vagabondscrawl

The Urumqi Mass Incident

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:31:04 -0500

The Urumqi Mass Incident: A mass incident occurred in Urumqi (Xinjiang) on July 5, 2009. This is a continuously updated post.

The Choice of Cities

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 21:53:50 -0500

The Choice of Cities:

Cities are technological artifacts, the largest technology we make. Their impact is out of proportion to the number of humans living in them. As the chart above shows, the percentage…

Painting Over Silence Q and A with Mama Cutsworth

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:53:20 -0500

Painting Over Silence Q and A with Mama Cutsworth: What was the last great concert you saw?

That would be the Danny Michel show at the new West End, with my dear
friend Jo Snyder [Sixty Stories/Anthem Red] opening for him. Both of their
sets made…

The War-driver's delight: WiFi treasure hunting in Aspyr's Treasure World

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:51:18 -0500

The War-driver's delight: WiFi treasure hunting in Aspyr's Treasure World:

The most important thing you need to know about Treasure World — the just-released DS game from developer Aspyr — is that it, and by it I mean the actual DS cart that you snap in and…

The Wire Files | darkmatter Journal

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:25:25 -0500

The Wire Files | darkmatter Journal:

Who Loves Ya, David Simon?

by Jane Gibb and Roger Sabin • 29 May 09

“Thin Line ‘tween heaven and here” (Bubbles): Real and Imagined Space in The Wire

Teen Totes Walkman, Trades iPod for Embarrassment

Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:50:40 -0500

Teen Totes Walkman, Trades iPod for Embarrassment: The BBC convinced a 13-year-old boy to swap his iPod for a Walkman for a week. How do you think that worked out?

toppled

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:28:31 -0500

toppled: At around 5:30am on June 27, an unoccupied building still under construction at Lianhuanan Road in the Minxing district of Shanghai city toppled over. One worker was killed. According to…

Japan hand

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:33:12 -0500

Japan hand: “Japan hand” is a term I dislike. There’s something colonial or corporate about it, something (let’s drop the false distinction between those historical phases) colonial-corporate. It’s used in…

Two Augmented Reality Technologies That Are About To Change The World [Futurism]

Sat, 27 Jun 2009 20:37:51 -0500

Two Augmented Reality Technologies That Are About To Change The World [Futurism]: Augmented reality is a technology futurists and scifi authors like Vernor Vinge have been talking about for decades. Now the tech has matured and is entering the market. Two videos of new…

Never land.

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:57:28 -0500

Never land.: (First published on Click Opera March 13th, 2005.)

One of the reasons the Michael Jackson trial is so unfortunate is that the world of Either-Or will pass judgment on a creature of Yet-Also. The…

HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? By Lera Boroditsky

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:22:00 -0500

HOW DOES OUR LANGUAGE SHAPE THE WAY WE THINK? By Lera Boroditsky: Instead of words like “right,” “left,” “forward,” and “back,” which, as commonly used in English, define space relative to an observer, the Kuuk Thaayorre, like many other Aboriginal groups, use…

Google's China problem: the larger problems

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:21:35 -0500

Google's China problem: the larger problems: This is what you get when you combine an unaccountable authoritarian government, with a capitalist business environment that is simultaneously cut-throat and highly un-transparent, with a court…

WHOLE THEORY OF BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 13:18:34 -0500

WHOLE THEORY OF BEAUTIFUL LANGUAGE: ‘My whole theory of beautiful language holds that it comes from nameless, groups of people looking for a more expressive way to say something. I’m always thankful to get a note where someone praises…

The Shishou Mass Incident

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 10:36:47 -0500

The Shishou Mass Incident: At around 7:30pm on June 17, 2009, a death occurred at the Yonglong Hotel in Shishou city, Hubei province. The 23-year-old male cook Tu Yuangao fell from the third floor and died…

The Reverse Cowgirl: Letter to a Young Writer

Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:56:23 -0500

The Reverse Cowgirl: Letter to a Young Writer: Fuck the pyramid, fuck j-school, fuck writing for a living. Fuck your computer, fuck your rent, fuck whatever your parents said. Go and live. Go be in the world. Go push yourself until you cry and…

Are the Protests in Iran Getting Hijacked?

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:56:22 -0500

Are the Protests in Iran Getting Hijacked?: If one dares to go beyond (though not necessarily against) expressing support for the protesters in favor of taking a more analytical approach to this extremely complex situation, they are almost…

Homeless Sims are surprisingly depressing

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 09:56:22 -0500

Homeless Sims are surprisingly depressing: Robin Burkinshaw, a British games design student, created a homeless father-daughter pair in The Sims 3, “moved them in to a place made to look like an abandoned park, removed all of their remaining…

Twitter reschedules maintenance to avoid clobbering Iranian dissidents

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:56:21 -0500

Twitter reschedules maintenance to avoid clobbering Iranian dissidents:

From the Twitter blog:

A critical network upgrade must be performed to ensure continued operation of Twitter. In coordination with Twitter, our network host had planned this upgrade for tonight….

Homeless Sims are surprisingly depressing

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 09:56:21 -0500

old timey theatre

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 12:10:43 -0500

old timey theatre