The Apple Tree - A tribute to The Glitch Mob
I kind of wish this was set to something other than Glitch Mob remixes, but other than that: overwhelmingly awesome.
(via Khameleon808)
Heather and my Dad at Greenham Common today. (Really happy about how well Heather and my family are getting along.)
Really interesting place: used as a military airbase through various wars, it’s been largely dismantled and returned to its natural state now. All that remains are some huge hangars, previously used to store cruise missiles — which remain closed, and, according to my Dad, the Russians can demand to inspect for hostile activity — and odd little things like this building, recently raided by assholes for copper, and strange little bits like flagpoles and mysterious cables protruding from the ground dotted around. Also a bunch of cows and rabbits.
The Assblower
“Doing” London with an American was interesting. On our first day, we bar-hopped our way to Hamley’s, and Heather insisted on tipping in each one, despite my insistence that she not. (I argued that it wasn’t a cultural requirement but in reality, every tip could have been another drink.) Every person that received a tip, without exception, was delighted. It’s almost worth tipping just for that karma boost. Heather also thought Buckingham Palace was ugly, for which she received a night in the London Dungeons.
Also: Go to Hamley’s drunk one day. I promise you will not be disappointed. Unless you also pick a day where every single bathroom but the disabled one on the top floor is inexplicably closed.
You may view the rest of our photos here if you wish.
Just 5 days until I can get rid of her again.
(via reddit)
Grand Theft Auto - An apology →
ON 21 July we published an article claiming that the video games company Rockstar Games were planning to release a version of their popular Grand Theft Auto video games series titled “Grand Theft Auto Rothbury”.
We also published what we claimed would be the cover of this game, solicited comments from a family member impacted by the recent tragedy and criticised Rockstar Games for their alleged plans.
We made no attempt to check the accuracy of the story before publication and did not contact Rockstar Games prior to publishing the story. We also did not question why a best selling and critically acclaimed fictional games series would choose to base one of their most popular games on this horrifying real crime event.
While the rest of British media is fucking around with paywalls and journalistic integrity and other bullshit, the Daily Star is having the time of its life publishing nudes and forgetting to fact-check even the most ridiculous stories. And they say print media is dying. Pish posh!
The Chemical Brothers - “The Private Psychedelic Reel (live)”
I want you to teach our kids internet stuff.
Heather, in reference to that Jessi Slaughter thing. I love that she thinks about this stuff—a surprising number of people still don’t. I think in today’s society this kind of thing should be as much a given as a parenting responsibility as teaching your kid to ride a bike or about the birds and the bees. This Jessi Slaughter stuff—and the rest of it, it’s really not hard to find young people doing things they will regret later online—is proof of that. My kids are going to know the shit out of social networking and how to not be a retard on the internet.
U.S. Mood Throughout the Day inferred from Twitter. Uses 300 million tweets and density-preserving cartograms. Very cool.
The Web Means the End of Forgetting →
Technological advances have often presented new threats to privacy. In 1890, in perhaps the most famous article on privacy ever written, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis complained that because of new technology — like the Kodak camera and the tabloid press — “gossip is no longer the resource of the idle and of the vicious but has become a trade.” But the mild society gossip of the Gilded Age pales before the volume of revelations contained in the photos, video and chatter on social-media sites and elsewhere across the Internet.
I had a job interview last week at a web design agency (didn’t get it). It marked the first time I’ve been googled by an employer and he was surprisingly comprehensive. Comprehensive enough to have found my old domain. Did I know what was on it now? he wondered.
That’ll be the 3D shemales?
Yep.
(via givemesomethingtoread)
Dubstep Rainbow
I am simultaneously sad and amazed that this exists. On one hand, haha, double rainbow dubstep remix! That works surprisingly well! On the other hand, what the fuck is wrong with whoever made this? Did he really not have anything better to do?
Best/worst thing about this? This isn’t the only dubstep remix of double rainbow that exists. This one’s a little more straight-laced but nowhere near as fun.
You might say it’s a… double dubstep rainbow. Oh my god.
The Mail's online miracle: or how to get paid without a paywall →
The Daily Mail, meanwhile, are doing pretty well.
Take the Mail in print. Around 1.9 million punters buying a copy every day, which means 4,881,000 readers scanning their favourite sheet each morning. And online, the growth from nothing much four years ago to 40,500,000 unique browsers a month is verging on the phenomenal: up 72% year on year.
They’re making money without a paywall. They’re also the scum of the Earth, but that’s by-the-by, I suppose.
Times loses almost 90% of online readership →
Data from the web metrics company Experian Hitwise shows that only 25.6% of such users sign up and proceed to a Times web page; based on custom categories (created at the Guardian) that have been used to track the performance of major UK press titles online, visits to the Times site have fallen to 4.16% of UK quality press online traffic, compared with 15% before it made registration compulsory on 15 June.
The figures are far from gospel, and not official in any way, but it looks pretty bleak for The Times.
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