Mat Bowles

Former UKIP candidate and press officer asks How do you turn on a TV set?

Bwa Ha!

(I know that this has nothing to do with party allegiance. I know that this has everything to do with Tim spending most of his life online and not watching much TV. I know this is a very silly post. But I'm posting it anyway, because it's funny)

A nice little mix of stuff in this lot, though the politics averse amongst you should be warned that with elections next week there's a fair bit on that, though not much of it is serious.

• A quick guide to the British voting system for the EU elections | Nosemonkey's EUtopia
  There are elections next week across the UK. In Britain, the votes are counted using the D'Hondt closed list PR system. This is one of the few electoral systems I've encountered I consider to be worse than the one we use for Westminster, when you get critics attacking "PR", they're having a go at this pile of arse, which no one sane suggests for Westminster (and Labour had to force through the Lords after a lot of opposition). If you're not sure who to vote for, and don't want to spend too much time thinking about it, go out and vote either Lib Dem or Green; there's a small chance the BNP could win a seat in the North West. Giving Nick Griffin a tax funded salary and the ability to hire a bunch of staff just doesn't appeal. It's unlikely he'll get in, but it could happen. So just go vote, please? Even if the system is arse, the EU parliament does actually have power these days, even if it's not as much as would be liked.
  (tags: elections europe eu BNP electoral+reform d'hondt)
• Self destructing product catalogue
  Not a bad bit of viral marketing this: what happens when the stuff on the display screen starts falling over. A nicely animated product catalogue as it slowly blows itself up.
  (tags: humour funny flash marketing)
• Blogging in the 19th Century: The Future of Journalism | The Lay Scientist
  I pretty much agree with this. Most of us writing our own personal blogs and journals are copying the old small press pamphleteers and chain letter writers. We're just doing it with better technology. Most of the established newspapers grew out of various small presses—the biggest blogs online now have copied this model, bringing in lots of individuals to create a more coherent whole.
  (tags: blogging journalism pampleteering campaigning)
• Jon Worth » Some wacky ways to improve the EU
  Some of them really are a bit daft, yes, but still worth thinking about. What the antis always seem to miss is that most supporters of EU membership also constantly argue for reform of the system. That it's a bit crap isn't disputed, how to improve it is. Bit like everything else in life really.
  (tags: EU europe politics reform)
• UKIP's "Britain paying the EU £40 million a day" claim vs the REAL costs of UK EU membership | Nosemonkey's EUtopia
  A UKIP campaign slogan that doesn't make sense and is based on unfounded and uncosted hyperbole? really? Never would've guessed.
  (tags: UKIP Europe EU elections misinformation)
• Spawning A Campaign - diffrentcolours
  There are Euro elections due. One of the issues the EU legislates on is software patents, the Free Software Foundation thinks we should ask the candidates their views on this. Makes sense to me, go do it...
  (tags: software patents freedom europe EU elections)
• Annals of Innovation: How David Beats Goliath: Reporting & Essays: The New Yorker
  The underdog can always win if enough effort is put in. Being able to put that effort in is the main barrier. Does this apply to any walk of life, if at all?
  (tags: activism sport inspiration psychology)
• The Cute Cat Theory Talk at ETech » My heart's in Accra
  Makes sense to me: a successful web technology will have cute cats, porn and activism. If it doesn't have a mix of the three, something isn't working right.
  (tags: cats theory internet activism web2.0)
• 386 - My Kingdom for a Beer? Heineken's Eurotopia « Strange Maps
  This, however, is one of the crazier ideas for solving the EU governance issue—when the paranoid fringes talk about 'plots to break up Britain'? This is the sort of thing they're referring to. But, y'know, interesting idea, even if he does make godawful beer.
  (tags: europe EU maps)
• 105 — The Tory Atlas of the World — Strange Maps
  Apparently from a Spitting Image annual from the mid 80s. It's really quite funny and rather accurate. Note to those supporting Cameron's modern Conservative party (or even those that can remember Major). Yes, Thatcher's Tories really were like this. Some of them still are. That the majority of MPs after the next General Election will be 'untainted' by this association doesn't mean those of us that can remember will trust them.
  (tags: funny maps tories politics Thatcher)
• The perils of an identity system - The Web of Evil
  If your identity has been used by a fraudster, and you're required to log all your movements, the authorities will keep trying to arrest you. And a national mandatory identity scheme WILL get cracked by a fraudster almost instantaneously. WebOfEvil shares a personal anecdote
  (tags: NIR ID+cards identity)
• Warner Music to Warner Music: You are pirates! - Boing Boing
  Dear Warner. Getting YouTube to remove your subsidiaries officially posted music vids because they infringe your copyright means that people won't see your videos. You know, the ones you paid for to advertise your product? Is there a chance that, at some time soon, the recording industry will grow up and get a clue?
  (tags: dmca video youtube warner stupidity)
• Would be Bond villain seeks femme fatale - m4w
  Paging George! This bloke seems perfect for you girl...
  (tags: funny ads personals supervillains)
• Kid keeping a lending library of banned books in his her locker - Boing Boing
  Heh—banning books from teens makes them more likely to want to read them. So a kid running a library of banned books is encouraging her schoolfriends to read more. Cool
  (tags: books subversion censorship)
• How Ursula K Le Guin led a generation away from realism | Books | guardian.co.uk
  I never did understand the whole "he'll grow out of it" approach to my liking of SF and fantasy when I was a teen, why would I WANT to grow out of it? Just because I like Asimov and Stross doesn't mean I can't appreciate Nabokov (who wrote some SF anyway) or the likes, just as liking Therapy doesn't prevent me also liking Dvorak or Gershwin. Silly elitist snobs. Still, at least we're winning...
  (tags: writing culture fantasy sf books)
• Hoversnail goes WHIRRRRRRRRRRRRVOOM.
  Really. It's a hoversnail. It's cool. Go look.
  (tags: funny pictures)

