January 2012
2 posts
2 tags
Netflix Roulette
Netflix launched in Britain a week ago and I was really excited to sign up and check it out, after years of hearing how great the US service is.
Put simply, it’s a disappointment. On a technical level it’s great but that’s ruined by the gaps in its content library.
A few probing searches to see how bare its cupboard is turned into what I call Netflix Roulette — you keep searching until you get...
1 tag
Resolutions
2560×1440! Hahaha. Aha. Ha. Hm.
Yeah that joke’s been made before.
I’m really bad at making and sticking to New Year’s resolutions. Incredibly bad. Of my original three I’ve managed to break all of them. And it’s only January 2nd.
With that in mind, there’s very little reason to believe that I’ll stick to anyone of the ones listed below but I’m going to try anyway.
Take my camera (almost)...
December 2011
1 post
“Usually, a Call of Duty game squats grimly atop the chart at this time of year,...”
– Alec Meer — Snow > Gruff Men: Skyrim is UK Xmas #1
November 2011
2 posts
2 tags
Sir Moanalot: Oblivion
Since Skyrim just came out, I thought I’d grab the previous game, Oblivion, from Steam and see if I unfairly brushed it off when I first played it a couple of years ago.
After just over 12 hours of play, I’ve put it down again. I was actually ready to uninstall it in frustration.
Maybe the problem is that I’d only put 12 hours into it. It’s meant to be this huge, epic game with countless...
“Israel says” — what an astonishing opening two words to a report on a great day...”
– Craig Murray: BBC Shame
October 2011
2 posts
Your ‘Martin O’Neill is coming back to Leicester...
I swear this happens every time we sack our manager. At this point there’s only one other person more-predicted to make a glorious return.
BBC Sport:
Martin O’Neill, who successfully managed Leicester from 1995-2000, leading them into the Premier League and to two League Cup successes in 1997 and 2000, has been installed as an early favourite to succeed Eriksson.
The Guardian:
...
NBA lockout: millionaires vs billionaires? →
Devin Dignam and Dre Alvarez at Wages of Wins:
We keep hearing the NBA lockout being described as “millionaires versus billionaires”. But most NBA players won’t become big earners like Kobe and LeBron.
…
Here’s a fun comparison: on average, 1600 people win a lottery of at least $1 million every year! That’s right; the lottery has produced almost twice as many millionaires in the last year...
September 2011
2 posts
Hackgate: A Triumph for the Liberal Media? →
David Cromwell & David Edwards:
The “ownership of the British media” has always been a red herring. The problem is not that the media is owned by this or that corporate power, but that it is corporate power.
Britain, Qadafi and the Libyan Islamic Fighting... →
Mark Curtis:
While Bin Laden was drafting his declaration of jihad in early 1996, British intelligence was plotting with al-Qaida-associated terrorists in Libya to assassinate Colonel Qadafi. Qadafi had long challenged British interests and Western hegemony in the Middle East and Africa. The revolution that brought him to power in September 1969, recognised as ‘popular’ by British planners,...
August 2011
10 posts
Flogging is too good for them →
Mark Steel:
[According to David Starkey] the riots were caused, apparently, by black culture, and we can get round the fact some rioters were white by saying they’d turned black, and get round the fact most black people don’t riot by saying they’ve turned white. You could use that logic to prove that being Welsh causes boats to capsize, or that everything alive is a penguin.
“The more that emerges about the Thameslink contract stitch-up the murkier it...”
– RMT general secretary Bob Crow — Unions want Bombardier bid answers
‘The absurd reasoning that defines the drug war’ →
Bill Conroy for Narco News:
Despite the fact that an ICE informant, Ramirez Peyro, helped to facilitate a number of the House of Death murders while working for the U.S. government, because the victims were Mexicans the U.S. government and its law enforcers did not “owe a duty of care” to them. In other words, their murders don’t count, nor is anyone in the U.S. government “negligent” for...
