📼 Well Worth A Watch
As it says - carefully curated - so who am I to embed the video here. Go on - click through and spend 5 minutes of your life in a gorgeous distraction. Have your headphones (wired or wireless) ready to go.
#vimeo
w00t
... is I believe the word.
I got this running - all by myself
I wonder if it will stay up when I close down terminal ?
LATER ::: Yes it will - managed to get the former command working .... now need to work out why my 'Music Feed' is not rendering correctly.
Launched - And Now The Backlog
All caught up .... and I think I am there . You might notice that I have NOT been publishing as much here recently ... because I am publishing here. Over the past couple of weeks been transitioning my 1999 presence from Dave Winer's test space to here. Big thanks to Andy Sylvester for his help.
We had a few issues, but I think I am there. The posts from today and yesterday, are posts I had been making since August 11th that somehow got mangled. I could save them - but not here.
Anyway - they are now all reposted - and now moving onto the backlog. At the same time playing around with the style sheet a little to move it closer towards my main blog at Beyond Bridges.
Oracle Funding
Trying to decide whether this is a good thing ... or a bad thing?
Overall - I think good - but there is an increasing number of these kind of things going on. That said, there probably always were - its just that now we know about it.
Should Gawker Have Been Allowed To Live
... Dave Winer writing on the passing of Gawker.
Now that the line has been crossed, it's fair to assume it will become standard practice for billionaires like Thiel to finance lawsuits until the publication loses and has to sell itself to pay the judgment.
Hmm - not so sure I agree. Gawker was the worst and lowest scum - with Nick Denton taking his cue from the British Gutter Press, despite his education and early days as an FT reporter. He should have known better, but in Gawker he led the pandering to the lowest form of taste. I am mixed about the ability to kill a publication, but it has always been possible.
Gawker made the mistake of writing things that were secret and really and truly added little value to the public discourse. Again, not a fan of Christine O'Donnell, and I get their defense - but why allow the writer to publish anonymously?
This time they picked on the wrong guy. I don't like Thiel. But if we don't like the laws - change them.
That said, lets say that Thiel doesn't like what The Intercept writes about him - I do not think he would take them on. Because they are writing journalism. Gawker was not journalism.
Vindication
Apple: If we're forced to build a tool to hack iPhones, someone will steal it.
FBI: Nonsense.
Russia: We just published NSA's hacking tools
... Christopher Soghoian (@csoghoian) August 17, 2016
Lite Beer Is Not In My Lexicon ...
... for very good reasons. That said, it accounts for seven of the top selling beer brands in the USA. I don't drink any of the other three either, but that is by-the-by. Most important fact to note?
Lite Beer is all Marketing, proving that in America, you really can rely on the gullibility of the public.
But there's more
Consider this
- Calories in a Bud Light - 145
- Calories in a Guiness - 126
Pilger On War
The conclusion of this piece ....
For only a movement that swells into every street and across borders and does not give up can stop the warmongers. Next year, it will be a century since Wilfred Owen wrote the following. Every journalist should read it and remember it...
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs,
Obscene as cancer, bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.
Zara (Yes - THAT Zara) Should Be In Court For Stealing
This is a great post from my buddy David Airey.
SHAMEFUL actions by Zara. A boycott by all of their customers should be the minimum. And they should pay at least double to every single artist for stealing their work and set up a foundation to support other artists.
Roger Dean - Cover Artist
.. but not what you expect in many ways. For a start - as a 'cover' artist - he was truly original. I also never knew that he illustrated this book - a staple of my library for many years ...
I Had That Album ...
In his testimony, Plant says he doesn't remember ever hearing the track Taurus. He says: "I didn't remember it then, and I don't remember it now."
Plant says he heard earlier Spirit track Fresh Garbage on a compilation album that he bought in 1968.
I Think I Will Start Buying Under Armour
"After throwing the Bowmar under the bus I will not buy any Under Armour product again and will strongly encourage others not to purchase your products, unless you reinstate Sarah Bowmar as a sponsor," Phil Meyer wrote on the company's Facebook page. "For a company to stab hunters in the back after so many of us have used and endorsed your products is intolerable!"
and
"It will be interesting watching your whole hunting line of business go down the toilet," Stan Smyla wrote.
and
A petition to reinstate Sarah Bowmar's sponsorship deal has reached 6,400 signatures as of Tuesday morning.
Read All About it .... seriously 6,400 signatures? I wonder how Under Armour plan to survive !
Should Gawker Have Been Taken Out?
In the end, even if you think Gawker deserved punishment, media organizations should not face the financial death penalty for a mistake, even a deplorable and egregious one.
Read All About It - The Grauniad weighs in on Gawker.
I mainly agree - but it wasn't a mistake - otherwise Denton could have done something about it way back. Instead he stuck two fingers up and said 'F**K you' - I am the press. We are above you. He was wrong.
Death Comes To Us All ...
... some times sooner than you think
Running through my music feeds this morning. Not one, not two - but three headlines .... jeez.
Former Nine Inch Nails Keyboardist James Woolley Dead at 50
3 Doors Down ex Matt Roberts dead at 38
Architects guitarist Tom Searle dies of cancer aged 28
RIP - all of you.
Post Script ... interesting how many names we do not relly know that provide so many emotional touchpoints in our lives.
Jeff Beck (1 of 3)
I wish I had been there ..... but thankfully my friend Bill was - who had a friend Keith who took the pictures. In case you are wondering ... Row 7, Masonic Hall, San Francisco.
Cards Against Humanity - Wins Both Ways
Click through if you want to extend your Cards Against Humanity set ... this is why you should ...
Today, we're letting America choose between two new expansion packs about either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.
... so far so good.
At the end of this promotion, Cards Against Humanity will tally up the sales of both packs, and depending on which pack gets more support ....
.. yes
we will donate all the money in support of Hillary Clinton's campaign.
#BRILLIANT