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London Bloggers [Comic Blogs][Other Blogs] | 1 October 2014
[apple] And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’ … a long, fascinating read on the creation of the iPhone … ‘As early as 2003, a handful of Apple engineers had figured out how to put multitouch technology in a tablet. “The story was that Steve wanted a device that he could use to read e-mail while on the toilet — that was the extent of the product spec,” says Joshua Strickon, one of the earliest engineers on that project.’
2 October 2014
[tech] Londoners Give Up Eldest Children In Public Wi-Fi Security Horror Show … seems like a reasonable deal to me! … ‘The experiment, which was backed by European law enforcement agency Europol, involved a group of security researchers setting up a Wi-Fi hotspot in June. When people connected to the hotspot, the terms and conditions they were asked to sign up to included a “Herod clause” promising free Wi-Fi but only if “the recipient agreed to assign their first born child to us for the duration of eternity”. Six people signed up.’
3 October 2014
4 October 2014
[comics] Marvel by Moebius. … a gallery of Moebius’ wonderful view of various Marvel characters.
5 October 2014
[life] 26 Times Waitrose Outright Ruined The Lives Of Decent People … ‘It would be much easier if Waitrose kept the carrot batons next to the houmous.’
6 October 2014
[buffy] Ayn Rand’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer …
BUFFY: My shoulders are naked and I am drenched in the blood of my enemies. You are my physical and mental equal. I wish to express my respect for you in the physical embodiment of my ideals: the act of love. Let us have sex now. 7 October 2014
[movies] The League of Gentlemen Vs. 2001 … ‘Dave, my wife tells me there is a block in your toilet!’
8 October 2014
[planes] The Human Factor … long-read on the crash of Air France Flight 447 in 2009 by William Langewiesche … ‘Bonin continued to pull back on the stick, jerkily pitching the nose higher. Was he yearning for the clear sky he believed was just above? Was he remembering an “unreliable airspeed” procedure that is meant for low altitude, where power is ample and the biggest concern is to climb away from the ground? Did he think that the airplane was going too fast? Evidence emerged later that he may have, but if so, why? Even if he did not hear the stall warning, the nose was up, the available thrust was low, and with or without valid indications, high-speed flight in those conditions was physically impossible. A renowned cockpit designer at Boeing—himself a transport pilot—once said to me, “We don’t believe there are any bad pilots. We believe there are average pilots who have bad days.” He called this a principle that underlies Boeing’s cockpit designs. But if Bonin was an average pilot, what does that say about the average?’
9 October 2014
[tories] Top universities a ‘breeding ground’ for Tories, warn Islamic groups … … ‘The Federation of Student Islamic Societies has identified 40 English universities where there could be a “particular risk” of people being recruited to the youth wing of the UK Conservative Party. National Union of Students president Aaron Porter echoed the concerns raised by Islamic groups. “The problem of conservatism at universities has been apparent for some time, I think we’ve seen a steady increase in incidents on campus,” He said there had been numerous cases of “people wearing barbour jackets”, as well as “hate incidents directed towards the unemployed, the sick and foxes”.’
10 October 2014
[arcade] Polybius (video game) … fascinating urban myth about a arcade video game from the early 1980’s that mentally disturbed it’s players then disappeared … ‘Polybius is a theoretical arcade cabinet.’
11 October 2014
[gif] Skipping Pylons … one more nicely done animated GIF. (more…)
12 October 2014
[www] The Secret History of Hypertext … interesting look at some pre-computer visions of the World Wide Web … ‘Paul Otlet, a Belgian bibliographer and entrepreneur who, in 1934, laid out a plan for a global network of “electric telescopes” that would allow anyone in the world to access to a vast library of books, articles, photographs, audio recordings, and films. Like Bush, Otlet explored the possibilities of storing data on microfilm and making it searchable, with a web of documents connected via a sophisticated linking system. Otlet also wrote about wireless networks, speech recognition, and social network-like features that would allow individuals to “participate, applaud, give ovations, sing in the chorus.” He even described a mechanism for transmitting taste and smell.’
13 October 2014
[space] Turds in Spaaaace! … a highlight from the Apollo 10 spaceflight transcript … ‘Give me a napkin quick. There’s a turd floating through the air.’
14 October 2014
[comics] Alan Moore Talks About His Influence Upon Comics … ‘I mean, I’d like to think that if I’ve shown anything, it’s that comics are the medium of almost inexhaustible possibilities, that there have been…there are great comics yet to be written. There are things to be done with this medium that have not been done, that people maybe haven’t even dreamed about trying. And, if I’ve had any benign influence upon comics, I would hope that it would be along those lines; that anything is possible if you approach the material in the right way. You can do some extraordinary things with a mixture of words and pictures. It’s just a matter of being diligent enough and perceptive enough and working hard enough, continually honing your talent until it’s sharp enough to do the job that you require. I hope that if I had any sort of benign legacy at all, that that would be it, but I don’t know, I think that my legacy, some days, like I say, I think that my legacy is more likely to be a lot of humourless snarling, sarcastic psychopaths, but that’s just on my black days, pay me no mind.’
