The power of metadata

Laid out in a beautiful example -

Using Metadata to Find Paul Revere

What. A. Story.

Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations - Guardian.

I think he comes across as very sympathetic at the moment. Perhaps that's the advantage of outing yourself, you control the narrative, before people inevitably try to put the boot in.

Patronising response

Don't you just hate this kind of patronising response?  Just be good, and you won't get in trouble.  Because institutions like the police force and ministers are totally free from corruption, I don't think...

Hague: Law-abiding Britons have nothing to fear from GCHQ

Tim Yeo rejects committee coaching claim

Everything in terms of the Large Hadron Collider

Well done CERN scientists and engineers for finding evidence for a particle that is most likely the Higgs Boson.

The machine you used, the Large Hadron Collier (LHC), took a decade to build and cost around $10 billion. But it revealed a grain of undiminishable truth about the universe we all live in.

And what I love is the massive particle smasher was built for no other reason than to extend human knowledge. There were no guarantee of results, no sell on value, no returns above the bank's base interest rate, nothing but a billion dollar science experiment which let us peak into the heart of stars and see the smoke at the dawn of creation.

And now, everything should be seen through the prism of the LHC, how if we stopped avarice for avarice sake, then we could achieve so much more. The world needs more LHCs and less ECB, LTROs, and QEs.

What would you rather the money be spent on?

The UK government rescued the financial sector with a trillion pound bailout. That could have bough 100 LHC.

The man-made palm islands in the United Arab Emirates cost around $12 billion. That's another LHC. 

Goldman Sachs CUT staff bonuses in 2011 to $12.2 billion, again, another LHC.

We live in a world of such plenty. Just think what we could achieve.

Who am I to say

Maybe I've had it wrong the whole time. Maybe it's all about manufactured scarcity. Maybe I'm a huge doche bag.

Stand up

Watched my uncle do stand up comedy today. He didn't suck. Which is great. What more could a worried nephew ask for.

Recapturing the written word

Love this story on the BBC about how those online security tests are helping the world digitise old manuscripts.

Almost makes them less annoying to do now.

The internet has captured human-only skills on a grand scale.

Tired? Or being a wuss?

Got to that stage in life where I can't tell anymore.

Nice one Sunday Times

I'm liking the Sunday Times Olympic ticket scandal story.

It shows what good journalism is all about: holding the world to rights.

I'm almost tempted to buy a subscription. Almost...

BBC Have Your Say is the most depressing place in the world

Witness here, and click on highest rated.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16393926\

The curious effect of watching Mama Mia!

I finally saw Mama Mia! the movie a few days ago and it reminded me of the Mark Kermode review I heard on BBC Radio Five a few years ago.

It's starts off as unbelievably naff.  You almost can't believe you're watching it.  You kind of want everyone to stop screaming and shut up.  You worry about skin cancer on the unbelievably sunny Greek island.  You wonder if Meryl Streep is, in fact, permanently hysterical and if she needs medication for her condition.  You almost believe the two-dimensional characters won't actually make it to the end of the full, and tear themselves in two under their own unbelievability.

But about four or five Abba songs in, like a mysterious tractor beam, like a Hellenic sun shaped black hole, you get sucked in.  Like a glittery flamenco dancer at a cheap Spanish holiday resort, you are beckoned on stage, and after a gutful of Swedish cheese, how can you resist?

You let go. You let your feet tap. You remember the words that you somehow have in your head. And you go with it. And most surprisingly, despite yourself, you start to have fun, despite all the cringing...

 

Krugman Does The Inbetweeners

Love Paul Krugman and his column in the New York Times.

Love his passion for Keynesian economics and his willingness to take on all comers.

But what I especially like about today's article is his Inbetweeners impression, right at the end.

Link: Bleeding Britain - Paul Krugman

He's a Living Tabloid Newspaper

Via ITN

Evidence from former News of the World deputy features editor Paul McMullan at the Leveson inquiry was explosive today.

Lots of tittle tattle, lots of celeb name dropping (Brad Pitt, Princess Diana, David Beckham...), lots of sex, drugs and death.  Also, lots of righteous indignations.  Lots of standing up for the little man against the system and protecting children from evil child molesters and murders. Lots of grandiose and high fluting populist ideals.

Unashamed, unabashed, unwavering.  Slight shabby, slightly cheeky, slightly cruel.  In fact, all the things that make up a good tabloid newspaper.

McMullan doesn't distinguish between public interest and what the public are interested in.  So if a paper sells, then the public accepts the story and how it was got.

And from the reaction on Twitter, he knows what the public wants.  Yes, we do want the dirt.  We want to hear about his cash back handers to police officers, his thievery of private photos, his sexual proposition to drugged up daughters of famous actors and the subsequent deadly reaction to his reveal-all stories.

And despite ourselves, we watch him.  Despite ourselves, we read tabloids by the millions.  Despite our disgust, we can't help but consume, consume, consume.  And then blame him for our consumption.

Guardian live blog of Leveson inquiry:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/blog/2011/nov/29/leveson-inquiry-nick-davies-paul-mcmullan-live?intcmp=122

With Great Power...

Via Guardian

Sometimes, a journalist needs to bend the rules and skirt on the edge of morality to get to the bottom of a story.  This is fine when used to expose a wrong, such as government corruption or a crime, but not fine when used to expose someone's private life or black mail an individual.

I think this is thing that editors and newspaper owners fear, that a blanket ban on such practices will restrict "good journalism" and well as curtaining "bad journalism".

An ideal world would only have "good journalism", but it's probably preferable to have good and bad rather than restricted.

Guardian journalist Nick Davis at the Leveson Inquiry:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15937661

Diamond Witness

Source: Reuters

I saw parts of the live stream on the UK Leveson Inquiry into Press Ethics today, and was very impressed by Anne Diamond.

As an ex-print journalist who was subsequently hounded by tabloids after she became a TV presenter, she gave a very even handed opinion on the media balance of good and evil.

Despite shocking revelations of reporters posing as doctors when she went into labour and the presence of telephoto-lensed paparazzi during her very private infant son's funeral, she acknowledged the good that tabloids and popular press could do in causes and crusades.

She said good and bad journalism went hand in hand at the moment and Diamond offered a example to how Lord Leveson can remove the bad and leave the good, citing TV as a medium that does terrific investigative journalism and also be regulated.

But can schizophrenic bastard twins really be separated?  And does killing one kill the other?

Anne Diamond's statement:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15927182

Twitter

Please look to the right. Yes friends, I've started tweeting, please follow me!

Coughs and Shower Sealants

- Get over this bastard cough that's been plaguing me for a week.
- Buy sealant to fix our leaky shower.
- Don't give up.
- Remember who I used to be.

Life's too short to fold socks

- Decide what colour to paint small room.
- Fill out and send off application for Wimbledon tennis tickets.
- Buy socks from Hugo Boss. (It's a Christmas present!)

Ikea and Pax

- Go to Ikea and look at the Pax storage system.
- Go to the supermarket and buy ingredients for mulled wine.
- Try to feel better from cold.

Bank and Battleplans

To do
- Call the bank and ask why they called the house yesterday.
- Finish another section of the Battleplan.
- Buy fish, toilet paper, and white wine vinegar from Waitrose.
- Scan taxi receipt and send to Eurostar.