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Links

  1. A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain (VersoBooks.com)

    Oh, that looks good doesn’t it. Fills a gap that I now realise was aching to be filled.

  2. The Viral Me: Devin Friedman Investigates the New World of Social Networking: Big Issues: GQ

    Quite a good description of the Silicon Valley start-up scene, and why people want to use all these social sites/apps, by someone who starts off not really understanding it all. (via Blech)

  3. Starting Strength: Basic Barbell Training

    Recommended a few times in an Ask Metafilter thread for beginners looking to build strength.

  4. “Dude, that Was the Trailer?”

    Comparing the trailers for the original and new ‘True Grit’s, and ‘Tron’s.

  5. Dinosaur media and the Internet both suck, a Booktrust story

    Francis Irving using the Booktrust funding u-turn story as an example of how most journalism never providws basic facts and resources that, these days, should be a no brainer.

  6. CONVOY

    Not sure about this scrapbook. Some nice interiors and products, but all a bit too tastefully hipster. 

  7. THE DAY AFTER YOU DIE

    Also quite a good scrapbook, although a higher adolescent incidence of naked ladies (so 40% chance of NSFW).

  8. THEM THANGS

    Sorting out my bookmarks, I have a few image scrapbooks like this. Love this one. No comments, just interesting images grabbed from all over. Absorbing. (Occasionally NSFW.)

  9. The Online Photographer: How To Improve Digital Print Tonality

    Simple tip for improving tonal separation: “Pull up Unsharp Masking. Set the Amount for somewhere between 8 and 15% (depending on taste, subject, and printer). Set the Radius for around 60 pixels. Set the Threshold to 0.”

  10. LRB · David Simpson · Because We Could

    Interesting look at why soldiers torture prisoners. Lays much of the blame at (a) the normalisation of torture as a technique in films/TV watched by troops and (b) the training soldiers go through that prepares them for being tortured themselves. (Subscribers only.)

  11. LRB · Ross McKibbin · Nothing to do with the economy

    On the cuts. The bigger the cuts, the more it makes the economy seem in more trouble than it is, and this in turn makes the previous Labour government look more incompetent. Also, the Liberals as a friendly fig leaf hiding the Tories’ extreme ideas. Fuckers.

  12. LRB · Stefan Collini · Browne’s Gamble

    A good account of the inconsistencies of the Browne Report into the future of funding Britain’s higher education. Sounds like it’s written by people for whom education is simply a way of earning MOAR MONEY.

  13. LRB · Terry Castle · Adieu, madame

    A good account of just how huge an international star Sarah Bernhardt was. Also, the fedora was originally a hat worn by women. (Subscribers only unfortunately.)

  14. ASCII by Jason Scott / Yahoo!locaust

    About Yahoo! and Delicious, and other things they’ve closed, and Flickr, and the fact all the content on Yahoo! Video will be deleted in March. *sigh* (via Simon Willison)

  15. Americans Are Horribly Misinformed About Who Has Money - Politics - GOOD

    It’s staggering, as ever, to see how financially unequal the country is, but also fascinating to see how people don’t realise it. I’m not sure I’d have responded much more accurately, and it’s also probably similar in the UK. (via @ianbetteridge)

  16. The Blast Shack

    Bruce Sterling on WikiLeaks, Cablegate and Julian Assange. Worth a read, especially if you can do so with Sterling’s weary drawl as your interior voice.

  17. Wikileaks Exposes Internet’s Dissent Tax, not Nerd Supremacy - Zeynep Tufekci - Technology - The Atlantic

    “the Internet is somewhat akin to shopping malls, which seem like public spaces but in which the rights of citizens are restricted, as they are in fact private.” (via Blech and more)

  18. Christmas dinner with an excess of trimmings | Jonathan Meades | Comment is free | The Guardian

    I like the fry-up / Christmas Dinner comparison, and much else too. (via many people)

  19. Mare Street’s failed music venue Ocean to reopen as Hackney Picture House next year - News - Hackney Gazette

    Ooh, that’s good. I wish it had been a decent cinema when I lived up the road, rather than the ill-thought-out Ocean. (via @catfunt)

  20. Unboxed Consulting - Blog - TechHub and Silicon Roundabout

    James Darling on good form. It’s great that co-working offices like TechHub exist for people who want them, but TechHub’s press releases are a bit overblown, like something from one of the previous booms.

  21. Blissblog - 10 for 2010

    Simon Reynolds’ top records of the year. So much to listen to. (via Warren Ellis)

  22. Memolane | Your time machine for the web

    Currently invite-only, and I’ve not tried it, a thing for aggregating and/or archiving your stuff from various web services.

  23. Said the Gramophone: BEST SONGS OF 2010

    I have completely failed to keep up with this or any other music blog this year. Again. But StG’s end of year lists are always good.

  24. Coding Horror: So You’d Like to Send Some Email (Through Code)

    Things you should do when sending email via code. (via Daring Fireball)

  25. Isle of Tune

    Really lovely thing for making music out of cars driving round a pretty isometric road layout. Worth firing up Flash for. (via Kottke)

  26. Adactio: Journal—Home-grown and Delicious

    Yes, I’ve been thinking this self-hosting-with-syndication model is the way to go. I don’t use Delicious’s social features at all, but if I self-hosted my links I’d still like them to be viewable by others in my network, if they’re interested. (via @preoccupations)

  27. More4 cuts back The Daily Show to one episode a week | Media | guardian.co.uk

    But! What? Grrr! May have to get a Witopia VPN again so I can watch the Daily Show online. What kind of media industry is this where I find myself paying $40/year to circumvent region protection in order to watch a TV show? (via @megpickard)

  28. Anthony Volodkin is Fascinated: Archive

    A nice view of someone’s online activity per month. CORRECTION: It’s a standard Tumblr archive page. Still nice. 

  29. Archive Fever: a love letter to the post real-time web | mattogle.com

    Yes. It should be easier to access our old online stuff. We should archive it more often. There should be better ways to explore archives. I am interested. (via Blech)

  30. Coffee Drinks Illustrated « Lokesh Dhakar

    Different types of coffee made clear. I’d seen this before but didn’t bookmark it and had to… Google it! Never again.