Links from April 2009

Links for Wednesday 1 April 2009
Home Page | Flat World Knowledge
Creative Commons licensed textbooks, written by "experts" and peer-reviewed, which are then free to read online (or pay for a printable version). Little available right now, but promising. (via Preoccupations)
SprogBlog: more than numbers
My awesome friend Annie on a week shadowing a midwife in Uganda. In case you need to put your life in some perspective.
Dave Gorman: When Twitter Gets Weird...
On how offended some people apparently get if you don't follow them back on Twitter. Craziness. (via Meg Pickard)
Wrong Tomorrow - pundits vs. time
A fabulous way to record what predictions pundits make and keep track of how often they're wrong (or right; you never know).
Wikibooks
How have I not seen this before? "Wikibooks is a Wikimedia community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit." Nice.
How To Make Your Own Books From Wikipedia | MakeUseOf.com
Couldn't be easier. (1) Create a Wikipedia account. (2) Add pages to your book. (3) Download a PDF or order a bound copy. Very, very good.

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Links for Sunday 5 April 2009
April Fool Funeral at Improv Everywhere
For the clip of the US TV news show lifting an April Fool from the Improv Everywhere site and reporting it as if it was real, without doing any checking.
Streetphoto :: View topic - G20 riot posed photo
A good description of how scenes like the two guys smashing the windows of a branch of RBS surrounded by photographers happen. (via Moleitau on Twitter)
Indymedia London | Videos | Show | film of police attack on G20 climate camp
There have been worse examples of police violence, but this still isn't good. (via Boing Boing)
G20: Did police containment cause more trouble than it prevented? | World news | guardian.co.uk
"...people thinking about embarking on demonstrations in the future may have to decide whether they want to be effectively locked up for eight hours without food or water and, when leaving, to be photographed and identified." I'm increasingly disliking this country. (via Preoccupations)

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Links for Tuesday 7 April 2009
Buffed on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
"I never understand why this doesn't count as graffiti...." Indeed.
Books
Ooh, Ben Moor has a book out, short story versions of his wonderful one man shows.
Witopia :: Welcome
VPNs, about $40-60 per year. I'm considering one to avoid my ISP logging all my activity, and people on open wifi networks snooping. Bonus: A US IP address = access to Hulu. (via Ian Betteridge on Twitter)
Buzz Image | Making Of
Fantastic demonstration of how some of the CGI effects on 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' were done. (via Haddock)

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Links for Wednesday 8 April 2009
The Eyewash Station: Odds of Dying in a Terrorist Attack
"You are 12 times more likely to die from accidental suffocation in bed than from a terrorist attack." (via Kottke)
Neuwanstein site - Primer Timeline
For the wonderful and confusing movie 'Primer'. Contains spoilers. (via Haddock)
Internet records to be stored for a year - Telegraph
Another day another invasion of privacy. Hard to believe this stuff. I should start tagging these things. #fuckingupthecountry? (via Infovore)
Antigraffiti - a set on Flickr
More painted-over graffiti creating its own blank graffiti from Adam/Vert.
Richard Nicholson Photography - 'Last One Out, Please Turn On the Light'
Lovely and sad photos of disappearing darkrooms. A good accompaniment to those photos of Soho record shops that went round a while back. I miss darkrooms. (via Infovore)

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Links for Tuesday 14 April 2009
Simon Jenkins: Here's proof. The innocent do have something to fear | Comment is free | The Guardian
"One of the few home secretaries who dominated his department rather than be cowed by it was Lord Whitelaw in the 1980s. He boasted how after any security lapse, the police would come to beg for new and draconian powers. He laughed and sent them packing..." (via Preoccupations)
The dark side of Dubai - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent
Long, but really worth a read. (via Tom Taylor)
Monbiot.com » You Stand for Nothing But Election
Using TheyWorkForYou data to demonstrate Hazel Blears' spineless voting record. "You create an impenetrable political monoculture, then moan that people don’t engage in politics." (via Stef on Twitter)
Chipotle to Open London Restaurant Late in 2009, Names Co-CEO
Mexican food watch: Chipotle coming to Europe.
Dubai bashing and 'what-aboutery' - Joi Ito's Web
Criticising that Independent article for offering no solutions to human rights violations. But such articles are worthwhile simply for bringing such violations to a wider audience. (via Preoccupations)

