Interesting Links for 12-8-2011

[matgb]

Collected links from around the web

• Disney bans Marvel UK from making comics. Yes, you did read that correctly
  OK, it appears to be that they're not going to take original content from Panini owned Marvel UK franchise, but... It was Marvel UK stuff that got me into comics. Somewhere at my parents should be a copy of the Transformers issue that had the very first Death''s Head appearance. I got the complete run of both Dragon's Claws and The Sleaze Brothers. I started collecting Zoids because of the Zoids comic. Looks like we've only got Rebellion left funding original content over here now. Gap in the market?
  (tags: comics marvel stupidity)
• New leukemia treatment exceeds 'wildest expectations' - cure for cancer on the way? Using HIV? Holy shit
  Very very early stages, very experimental, very weird. But a bloke given a week to live is completely cured? We are living in the future.
  (tags: cancer science health)
• Tachyon TV's take on Torchwood:Miracle Day– close to mine, it's shite
  I was really looking forward to Mircale Day. Rusty on good form can be brilliant, give him a budget and co-writers like Jane Espenson? It should be brilliant. It's not. It's close to being unwatchably bad. It's not just that the politics make no sense, at all, even if there's a mass brainwash going on, it's that the whole thing just doesn't hang together. It feels both rushed and deathly slow at the same time. I won't bother watching it live next week, I'll catch up at some point over the weekend, that way I can find out what happened without hoping it might be good.
  (tags: Torchwood)
• Looters return stuff to Games Workshop - The Daily Mash | I worked for GW for ten years. This is what it's like
  11 years of my life I spent working hell week after Xmas. More returns on one day than the rest of the year, guaranteed. I can so see this happening.
  (tags: games-workshop looters london riots satire)
• So, question. When's @AndiOsho next doing a show in #WestYorks?
  I think the only objection Jennie's likely to raise is that she'd want to join in, but seriously, how is someone as attractive and funny as Andi Osho single and unhappy about it? What a weird world we live in.
  (tags: Andi-Osho)
• Egyptian Chronicles: This is not good for us Mr. Cameron
  And, of course, if you declare it's OK for us to turn off communications, then it was OK for Mubarak. It wasn't OK for Mubarak, and Cameron said so at the time.
  (tags: egypt social-media David-Cameron censorship)
• 'In defence of anarchy' - Boff Whalley (of Chumbawamba) - brilliant article
  "Over the years, as a musician and as a writer, I've watched how traditional hierarchies in the workplace create divisions and arguments. I don't think I'm alone in not wanting to have a boss tell me what to do. I refuse to have a boss tell me what to do. The bargaining tool that's unspoken in that statement is that I will happily relinquish the power to tell other people what to do. That, for me, is anarchism. I won't order you about, if you don't order me about. And together we'll make it work." For those liberals unaware, JS Mill's liberalism and his views on economics were heavily influenced by Proudhon, and for a damn good reason. The Chumbas sometimes play gigs in pubs around here, I really need to pay attention to this and go see them soon. We'll be singing, when we're winning...
  (tags: anarchism philosophy liberalism)
• UK Prime Minister's Anti-Tech Crackdown: Stupid, Useless, and Wrong
  More on the Cameron is a moron meme, with added censorship is bad goodness. However, the comments? All about gun control. Gotta love the US gun nut and the monomaniacal approach to everything.
  (tags: politics David-Cameron freedom social-media)
• Riot strategy-‘why calls for tougher cops are missing the point’ -someday, I may disagree with @johnb78. But not this day
  John's spot on here. A select wuoted paragraph "These riots are the difference between WWII and Vietnam: the insurgents didn’t have a front line, but tried to appear, attack and disappear – and the authorities just didn’t know how to handle the new kind of conflict. Adding water cannons and CS gas into the mix wouldn’t have done anything to stop the looters, and I’m sceptical that rubber bullets would have achieved much. Live automatic weaponry would’ve done the job, but if you think that’s an acceptable solution to teenagers robbing shops, then you’re a dangerous lunatic who shouldn’t be allowed out in public." I keep looking at the YouGov figures saying 33% would've supported live fire. Then I go back and reread one of my many "why YouGove are talking bobbins" posts to make myself feel better.
