Skip to main content

Links

  1. Sustaining Local Journalism: new ways of funding local reporting | City University London

    One day conference on 13 May. Might be interested for anyone interested in that post I wrote yesterday about funding online news.

  2. I will commit £23.32 per month to a citizen-run news service for Leeds… – Matt Edgar

    Interesting… trying to get a regular, quality, local, online news-site funded. Not by individual readers paying, or by one deep-pocketed entity paying, but something in between. (via gilest)

  3. YouTube - The Netizen

    Finally able to transfer my previously Google Video-hosted copy of the 1996/7 Wired TV pilot programme to YouTube. Whatever happened to cyber-rights?

  4. TimeRime.com - Homepage

    Create your own (Flash-based) timelines. You know when you have an idea for a site and then you find something that sort of does it, but not quite how you wanted?

  5. Religious Faith and John Rawls by Kwame Anthony Appiah | The New York Review of Books

    Tracing John Rawls’ changing ideas from “the eternal claims of Christianity,” through ‘A Theory of Justice’s “appealing to the universal truths of reason,” to deriving ideals from the “shared consensus of democratic citizens.” (Subscribers only.)

  6. Foreign Aid for Scoundrels by William Easterly | The New York Review of Books

    Given the recent distancing of organisations from Gadafi, who turned out to be a “bad” dictator, rather than a “good” one, reading this article from November 2010 about the billions in aid the West gives to many dictatorships with no meaningful requirements for reforms is funny (as in “not funny”).

  7. All Programs Considered by Bill McKibben | The New York Review of Books

    An overview by Bill McKibben of the good bits of American public radio, comparing radio to other media, outlining its difficulties. Some things I should listen to, given the time.

  8. The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books

    If I ever see ‘Waiting for “Superman”’, I should read this again. A relentless critique of the film’s arguments for US charter schools over public schools, probably applicable to the UK’s academies too.

  9. A New Theory of Justice by Samuel Freeman | The New York Review of Books

    Starts with a good summary of John Rawls’ ‘A Theory of Justice’, then Amartya Sen’s critique of that, then the article’s author, Samuel Freeman’s, critique of that. But subscribers only, booo.

  10. The Dan Plan

    Spending 10,000 hours (a la Gladwell) over six years to learn to golf from scratch, hoping to become a top professional. I often wonder how late in life you could still become expert at something new. (via Kottke)

  11. RequireJS

    To help with modularising JavaScript, loading bits asynchronously, managing dependencies, etc. Looks indispensable for large JS projects.

  12. State of Play by Mike Deri Smith - The Morning News

    On KidZania, the pretend-to-do-adult-jobs theme parks. The immediate leftist reaction is that this is an appalling, restrictive brainwashing of children by the corporate machine. On the other hand, I’d have *loved* this when I was a child.

  13. LRB · Richard J. Evans · The Wonderfulness of Us

    I’m finding this discussion (the article and many letters below it) about how history should be taught in British schools interesting, although I’ve lost track of exactly who thinks what.

  14. JavaScript Garden

    A good run-through of some of JavaScript’s tricky bits, a lot like Crockford’s ‘JavaScript: The Good Parts’. I still don’t get prototypes etc though. (via Cal)

  15. London’s Holy Wells

    Some interesting history about the location of wells in London, with photos and maps. eg, St Agnes Well was round the back of the Foundry on Old Street.

  16. Post-War Buildings

    Don’t think I’ve seen this before. A collection of photos, details and sometimes long descriptions of mostly London post-war modern buildings. Good. (Shame the photos are all Flash though.)

  17. Lessons from 10 years of Pepys’s diaries online - Boing Boing

    Oh, that’s nice, Cory’s blogged my Pepys talk on Boing Boing. Thanks Cory! (via @caxtonian)

  18. Ubuweb :: Dada Magazine

    I love early 20th century avant-garde magazines and all that. Here, PDFs of issues 1-3 of ‘Dada’, from 1917 and 1918. All in French but still, just *feels* exciting.

  19. [RS] Re-Sweet: @samuelpepys -

    Odd but nice: two guys who sing tweets have, at someone’s request, sung one of @samuelpepys’ tweets. (via @lili_bird)

  20. X100Photo | Street photography in the 21st century

    Quite enjoying this blog about street photography using the new (and barely available) Fuji X100. Super specific, nicely done so far. It’s a step on from window-shopping.

  21. DataMapper ORM - User Guide

    There seem to be several past versions of this; I think this is the current one. Looks like just what I needed to fill the gaps in CodeIgniter that always left me frustrated with it.

  22. Cyclists in the City: Cycle Superhighway is scandalous. Carbon copy of killer bike lane coming to Vauxhall Bridge Road

    Given how superficially cycling seems approved of by those in power (superhighways, Boris bikes, Cameron cycling, etc) it’s amazing how new road schemes are still often dangerous for cyclists, even when they sort of have cycle lanes etc.

  23. One Click Orgs

    “Set up a simple, effective legal structure and voting system which can: help your group open a bank account; help your group hold property; keep the whole team involved in day-to-day decisions.” Very good. (via @frabcus via @benhammersley)

  24. The Online Photographer: The World’s Best Photography Magazine Tries a Different Revenue Model

    For the bit about “vampire” publications, which rely on the journalism of others. eg, ‘The Week’. I reckon, when/if increasing numbers of traditional publishers charge money, there will be more of these vampires — well curated, re-written content, without original journalism, on a tiny budget.

  25. The Best Word Book Ever,1963 and 1991. - a set on Flickr

    Fascinating look at the changes in Richard Scarry’s childrens’ picture book. “Beautiful screaming lady” is a favourite 1963 phrase. (via Tom Taylor)

  26. GOODIES AND BADDIES

    Adam Curtis tells a good story, and he usually ends up making me think differently about things. This one’s about armed humanitarian intervention.

  27. Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: Coudal - (37signals)

    Via Waxy who described it fine: “37signals profiles Coudal Partners, how they moved from client work to projects like Field Notes, Jewelboxing, and The Deck.”

  28. Why “#StartUpBritain” is nothing more than a government backed link farm

    Good stuff about the embarrassing content-free coupon-fest that is Start Up Britain. (via @cityofsound)

  29. Arab spring: an interactive timeline of Middle East protests | World news | guardian.co.uk

    This is nicer than my rash knee-jerk dislike of whizziness made me think. Works well as an overview and journey. There’s a bit of a disconnect between country names and events, and I want to see more time at once, but nice and clear otherwise. (via Max Gadney)

  30. W. Brian Arthur vs Silicon Roundabout, ‘Start-Up Britain’ and other shake-and-bake approaches « Magical Nihilism

    Matt Jones on how you can’t just conjure an area like Shoreditch out of thin air and tax incentives. These things — locations, industries, technologies — take time and long-term ideas.