Precision is a great little science fiction short film that was written, shot, scored, and edited in 48 hours as part of a filmmaking challenge. It’s an inspiring example of how digital storytelling is changing in the face of new, nimble tools that lower the cost of experimentation and production: Precision was always going to… Read More »
This week’s Bad Science column from Ben Goldacre is an entertaining and frustrating look at the way that the government manipulates statistics with help from a tame and innumerate news media: The Sun said: “Police have charged nearly 150 people after violent anarchists hijacked the anti-cuts demo and brought terror to London’s streets.” The Guardian… Read More »
Senior London police officers lied to peaceful protestors from UKUncut who had entered the luxury department store (and alleged tax evader) Fortnum and Mason, telling the demonstrators that they’d be escorted to a back entrance, away from “disorder outside,” saying they were “free to leave.” When demonstrators peacefully left on the proscribed route, they were… Read More »
Forget what you’ve seen on the BBC and Sky about yesterday’s protest/”riot” in Trafalgar Square; the New Statesman‘s Laurie Penny was on the barricades (and apparently, there was a moment when the barricades were on her), and she’s seen something altogether different from what the mainstream coverage depicts. If you read only one account of… Read More »
According to Case-Shiller/S&P;, US housing prices have fallen to levels not seen since the 1890s (adjusted for inflation, of course), in 11 of 20 markets. It looks like this is slightly skewed by the serious economic problems in rustbelt cities, which is not to say that things aren’t pretty terrible — and the same analysis… Read More »
Fight Back! A Reader on the Winter of Protest collects 340-some pages’ worth of the best writing on the wave of anti-cut demonstrations that have rocked Britain this winter; writing from radicals and reformers, students and members of the UKUncut movement — a discussion ranging from philosophy to strategy and tactics. It’s a fascinating, Creative… Read More »
The “Your Sex Questions Answered” column in the January, 1959 issue of Sexology is a slightly depressing look at the sexual ignorance and general-screwed-upped-ness that grown adults suffered with in days of yore; things aren’t great now, but at least most contemporary women probably know that getting plastic fallopian tubes installed won’t cure your infertility.… Read More »
My latest Guardian column is “Government data like crime maps is not enough – there needs to be action,” and it looks at two recent data-crunching apps for UK policing: first, the crime-maps that tell you what the crime’s like in your neighbourhood, and second, Sukey, an app that helps protesters evade police “kettling” —… Read More »
Geoff from BLDGBlog sez, “I just uploaded a long interview with Mike Mignola, creator of Hellboy, B.P.R.D., Baltimore, and much else besides. The conversation mostly sticks to questions of setting — of architecture and landscape — because of the nature of my blog, but this gives Mignola an opportunity to talk about the spaces and… Read More »
Jesse Brown’s latest video Search Engine podcast is a fine and funny explanation of the Streisand Effect, with examples from around the world. What is ‘The Streisand Effect’? (Thanks, Jesse!) The criticism that Ralph Lauren doesn't want you to see! – Boing Boing Wikileaks: U.S. Air force blocks more than 25 news sites that… Read More »