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Monday Links from the Subsidised Canteen Vol. LIX

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    Monday Links from the Subsidised Canteen Vol. LIX

    It still feels weird having a gig close enough to home that I get back at a reasonable hour, and therefore have time to put this lot together for your edification:
    • The 2010 “Editing Wikipedia From Inside Parliament” Awards - "Here's a fact: Wikipedia stores the IP addresses of anonymous users. Here's another fact: all of the web traffic from the Houses of Parliament is sent through one of two proxy servers — which means that every anonymous edit to Wikipedia from within Parliament is attributed to one of just two IP addresses. I'm sure you can see where this is going." Tom Scott hauls a few skeletons out of our elected representatives' assorted closets.

    • I Think You're Fat - "This story is about something called Radical Honesty. It may change your life. (But honestly, we don't really care.)" A. J. Jacobs gives psychotherapist Brad Blanton's ideas about total honesty a try in real life, with interesting and sometimes surprising results.

    • Captured: The Ruins of Detroit - "Up and down Detroit’s streets, buildings stand abandoned and in ruin. French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre set out to document the decline of an American city." Fascinating gallery of abandoned buildings, including a library still containing many books, and a police station whose floor is littered with discarded mugshots.

    • When Soaps Die - "For a country where more people read about the mercurial fortunes of their TV favourites than actually watch them on the box, it’s still the case there’s little which sets the pulses racing faster than the whiff of an impending national execution. And there’s no greater quarry than an ailing soap opera." Ian Jones examines the phenomenon of the dying TV soap opera. I'd never realised just how bizarre the final episode of Brookside was (because, like almost everybody else, I didn't watch it.)

    • Open Sourcing My Genetic Data - "Today, I published all of my known genetic data as open source and released all my rights to the data. Roughly 1 million of my genetic markers are now in the public domain. I believe that I’m one of the first people in the world to commit my genetic data into a decentralized source control system." Manu Sporny explains why and how he's given his genetic code to the world for free.

    • Studio Multitracks: Gimme Shelter - "One of the more amazing recent developments in music is the ability to hear isolated tracks from many of the best songs in rock history. You can hear things you’ve never heard before even if you’ve heard the song 1000 times. For anyone who’s recorded or listened to music, this is a major treasure trove. This blog aims to seek these tracks out." There's loads of material on this blog; I've linked to the Rolling Stones' Gimme Shelter broken down into separate tracks for vocals, lead guitar, rhythm guitar, percussion/drums, and bass.

    • All the volcano webcams of the world - "So, I finally got this project done! We all do a lot of webcam watching here on Eruptions. A lot of the time when a new eruption occurs, the first question posted is 'is there a webcam?', so I thought I’d try to come up with a definitive list of extant volcano webcam, organized by region of the world." This list should save you the trouble and inconvenience of travelling halfway around the world only to be immolated by a pyroclastic flow.

    • 2045: The Year Man Becomes Immortal - Good article about The Singluarity, and particularly Ray Kurzweil: "Kurzweil believes that we're approaching a moment when computers will become intelligent, and not just intelligent but more intelligent than humans. When that happens, humanity — our bodies, our minds, our civilization — will be completely and irreversibly transformed. He believes that this moment is not only inevitable but imminent. According to his calculations, the end of human civilization as we know it is about 35 years away."

    • How Deaf People Think - "Today I found out how deaf people think in terms of their “inner voice”. It turns out, this varies somewhat from deaf person to deaf person, depending on their level of deafness and vocal training. Those who were born completely deaf and only learned sign language will, not surprisingly, think in sign language. What is surprising is those who were born completely deaf but learn to speak through vocal training will occasionally think not only in the particular sign language that they know, but also will sometimes think in the vocal language they learned, with their brains coming up with how the vocal language sounds. Primarily though, most completely deaf people think in sign language. Similar to how an “inner voice” of a hearing person is experienced in one’s own voice, a completely deaf person sees or, more aptly, feels themselves signing in their head as they “talk” in their heads."

    • People Who - You've probably met most of these one time or another - e.g. "People who turn down real-life social activities because they've made commitments in their online game."


    Happy invoicing!

    #2
    I like the People Who one.
    Bazza gets caught
    Socrates - "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

    CUK University Challenge Champions 2010

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
      Captured: The Ruins of Detroit - "Up and down Detroit’s streets, buildings stand abandoned and in ruin. French photographers Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre set out to document the decline of an American city." Fascinating gallery of abandoned buildings, including a library still containing many books, and a police station whose floor is littered with discarded mugshots.
      Julien Temple's film Requiem For Detroit emphasises that astonishing desertion even more by mixing in the buzzing Motor City era, and Motown music, and Techno, and Hip-Hop... and then the city as it is now. Just an astonishing film. As someone commented on your link, "It looks like the end of the world."

      [I'm not sure how legit the video site is. Found it on Google video search. It's a BBC film anyway, so we've paid for it, right?]

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by NickFitz View Post


        Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
        Although not mentioned, that article reminded me of Triangle, surely the most depressing, miserable bits of telly ever produced? What were they thinking? I used to be a regular viewer: trying to determine what on earth it was people saw in it. I never did find out; presumably all its other viewers were doing the same as me.

        Originally posted by NickFitz View Post
        I don't understand this web site. A series of boxes of text saying "People who <whatever>" which, when you click on them, takes you to a page with the PWHO logo, the text again and a list of who has blogged it. I'm clearly a phooquitte 'cos I don't get the joke.
        My all-time favourite Dilbert cartoon, this is: BTW, a Dumpster is a brand of skip, I think.

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by RichardCranium View Post
          I don't understand this web site. A series of boxes of text saying "People who <whatever>" which, when you click on them, takes you to a page with the PWHO logo, the text again and a list of who has blogged it. I'm clearly a phooquitte 'cos I don't get the joke.
          It's a self indulgent listing of things he doesn't like, with an opportunity for people to boost his ego by commenting or "liking" on the posts. It's like moaning down the pub but more modern.
          Originally posted by MaryPoppins
          I'd still not breastfeed a nazi
          Originally posted by vetran
          Urine is quite nourishing

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by d000hg View Post
            It's a self indulgent listing of things he doesn't like, with an opportunity for people to boost his ego by commenting or "liking" on the posts. It's like moaning down the pub but more modern.
            Also very similar to the "Minor things that annoy me thread"
            Bazza gets caught
            Socrates - "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing."

            CUK University Challenge Champions 2010

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by cailin maith View Post
              Also very similar to everything in General
              FTFY

              Comment


                #8
                Originally posted by zeitghost
                I watched a prog on the box all about that.

                The remaining inhabitants are busily removing anything of any value from the decaying remains, including iron girders supporting the roof etc.

                Must be quite exciting in its way.
                I suppose it'll keep the Americans coming to visit Europe's 'historic cities' seeing as they've neglected their own.
                And what exactly is wrong with an "ad hominem" argument? Dodgy Agent, 16-5-2014

                Comment


                  #9
                  Brilliant;

                  And what exactly is wrong with an "ad hominem" argument? Dodgy Agent, 16-5-2014

                  Comment


                    #10
                    I'm a bit confused by the Detroit one... ignorant as I am of US culture I don't 'get' it... according to Wikipedia Detroit is a major city. Opening myself for abuse, but I don't care!
                    Originally posted by MaryPoppins
                    I'd still not breastfeed a nazi
                    Originally posted by vetran
                    Urine is quite nourishing

                    Comment

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