From Salt of the Earth to Scum on the Streets... →
Owen Jones interviewed by Samuel Grove for the New Left Project:
The idea that ‘we’re all middle-class now’ was embraced by both New Labour and the Tories alike. For the right, the exception to this was the so-called ‘underclass’, who were believed to be the product of state dependency and behavioural problems; for influential US right-winger Charles Murray, the break-down of marriage among...
The Myth of The New York Times, in Documentary... →
Chris Hedges, writing about NYT documentary Page One:
The reigning corporate ideology has infected the Times as it has most other liberal institutions. Because this ideology does not challenge the status quo it is defended by these editors as evidence of the paper’s impartiality, balance and neutrality. ExxonMobil, Citibank and Goldman Sachs are treated with deference and respect. The...
“It seems odd that a libertarian such as Staines thinks that the state is...”
– Daniel Elton, Five good reasons why the death penalty should not be reinstated
‘Extreme Dishonesty’ – The Guardian, Noam Chomsky... →
The Guardian is normally happy to ignore him and his views. But when Chomsky expresses criticism of an official enemy of the West, he suddenly does exist and matter for the Guardian. That indicates what we already knew: that the liberal press is perfectly aware of the importance of Chomsky’s work. They just ignore it because it undermines the wrong interests.
Dean Baker on the debt ceiling deal →
The protracted negotiations over the debt ceiling, as well as the final package agreed to by President Obama and the congressional leadership, show what happens when a small minority is allowed to gain control over national debate. While polls consistently show that the vast majority of the public sees jobs as the main problem facing the economy, there has been a well-funded crusade to ignore...
Carroll in wonderland: how the Guardian... →
Samuel Grove:
The reality is that [Rory] Carroll has never intended to steer an even course between the Chavez government and its opponents. He has been far more concerned with titillating his readers by slandering the Venezuelan government. In the same piece in which the Guardian defended Carroll’s journalism, Butterworth notes that
[Carroll] considers Chávez’s personality to be...
Forever Young, The Tragedy Of Bloodlines →
Jim Rossignol:
Like the plight of an animal species on the verge of extinction, the lack of games comparable to Bloodlines is one of the great tragedies of our time.
Hyperbole aside, he’s right.
July 2011
14 posts
The Epidemic of Mental Illness: Why? →
Marcia Angell:
Nowadays treatment by medical doctors nearly always means psychoactive drugs, that is, drugs that affect the mental state. In fact, most psychiatrists treat only with drugs, and refer patients to psychologists or social workers if they believe psychotherapy is also warranted. The shift from “talk therapy” to drugs as the dominant mode of treatment coincides with the emergence...
The Illusions of Psychiatry →
Marcia Angell:
The books by Irving Kirsch, Robert Whitaker, and Daniel Carlat are powerful indictments of the way psychiatry is now practiced. They document the “frenzy” of diagnosis, the overuse of drugs with sometimes devastating side effects, and widespread conflicts of interest.
…
At the very least, we need to stop thinking of psychoactive drugs as the best, and often the only,...
Steve Hilton policy leaks show Downing Street... →
“Steve asked why the PM had to obey the law,” one Whitehall source told the FT of a meeting in March to discuss the government’s growth strategy. “Jeremy had to explain that if David Cameron breaks the law he could be put in prison.”
The Arrogance of Ownership →
Dave Zirin, again, on the NFL labour dispute:
This is bigger than the NFL. This is about the arrogance of Capital in a period of austerity. The actions of the owners are little different from the arrogance of the Republican leaders of congress, Governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin, John Kasich of Ohio, Jerry Brown of California, Andrew Cuomo of New York and all who believe that it’s...
Dave Zirin on NFL Players’ “Remarkable” Labor... →
Dave Zirin:
I want to read a quote by a player named Troy Polamalu. This is what he said, and it just gives you an idea about how radicalizing this was. Troy Polamalu, All-Pro for the Pittsburgh Steelers, he said, “I think what the players are fighting for is something bigger. The fact is it’s people fighting against big business. The big business argument is ‘I got the money and I got the...
Newspaper websites: The British are coming →
The Economist:
Whereas the Daily Mail chronicles supposed assaults on middle-class Britain by illegal immigrants, liberal politicians, germs and the BBC, the website specialises in breezy celebrity gossip. It is packed with pictures of women in bikinis.