  (tags: riots london policing)
• Six more arrests over Huddersfield disorder - they're trying to riot in Hudds? Better not hit Patriot or t'Parish
  Ye gods, how stupid are some people? It only really worked in London as it was happening everywhere at once and the Met's always busy. Huddersfield? Gah! FWIW, I live just off Bradford Road, it'd be a bit of a walk but the Asda they tried to loot is literally "down the road from me", even if it's several miles down said road. Hang on. They tried. To loot. An Asda. USians? Asda is owned by Walmart. Says it all really.
  (tags: Huddersfield riots)
• Damn good presentation. - video on how people react to atheism and rejection
  Seems to make sense, the reactions of a theist to finding someoen is an atheist are very similar to a suiter being turned down. Anyone know better? Definitely makes the rhetoric used worthy of thinking about a bit.
  (tags: atheism psychology religion)
• IBM Leads the Way in the Post-PC Era | bit of a puff piece, but interesting-agree with him on the Lenovo deal
  IBM engineer bigs up how his company works. Bit of a "aren't we wonderful" feel to it, but I don't think he's actually wrong, getting out of the PC market, the market they effectively created, was a canny business move.
  (tags: IBM computers)
• Only 1.2% Of American Spending Actually Ends Up In China - another in the "we still make stuff y'know file
  OK, these figures are for the US, but odds are the UK figures would be very similar, this whole "we don't make stuff anymore" meme really gets to me at time, I live 5 minutes walk from a factory FFS.
  (tags: manufacturing trade china)
• The monogamy monopoly - New Statesman has article proposing the state should get out of regulating relationships
  "In a liberal society, it is no business of the state's how people conduct their private lives." Exactly. It would be really good if we can figure out a way of allowing people with multiple partners to register those relationships, if that's what they want to do. We certainly do.
  (tags: poly marriage relationships)
• Bum-vertising: Beach volleyball aces sell bum ads - I don't know what to think about this
  OK, sports kits tend to be emblazoned with sponsor logos and similar. I'm fine with that. Beech volleyball, being, y'know, a beach sport, tends to involve wearing very little. I'm fine with that. Due to lack of space, the sponsor has a QR code on the arse of each member of the British beach volleyball team that leads to the Betfair mobile site. So watchers are encouraged to take pictures of the teams arses. Um...
  (tags: Sports advertising qr-codes)
• New drug could cure nearly any viral infection - if true? this is massive
  How cool is this? A drug that identifies anything with a viral infection, and kills it. If it works as advertised, it could be phenomenal.
  (tags: science research health)
• Today’s emergency riots debate in the House of Commons told us one thing: MPs don’t understand social media | Jon Worth
  Can't argue with Jon here. OK, I rarely argue with Jon, but he's spot on on this. as the riots started, I used Twitter and similar to find out what was going on, check friends were OK, spread information that was useful. I saw elected officials coordinating their constituents, reassuring people, etc. I saw people coming together to organise cleanups, pass on information to the police warnings, etc. A communication medium is neutral, it can be used for good or bad. Overwhelmingly, over the last week, online communication has been a medium for good. Why some MPs think otherwise is beyond me. Lib Dems? I feel an emergency motion coming on, anyone want to help?
  (tags: politics social-media house-of-commons)
• America's Top 100 Science-Fiction, Fantasy Books - lving the top two are British
  I saw a link to this and though "there's a meme in this", and within half an hour saw multiple people copying it out and bolding their faves. Some very good choices on here, some very interesting choices, and a few low points. Surprised to see S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale as high up the list as it is, but, y'know, I love the book so perhaps shouldn't be.
  (tags: books fiction sf)