Also posted to DW with comments open, linkspams don't crosspost easily due to limitations at Delicious.

Substantially mixed bag this lot, some clearouts, most new from today. Let's start with the best shadow art I've ever seen, so very cool.

Now onto some Google Külness. Google Mars. It's like Google Maps, but on Mars! Really does bring into relief what KSTR meant when he talked about the great northern sea. After that, How to Make Gmail/Gcal Rock; I especially like the open a compose window in the sidebar bookmarklet, very handy.

Things that make you proud to be British that you'll miss when overseas. Note to the colonials, inhabitants of rebel provinces and other types reading this; yes, we really are that weird.

autopope fanboying (again). Charlie has 15 minutes of fame (and a few more years to follow) with an article on the BBC technology website about the future of history and how we're only just leaving the Dark Ages. Follow up interview on BBC Radio Wales on the Adam Walton show, about half an hour in, it'll be on Listen again for the next 7 days from at some point later this evening, I caught all but the first minute or so.

Hmm, still lots of Doctor Who wank throughout fandom, so instead I bring you The Empty Goth, and a useful translation phrasebook for any Doctor Who forum (or in fact pretty much any BB ever, as I rarely go to Who forums and I recognise 9/10s of the idiocies). That last was via pretty much everyone already, but you never know. What do you mean what wank? judge_death has the full story. Sort of.

Last up, the Origins Awards, including a win for jonhodgson and Deadlands: Reloaded, which makes them double plus good. Which means I have to use a Fineas icon for this post in celebration, it's not like I'm short of them.

ps. Ignore this link, it's not here. Oh, alright, go have a look. devils_kitchen proves that political party websites don't have to look like something from the late '90s with his build of the UKIP Ealing site for the by-election. Ouch, I just linked to UKIP approvingly. I'll go and repent now—the content remains crap you'll be pleased to know.