- Murray 4 Mayor
Because Toronto deserves something nice. There are a number of Torontonians around these parts. I urge you all to vote Murray, in the strongest, tenderest possible terms.
- Newly discovered planet may be first truly habitable exoplanet – UC Santa Cruz
And yet we're still not funding space travel properly. What's up with that?
- 50 years of cyborgs: I have not the words. | Quinn Said
This ones doing the rounds, and with excellent reason. A bit of writing on posthumanity that encompasses all the usual stuff and cyborgs and tool using and modern infrastructure, and goes to some fascinating and non-generally considered places beyond that. For example: "a cyborg revolution was happening the same year Manfred Clynes and Nathan Kline coined the term. A hostile environment was being tamed by a newly and artificially capable people. It escaped notice and critique though, because the modified weren’t men, and then environment wasn’t space. The modified were women, and the environment was men. The women of the 60s were the first to modify and control their uteruses."
- The ecstasy of influence: A plagiarism, By Jonathan Lethem (Harper's Magazine)
An absolutely superb essay on influence, creativity, and copyright. The absolute best writing I have read on this subject, anywhere. And with a truly superb sting in the tail…
- Subtraction.com: The Only Thing a Router Is Good For
This is one of those "so simple it's obvious" things, that clearly, no-one has ever thought of. I have one (semi-)regular physical interaction with my internet router, and I bet it's the same one you do. I turn it off and on again. That's the only thing I ever do with it. And yet, the switch to do that is hidden at the back, and there is absolutely no reason why this should be so. No reason at all.
Tag: politics
Bookmarks for September 21, 2010
- Politics of storytelling – Laurie Penny interviews China Mieville
This is food for thought. Key quote: "Storytelling is clearly an extremely important function of societies, but it's nonetheless unproven that to be human is to be a storytelling being. Even if it is the case that human beings are completely intrinsically storytelling animals, it doesn't follow that that's something to celebrate, any more than we should celebrate the fact that human beings are defecating animals."
There're a number of obvious counter-arguments, that can essentially be lumped in as "the power of art to bring about change" but it's still a point of view worth remembering.
- I was wrong about veganism. Let them eat meat (but farm it right) | George Monbiot | Comment is free | The Guardian
I think I'm going to have to pick this book up. A lot of the numbers around the environmental impact of livestock farming have seemed off to me particularly in relation to arguments about grain (because, well, what's wrong with grass-fed?) and water (because invariably, the numbers seem to assume that any water fed to a cow never leaves the cow, which is pretty self-evidently wrong). It's nice to see that someone's actually taken the numbers apart and proved them wrong/fallacious, and done so in a way that convinces even a big hippy like Monbiot.
- Alex Payne — The Very Last Thing I'll Write About Twitter
A clear and sensible statement about the need to decentralise services like Twitter, Facebook, and really, almost any service, if you want it around for the long (decade+) haul. Idle thought: Someday, someone will figure out how to massively decentralise search, and than things will get really interesting. (Google have, of course, effectively done this internally in that their search architecture is spread over cluster after cluster, but that's not the same as true decentralisation…)
- Diaspora Developer Release
I really want this to succeed – once it's out of beta, and at the more-or-less easy to install stage, I'll probably put some time and cash, into setting up a Seed. I absolutely know that there are people I've lost touch with since leaving Facebook, and I know my social life has suffered for it. I've felt quite disconnected from many of my friends this year, and it's bugging me quite a lot of late. I'm not blaming anyone, you understand and I'm not going to be one of those arseholes who think that it's everyone else's fault – I knew what I was doing when I walked away from Farcebook – I'm just a little sad that people don't seem to use any other contact medium any more. So as soon as I can, I'll help offer a better alternative…
Bookmarks for September 6, 2010
- Latest leaked draft of secret copyright treaty: US trying to cram DRM rules down the world's throats – Boing Boing
This makes my blood boil. What kind of shitehawk can think that is is a fair or reasonable way to do business? The level of contempt that US business interests, and worse, politicians are showing for consumers around the world is staggering. Large chunks of the world are about to be shafted by people who they cannot hold accountable. US-resident chums, I would take it as a great kindness if you would write and call your representatives, on the issue of ACTA, and make their responses as public as possible.
- B.A.S.A.A.P. – Blog – BERG
Mr Jones is at the clever again. Good metaphor for designing better human computer interaction.
- Health Month
I've just signed up to beta-test this, turning better habits into a game, although I just missed the deadline for the September game. So, for the month of October, I must: go to the gym twice a week. Do productive work (outside of the dayjob) on three days each week. Drink only one alcohlic drink per week. If do this, I will buy myself an ipod shuffle. If not, I'll donate price of the same to charity. (And if I find it helpful, I'll up the requirements in November.)
Bookmarks for August 17, 2010
- BBC – Dimensions – Index
BERG produce a site that helps you understand the scale and distances of things in the recent, and not so recent past. If the Apollo 11 astronauts had landed at your front door, could the distance they walked have enabled them to buy a pint of milk? How far away from your parents house would the German trenches have been, if WWI had happened where you grew up? And so on, and so forth. Nice!
- BookBook for iPad – BookBook for iPad – Twelve South
If I didn't have my Dodocase, or if, god forbid, anything should happen to it, I'd want one of these, I think.
- rejectamentalist manifesto
China Miéville has a blog. I believe this may be relevant to our interest
- Science Digestive: My application for a job as a Homeopath
In case were weren't aware NHS Tayside are offering a £68,000 a year job for a fucking homeopath, despite having laid off 500 people due to the current round of cuts. The level of angry this makes me is hard to fucking describe – it is a near perfect example of the counter to the "well, it can't hurt, and it might help some people" argument that others put forward. Anyway, setting incandescent fury aside for a moment, here is an amusing read: A qualified neuroscientist applies for the job.
