Category: Digitalia

Links for Friday August 24th 2012

Posted on by Alasdair
  • Laurie Penny, on her rape.
    This probably doesn’t need any sort of signal boost, but I thought I’d do my little part to keep it circulating, because the topic means something to me. This is an important post, because it really makes something clear: until we let go of the illusions that a) nice guys don’t rape, and b) anyone who commits rape is totally incapable of being a nice guy in other parts of their life, we will never be able to have a proper grown up conversation about the topic. We must be able to understand that rape can be as much accident as malice, and that does not diminish the pain of the victims. We must let go of the urge to say “This person wouldn’t do that, he’s too nice, the girl must be lying”. It is possible for a person to be nice, *and* to have done that. Rape does not obliterate niceness, any more than niceness excuses rape.

Links for Saturday July 28th 2012

Posted on by Alasdair
  • BBC News – Arrests in Critical Mass bike ride near Olympic Park
    Last night, while it seems like my entire twitter feed was watching the Olympic opening ceremony, a group of cyclists were kettled and arrested. This is a group of cyclists who meet and perform this particular bike ride regularly, and with no problems. It is of course possible that some of them decided to so something stupid and/or illegal this time, but I can't imagine why they would, when they never have before, In other words: this looks an awful lot like the police deciding that an act that is usually legal and problem-free is suddenly illegal just because the Olympics is on, presumably because they believe they'll be able to get away with it because everyone is so dazzled by the opening ceremony. Please, spread this link around, because this would seem to be to high a price to pay for a bit of pageantry.

Links for Friday July 13th 2012

Posted on by Alasdair
  • London 2012 Olympics fails at Internet | THE FREE SPEECH BLOG
    It turns out that a certain organisation of dogshit peddlers disguised as sporting event is trying to tell people under what circumstances they may links to said organisation's website. I would put a link to their site calling them a bunch of cunts, in direct violation of those policies, but it turns out I've already done that, years ago, when they first announced the logo, and before they had the ludicrous policy of attempting to tell people what they could do with their own, totally unaffiliated websites.

    God, I really do hate the Olympics. I sort of hope everyone who is in any way involved with it gets ebola and dies. Except Doug.

    Excuse me, I have to go take a few deep breaths now.

  • New Statesman – Lansley opens the door to full-scale NHS privatisation
    Oh look: the NHS is now over. And yet for some reason no-one is hounding Andrew Lansley through the streets with whips made from scorpions. Why are we not doing this? I mean, it can't be a crime, can it? To hound scumbags and monsters with whips made from scorpions?

Links for Tuesday July 10th 2012

Posted on by Alasdair
  • STORNÄS Buffet – antique stain, 163×90 cm – IKEA
    Yes, I really did just spend a portion of my lunchbreak browsing the ikea website for new furniture, and yes, I am bookmarking this one so I don't forget. What of it?
  • The sinking of the USS Indianapolis | MetaFilter
    This account of the various means of launching nuclear weapons that would result in death for the lunching crews is creepy enough, but the really chilling bit is here: "two Soviet nuclear torpedoes were loaded into their tubes to fire against American forces at the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Had one of them been launched, it would have inevitably caused a nuclear war. According to one account (and we don't know if it's true), the decision to launch the nuclear torpedo on the submarine B-59 came down to a sort of vote between the three senior officers on board. All three had to agree to launch the torp. Two voted yes, one voted no." Like he says, it may well not be true. But it is absurd to me that we live in a world where there is even the chance that it is true.
  • Is R v John Terry value for money? « forthedefence
    This is a really good food-for-thought post. On the one hand: it is absolutely not acceptable that John Terry use racist language. On the other: because of his media stature, a trial that cannot possibly result in anything more than a fine – if I've understood the matter right, a fine of not more that £2,500 – that, for another defendant would be a half-a-day in court job, is going to be a five day multi-media three-ring circus, with police presence and the whole works. Is this really worth the cost to the taxpayer. (FWIW, I think it just about is, but I am forced to admit that there's a strong "don't bother" argument.)