I didn't know you could disable Google Reader's social features with a single line of JavaScript:

1. Go to Google Reader
2. Type this JavaScript code in the address bar: javascript:antisocial('true')
3. Google Reader will reload and you'll see a simplified interface that removes the section "People you follow" and no longer shows shared items from your friends.

[Via Tom Morris]

Greenpeace want us to know that Volkswagen has gone over to the Dark Side.¹

[Via Pop Loser]

1. In case you missed it, the advert being parodied can be found here. ↩

Not a phrase you often hear used by IT support staff:

"Well," Rick sighed, "the user was right."

In the age of the Metaphor Program, can we afford to ignore the threat of weaponised irony?

If we don't know how irony works and we don't know how it is used by the enemy, we cannot identify it. As a result, we cannot take appropriate steps to neutralize ironizing threat postures. This fundamental problem is compounded by the enormous diversity of ironic modes in different world cultures and languages. Without the ability to detect and localize irony consistently, intelligence agents and agencies are likely to lose valuable time and resources pursuing chimerical leads and to overlook actionable instances of insolence.

[Via The Null Device]

Is it just me, or is Google Takeout a nice idea with a funny promotional video but not much substance?

In fairness, as I don't use Gmail or Picasa Web Albums and have a pretty minimalist Profile they just don't have all that much data to include in my takeout right now.¹ I'll get interested when they expand the service to include my Google Documents, an OPML file containing my Google Reader subscriptions, and a KML file containing details of my various Google Maps overlays.

[Via Smarterware]

1. Not unless you include all the 'anonymised' data they've no doubt amassed over the years by tracking cookies and logging my search requests – you know, the data they use to target ads. ↩

Meet Melvin the Magical Mixed Media Machine. He's magnificent!

[Via swissmiss]

A Letter to the Audience, from your friendly local cinema management:

Dear Patrons,

Please be advised that Thor is a piece of shit. Granted, it is directed by Kenneth Branagh, but not the one you remember from Henry V and Much Ado About Nothing. This is the one from Wild Wild West.¹ Thor also stars the Anthony Hopkins from such 70's films as Audrey Rose and Magic, and the Natalie Portman who proved that doubles did more than just dance for her in Black Swan. They acted for her too.

Remember that the Odie-On has a strict NO REFUND policy. You got what you deserved for even considering to see a movie about some blonde asshole from outer space swinging a hammer.

Thank you.

[Via Scanners]

1. In fairness to Kenneth Branagh, he merely acted in Wild Wild West rather than occupying the director's chair, so he wasn't entirely to blame for that particular mess. On the other hand, he did direct Robert DeNiro in Frankenstein and himself and Emma Thompson in Dead Again, so you've got to say that his track record as a director, at least when not adapting Shakespeare, is a tad suspect. ↩

Andrew Clegg of Last.fm has been doing some data mining, armed only with with a database of lyrics and the contents of of Last.fm's catalogue:

One of the interesting things that sets even superficially similar genres of music apart is their lyrical content. Last.fm tags can overlap to a great degree, but we were interested to see what the words can tell you about the subtler shades of meaning that go along with those tags. As usual around here, the best way to answer questions like these is by asking the data. [...]

The resulting word clouds (plus a bonus 2D chart plotting the degree of similarity between lyric choices in different genres) are fascinating.

The Russian elite's road rage is quite something, apparently:

When confronted with the growing public outrage over his behavior on the roads, Oscar-winning Russian director Nikita Mikhalkov retold an old pre-revolutionary joke. "A peasant nursed and nursed his anger at his master," Mikhalkov said, "but the master didn't know shit about it." Last month, when Mikhalkov was finally stripped of his migalka — a blue VIP car siren that, when turned on, allows the driver to circumvent all traffic laws — his public bitching about the loss seemed to know no bounds. And it's not hard to understand why: With that blue light flashing, a driver can cut through traffic like an ambulance, and everyone else must scatter.

James Shelley on social media overload:

Are we still communicating? Or are we just sending faxes?

(Rest assured that, read in context, that's a perfectly sound metaphor.)

Go and play with Otomata. Now.¹

[Via The Tao of Mac]

1. Money back if not completely satisfied. ↩

Seeing the poster for The Abominable Dr Phibes reminds me of just how much joy I used to get from the Friday night horror film slot on British TV back in the mid/late 1970s.

