November 2010
77 posts
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“I trust in Portlanders sense of fairness; that bad actions by one member of any...”
– Portland Mayor Sam Adams (who I just realized is on Tumblr)
The mayor of Portland is on Tumblr? That’s great. You know what would be great? If Chicago’s mayoral candidates would get on Tumblr. Rahm, I’m talking to you.
(Note: Rahmblr, the unofficial Rahm Tumblr blog is...
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Ethnographic Approaches to Digital Media →
Professor Gabriella Coleman’s article reviewing existing literature and themes in current ethnographic approaches to digital media. Gabriella Coleman is a professor at NYU.
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“This speaks to a bigger picture here that certainly scares me in terms of our...”
– Oh, Sarah Palin, never change! (via mediaite) This woman is seriously running for president. And people in this country think she can win. Sometimes the gravity of this reality is just too much for me to bear. (via virtualephemera)
I’m with you on this one, Virtualephemera.
“governments all over the world are considering what their copyright systems...”
– Copyright: what do we want it to do? | Technology | guardian.co.uk (via interestingsnippets)
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WatchSaskia Sassen as part of The Internet as Playground and Factory.
Note: the audio quality and the camera movement are weak in this video. But Sassen is a brilliant thinker, especially regarding the logics of global capitalism and technology.
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The Semiotics of Brand →
Paul Manning’s anthropological analysis of the semiotics of branding. Much of the language and style is impenetrable and obtuse. Manning’s definition of branding is a bit tenuous and confusing. The brand is essentially an aggregation of semiotic (signs and signals) moments indexing tensions and relationships between producers, consumers, material and immaterial goods.
I work for the...
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WatchGabriella Coleman on The Internet as Playground and Factory.
The video was part of a conference about digital labor and other economies at play online. Go to Digitallabor.org for more information
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WatchJonathan Zittrain interview on The Internet as Playground and Factory
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“Farming games tap into a powerful collective wish-fulfilment fantasy: the...”
– FarmVille: they reap what you sow | Laurie Penny | Comment is free | The Guardian
(via interestingsnippets)
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A Few Notes About Walter Benjamin, Libraries and...
Although I have very few material possessions, I have a library of books. My collection is by no means complete, but I take pride in what I have. Among my most prized possessions is a 112 year old copy of Leaves of Grass. I found it in an antiques store between old books about geography and anatomy. I inherited a book heavy with corse pages and the smell of wood.
It’s the materiality-the...
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“If you were trying to teach someone how to think about the Internet(s), what...”
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Five Minutes With: Alain de Botton →
BBC’s five minute interview with the popular philosopher, Alain de Botton. De Botton waxes philosophical about how reading and writing are a response to anxiety, why his children will never read a book and the importance of thinkers and ideas in society.
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New York Times' most popular stories ever →
Via Salon
“Maureen Dowd: Inscrutable Fake Dialogue Utterly Devoid of Context”
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How Do The Dutch Make Ends Meet? →
I’m glad the ladies of Jezebel addressed the question of supplementary income regarding the Dutch ladies who like to work less.
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Not one cent for tribute: Obama's embarrassing... →
Via Foreign Policy Magazine
Funny how all that “hope and change” yielded virtually the same MidEast foreign policy. On a whole, I don’t think Obama has “failed.” But on this issue, he’s a giant, but expected disappointment.
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University of Amsterdam's Study on Iranian... →
The list includes fashion magazines (Vogue.com; Cosmopolitan.com; Glamour.com; Harperbazaar.com; Elle.com;Instyle.com); gossip and celebrity magazines (People.com; Heatworld.co.uk;USweekly.com); one teenage magazine (seventeen.com);one health and fitness magazine (Womenshealthmag.com); a few general interest titles (Nationalgeographic.com; Economist.com; Monocle.com;Time.com;Vanityfair.com);...
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“In the spring, the United Nations, suspicious that there was something keeping...”
– From Going Dutch: The Gender Pay Gap in the Netherlands
Who is supplementing the income of the single women working part-time? I’d like to see a breakdown of income by single/married status and sexual orientation.
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“A large number of young people… establish forms of communication that do...”
– The Pope on the Internetz
Because, you know, the Internet is the only thing alienating young people these days…
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“Take our country back!” is a cry you’ll hear at a Tea Party protest. Back. Back...”
– From “Taxation Without Cultural Representation”
Via The New Everyday
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WatchThe artists Rune Madsen messes with the flow of traffic on a city sidewalk, revealing something essential about human behavior in the process.
Via GOOD Is
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“Every passion borders on the chaotic, but the collector’s passion borders...”
– Walter Benjamin “Unpacking My Library”
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“The friend, or friend-like entity, whom you met initially via Facebook or...”
– The Social Index, or your friendships in categories.
Via The New Yorker
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“Algorithms are made to restrict the amount of information the user sees—that’s...”
– “Take the Data Out of Dating”
Via The Atlantic
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90’s Nostalgia Fridays: Creeper Lagoon
Not...
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“the internet is also making us troublingly self-sufficient. It’s sublimating our...”
– Sad as Hell
Via N+1
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“Beneath every communist there is a secret bourgeois snob. At least I admit to...”
– Slavoj Zizek
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Identity, the Personalized Web, and Its Opposites
In his blog post “Identity and The Independent Web,” John Battelle breaks internet experience into two categories: the dependent web and the independent web. The dependent web is the infrastructure of websites and tracking software that deliver advertising based on the algorithm’s understanding of who you are. The independent web delivers advertising based on who you are, or at...
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Luxor’s thriving dating season →
Via The Egyptian Gazzette
“ Like migrating birds, European women fly to Egypt for the winter. The dating season starts when these women arrive in Egypt and leave their hotels in search of suitable (emotionally and physically) partners, selected from the hordes of young men prowling nearby.”
It’s an invasion of European grannies colonizing the Middle East and its “young...
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“I, for one, am still waiting for the album that comes out when Kanye’s...”
– Why Kanye West Should Stop Apologizing
Via The Atlantic
I thought West was a jackass for interrupting Taylor Swift at the VMAs, but I thought her response this year was heavy-handed and condescending. It was also out of tune. West, however, should not have to apologize for calling George W. Bush...
Apparently it’s possible to post from Tweetdeck to Tumblr but not the other way around. This is both cool & frustrating #tumblr #socialmedia
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“We all bring the history of our bodies and the habits of our minds to Facebook....”
– Literary Writers and Social Media: A Response to Zadie Smith
Alexis Madrigal’s very intelligent and articulate response to Zadie Smith’s review of The Social Network and the cultural significance of Facebook.
Via The Atlantic 