Constihill

The Generation M Manifesto

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:21:07 +0100

The Generation M Manifesto:

Dear Old People Who Run the World,

My generation would like to break up with you.

Video

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:50:45 +0100

Zina Saunders at Drawger

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:54:29 +0100

Zina Saunders at Drawger

The death of journalism

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 19:51:40 +0100

Did you feel that the institution of government was no longer the best way to bring change about?
When you resigned from the AOGCC [Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission], that was a huge catapult for you. Do you think this might catapult you as well? Or do you see it as kind of a selfless move, more for the state than for you?
What do you think is particularly wrong with what Obama is doing now?

These are a handful of the questions TIME magazine asked Sarah Palin.

They may as well have asked - “Why don’t you tell us why you’re brilliant?”

Pah!

A collection of custom fonts from 2009

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 22:06:21 +0100

A collection of custom fonts from 2009

"Stories are slices through complex webs of ideas, with connections through the river of time and the..."

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 21:51:30 +0100

“Stories are slices through complex webs of ideas, with connections through the river of time and the semantic space of causality and influence.”

- Joho the Blog » News, process, webs and networks

I didn’t know that amongst my categories of favourite...

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:41:59 +0100

I didn’t know that amongst my categories of favourite things there was a space for finest acceptance speech.

But there is, and this is it.

On traffic

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:33:06 +0100

But why is traffic so unpredictable? After all, the number of cars on a highway during a typical weekday rush hour is fairly constant. And yet, even when there are no accidents - and most traffic isn’t caused by collisions - the speed of traffic can undergo dramatic and seemingly inexplicable shifts.

The key to understanding traffic jams is something known as “critical density,” or the number of vehicles that any road can efficiently accommodate. When this threshold is crossed - when too many cars are trying to cram onto the same six lanes of asphalt - the flow of traffic starts to breakdown. At this point, congestion becomes all but inevitable, as even seemingly insignificant events, such as a single driver tapping on the brakes, can trigger a cascade of brake lights. That’s when the highway becomes a parking lot.

Via The Frontal Cortex

"We spend a lot of time looking for our spaceships and jet-packs, but – and consider this bit, it..."

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 13:53:55 +0100

“

We spend a lot of time looking for our spaceships and jet-packs, but – and consider this bit, it gets bigger and weirder the more you think about it – in a matter of days we can genetically sequence a mutant virus that’s jumped the species gap. People try to make an ordinary thing of that. There’s a strong tendency to cast the present day, whenever that may be, as essentially banal and not what was promised. Stop looking for the loud giant stuff. The small marvels surround us.

We have within us, suppressed as it may be these days, the urge to dramatise our landscapes. If you don’t believe me, visit any stone circle and you’ll get the idea. Understand that you live in a future quite literally beyond imagining even at the beginning of modern times. See the stage for how big and weird it really is, and let a little dramatic lighting into your life.

”

- Wired UK magazine columnist Warren Ellis has swine flu. No, really…

From an interview with Lawrence Weschler

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:31:56 +0100

From an interview with Lawrence Weschler: Way back in college I had a marine biology teacher who learned I was just floundering on this big, amorphous topic, and I told him I was struggling, that I didn’t know what I was doing. And he said, “When you’re doing a big essay, it’s like you’re walking on the beach and you come upon a dead sea walrus and you’re curious about how he died. You can do one of two things. You can pick up that piece of driftwood over there and start bashing the flank. And all you are going to do is make blubber and hash of him. Or you can pick up that driftwood, go sit down on a boulder, pick up a rock and start sharpening the driftwood. It will take all afternoon, but by the end you’ll have a blade. Then you can do the autopsy, and in five minutes you’ll know what happened.” So when you’re dealing with a huge, amorphous subject, it’s best not to ask huge, amorphous questions. Better to spend ninety percent of your time honing the questions, and after awhile the subject will open up.

"I’ve known for a long time that stunning boredom is the secret weapon of European integration...."

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 23:54:00 +0100

“

I’ve known for a long time that stunning boredom is the secret weapon of European integration. Europe succeeds precisely by being so entirely and utterly boring that the world’s most fractious and warlike peoples are, like… huh? What were you saying? Cucumbers? We freakin’ firebombed Dresden and you’re talking about cucumbers now?

