relationships according to silica chips
Social Network connection diagrams have always received a passing glance from me. Back in the days when facebook was more lax about security, I used to enjoy the ‘advanced search’ function, for example, “School: Methody, Religion: Atheist” or “Location: Belfast, Gender: Male, Interested in: Men” would always provide an interesting evening of facebook creeping.
This tool, providing mere pastime curiosity for me, was rightly scrapped after being used for brutal repression by others. Homophobic religious fundamentalists querying facebook for Saudi Arabian lesbians, such new technologies that had gone a small way to liberating these women, was turned and used to help their persecution.
Chrismukkah
Long time no postings, apologies to my regular readers (yes I mean you, Bolivian scented candle selling spam bots) Maybe I’ll find time over Christmas to write something about what I’ve been doing instead, if I develop code names for all the people involved and write things very cryptically. I should extend my traditional secular and politically correct christmas greeting to you all. Have a happy non denominational winter season of festivities celebrating the common human spirit of generosity as sometimes seen in the act of giving and receiving gifts which may or may not posess theological connotations. Of course we’re still closer to Hanukkah so I should choose a Seth Cohen style greeting.
All this talk of Cameron’s bull dog attitude has reminded me how thin advocates for the European Project are on the ground. Not only is defending the current state of the EU painful, but advocating further integration seems inconceivable. Not being prone to patriotism myself, much of the Euro bashing rhetoric goes over my head. Patriotism? Those who argue agaisnt further integration or even for complete withdrawal don’t seem to suspect patriotism is involved, no, the term ‘national interest’ has been bandied about quite a lot. The coalition government has from its formation depended a lot upon the argument “yes university fees are wrong, but sometimes in the national interest…”, ‘national interest’ features heavily in any discussion of economic policy, it is used to justify policy more often employment or recovery, becoming suspiciously synonymous with ‘the market confidence’. In the latest Europe spat, the national interest seemed suspiciously similar to the interest of the City. The deciding factor in Blair’s persuading the country to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan was also the national interest. (Suggestions that women’s rights would be protected appeared only retrospectively.)
SPQR 2, the narrative of profligacy
A few weeks before setting off to Rome I’d read a few amusing news stories about ‘gladiator fights’ happening outside the Colosseum. Apparently the gladiator impersonators had formed gangs and were using violence and intimidation against other would-be gladiators, as well as against tourists to force them to pay up for photographs.
In response, the Italian police sent in agents, undercover in gladiator costumes and togas. Sure enough, a ‘sword fight’ did ensue, other undercover police then stepped in to make arrests as reported by The Guardian and the BBC.
read more…
a new post from adam curtis
Many people on my facebook have at some stage been on the receiving end of an Adam Curtis documentary link. I found Adam Curtis through a very short segment he did for Charlie Brooker’s Newswipe. In it, he used the example of Roy Jenkins, the Labour Home Secretary who legalised homosexuality, to show how politics in the past could be a force to lead change, rather than simply reflect the public opinion polls. Curtis suggests that we have become so inherently suspicious of ‘elitism’ that we have in fact led to a stagnant and less progressive society. Since then, I have been an avid follower of Adam Curtis various documentary’s and also his blog. The common theme that I would establoish across them is that Curtis feels the balance between “positive liberty” and “negative liberty” has been pulled too far towards the latter.
Curtis argues strongly against market advocates and figures such as Hayek, but does borrow from some of their analyses. The suspicion that Curtis feels holds progress back, he explains is in the fear of the language of “positive liberty” which is left over from it’s use by the Soviet Union. In the Road to Serfdom, Hayek’s fears of ‘positive liberty’ he explains derive from what he observed as the consequential rise of Fascism and Totalitarianism. The difference emerges between Curtis who considers it an over reaction, and Hayek who considers it a wise reaction.
I’d recomend any of Adam Curtis’ documentaries to anyone, agree or disagree with him, he can certainly link together a fascinating bundle of stories in a way that will make them seem so interrelated that it’s easy to underestimate the depth of perception Curtis displays to find them in the first place.
Senatus Populusque Romanus
I slip in the time to post here just in the gap I have between passing my Driving Theory Test and frantically starting to pack and prepare for leaving for university on the 2nd October. Perhaps before I launch into my ramble about my very Hepburn-esque Roman Holiday I will post some little fillers to videos, articles and other time fillers of the week.