15 October 2014
[comics] Netflix unveils first look at new superhero series Marvel’s Daredevil … ‘Daredevil certainly feels like it has potential. Even though existing shows like Arrow and the recently launched Gotham have already staked out street-level superhero territory, there’s a richness to the character, who wrestles with Catholic guilt over his vigilantism, and a confidence to the execution that suggests Daredevil could cross over to non-comic fans looking for a stylish crime story.’
16 October 2014
[politics] In Farageland … long, readable, disturbing article by James Meek on visiting Thanet where Nigel Farage will attempt to become an MP. [thanks Phil!]
In the decorous company of sixth-formers or international businesspeople, Farage will insist he isn’t against immigration, or Europe, or Europeans – only against British membership of the European Union. Being anti-immigration, he has said, would be ‘moronic’. He says he wants a Switzerland-style trade relationship with the EU, and an Australian-style immigration system, based on points, with the world: fewer Polish builders, more Indian scientists. But this isn’t the message Ukip is putting out on the street, where, as Lord Ashcroft correctly noted, EU membership isn’t an issue. Immigration is. All immigration. Foreignness. Otherness. ‘Say no to mass immigration,’ a Ukip flyer in Thanet says. Rumours and urban legends about victimised indigenous Britons and pampered foreigners fly across the internet. Hate anecdotes in the right-wing press become generalised: if one foreigner is found to be cheating the system, there must be thousands like them, millions. Farage is the beneficiary. Ukip’s discourse isn’t so much a dog whistle as the full dog orchestra. 17 October 2014
[kids] Normal Stages In Child Development … ‘1-3 months: Begins holding grudges and crafting crude effigies. Sudden changes in breathing. Minor shapeshifting. Laughs at the tragically comic. Skin very hot, too hot.’
18 October 2014
[ios] Schrödinger’s Shift Key … a look at why the shift key in iOS 7.1 and 8 is an appalling piece of design … ‘Since 7.1, this confusing shift key has been the subject of instructional articles, mockery, and even an entire web site: IsMyShiftKeyOnOrNot.com. A whole OS release later, many of us boneheads still find ourselves wrestling an inscrutable toggle, trying to somehow, somehow type a lower-case letter.’
19 October 2014
[tech] The Internet Is Losing Interest in Computers … Alexis Madrigal analyses some stats from Google Trends and wonders if the internet is losing interest in technology… ‘So what’s really going on here? I have a couple thoughts: One, heavy users of technology used to have to search for ways to find software, to make software work, and the like. Now, especially on mobile platforms, the software is simpler and pretty much does what it’s supposed to. All the searches to discover software are happening in the App Store, and less troubleshooting in now required. One small bit of evidence for this theory is that searches for “Games” have declined. It’s not that people are playing less games, they’re just not looking to Google to find them.’
20 October 2014
[cthulhu] Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah-nagl fhtagn!
21 October 2014
[movies] Deckard: Blade Runner, Moron … amusing analysis of how bad Rick Deckard is as a Blade Runner … ‘I’m not sure how I’ve never noticed this before, but Deckard is an idiot. He’s given all the information he needs on a plate, nothing bad happens unexpectedly, and every lead falls into his lap. He has photo ID of everyone he has to kill, he’s told about their physical strength, he has a gun, they’re all unarmed, and he’s legally allowed to shoot them dead in public. Yet in every case, he lets them get into a hand-to-hand fight with him that he can’t win, and the only way the film can even keep him alive is for his targets to suddenly stop fighting or get killed by someone else.’
22 October 2014
[books] Malcolm Gladwells David and Goliath Fairy Tales … a strong, convincing critique of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest book … ‘The inveterate simplicity of Gladwell’s stories comes not only from a resistance to complexity, but also from a denial of tragedy. This neglect of tragic choices is not just a defect in presentation, though it helps to confer upon his books their peculiar inimitable blandness. Suppressing tragedy is also a refusal to think honestly about power. Václav Havel, who became president of his country after the collapse of the communist tyranny against which he had fought, spoke of “the power of the powerless,” but unlike Gladwell—who nowhere mentions the Czech dissident, perhaps because he was not a social scientist—Havel never underplayed the power of the powerful. He knew that Goliath was genuine and dangerous, not a timorous midget in disguise. In contrast, Gladwell would have us believe that power is a kind of illusion or confidence trick, a misinterpretation. This is a desperately dangerous view to apply in practice. For Tibetans facing becoming a minority in their own country, for Christians in Egypt and Syria, for Bahá′í in Iran, and for other imperiled groups, the power of the powerful could be potentially fatal.’
