June 14, 2005

Net Nanny Chinese Style

Posted in GlobalGood
7

the propaganda departments of provincial and municipal governments have recently been instructed to build teams of internet commentators, whose job is to guide discussion on public bulletin boards away from politically sensitive topics by posting opinions anonymously or under false names… A summary of objectives declared that commentators should “be proactive in developing discussion, increase control, accentuate the good, avoid the bad, and use internet debate to our advantage.”

The Guardian covers China’s move to hi-tech Big Brother-ism, to prevent freedom of speech or expression of dissent via the internet.
How are they going to make those heretical thoughts ultimately unthinkable?

Karen
  • Comments: 7
  • That's easy to answer - eleventeen. Everyone knows that. - Graybo
  • No, no, no, Graybo! The real issue is: how much rug would a throw rug throw if a throw rug... - Pete
  • No, no, no, Bjorn! The real issue is who should Mark McGhee spend the - Graybo
  • Interesting point, but surely the control over the internet isn't really the key factor he... - Bjorn Van Horn
  • And quite right too! Can't have everyone running about declaring "FREEDOM!!" that right li... - Gordon
  • Comments: 6
  • What a clever idea. What's this "tax" thing everyone keeps blaring on about? - Destructor
  • The banks owns my flat. I'm more worried about that, the the government owning my ass. The... - Adrian
  • Having lived in other countries where they have ID cards I can't see any problem with them... - Doctor Pockless
  • Yes, Adrian, take advantage of the opportunity while you still can. It'll be government pr... - Pete
  • I'll be sitting on my arse then. - Adrian
June 13, 2005

Pillow Talk

Posted in Goo
5

Tell me a joke.
A joke. Crikey. Okay, wh…
A joke about badgers.
Crumbs. Don’t know any jokes about badgers. I know a joke about a lemon though.
Okay, a joke about a lemon please.
Right-o. What’s yellow and flickers?
A lemon.
Damn. You’ve heard it then.
That could have been about badgers.
Ah. Okay. What’s yellow and flickers?
A badger.
Damn. You’ve heard it then.
Guffaw.
Chortle.

Pete
  • Comments: 5
  • (plonk) - Pete
  • Ah. I see. So anyway, there's these three ex-soldiers, right, and everytime they fly anywh... - Destructor
  • I felt that "Damn. You've heard it then." would be a cuter response than "No, it's a lemon... - Pete
  • Sorry, why does a Lemon flicker? - Destructor
  • Great. Now I feel dirty. I don't want to see into your bedroom and hear your pillow talk. ... - Graybo

There are worse things than being eaten

Posted in Goo
2

In response to Bob Parsons’ 16 Rules For Survival
1. Chill the fuck out. Despite what you may believe, life is not a competition. There is no prize for the person who dies with the most money. We all decompose in pretty much the same fashion, and we all smell the same amount of bad while we are doing it.
2. Sometimes you have to know when to stop. The advice “Never Give Up” can only go so far and smacks of ignorance or fanaticism. Sometimes, YOU WILL BE WRONG. This is a fact. Unless you’re one of those people who is always right, and knows it, goddamnit.
3. World domination isn’t the be-all and end-all. Being the most successful entrepreneur in the world and doing whatever it takes to get ahead is not the only path to happiness.
4. Be nice to people occasionally. You never know, you might need a friend when the rest of the world tires of your self-righteous pontification. What’s the point of making yourself happy if you make 100,000* other people miserable?
5. Don’t assume that what works for you works for everyone else. Life cannot be boiled down to sixteen simple rules. There’s always an exception, and as such, you’d need an infinite number of rules to capture all eventualities.
6. It doesn’t matter if you do it wrong. In a million years when mankind has died out and the Earth is the property of the mutant badgers with telepathic abilities, they won’t be pointing and laughing at any of those dumb humans.
7. Don’t introduce yourself as an entrepreneur. I can’t explain why, it’s just a thing that I have.
Though I agree with some of Bob Parsons’ points, I confess that I immediately scanned through the comments looking for the people who disagreed with him (always much more enlightening than the streams of “oh bob you are god”s). The results of my hunt were disappointing, so I have taken it upon myself.
* This is a random number. Though not as random as 0.2349782143054

Pete
  • Comments: 2
  • From Bob's rules: "Anything that is measured and watched, improves." I know firsthand that... - Destructor
  • Appreciate your post Bob. I mean Adrian. - Adrian
June 12, 2005