That’s right, Hans, Francois, Giuseppe. You did firebomb Dresden and, that’s why you’ve been sentenced to sixty solid years (and counting) of cucumber regulations.
And it works, too.

”

- bruce sterling

"Her sentences stream out in all directions like children being released early from school."

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 15:51:25 +0100

“Her sentences stream out in all directions like children being released early from school.”

- http://marbury.typepad.com/marbury/2009/07/palins-rational-decision.html

My favourite HYS of all time

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:31:00 +0100

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.

John Lennon. He was talking about liberals.

[chuckm51], Austin,Texas, United States

via Speak Your Branes - A collection of ignorance, narcissism, stupidity, hypocrisy and bad grammar.

Cities are technological artifacts, the largest technology we...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 02:03:57 +0100

Cities are technological artifacts, the largest technology we make. Their impact is out of proportion to the number of humans living in them. As the chart above shows, the percentage of humans living in cities averaged about one or two percent for most of recorded history. (The chart’s Y axis is a logarithmic scale of percentage.) Yet almost everything that we think of when we say “culture” arose within cities. After all, the terms “city” and “civilization” share the same root. But the massive citification, or urbanization, that characterizes the technium today is a very recent development. Like most other charts depicting the technium, not much happens until the last two centuries. Then populations booms, innovation rockets, information explodes, freedoms increase, and cities rule.

Kevin Kelly - The Technium

India legalizes gay relationships

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:06:15 +0100

Surely, this is the greatest extension of human rights in history of the world, in terms of sheer numbers. I wonder if India will stop marriage-discrimination before the US or the UK? I wouldn’t bet against it.

“Welcome to The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies…...

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:02:35 +0100

“Welcome to The Museum of Forgotten Art Supplies… where tools of the trade that have died or have just about died a slow slow death are cheerfully exhibited.

Due to severe government budget cuts to the arts, our little museum’s acquisition funds are frankly, well, bupkus. So, we welcome Drawgerers to submit images of any artistic tools, machinery, gadgets, etc. that they feel have bitten the dust.”

Drawger.com

Dubious Quality: A Disturbing Discovery

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 22:31:34 +0100

Dubious Quality: A Disturbing Discovery:

“I want Eli 7.10 [[[his son]]] to live in a world of strong, interesting women, not lobotomized, compulsive re-dressers. But how are little girls supposed to become strong and interesting when almost every toy intended for them is completely droolworthy?”

Raph’s Website » Is game design songwriting or performance?

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:10:00 +0100

Raph’s Website » Is game design songwriting or performance?:

” The right production on a song can make a tremendous difference, and changing the tone of the bass guitar could make the difference between an enduring hit record and one that fades away. Several times on this blog, I have mentioned the song analysis stuff done by both for-profit companies and audio engineers as they look for the sonic characteristics of hits. All of this leads towards optimizing music recording towards a particular goal.

This makes me think that most of the game industry is about music production, not about songwriting.

I usually use the analogy of the salad and the dressing, and say that the game design is the salad: the interplay of mechanics and rules, the mathematical structure that makes a game a game, and not an interactive story or a movie. There are relatively few games on the market, if we ignore the dressing. We could regard Far Cry 2 and Half-Life 2 as being different performances of the narrative first-person shooter, for example, ones stamped with the particular performance qualities brought to them by their bands, er, teams.

This isn’t a bad thing. I’ve always advocated for more attention given to the “songwriting,” because, well, it’d be nice to hear some new music from time to time. But the art of a great cover, a great performance, is an art nonetheless. And we can spot a “karaoke” version a mile away, can’t we?”

That was a long quote, but playing Prototype i’ve been having similar thoughts. Prototype is like the death-metal version of the superhero game/song - loud, violent, juvenile,and fun, in bursts. But not something you’d play in front of your fragrant auntie Mabel.

Kinetica Art Fair - Creepy Walking Thing (via VjRobotkid) I love...

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:05:40 +0100

Kinetica Art Fair - Creepy Walking Thing (via VjRobotkid)

I love that the head is a hand making shadow puppets.

The Book Seer

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:12:30 +0100

The Book Seer: This is excellent - type in the title & author of the book you’ve just finished reading, and Bookseer will scour Amazon & LibraryThing and give you some suggestions on what to read next.