I often miss chunks of the humour at the Stiftung because I would rather do almost anything than watch US business-spot TV news. If you wanted to hide something from me, you could do worse than put it next to a TV tuned to CNBC. But I think I experienced something of the culture the…
Read More talking without speaking; speaking without talkingIn which the Database nearly got me. So I went to 3GSM (sorry, sorry, Mobile World Congress). Now, these things are usually fairly good previews of the ID-card future – constant RFID-tag badging, lists everyone in the world is either on or they aren’t, security theatre aplenty. On this occasion, when I visited the registration…
Read More a terrible experience with extremely dangerous bugsI may not be blogging 3GSM for this blog, but you can look at the pictures on Flickr, here.
Read More photosThrill! as the counterinsurgents meet dance culture. (Americans – don’t you just want to chuck them under the chin sometimes? When you don’t want to start building rockets like sausages, that is.) Watch with mingled awe and horror as Norwegian anarchist and occasional reader bonds with walking pile of unexamined fascist tropes over awful US…
Read More InternetVia Jamie Kenny, Tim “The Tory Blogger for Tories Who Actually Read Blogs” Montgomerie approvingly quotes someone who thinks the world financial crisis is all down to people living together without the approval of either a) your friendly local shaman or b) the State*. The argument, if this is the right word, runs like this;…
Read More fun with drivelThe RBC’s Andrew Sabl wonders whether it’s best to write, e-mail or what? your elected representatives in a political pinch. What, what, what if there was a Web service that accepted, say, your ZIP code, found the relevant state and federal legislators, and routed your message to an online fax service? Well, there is, if…
Read More write to themDespite the warnings, Donal Blaney is being an arsehole again. For some reason connected with her being 20 years old and female, he’s formed a creepy obsession with the Labour PPC for Skipton & Ripon; but a Straussian reading is worth carrying out. He’s very pleased by the fact she is unlikely to win; but…
Read More if I was a master thief perhaps I’d rob youI’ll be at 3GSM, sorry, MWC in Barcelona from Sunday evening to Thursday morning.
Read More 3GSM, sorry MWCKeep the shit and the drinking water separate, and you’ve gone most of the way from an average life expectancy of 35 to one of 75. Boris Johnson, famously, decided that replacing London’s water mains was a minor issue that could be thrown out as a sop to the roads lobby. So here’s the Borisfeed.…
Read More Civilisation is common defence and waste disposal. And drinking waterA total disjuncture between cost and value; such was the problem facing Gorbachev. Consider this; Pajamas Media, that heroic attempt to refute the principle that putting 15 idiots around a table gives you the average of their intelligence, not the sum, is reorganising as a subscription video site. You will be able to pay $15…
Read More stupidity quantified