Quiet life.

• You must watch Obama versus Trump. Trump's expression is a new form of beauty.

• NewsTechnica: Birthers still unconvinced Obama white enough.

arkady has taken on a share of a horse's upkeep. Cue visions of winged £20 notes flying into the sunset. ( Here is Freda on a horse. )

She went again today and will likely go every Sunday. Arkady and the teenagers are also delighted.

Today I went to a LessWrong meet. (What should I use as a "philosophy" icon?) We discussed existential risks. Most marketable were an asteroid hitting or humans inventing something that kills everyone, because we are stupid monkeys who don't know how not to press a shiny red button. My favourite was 4chan releasing a toxic meme that crashes humans for the lulz, and ED running a front page "Basilisk of the Day."

(It is intuitively obvious that you cannot save the world with hot chocolate. You must be an infiltrator from a death cult.)

I also explained verbal overshadowing, which is how someone who's good with words can completely obliterate others' inchoate perceptions and replace them with their own. It's how the reality distortion field works. I strongly suspect it is the Fountain of Bullshit. At some point I need to write a Rocknerd article about it that basically apologises for every piece of music journalism I've ever done.

We also sung happy birthday to ciphergoth. Happy birthday!