The article itself isn’t anything particularly special, but this quote is gold.
“The most interesting thing about Cole Phelps is that he is an asshole who might...”
– Tom Bissell
Grantland: Tom Bissell reviews L.A. Noire →
The story of L.A. Noire concerns a psychopathic cop named Cole Phelps, a man who inappropriately commandeers cars from civilians, steals outright any car that is left unattended, frequently destroys private property, and enjoys running over civilians. Despite his recklessness, Phelps becomes the most speedily promoted police officer in constabulary history.
At least, that is what L.A....
“But it’s not an issue of the personal susceptibility of journalists. All the...”
– Greg Philo
Jonathan Cook on Nick Davies and the corporate... →
Davies’ figure of 5-10% [proprietorial & advertiser influence on the media] is simply preposterous. It would be fascinating to know if he still sticks to this estimate or now accepts it was wildly off. And if it was wildly off, what does it do to his theory that journalism’s failure can be explained simply by the 10 rules of production - practical pressure and limitations on...
“We have to keep in mind and never forget that those who condemn the innocent...”
– Anabel Hernández
Inscribed in the living tile: Type in the Toronto... →
Joe Clark on the train wreck that is signage on the Toronto subway. It’s such a shame as well, as that original Futura-esque geometric face is gorgeous.
Eurogamer’s L.A. Noire Review →
L.A. Noire is slow but quietly engrossing; its mechanics are suspect, but you can’t fault the ambition, attention to detail and commitment that went into its making. It risks stumbling over its own earnestness at times, but it’s saved by its star – and I don’t mean Staton, who does his best with a dry character.
That star is Los Angeles: as bizarre, threatening and fascinating in this...
Fortune: J.P. Morgan’s hunt for Afghan gold →
An insiders’ look at the carving up of Afghanistan for foreign firms. (It also touches on Iraq, briefly.)
This bit, referring to a banker and a US official discussing a mining project, struck me as particularly cynical:
Hannam and Brinkley agreed that any such project should be led by an Afghan, lest it be seen as part of a resource grab by foreigners.
Read this article and tell me that...
June 2011
8 posts
How Bob Crow is saving the economy →
Aditya Chakrabortty:
[Y]ou don’t have to love Bob Crow to see that he is effective at fighting for his members’ interests — not just against Transport for London, but Heathrow Express and a whole bunch of private transport firms. Similarly, if the Westminster classes mean what they say about narrowing the gap between the rich and the rest, MPs have to concede that unions unafraid...
Set Adrift From Economic Progress →
Despite the warnings, in a number of countries, including the UK and the US, what growth there has been since the crash has been used to restore profit levels, financial sector bonuses and personal fortunes. In the US, profits have jumped by $528 billion since recovery began while wages have grown by only $168 billion. In the UK in the last 18 months, profits and personal fortunes have risen...
David Banks: Twitter-tattle about celebrity sex... →
However, from the lofty heights of the Trafigura Twitterstorm we now seem, in recent days, to be plumbing the depths of what social media can be used to expose. After all, in the last 48 hours we have not learned of gagging orders obtained by corporations stifling journalistic endeavour. We have instead been treated to a series of tweets revealing the identity of celebrities said to have sought...
Imperial Delusions and the Killing of Bin Laden →
When Obama refers to “our commitment to stand up for our values abroad, and our sacrifices to make the world a safer place,” we should understand it the same way we would understand Bush saying such things: Our “values” are rhetorical cover for empire; the “sacrifices” are typically imposed upon the vulnerable; and a “safer” world is more dangerous than ever.
Edward Herman: Gilbert Achcar’s Defense of... →
Really takes him to task, particularly this bit:
He doesn’t ask how their concern for Libyan civilians can be genuine when simultaneously they support the crackdown on Bahraini civilians and the invasion of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia. Assuredly he doesn’t refer to Madeleine Albright’s 1996 statement that the U.S. policy-caused death of 500,000 Iraqi children was “worth it” as indicative of U.S....
