Month: June 2006

links

enriching the blogosphere

Post author By tom
Post date June 30, 2006
No Comments on enriching the blogosphere

Two new blogs now enrich the blogosphere (warning: personal bias forthcoming)

To mark the start of his PhD, Dan is now blogging at coveredinbees.org about the science of self-organisation/’spontaneous order’ and how it affects political philosophy, and about markets and freedom. And about the war on terror and the state of the world. Read his introductory post to see where he’s coming from.

Sarah Eldridge, is now blogging as part of her work with ICAR (The Information Centre about Asylum and Refugees in the UK). ICAR “is an independent information and research organisation’ based at City University which aims ‘to increase public understanding of asylum issues in the UK, and inform policy and practice through applied research and policy evaluation.’ The blog comments on how asylum issues are handled in the media.

quotes

Quote #154

Post author By tom
Post date June 30, 2006
No Comments on Quote #154

I have a rendezvous with Death
At some disputed barricade,
At midnight in some flaming town,

– Alan Seeger

events

Save the Cemetery Chapel

[local news warning]

The conspiracy of planners and property developers to turn the whole world into yuppie flats for contemporary urban living ™ reaches the Sheffield General Cemetery – they want to convert the anglican chapel, fencing off the top entrance to the cemetery and enclosing the surrounding land in the process.

Petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/saveourchapel

Look out for a benefit gig in the cemetery grounds on the 9th of July….

links

my wikipedia contrail

My wikipedia contail (after Matt Webb) – those autocomplete options when I type “en.wikipedia.org/wiki/” into my browser

advertising

One occasion where advertisers did not exert editorial control

Post author By tom
Post date June 14, 2006

In the 1970s Philip Knightly and the Sunday Times Insight team were pursuing the story of how thalidomide, which caused severe birth defects, was marketed as morning-sickness pill.

…the Sunday Times advertising manager, Donald Barrett had warned [Sunday Times editor] Harold Evans that Distillers [who had marketed thalidomide in the UK] was the paper’s single largest advertiser, spending £600,000 a year. Then he added, ‘I know that won’t stop you and it shouldn’t.’ Immediately the Sunday Times began its campaign, Distillers cancelled all its advertising….

Quoted from A Hack’s Progress by Philip Knightley, excerpted in Tell me no lies: Investigative Journalism and its triumphs, edited by John Pilger.

links

links for 14th of June 2006

Post author By tom
Post date June 14, 2006
No Comments on links for 14th of June 2006

I don’t like talking about music,” Martha Wainwright sets out her stall. “I don’t like being like, ‘This song should feel like there’s an angel coming up from the earth’. Just sing the fucking song. And if it is like an angel coming up from the earth then we don’t have to fucking talk about it.”
Supposing … Bono’s too annoying to save the world
GO Sheffo! in the guardian
a midlife year out story
An atheist website – with some interesting notes about how belief affects reasoning
what makes urban legends stick (and how to use this for marketing)
On International Towel Day fans of Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy carry their towels with them all day
Rob Newman’s History of Oil (google video)
Edge #182 has Daniel Gilbert talking about happiness and science
Photo essay about Festonia squat community
Wired article about RFID hacking – possible troubling implications for govt. id card scheme?
‘many of the central ideals of the Enlightenment were lost to the rise of the modern nation state’
an interesting thought in a CT post about Madeline Bunting
An ecological study of glee in small groups of preschool children.
But you have one thing that may save you, and that is your youth. This is your great strength. It is also why I hate and fear you. What if Stephen Colbert did your graduation address?
The The 17 Basic Techniques of Tomiki Aikido University of Winchester aikido society (IE only?)
Matt Webb’s Reboot8 talk ‘Making Senses’
Matt Webb’s talk about science fiction and artifacts
‘The man shouted, ‘God will save me, if he exists,’ lowered himself by a rope into the enclosure, took his shoes off and went up to the lions,” the official said.’
Five Ways to Kill a Man