Undulating Ungulate

In this article about tracking the life cycle of news , what struck me was this:

Watching how stories moved between mainstream media and blogs revealed a sharp dip and rise the researchers described as a “heartbeat.” When a story first appears, there is a small rise in activity in both spheres; as mainstream activity increases, the proportion blogs contribute becomes small; but soon the blog activity shoots up, peaking an average of 2.5 hours after the mainstream peak. Almost all stories started in the mainstream. Only 3.5 percent of the stories tracked appeared first dominantly in the blogosphere and then moved to the mainstream.

Which seems an excellent illustration of the old quote [paraphrased] that “mainstream media isn’t necessarily good at telling you what to think, but it is very good at telling you what to think about”. The internet gives us a voice, and, while it is valuable to engage in discussion about issues of the day in our own forums, and interesting things may emerge from those discussions, where are the real sources of novelty coming from? Or rather, how can we amplify the novelty – the issues that are actually important to people that are neglected by the mainstream filter – that must be existing, and get it into the mainstream dialogue?

It would be really interesting to know what the 3.5% of crowd-sourced stories were…

Filed by billy at 2:12 pm under consciousness,culture,technology,Uncategorized
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Super pretty and amazing.

Galactic Center of Milky Way Rises over Texas Star Party from William Castleman on Vimeo.

Filed by billy at 2:51 pm under Uncategorized
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You know, there are times when I wonder if maybe we would be better off entirely without alcohol.

Filed by billy at 4:25 am under Uncategorized
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http://www.brokenpicturetelephone.com/view?id=12569

And apropos of nothing, I liked the image “don sombrero looks at a stick”
when it turned up in its context

Argh, the interweb, it wastes time.

Oh wow. This one is the best.

Filed by billy at 11:22 am under Uncategorized
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Still not following the news, but the little that is filtering through to me about what National is doing under the donkey is all pretty damn awful.

Since we last posted, National has been slashing government ministries for education, environment, and social development, shitting on environmental policy, moving towards privatising ACC for no reason other than to turn it into a pork barrel for millionaire ass-buddies, acting like building a cycleway the length of the country achieves anything (though hell, maybe this is an exceptionally forward looking post-peak oil move… ), privatising prisons, generally dicking over women and workers… well, hell, it is an entire litany of far right wing ideological psychosis, that, as ever, no one actually voted for. (No right turn has a solid run down.)

And frankly, it fucking sucks. I mean, is there any good being done here?

So here is another installment in the John Key’s a Donkey project – quite possibly the last, since the moose no longer has an external sound card. This was recorded before Christmas last year. The improvised style du jour is loosely reggae. The moose doesn’t really listen to reggae. So it goes.

It can be found over on the tinekaamos myspace page. Enjoy the last of the summer with this sweet hilarious ragga lament.

Filed by billy at 11:31 am under no mercy for john key,Uncategorized
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make gin and tonics.

Filed by billy at 7:03 pm under oblivion,Uncategorized
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But here is the first meme on this blog. But it is an interesting one, with potential to be really fun. (Stolen from tatjna.)

Also, this memelike thing: If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now (even if we don’t speak often or ever) please post a comment with a completely made up, fictional memory of you and me.

Go on.

Filed by billy at 1:19 pm under Uncategorized
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So Andre Breton was booked to go to Mexico and talk about Surrealism. He gets off the plane and there is no one to meet him. After waiting around for a while, he makes his way to the venue he is supposed to speak at. It is locked and empty. With no hotel booked and no way to contact anyone, he makes his way to a bar and starts drinking tequila. A man walks in and asks if a certain man, call him Signor X, is there. Upon having Signor X pointed out, the man walks up to him, shoots him dead, and leaves.

Eventually Breton is found by his hosts at the bar, and informed that they had completely forgotten he was coming, and had organised nothing. He stood to give an impromptu talk to the small group gathered, beginning “I came here to talk to you about surrealism, but in Mexico, I see, I don’t dare.”

[Anecdote paraphrased from a book on Remedios Varo.]

Filed by billy at 12:06 pm under reading,Uncategorized
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I blame Allyn for this, but I have been doing the hundred pushups challenge. The idea is after six weeks to be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. I’m about to start week 4 of it. And if I can handle this, anyone can.

The place an old email address is hosted is about to disappear into the ether. Strange the impermanence of our media nowadays. But anyway. Have been trawling through four or five years of assorted stuff. Some intense times in there. People come and gone. A bollockload of mindlessness and trivia, too.

The following, however, are just WTF enough to post:

What was happening in Romania, February 2004?

Haunted by “strigoi” – the undead – villagers on the slopes of the Carpathian mountains exhume a corpse from the graveyard and drive a stake through its heart to banish the evil spirit.

They burn the remains of the heart, mix the ashes with water from the local well and drink it, to complete the macabre ritual.

“If You Find This World Bad, You Should See Some of the Others”

Easily the most mindblowingly detailed, self-exposing, and intimate talk or essay from Philip K. Dick I’ve ever encountered. If you have any interest in this guy, you need to read this. Basically talking to a SF conference a few months after the experiences which led to the writing of VALIS.

Stupendous stuff. Will mess with your sense of reality. Or at least Dick’s.

Quantum Computer Works Best When Switched Off

February 2006, New Scientist.

Even for the crazy world of quantum mechanics, this one is twisted. A quantum computer program has produced an answer without actually running.

The idea behind the feat, first proposed in 1998, is to put a quantum computer into a “superposition”, a state in which it is both running and not running. It is as if you asked Schrödinger’s cat to hit “Run”.

Which speaks for itself.

Filed by billy at 1:31 pm under consciousness,the moose,the world,Uncategorized
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Please?

(via fark)

Filed by billy at 5:27 pm under Uncategorized
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