It's been far too long since I've seen either of the Dr Phibes films, or Theater of Blood come to that.

Artist/designer Jer Thorpe on designing the list of names on the 9/11 Memorial:

In late October, 2009, I received an e-mail from Jake Barton from Local Projects, titled plainly 'Potential Freelance Job'. I read the e-mail, and responded with a reply in two parts: First, I would love to work on the project. Second, I wasn't sure that it could be done.

The project was to design an algorithm for placement of names on the 9/11 memorial in New York City. In architect Michael Arad's vision for the memorial, the names were to be laid according to where people were and who they were with when they died – not alphabetical, nor placed in a grid. Inscribed in bronze parapets, almost three thousand names would stream seamlessly around the memorial pools. Underneath this river of names, though, an arrangement would provide a meaningful framework; one which allows the names of family and friends to exist together. Victims would be linked through what Arad terms 'meaningful adjacencies' – connections that would reflect friendships, family bonds, and acts of heroism. through these connections, the memorial becomes a permanent embodiment of not only the many individual victims, but also of the relationships that were part of their lives before those tragic events. [...]

Reading the article, I found myself wondering whether it wouldn't be simpler to just say 'to hell with it' and list the names alphabetically in a simple, multi-column layout. It speaks volumes for Jer Thorpe's professionalism that at no point in his post does he so much as hint that any such thought had ever speculated about the possibility of crossing his mind.

[Via Waxy.org Links]

You're a good Time Lord, Charlie Brown!¹

[Via feelinglistless]

1. See the originals here. ↩

This is a few years old now, but still worth a read: David Rees deciphers Cormac Ignatieff's The Road…

Hello everyone! Personal message to all the New Yorkers out there: Did you read Michael Ignatieff's essay in the the NY Times Magazine? If so, contact me ASAP to let me know you're OK. I put your flyer up at Grand Central Station, but have heard no response.

Myself, I'm just making my way out of the debilitating Level-Five Mind Fog that came from reading the thing. Even my "Second Life avatar" has a headache! (Hey young people, did I get that right? Hope so! See you in "Warcraft Worlds!")

The essay is called "Getting Iraq Wrong." And baby, if Michael Ignatieff got Iraq wrong, I don't want him to be right! Because this essay can MAKE LEMONADE IN YOUR MIND. [...]

[Via MeFi user docgonzo, posting to this MetaFilter thread]

Lightning Eclipse from the Planet of the Goats. Good photo, great title.

7 TV scientists that even real scientists approve of, as chosen by Phil 'Bad Astronomer' Plait.

Not a bad list at all, except that I would have dropped Rajesh Koothrappali in favour of his friend and sometime colleague Sheldon Cooper, and I have strong doubts about including the Doctor:¹ I'd add Professor Bernard Quatermass in his place.

1. I know Three was officially UNIT's 'Scientific Advisor', but that was mostly a matter of their wanting to employ his superior knowledge of the various alien threats that turned out to be immune to bullets. He knew a lot more about all areas of science than Liz Shaw, but that's primarily because he came from a vastly more advanced civilisation that had technologies we hadn't dreamed of. Not the same thing as 'being a scientist' at all, IMHO. ↩

Long exposure pictures of San Francisco International Airport at night, overlaid to frame scenes of order and (relative) chaos.

[Via Flowing Data]

What a great photo.

[Via sippey.com]

Two film facts I learned today:

1. From a list of 30 Things You Might Not Know About 'Raiders of the Lost Ark':
   

   16. Burly British wrestler Pat Roach gets killed twice in this film, once as a giant Sherpa who perishes in the Nepalese bar and again as the German mechanic who's done in by the plane's propeller.

   I've watched Raiders of the Lost Ark I don't know how many times over the last thirty years, yet I had somehow completely failed to notice that the burly German mechanic in one of my favourite set-pieces from one of my favourite films was played by the late Pat Roach.

2. I'm indebted to Back of the Cereal Box for the revelation that there was a character in The World Is Not Enough who went by the name of Molly Warmflash. As clear a sign as you like that it was well past time to reboot the franchise.

[Raiders of the Lost Ark link via Pop Loser, James Bond character names link via Fritinancy]