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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

Edmund Burke, quoted in the comments on an article warning of social media and the “bystander effect”.

TechCrunch:NSFW: After Fort Hood, another example of how ‘citizen journalists’ can’t handle the truth

1 day ago • Comments (View)

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IM IN UR CLINECS STEELING UR TAMIFLEWS

A cat in Iowa tests positive for H1N1 (via livejamie)

4 days ago from livejamie • 12 notes • Comments (View)

Everything You Ever Needed to Know About Character Alignment

(auto-reblog via foomandoonian: jonnyathan: www.toplessrobot.com)

Zoom photo • 4 days ago from foomandoonian • 7 notes • Comments (View)

Truism #846: There is a Venn diagram for pretty much anything.
(via jonnytran: enndiagrams: atavis: olt-rane.com)

6 days ago from jonnytran • 101 notes • Comments (View)

“Poor Pariah Piglet!” — I actually LOL’d IRL (via dawnowar: transparentcommunity: e-money)

1 week ago from dawnowar • 7 notes • Comments (View)

We will be here - Map of the Future - (via densitydesign via sid05)

1 week ago from sid05 • 11 notes • Comments (View)

“Please wipe your ass with your Blackberry.” (via toothpastefordinner: shawnblog: seanbest)

1 week ago from shawnblog • 17 notes • Comments (View)

Jane Austen++ I think I need to read these both. Soon.

Zoom photo • 2 weeks ago • Comments (View)

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Two feasible Future Scenarios: A high-tech Utopia – and a high-tech Dystopia

Abstract:

Two different far future scenarios are discussed: Both have a highly automated manufacturing sector with a small workforce, and a large labour-intensive service sector. The first, “utopian” scenario is inspired by the Marxian vision, with some important modifications: Limits to consumption still exist, certain goods and services are still exchanged in a market. It is argued that the Marxian utopia is a useful “asymptote” to strive for, even if it can never be reached.

The second, “dystopian” scenario has few workers in manufacturing just like the first. Manufacturing, and the much larger service/servant sector is run on authoritarian capitalist lines. It is argued that profit rates can be sustained indefinitely in such an economy. The current worldwide attempts from corporations to take over service activities that have until now been in the public sector domain is discussed in the light of this.

(via azspot)

2 weeks ago from azspot • 7 notes • Comments (View)

I Love xkcd (via Vimeo: foomandoonian)

2 weeks ago from foomandoonian • Comments (View)

Wickedness...

I didn’t realize there was a name for the unfortunate drama surrounding my work these days. Thanks to the Internets, I now know how to peg it.

From Wicked Problem - Wikipedia:

“Wicked problem” is a phrase used in social planning to describe a problem that is difficult or impossible to solve because of incomplete, contradictory, and changing requirements that are often difficult to recognize. Moreover, because of complex interdependencies, the effort to solve one aspect of a wicked problem may reveal or create other problems.

Seeking to generalize the concept of problem wickedness to areas other than planning and policy, Conklin identifies the following as defining characteristics of wicked problems:

The problem is not understood until after the formulation of a solution.

Wicked problems have no stopping rule.

Solutions to wicked problems are not right or wrong.

Every wicked problem is essentially novel and unique.

Every solution to a wicked problem is a ‘one shot operation’

Wicked problems have no given alternative solutions.

(via merlin)

3 weeks ago from merlin • 25 notes • Comments (View)

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Dunbar’s number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. Proponents assert that numbers larger than this generally require more restricted rules, laws, and enforced norms to maintain a stable, cohesive group. No precise value has been proposed for Dunbar’s number, but a commonly cited approximation is 150.

Dunbar’s number - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So… following more than 150 unique YouTwitFace friends is probably too much. When you do, they’re not *really* friends, are they? That’s really the fundamental difference between FB and the rest (assuming you don’t befriend every fool in all the known ‘verses). That’s kinda why I trimmed my Tumblr stalking some time ago. Twitter “lists” will help the platform quite a bit.

(found via via nostrich and steffanantonas)

3 weeks ago • Comments (View)

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