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Links for Wednesday 15 April 2009
Buildings and Food: How to look at billboards
Brilliant essay from 1960 about how outdoor advertising is entirely wrong. Wish I'd written it. When I rule the world outdoor advertising will be banned. (via Kottke)
Modern History
Awesome stuff: "a series of collages assembled exclusively from screen grabs of Youtube videos." Free printable versions too. Remind me of John Martin paintings. (via Kottke)
Readernaut
Nicely done site for not only logging your reading but keeping notes on it too.
Scottberkun.com » #50 - Advice for new managers: pt. 1
A good couple of essays on being a manager. I find this stuff fascinating, although I'm not a manager.

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Links for Friday 17 April 2009
TV Writing - Pilot School
Scripts for loads of pilot episodes of (mostly) US TV shows. (via John August)
The Long Now Blog » Blog Archive » All you need to jump start civilization…
"On this one graphic is all the stuff you need to know to jump start a civilization (or get super rich if you travel back in time)." Fun.
G20 protest videos: Growing catalogue of evidence against police | UK news | guardian.co.uk
As Charlie Brooker said on Newswipe, how come all the press and TV crews failed to catch the real story at the time. And they wonder why many of them are doomed. (via Tom Taylor)
Notes.husk.org. All Change On Oxford Street.
Paul Mison on planned improvements to the Oxford Street / Regent Street junction and the horror that is the junction by Centre Point. All looking good (but it'd be hard to be worse).

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Links for Wednesday 22 April 2009
Frinton-on-Sea's historic railway gates removed 'under cover of darkness' by Network Rail | UK news | guardian.co.uk
Yes, it's a bit quaint to want to hang on to this stuff. But it's also a shame objects and practices important to a place and its inhabitants get ditched in favour of efficiency and money.
LISPA - School - Information - Film
LISPA has a new website and a promotional film. The pictures at the top are people from my year, the film features people from the year above. Very strange, and lovely, to see and hear all this stuff again.
London Underground Tube Diary - Going Underground's Blog
Inside those tube carriages you can see on top of a viaduct in Shoreditch. Shame the video's no longer available. (via Blech)

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Links for Monday 27 April 2009
Simple online time tracking, timesheet and reporting software: Harvest
I've never used any of these kinds of sites I post but they all sound interesting in a productivity porn kind of way. (via Haddock)
Royal Academy of Arts Events
Podcast of Royal Academy talks, including all of this and last year's 'The Architects Who Made London' lectures. Good stuff.
Find and Advertise Desk Space to Rent - Desk Space Genie
What it says. Useful.
BBC News | Technology | Vacuum-powered rubbish disposal
"Britain's first vacuum-powered waste-disposal system." What, aside, for example, from Quarry Hill Flats in Leeds in the 1930s or the Barbican in the 1960s? BBC News mindlessly regurgitating press releases? Who'd have thought!

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Links for Thursday 30 April 2009
ASCII by Jason Scott / Geocities: Lessons So Far
Not just for the good stuff about archiving Geocities, but also about the history of the site and its structure. (via Waxy)
Festive 50 - Lists between 1976 and 2000 « www.indiefy.co.uk
Spotify playlists for (incomplete) John Peel's Festive Fifties. (via Paulpod on Twitter)
DreamHost Blog » They’re Internet History
More stuff about the history of GeoCities and WebRing. (via Waxy)
“Petty” » Rescued Geocities ‘Fry and Laurie’ Scripts
It's not only nice that he's rescued another GeoCities site, but that it's one I remember visiting a lot back in the day and had completely forgotten.
Visualcomplexity.com | The Remotest place on Earth
Lovely images. I guess it's something like Space Syntax but for the entire planet. (via Matt Jones)

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