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| Some truly elegant Flash games at Orisinal;
beautifully simple graphics and soothingly uncomplicated goals. Just the thing
for a Friday. Bubble Bees and
Among the Clouds are particularly lovely.
[via Ole]
| "If a plane crashed into ... Sellafield, it has been calculated
that it would release 44 times as much radioactivity as the Chernobyl disaster, and
could cause more than 2m cancers."
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"I'm told that my face appears on the Big Brother Eviction Channel, every so
often; perhaps it's there now. Now that all the paedophiles and terrorists
and asylum-seekers have gone, it's just the luck of the draw with random data
profiling."
My nauseous distrust of referenda and my fears of consumer-approved corporate
omniscience are given full reign at Upsideclone. Join us.
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| What's the thinking behind that dramatically shifting CGI-metal-bunker
that the BBC's strategy reporter chap does his "here's what an aeroplane
looks like" explanations from? Is it supposed to be anything? I keep
expecting it to fire him out into the sky above Afghanistan at the end,
or just crush him to a pulp. Oh for a later-scheduled Channel Four News.
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"Trapped in my flat,
only my memories for company,
trapped in my flat,
hoping someone will come and rescue me."
Oh Mister RealPlayer, play me some Real. Vic and Bob MP3s.
Good lord.
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"My core belief is a simple one: that we should treat other people as we would wish
to be treated ourselves. Let's call it, though others have doubtless formulated it
in different ways, the Empathetic Principle. As far as I can see, this is the only
basis for social organisation which is likely both to deliver the greatest good for
the greatest number and to ensure that the greatest number does not tyrannise lesser
numbers."
Human rights and the intricate interbalances of freedom, argued from first principles
by George Monbiot, man of reason.
The logic creaks a bit under the magnification of the individual - the weighting
of freedoms is a shakily subjective thing, and human beings will always bias their
empathy according to DNA and personal acquaintance anyway - but the bigger
stuff is completely obvious and applaudable.
George also has a book out
at the moment.
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| If you don't feel like writing 50,000 words by the end of November, you
could just write the first 500 and submit them to the WH Smith
Raw Talent competition. Five thousand quid first prize, with a writing
course and editorial guidance as you write the rest of your novel. There are
worse springboards.
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| There's more Hegley in the BBC arts pages, with fine RealPlayer renditions of
some
poems that fit better on air
than paper.
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"Other similar cliques, less pretentious but equally destructive, would form and reform as time goes on - we call them all Mensas. The internet, sadly, made this effect far more pronounced, as mailing lists became an ideal forum for smugness feedback."
Raven doesn't just hate stupid people, at the Upsideclone.
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| johnhegley.co.uk exists, with a bit of poetry
and tour dates and a mug. Good things.
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| Some people have decided that November shall be
National
Novel Writing Month, in an actually-international sort of
way. But they're not just encouraging people to start writing something during
that month; they're demanding that they finish as well. 50,000 words
before December. Speed and quantity over precision or quality. A fine
way to convince yourself that you're physically capable of writing a
full-length novel, even if it's awful. I might give it a go, just to see
what my brain does. Hm.
[via
Life As It Happens]
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