- Washington, We Have a Problem | Politics | Vanity Fair
interesting article on the daily routine of the Obama presidency, and the difference between the media now, and the media of a decade ago.
Bookmarks for August 10, 2010
- CSI | Bridging the Chasm between Two Cultures
Some good stuff in here – a clear articulation of why the language of skepticism does not get through to the people it most needs to, and how we can do something about that.
- Verizon-Google Legislative Framework Proposal
One to write about later. Short version: I have used Google's mantra of "don't be evil" as a yardstick that I feel they often fail to live up to, mostly through lack of thought. This document, and the changes it proposes are not that. They are active "evil", a very sign of corporations laying the groundwork to maximise their own revenues at the expense of their customers. Whatever Google's founding principles may have been, they are just another corporation now, and worse, they're one who have decided to throw their very considerable weight behind practices that will make life less fair for the consumer. I really, really hope the FCC steps in to stop this – essentially what they doing is saying that "the public internet" should be neutral, and then not properly defining "the public internet" thereby leaving them free to define "the private internet" as anything they want.
Bookmarks for July 26, 2010
- rotonic for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad on the iTunes App Store
Horrifyingly addictive little game – I downloaded it, and then when I looked up, it was hours later.
- Insufficient data – Charlie's Diary
I'm actually more optimistic about what "Big Society" can potentially achieve than most people I know, but I recognise that actually, most of what it can achieve is (significant) optimisation of already-funded and already-managed programs that are set up with the correct social tools. Which is why I found this such interesting ready: Charlie Stross, in the course of wondering about how many people you'd need to send to Mars, ably demonstrates why society is already far too large and complex for "Big Society" to ever work past a certain limit.
Thursday 1st January 1970
- Osborne's first Budget? It's wrong, wrong, wrong! – UK Politics, UK – The Independent
|I imagine a few of you have seen this, but still: a nobel prizewinning economist delivers his verdict on George Osborne's benefit. Now, I imagine that a few of you are thinking "well, he's obviously got a bias". Yeah, probably true. But he's also got a fistful of examples, and I don't know about you, but I was always taught that a persuasive point was one that was backed up with examples.
- Young photojournalist detained for army cadet pics – British Journal of Photography
Good to see that the police in Romford have paid attention to their own guidelines on how to deal with photojournalists. Oh, no, wait, that's not what they've done, is it? They've done the other thing, haven't they? FFS.
Bookmarks for June 14, 2010
- FOI reveals how costs of Crown Prosecution Service website ballooned past budget | Technology | guardian.co.uk
This makes me angry on many many levels. Yes, this looks like total waste, and yes, they got a shitty, shoddy website that was massively over-budge. One the other hand, though, the outrage about serious undervalues my profession. £122,000 is *not* an unreasonable amount to spend on a major website in one year, and headlines that suggest it is are fucking annoying to me. What's unreasonable is what they got for their money, not the amount they spent. (FWIW: their initial budget of £45,000, while it would not get them laughed out of the office around here, would definitely put them on the low end of business that we like to pitch for. Since they're a major department, I'd expect a higher budget.)
- U.S. Identifies Vast Riches of Minerals in Afghanistan – NYTimes.com
Oh bollocks. Looks like Afghanistan is going to fucked for a very, very long time to come, because it turns out we're not just blowing them up as a point of principle any more. Now they've got useful resources, too.
Bookmarks for May 13, 2010
- The Millennials: Confident. Connected. Open to Change. – Pew Research Center
I'd always thought Gen X stopped in about 1975, but apparently I'm a gen Xer. But this survey isn't about me, so much as it's about a lot of the people I know. It's, er, interesting. I'd like to see similar stats for the UK….
- Coilhouse » Blog Archive » Save the Life of Kiana Firouz
Well, here's an interesting test case for out new government, and for caring sharing Dave and his compassionate conservatism. But more importantly, do like the article says, and start writing, if you'd prefer that Britain not deport people who will be tortured or killing for the crime of being a lesbian.
- Facebook Privacy: A Bewildering Tangle of Options – Graphic – NYTimes.com
I'm not sure I've got all this locked down, even on my ultra-locked-down work-only account. And I am by any reasonable lights, an expert web user. How is the casual user supposed to get it right?
- Facebook is a feminist issue | Geek Feminism Blog
This, by the way, it why I get so het up over privacy. This page contains a link to some talk about how facebook until the other day, made it possible to trace your location. I didn't blog the link, because Facebook fixed the hole before I could, but the fact it existed at all relates to a wider point about their privacy culture – they either do not think, or do not care, about how it will affect vulnerable people for whom privacy is a very important concern. And it's all very well for them to say "if you don't want it public, don't put it on facebook", but why should the vulnerable, for whom it might make the most difference, have less rights to share with their friends? Why should excluding the vulnerable from Facebook be acceptable?
Bookmarks for May 10, 2010
- The Non Autumn/Winter 2010 ‘The Golden Dawn’
Some of the most interesting bits of clothing design I've seen in ages. Absolutely brilliant costume inspiration. (I'd like to link the the label's own website, but it's the most user-unfriendly bit of flash crap I've seen in ages, so look at this article instead.)
- National Journal Magazine – Do 'Family Values' Weaken Families?
I want to come back to this one, because it's germane to something I've been thinking a lot about recently.
- BBC iPlayer – The Genius of Design: Ghosts in the Machine
Mostly just bookmarking this as one to watch at some point this week, but I imagine there are a few other people reading this who might enjoy it.