Links and Thoughts 3: 10 May 2014
Broken Brass Ensemble – Peas
Good Morning.
Gaming: Oh yeah, we’ll be seeing all kinds of goofy stuff like this: Become a bird – see previously, Virtuix Omni [I’m waiting for true plug-and-play]
Business: Taking a photo against a white background? Amazon owns the patent on that : Quartz
Gov’t: Air Force discusses how it would respond to Godzilla : The Verge
Gov’t: The 40-year Tragedy.
“The report details a laundry list of negative results from the war on drugs, including ‘mass incarceration in the US, highly repressive policies in Asia, vast corruption and political destabilization in Afghanistan and West Africa, immense violence in Latin America, an HIV epidemic in Russia, an acute global shortage of pain medication and the propagation of systematic human rights abuses around the world.’ In part, the report finds that the drug war’s failings come from its high costs for low returns and the unwillingness of countries where drugs are produced to risk their own security with enforcement efforts.”
Nobel Prize economists call for end to war on drugs : The Verge
[edit: and around lunchtime I also saw this article on Vice: Legal Pot in the US Is Crippling Mexican Cartels]
The so called war is actually 43 years old and counting. I’m divided on whether Nixon or Reagan have done more damage to the United States. Equal blame is probably most appropriate but St. Ronald the Communicator gets the nod for being reliably bad in so many different categories, to say nothing of the massive disconnect between his corruption in office and the rosy-tinted icon that is venerated today.
Obviously I have opinions on the man, and the fallout. Outside of blind political affiliation, I can’t see how anyone could respect Reagan or celebrate his legacy — those that choose to do so are just as obviously entitled to their opinions, and of course I won’t damn a person for what they believe. …I just wish more people would educate themselves on the issues, even if that proves inconvenient to their politics. *massive sigh*
OK. Massive bummer needs a chaser:
Neat:
Visualizing London’s Evolution From Roman Times to Today – video at link (7.3min); I recommend watching it full screen
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Following on that London link, Today’s Book Recommendation is London: A Biography by Peter Ackroyd – yes, at 848 pages (plus being a slightly oversized, 9.2×6.2 trade paperback) it’s a doorstop of a book, but each of the 79 chapters functions as a stand-alone essay, making it easy to read in small chunks — plus the book also incorporates plenty of illustrations and maps. I like having it on my nightstand; back when I was commuting by transit I also bought the ebook version to read on the train.
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Diary entry for 10 May:
You might have noticed (assuming you click-through and read the things) that there are not just two, but actually four links to The Verge up top — which is more coincidence than anything else. The Verge is just one of [checking Feedly] 353 sources I follow (though to be fair, about 80 of those are food blogs that post excedingly sparingly – recipes weekly, at best)
…though to give them their due: even when all the other tech sites are reporting the same thing, The Verge often gets picked as ‘my’ link (the one I share) because their headline is better.
In my ‘media diet’ (which I glancingly referenced yesterday) The Verge is also one of seven tech/geek/news blogs that get read first* – in alpha order:
Ars Technica – Geek.com – Quartz – Re/Code – ReadWrite – Tested – and of course The Verge
[* let's be honest: the Webcomics folder gets read first.]
…and though this batch-of-seven gets priority, there are another dozen ‘tech’ sites I follow, alongside two dozen+ ‘bookish’ sites on publishing, ebooks, media, and reading (The Passive Voice and The Digital Reader deserve a called-out link here), a similarly-sized batch on urban studies, four dozen sites on politics and economics (one and the same subject, if you ask me), and oh… a hundred or so sites I’ve classed as ‘amusements’, ‘tumblish’, ‘fanish’, and my favorite folder: ‘skippable’.
At any point in the day, I have something to read (unless I’ve been too proactive in pruning) and I rely on my links as vital input for just about all of my other internet activity.
It’s not that I need confirmation or affirmation to form my own opinion, but if I am to pursuade (or to come across as an authority on whatever topic) having a ready link—especially to a long op-ed—certainly helps.
To mix my metaphors: the icing on this cake is a steady audio diet of NPR/PRI/APM, both over-the-air and streaming online. These inhabit my earspace much like many of you subscribe to podcasts — in fact I wish I had more time (or an easier way) for podcasts; since I avoid iTunes on philosophical grounds** there aren’t many podcasts in my media diet outside of a handful I’ve added to my rss feeds. YouTube is a more meaningful platform to me than iTunes.
[** I’d be much happier if iTunes was a website I could visit as opposed to bloatware I have to install on my harddrive]
In a final analysis: yes, all these bookmarks are messy. Relying on rss feeds is barely better; it’s still a mess. However, like many cognoscenti I’d rather get messy and wade deep into sources, as opposed to being hostage to a single aggregator or curator. Seen in that light, my own contributions (via twitter, and this site) are small and snarky by design — I don’t want to overwhelm, and I can’t cover everything so I don’t try.
And the real value of these posts lies not in the links (reblogging the reblogs of the rebloggers) but in the original opinions and insights — which is why I thought a daily diary might be a good idea. —M.
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