CD Sorting

Posted in Gravitas
2

Periodically, Karen and I gather all the CDs in the house into the sitting room. We then go through them all, selecting a dozen to go in the kitchen, a dozen to go in the bedroom, a couple of dozen to go into my room of great wonder and magic, and about 40 to go in the sitting room. The remainder are tucked away on the bottom shelf of the bookshelf, where the sofa prevents access.
This afternoon, we did it slightly differently. As we have ripped every single CD album in the house to MP3, our needs are slightly different. There is no need to have any CDs in the sitting room (as we can plug the iBook into the hifi and play MP3s over the network (as we are doing right now)) or the room of great wonder and magic (as that’s where the MP3 server is).
So we added a new category – “Discard”. This is generally for (a) duplicates, from before we met and (b) stuff that we have ripped to MP3, but which we wouldn’t miss if the MP3 archive went for a Burton. The process has resulted in a Discard pile of 100 CDs (about 20 of which are singles).
It’s a very liberating feeling. You should try it sometime.
UPDATE: One of the CDs which we (I think) decided should go for the “Discard” pile is 23rd Street Lullaby by Patty Sciatica Scialfa. So I’m upstairs, hitting the random button on CrazyGoat until it chooses an album that I want to listen to, and this album comes up, so I figure why not listen. At least every other song is about New York. It’s making me incredibly awaysick.

Pete
  • Comments: 2
  • We did decide to discard that CD; it was one of Dad's "wishlist-inspired" choices, where h... - Karen
  • My heart got all happy and fluttery at the thought of the Uborkans getting awaysick for ou... - Krissa
June 10, 2005

Oh, gee!

Posted in Gravitas

The Line of Beauty, by Alan Hollinghurst
My boss was reading this when we set off for New York, and still struggling with it a month later; she said it bored her to sleep, and being a non-native english speaker, there were nuances that she knew she was missing. Still, Mike forgave it in the end, and I thought I would give it a go.
Personally, I secretly like over-decorative prose, and really Hollinghurst has nothing on Iris Murdoch’s six-long strings of adjectives. For me, the pretentious element was the overuse of daft words that your average reader has to look up in the dictionary – no wonder my austrian boss struggled. The characters are drawn with a sort of contemptuous affection that suits the subject matter; filling out a plot plucked straight from the News of the World. This is a sad, witty book; a literary Spitting Image with significantly less latex and an unfunny ending.
4/5

Karen
June 9, 2005

Make Tat History

Posted in GlobalGood
4

I’m a few days late with this news, but it strikes me as bleakly ironic:

Wristbands made to raise awareness of the Make Poverty History campaign have been produced in Chinese factories which violated ethical standards

Two factories have been audited, and found to pay less than the local minimum wage, require deposits from their staff [this is considered to be forced labour], make deductions from wages for infractions of the rules, and have inadequate health and safety systems. These are basic violations of the Ethical Trading Initiative; these are bad, bad factories.
It’s amazingly difficult to get British companies interested in this sort of thing. Around these parts, corporate responsibility means not polluting the nearest river; clearly, charity begins at home.
There’s quite a heated discussion about the wristbands thing here. Would you buy one?

Karen
  • Comments: 4
  • I never quite got the whole wrist band thing. For some reason it grinds me completely the ... - Adrian
  • it's a tough call. on the other hand, buddy i know. his parents worked in a sweatshop. an... - redclay
  • Now there's a sticky one. Would you knowingly buy a product made in a sweatshop? No. Would... - Stuart
  • Fuck. Guess who just bought one. Although the discussion you link to seems more concerned ... - Gordon
June 7, 2005

Important Notice about Parties and the Forthcoming Summer

Posted in Goo
19

I’m sure you will be delighted to learn that Sevitz has taken it upon himself to organise a summer blogmeet, to take place on 30 July, somewhere in London. The venue appears to be a relative secret, but details can be obtained by leaving a comment here or on sevitzdotcom. The more the merrier, I say…

Karen
  • Comments: 19
  • Who are you kidding? You'd slap a bra on for Natalie-Portman-love in about about two secon... - Destructor
  • I don't mind wrestling in oil, but I'm not wearing a bra for love or money. - Adrian
  • Braai, bar, bra, brawl. With these two, it seems hard to tell the difference. - Graybo
  • Whatever floats your boat, sweetie. - pixeldiva
  • We prefer creamed corn for our wrestling, Pix. - Destructor