23 October 2014
[internet] Twitter I Love You But You’re Bringing Me Down … Quinn Norton On The Internet … ‘The net never forgets. Forgetting is a gentle process of thought and learning which the net can’t do. Losing things, which the net does plenty, is different.’
24 October 2014
[comics] The Secret History of John Constantine … a look at the past and future of John Constantine … ‘Bissette claims he asked Moore to let him create a character that looked like Sting. The series’ editor, Karen Berger, told me it was Totleben, who had been wowed by Sting’s portrayal of a possibly demonic con-man in the 1982 film Brimstone and Treacle. Moore told The Comics Journal that he granted the artists’ wishes just for the hell of it. And so a nameless Sting-esque character popped up in a crowd shot in Swamp Thing No. 25. That could’ve been the end of it. But Moore saw the potential for “something more than that.” Moore had been mentally toying with the traditions of English mysticism (though he was still a few years away from identifying as a practitioner of magic). But he was also fascinated by cartoonist Eddie Campbell’s character Dapper John, an archetypal English “wide boy” — a man who takes unreasonable chances and gets by through resourcefulness and smooth talk. He decided to do something previously undone: craft a wide-boy mage.’
25 October 2014
[comics] Batman’s Greatest Escapes … A collection of Batman’s best disappearing acts from Comics Oughta Be Fun.
26 October 2014
[work] The Open-Office Trap … Why open plan offices don’t work … ‘Psychologically, the repercussions of open offices are relatively straightforward. Physical barriers have been closely linked to psychological privacy, and a sense of privacy boosts job performance. Open offices also remove an element of control, which can lead to feelings of helplessness. In a 2005 study that looked at organizations ranging from a Midwest auto supplier to a Southwest telecom firm, researchers found that the ability to control the environment had a significant effect on team cohesion and satisfaction. When workers couldn’t change the way that things looked, adjust the lighting and temperature, or choose how to conduct meetings, spirits plummeted.’
27 October 2014
[comics] For Peace! Fire!! …
28 October 2014
[funny] Sacha Baron Cohen tipped for Emmys for tragi-comedy character ‘Russell Brand’ … ‘One independently minded Guardian book reviewer aside, the entire staff of both The Guardian and the BBC were taken in by the Russell Brand character. He was granted audiences with news editors, publishers and TV producers. His opinion was sought out by Parliamentary Select Committees and quangos set up to combat drug addiction and over crowding in prisons. He regularly held court on issues of politics, economics and global warming, with people far more knowledgable and experienced than himself. And yet, incredibly, everyone was taken in.’
29 October 2014
[flu] Experts: If You Don’t Get A Flu Shot, You’re Stupid. And A Dick … Leigh Cowart on why you should get a flu shot. … ‘Everyone six months of age and older should get vaccinated for seasonal influenza, especially those at high risk of developing serious flu-related complications. According to Dr. Damania, those most at-risk for developing flu-related complications include the very young, the very old, those with immune system problems like HIV and cancer patients, and sufferers of other chronic diseases such as diabetes, COPD, and CHF. However he is careful to note that during the H1N1 outbreak, they saw “young, healthy people dying all over the place from the flu.” So everyone should get immunized, unless they have a severe chicken or egg allergy, have had a severe reaction to an influenza vaccine, or a history of Guillain-Barré Syndrome, or are under six months of age. These unlucky folks can’t get immunized and will just have to hope that everyone else gets a flu shot, giving them a chance to cash in on some community immunity.’
30 October 2014
[comics] Take 3 panels: Tintin: The Castafiore Emerald … a look at 3 panels from one of the greatest comics ever published Herge’s The Castafiore Emerald … ‘The humour in The Castafiore Emerald is key; the mystery/adventure secondary for a change, and this is one of the more overt panels which makes that tone apparent. Here the Captain’s fears and irritations are manifest in dream form: Bianca and the parrot she gifted him amalgamated into one being, while he’s naked and vulnerable in the front row at the opera, with all the little tuxedo-ed parrots (birds of Bianca’s feather) looking seriously on. This is how the Captain sees Bianca: all puffed out plumage, screechy, essentially rather ridiculous. Herge was woefully inadequate when it came to the inclusion and representation of female characters in Tintin, and there is a reading of Bianca here that doesn’t help his case: a demanding, diva of a woman who schemes and tricks him into a non-existent engagement, the first of which he learns when reading a newspaper. However, essentially Bianca is what we would today term ‘fabulous…”
31 October 2014
[horror] 21 Wikipedia Pages That Will Make It Impossible For You To Sleep … a collection of unsettling articles for Halloween … ‘The Tamam Shud Case – On Dec. 1, 1948, a dead body was found on a beach in Adelaide, Australia. No one has been able to identity who the man was or how he died, and hidden inside his pants was a piece of paper that read “tamam shud,” which means “finished” in Persian. And that’s not even the craziest part.’
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