June 2009
35 posts
The Prepaid Economy Blog: Some observed behaviour... →
((I don’t really have anything clever to say. But this seems like an important thing to share.))
May 2009
77 posts
The Fiber Optic Cable No One Wants to Hit -... →
This part happens all the time: A construction crew putting up an office building in the heart of Tysons Corner a few years ago hit a fiber optic cable no one knew was there.
This part doesn’t: Within moments, three black sport-utility vehicles drove up, a half-dozen men in suits jumped out and one said, “You just hit our line.
“He runs an Internet forum on Yahoo, reads news online and keeps in touch with...”
– On the Street and On Facebook: The Homeless Stay Wired - WSJ.com
Watch((On the other hand, in a city where getting garbage trucks into narrow streets is hard as hell…WAIT A SECOND. IS THAT A SEGWAY UNDER THERE?))
jwike:
Finally we’ll be free from the tyranny of refuse collection schedules. It really grinds my gears everytime I take out the trash and have to wait until Tuesday morning for it to be picked up.
“With vampires, we thought we could be a little looser with the disclosure and...”
– Gawker VP says sponsored posts will bring in majority of revenue one day » Nieman Journalism Lab
“2) All IP addresses owned or operated by the Church of Scientology and its...”
– ((Wow)) Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/Scientology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
“China’s ban on plastic bags has cut the number of single-use carriers...”
– ((Scale.)) Chinese plastic bag ban cuts use by 40bn | Environment | packagingnews.co.uk
6 things that give me a crushing sense of scale →
The Photography of Chris Jordan.
Chris Jordan takes very, very big numbers and represents them in photographs. Here’s one that he made with folded prison uniforms standing in for Americans in…
“It should be obvious that ending the current ice age - and its regular cycles of...”
– End the Ice Age
“Blogs make real-estate speculation look rock solid. Not to mention their...”
– Dead Media Beat: WiReD blogs | Beyond The Beyond
“The audiences at many titles, moreover, are getting older fast. The median...”
– ((This is compared to a national (U.S.) median increase of 1.3 years between 2004 and 2009)) Magazine, Newspaper Readers Aging at Accelerated Rate - Advertising Age - MediaWorks
“There was no obvious link between the ability to operate a press and sound...”
– ((Clay Shirky is so quotable.)) From ‘why?’ to ‘why not?’, the internet revolution | Media | The Guardian
“There’s going to be all types of innovations in the years ahead —-...”
– ((But… but… none of the things that you listed are innovations. They are things that got tried before and failed.)) Paid online content possible, says new Globe and Mail editor - kirk lapointe’s www.themediamanager.com
“I pushed him off because jumpers like Chen are very selfish. Their action...”
– Suicidal man shoved off by annoyed passer-by. » Derren Brown Blog » Blog Archive
“In the interviews, the officers disclosed information about extra-marital...”
– ((“So, uh, you left that stuff unencrypted? And then LOST IT?”)) UK Data Breach Makes Royal Air Force Staff Vulnerable to Blackmail | Threat Level | Wired.com
“It was frustrating to contrast the Kindle’s limited fonts with that of the...”
– ((How is it tha the device designs SOLELY TO DISPLAY BOOKS cannot handle fonts and layout very well?)) Why E-Books Look So Ugly | Gadget Lab | Wired.com
“It would be a mistake to organize around a business model and then try to force...”
– ((In which YouTube’s steward demonstrates more understanding of business than whoever invented disposable DVDs)) Interview: Google’s David Eun: ‘We’re Monetizing More Than Anyone Else Is Making’ | paidContent.org
“What if water, already inextricable from agricultural farming processes, was...”
– BKRT Essay: on fog nets and cities - mammoth // building nothing out of something
“Very creative people get atemporal early on. Are relatively unimpressed by the...”
– ((Yes, I am aware that this links blog is like 50% William Gibson, Bruce Sterling and Warren Ellis.)) Twitter / William Gibson
Books Learn About Pirates →
((Pulled this article from the New York Times. Found it so striking that I’m going to take a page from Bruce Sterling’s blog and make comments in double parentheses.))
Ursula K. Le Guin, the…
“Mankiw’s defense of the economics profession misses the point, which is...”
– An Economist Tries to Defend His Profession—and Fails - Richard A. Posner
Permanence ain't what it used to be
((It’s really not that long ago that we were reading about how the Republicans were heading for a permanent majority.))
“For California, where the Republicans began their transformation from the party of Eisenhower to the party of Reagan, is also the place where they began their next transformation, into the party of Rush Limbaugh. As the political tide has turned against California...
“Netherlands to close prisons for lack of criminals”
– ((Quick! Pass more laws!)) nrc.nl - International
With E-Readers Comes Wider Piracy of Books -... →
((Oh hello books, welcome to the digital age. The marginal cost of your product just dropped to zero.))
To Ms. Le Guin, it was a rude introduction to the quietly proliferating problem of digital piracy in the literary world. “I thought, who do these people think they are?” Ms. Le Guin said. “Why do they think they can violate my copyright and get away with it?”
This would all sound familiar to...
“The more often Americans go to church, the more likely they are to support the...”
– Survey: Support for terror suspect torture differs among the faithful - CNN.com
“When behavioural trends and business models part company, it is usually the...”
– Not very social media | Emily Bell | Media | The Guardian
“Ironically papers have never made a living from protecting their copyright, it...”
– ((The first of two arresting quotes from the Emily Bell Op-Ed)) Not very social media | Emily Bell | Media | The Guardian
“Hare’s track record in the field suggests that the experimental screen he and...”
– ((This is fantastic! A Voight-Kampff test for the modern execu-replicant)) Executive Psychopaths - HBR.org
“Many of psychopaths’ defining characteristics—their polish, charm, cool...”
– Executive Psychopaths - HBR.org
Living in the Future. →
“The future”’s glamor, its sexiness. It’s never just one day. We don’t imagine May 20, 2050. The present is almost always the one given day.
Unless something starkly Ubertrending happens, and…
“Imagine getting on the uptown 6 train at Union Square, but instead of stopping...”
– Over the Wall - Abstract City Blog - NYTimes.com
“One of our working hypotheses is that older adults may have some pre-existing...”
– ((What doesn;t kill us…)) Reuters AlertNet - US health officials troubled by new flu pattern (via mikehudack) (via retropolitics)
Watch((The aesthetics of these really appeal to me)) OFFF 2009 Main Titles from Prologue! on Vimeo (via Vimeo)