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Comments

[83_tauri]

Yeah, I seem to have 'Torchwood issues' too. I just can't seem to motivate myself to actually watch it.

Re certain persons' responses to the rioting, after I made my short reaction post to DF, I found myself having to delete a load of borderline-psychotic colonial gun-nut/socialism rants off of that post. I wasn't impressed with people trying to use the tragedy to play their propaganda games! (As far as I can tell, wordpress doesn't seem to let you turn comments off on individual posts, which is a bit annoying, as otherwise I'd probably have done that in the first place.) Such is the Internet sometimes ...

[matgb]

Aye, it's so predictable on some sites it's just not worth looking below the line, which is a shame as when the threads don't get hijacked they can be really constructive. Ah well.

[herlander_refugee]

Briefly:

I am almost glad I will have to wait about a year for the Starz new season of Torchwood. Then I can watch it all at once, with necessary alcoholic anethesia and swear and throw sock balls at the screen in cathartic splendour.

About those riots. Just once, I'd like a government some bloody where to be bright enough to see the difference between opportunistic looters, and protestors who began with a valid gripe. I'd like SOMEBODY anywhere to explain group dynamics to the police so they would "get" why ordinary folks suddenly go so crazy. But no...none of the above, CS and water cannonades.

The world better get more cops. Because this is not the end of this...not, alas, in Britain, and not nearly in the USA.

[matgb]

Aye, I think if it weren't so easy to watch BBC stuff now, with the iPlayer built into our TV, I'd just give up on it, but...

I think one of the things at the moment is the riot with the valid gripe took about 3 hours total but got hijacked. The looting and pillaging brigade took 4 days. Can understand why it's getting overlooked, but...

[herlander_refugee]

Yeah...it seems the societal hijack is the usual mode any more. Take a small but important thing and run the wrong freaking WAY with it, but insist on a virtuous label.

Makes me want to live under my bed.

[gominokouhai]

> It wasn't OK for Mubarak, and Cameron said so at the time.

Get his exact words out of Hansard, and get a sympathetic MP to quote them back to him at PMQs.

[matgb]

Aye, it's not like we won't be short of sympathetic MPs.

[frightened]

You should definitely go and see Chumbawamba. I've seen them three or four times now and they're awesome. However, they sound nothing like they did in the Tubthumper era.

Also Boff Whalley runs up mountains for fun. Legend.

[matgb]

Wouldn't expect them to really, the sound was always evolving, really need to get some of their recent stuff, last album I bought was WYSIWYG, and I play Rebel Songs more.

I need to find some sitet hat'll notify me of local gigs and stuff, they played in a town just up the road recently and I found out the next day :-(

[almostwitty]

I actually find Andi Osho intensely annoying. She's obviously got the acting/presenting chops, but she's woefully inadequate on the "saying anything funny" front. Mostly, I don't get a sense that there's anybody real behind the so-called gags (compare that to, say, Mickey Flanagan) and that's possibly the real reason she doesn't get any dates.

[matgb]

See, I don't rate Flanagan at all, it's rare I find him that amusing and have been known to get bored and turn over if he's a guest on a show I usually watch.

Whereas I like her a lot and will actively tune in for stuff I don't normally watch, I've even subbed a R4extra podcast that she sometimes cohosts, not that I've actually been listening to podcasts recently, but, y'know, the thought was there.

[azurelunatic]

YouGov polls annoyed me so much, structurally, that I stopped actually doing them, thus raising the muppetry level by my absence.

I never got to design surveys of my own, but I administered enough of them that ... just ugh.

[matgb]

Yeah, I'm going to give up when I get the next cheque, for awhile the occasional money was useful and it gave an insight into what they were polling on in advance, but these days they're doing daily political opinion polls and they're just, well, awful.

I have never actually turned any of my rants in various comments boxes into a structured post about them, but they get quoted as 'true' so often it depresses me.

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

I got Death's Head and Dragon's Claws. I *loved* Dragon's Claws.

[matgb]

Aye, it was a shame their original stuff didn't take off and sell so well. The background for the Claws was a nice little take on dystopia that just seemed to work for me. Ah well.

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

That's a surprisingly strong top100. Apart from the rubbish Name of the Wind at 18, there are hardly any overrated ones until the 90's.

[matgb]

Aye. There's stuff that's probably missing, but that's normal in any such list. But a huge amount of the stuff on there is stuff I know and like, and there's also a chunk of stuff I've been meaning to read but not got around to. Which probably means it's better than most.

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

Great list of links, as usual - but I have to disagree about Torchwood! I think it is great! It is dark, engaging, funny - a huge mix!

[matgb]

The biggest individual fault for me is the way the politics is all wrong. It completely destroys my suspension of disbelief when the real world stuff is written incredibly badly and makes no sense.

Vera turns up for a meeting, it's been cancelled by email as the reports are handed to Congress that morning to allow for legislation that afternoon so the camps are active that night? The whole world follows suit within 24 hours? The world doesn't work like that, it really really doesn't. So either there's some plot point that's being hinted at badly, or Rusty thinks versimilitude of the reality based stuff is irrelevent.

I still enjoy seeing Torchwood investigate, I quite like the new characters, but it just isn't working as a plot, because the plot is based on a view of how the real world works that simply isn't.