What I’ve been listening to:
the worst orchestra in the world
I take back all the jokes I’ve made about my former school’s Junior Orchestra and also violas in general.
The Portsmouth Sinfonia rightly deserve their title, take a listen to www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b013fj17/In_Living_Memory_Series_14_Episode_4/ for the history of it.
They had an impressive repertoire that they recorded multiple records with and even performed in the Royal Albert Hall. Their numbers ranged from pop hits such as “Satisfaction” …
To the Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy and other popular classics.
mary epithets
We were huddled in the car with cups of scalding tea and coffee, that must surely be the only way to start a real holiday in Ireland. The soft spoken southerner will describe their landscape as “Mystical”, mystical being a euphemism for “fog limiting visibility to six foot ahead”. While their homes are described as “Cosy”, the implication being that the outside is wet and cold. Whilst the weather may have drenched most of Counties Clare and Limerick during the three days I spent there, but it certainly didn’t dampen spirits. Winding down the window, I held my cup of coffee out for the rain water to cool it down.
This tree was the opposite direction from the ancient stone tomb that we were meant to be photographing, so it looked as though we had missed the whole point of the location.
the perils of the garden shed
Got the trampoline out of the shed today, it was like a scene out of “The Mummy”.
narrowest house in the world
The above house in Warsaw will be the narrowest in the world. I’m embarrassed by the frequency that I seem to link to Daily Mail content, I must look like a regular reader. I’m absolutely not though, it’s just that sometimes when googling for an article like this, the Mail seems to have the best online presence. Still, it worries me.
There is one positive aspect of it though. Laughing at Sun readers may seem to be picking on an easy target, rather like going to alt.christian for a theological debate, but it’s fun anyway. I’m pretty sure some of them must be ‘trolling’ as well.
“Well if thats where polish people have to live then it’s no wonder they all come to england.” – Just Jules
“A sign of things to come if the population rate and immigration influx continues unabated in the UK. Estate agents will still ask for lottery style price tags for such a matchbox, you wait.” – Pete
Amusingly, “Pete” gives his location as “UKIP you’re our last hope of sanity in this country, United Kingdom” He’s not the only person commenting who seems to use his location as an excuse for a political rant. Roger’s ‘location’ description with his comment tells us that he has his, “flight booked to now leave this once great country” – Is he talking about Poland or The United Kingdom? It’s not clear from the article context, and of course, we don’t actually know where he’s from.
On the other hand some Mail readers seem to stand out as likeable people. Leonie from the Netherlands comments that,
“These kind of houses always make me think of Sirius Black’s house in Harry Potter.”
Leonie is of course not from the United Kingdom, therefore probably not daily Mail reader. Perhaps like me, she just stumbled across the article.
“’6 feet in diameter’ – is that house circular then?” – Liz, Brighton
Well spotted Liz!
“Just the other day, we read about a prisoner demanding pornographic material in his cell. Why dont we put these prisoners there. Saves lots of space in jails which can be converted to community halls.”
- Somasundaram Sathish, Doha, Qatar
I’m somewhat bemused what brings netizens from Qatar to the Mail Online to comment, on prisoner’s conditions of all things. I see only a few possibilities to this trend. Perhaps Melanie Philips has begun creating pseudonyms round the web. Or perhaps, more likely in my opinion, a new game of ‘Mail Online Bingo’ has become popular.
Mail Online Bingon (aka: MOB – an acronym which conveniently describes the comment posters it is intended to mock.) have a bingo card of ‘key themes’ of the Daily Mail community. MOB players aim to mention, in some relevant way, these themes in their comments, by doing so they get to tick off their bingo cards.
Imagining what these cards might look like, we can see the players of this game are already doing quite well on what was essentially a non political article.
- house prices [tick]
- diana
- sharia law
- polish immigrants [tick]
- why britain is no longer great [tick]
- the persecution of christians
- benefit scroungers
Perhaps some of you fancy your hand at a game of MOB? Let me know of your successes.
why the change in causation?
I’ve never really understood why causality would switch after the first 800 years. Could someone please explain? I’m missing something.
