch does, by curbing the physical withdrawal symptoms. As with the patch, those who decide to use nicotine gum must first stop smoking.

You must get rid of the nicotine. Photo by Elena

Patients should chew the gum very slowly until they feel a tingling sensation in the mouth, which is caused by the release of nicotine. The gum should be chewed for 30 minutes at a time; patients should chew enough of it to stave off withdrawal symptoms. Typically, patients chew 10 to 15 pieces a day, but they should never chew more than 30 pieces a day. The gum should be chewed every day for a month or so, while the patient gradually reduces the number of pieces chewed. In three to six months, the patient should no longer need the gum. The effectiveness is the same as it is for patches, and it sometimes gives people an upset stomach.

Whether smokers choose gum, a patch, or sheer will power, the American Cancer Society recommends that they set a specific day, a Quit Date, to stop smoking. The day should be during a time when the smoker will be under little stress, such as during a vacation.

A week before the Quit Date, the American Cancer Society suggests that smokers begin a diary of their smoking habits by writing down in detail every time they reach for a cigarette, including the time, place, how the smoker felt, and why he or she decided to light up.

When the big day arrives, the smoker should tell as many people as possible that he or she is trying to kick the habit so they can give support when needed.

Black Creek Pioneer Village VI

Black Creek Pioneer Village Part VI

As a living history museum, the Village offers one of the richest heritage experiences in the Toronto area.

Visitors can live real experience of early pioneers lives. They can enjoy festive ambiance in the spirit of the 19th century. Everything was different from today. For example, dining at the Inn was different from today's restaurant experience. Or else the family goes to bed early in the 19th century, because fuel is costly and they have nothing to do in the darkness. Pioneers Harvest festivals are celebrated here each year. Many other activities include braiding, constructing a log cabin, clothing in the 1860s, weaving, plant dyes, patchwork quilts, furniture construction, carding wool, roofing, bed and much more. An 1860s mid-Victorian garden featuring geometric, shaped "island beds" invites visitors. Natural, lush green space can be the backdrop for your wedding ceremony.

Pieces have been purchased with funds from the Conservation Foundation of Greater Toronto, the Heritage Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Culture, the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority, and Wintario.

The pictures were taken by Elena.

We like things in our society to be painless: painless responsibility, painless payments, painless divorce, painless progress. And while many of us acknowledge "no pain, no gain", many will try to find an easier way.

It is hard to to lose someone we have counted on for support and indeed the confidence to face the world. When that does happen we find ourselves struggling to cope with many unexpected and surprising emotions.

Sometimes the statements made after a loss are intended to make the situation less painful - as are the words not spoken. While such sentiments may help to ease the headache, we should realize that we cannot lose someone we loved without experiencing some level of pain.

There is no easy way around the misery of grief: it must be worked through.

Many of us do not realize that hurting is part of healing. We have been conditioned to believe that we should be strong and deny our pain. Men in particular may internalize their feelings. Yet, in spite of your best efforts to put on a brave face, you feel many emotions of an intensity that surprises you.

Loss is painful. Grief may be an unimaginable heartache, affecting us physically, emotionally and spiritually. (Mackenzie House, built in 1837).

Words cannot express how distressing it is to lose the affection and the presence of the loved person in your life. (The Main or Maple road surrounds the Black Creek Village).

While you may have happy memories, you may feel cheated because your dreams and plans will never be fulfilled. (Oil lamp. A bowl of animal fat with a wick used as a lamp).

Drugs and alcohol may seem like a way to deaden the pain, but they merely delay the reaction until later, when we may no longer have the support of others to help us through.

To deny pain is to hold on to it. Only by experiencing the pain - to go through it, to feel it, to express and speak about it - can we truly learn from it at be set free to move on. But we cannot avoid the hurt.

Occasionally, you dream about the person lost. And we are not yet ready to let go: therefore we spend a great deal of time thinking about our loved one. Hoping they will return, we find ourselves unconsciously searching for them. We cannot believe they are gone, so we find ourselves looking for them in a crowd or on the street. Sometimes we think we recognize them and our heart leaps.

Sometimes we pick up the phone, and for an instant the voice sounds familiar. Hearing the door open, or footsteps on the stairs, for a second we think our loved one has come back. But then we realize it isn't so.

Your mind isn't playing tricks. (The horse was an excellent farm worker and its sound feet made it suitable also for town haulage).

You are longing for your loved one to return. But in wain. The place is still desert,