Berks and wankers, prescriptivists and... →
The berks and wankers are really, of course, also Kingsly’s sly parody of the language pundit. Every language writer thinks that there are mistakes that only idiots make. And every one considers certain rules stuffy or bogus. Where pundits disagree is deciding which language sins make you a berk, and which usage shibboleths make you a wanker.
Noam Chomsky: Understanding Democracy →
We are in a new stage of state-capitalism in which the future just doesn’t matter very much, even the survival of the firm doesn’t matter very much. What matters increasingly is short term profit and if a CEO doesn’t pursue that, he will be replaced with someone who will do it. This is institutional effect, not individual effect, and has extraordinary implications on society. It may, in fact,...
Exclusive: How Blair and BP “Lied” Over Iraqi Oil →
Greg Muttitt:
“Not for nothing was BP known as Blair Petroleum, but Baroness Symons’ attitude sounds more like something from the Nineteenth Century. Didn’t her officials point out that under the Hague and Geneva conventions it’s illegal to fight wars for resources?”
May 2011
14 posts
Fallujah, Iraq 2004 — Misrata, Libya 2011 →
On April 20, we challenged the BBC’s Jonathan Marcus on his coverage of the war in Libya:
Hi Jonathan
I’m sure you believe your reporting is completely neutral. You write: “there seems to be a general sense that something more must be done…” to help rebels “defeat their government opponents on the ground”. You ask “But what? None of the options are quick or simple”. You then...
Prince Philip: 90 gaffes in 90 years →
“Do you still throw spears at each other?” Prince Philip shocks Aboriginal leader William Brin at the Aboriginal Cultural Park in Queensland, 2002.
How not to answer interview questions
From a New Left Project interview with Hamid Dabashi, author of Brown Skin, White Masks:
Can you give us a brief synopsis of your main argument?
I think it should be left to my readers to find out for themselves what this book is about. Any act of writing is an act of successive and open-ended discovery, predicated on the initial impetus that places a person in front of a...
If At First You Don't Succeed — Four Decades Of... →
Richard Keeble:
Behind a wall of silence, the US and UK have been conducting over the last four decades a massive, largely secret war against Libya — often using Chad, the country lying on its southern border, as its base. The current attacks on Col. Gadafi’s troops and attempts to assassinate the Libyan leader with the US deployment of unmanned drones are best seen as part of a wide-ranging...
The Guardian Conundrum →
Craig Murray:
Two-faced doesn’t describe it. The Guardian’s compartmentalised indignation at civil liberties abuse is written on blood-smeared pages.
Is Sugar Toxic? →
But some researchers will make the case, as Cantley and Thompson do, that if something other than just being fatter is causing insulin resistance to begin with, that’s quite likely the dietary cause of many cancers. If it’s sugar that causes insulin resistance, they say, then the conclusion is hard to avoid that sugar causes cancer — some cancers, at least — radical as this may seem and despite...
Media Lens on Flat Earth News →
[Nick] Davies’s book [Flat Earth News] presented a superficial, holier than Swiss cheese analysis, as you would expect, which meant it was widely hailed as profound and strikingly honest (as a rule, genuinely radical media analysis is ignored). ‘Churnalism’, of course, is a problem – journalists are under pressure to write expanded versions of corporate and government press releases, and so on....
Ten Years Of Media Lens — Some Questions And... →
The media presents itself as a neutral window on the world. We are to believe that the view we see through the window is ‘the world as it is’. It’s ‘All the news that’s fit to print’ because ‘Comment is free but facts are sacred’. What’s to challenge? When you take a closer look at the ‘window’, you realise it’s not a window on the world at all; it’s a kind of painting of a window on the world....
The man who fooled the media →
Chris Atkins:
You go in, say ‘I’ve got a great idea. It’s about the erosion of civil liberties’ and they go ‘Ah, we’ve had a civil liberties season, we’ve had a Blair season, why don’t you do something about food?’ … If you have an Oscar-winning idea and you go to a TV commissioner they’ll tell you it’s crap and say ‘Why don’t you make something about food?’ … because that’s what they’ve...