>>Nostalgia For Infinity

I’ve got a new article / essay / opinion piece / geek screed up on Den of Geek titled ‘Zombies Can Run’. The subtitle (“why 28 Days Later is a zombie movie after all”) isn’t mine, but I think that was put there primarily to look a bit contrary and draw people in. Oh, and also to get it higher ratings on Digg, which suits me fine. DoG hungers for clicks like a zombie for braaaaains.

I’m quite pleased with the article. It’s perhaps a bit overlong at 1,400 words, but that aside I think it strikes a nice balance between humour and maintaining the central thrust of my argument (essentially, that being arbitrarily exclusionary is stupid). Also, I managed to get tarman up as the accompanying pic. The caption’s a Batman joke, which is topical. Gasp! I’ll want to watch this… relevancy.

You can read the full article here. Do it. Go on, do it.

Unrelatedly, I’d be interested in watching a TV show of amateur footage of zombies. That’d be ace. It could be constructed like American show When Animals Attack! You’d have to use a variation on the name, though. I propose When Zombies Attempt to Feast on the Flesh of the Living and Propagate Their Unstoppable Kind. You certainly wouldn’t miss that in the TV Times.

• 1 – FlashLoad – Flash video download from Google, Youtube, iFilm, Metacafe, MySpace, DailyMotion…
  “FlashLoad is a simple tool to Download, Save and Convert Videos and Files from YouTube, Google Video, Metacafe, etc. with one simple click.”
  (tags: download web youtube video useful tools)
• 2 – Issue 3 Pre-launch Buzz Contest (Friday, July 18, 2008): Greatest Uncommon Denominator Magazine
  The excellent GUD magazine is having a promo competition for the latest issue.
  (tags: competition art poetry fiction magazines)
• 3 – Palestinians capture violence of Israeli occupation on video | World news | guardian.co.uk
  “[B'Tselem] has supplied almost 100 video cameras to vulnerable Palestinian communities in Hebron, the northern West Bank and elsewhere, to document and gather evidence of assaults and abusive behaviour – largely by settlers.”
  (tags: activism video documentation media violence abuse humanrights palestine israel)
• 4 – LENIN’S TOMB: The religion of the masses
  “LSD is a twentieth century drug. Invented, perfected and propagated in the twentieth century. It reached the height of social significance during a period of upheaval and challenge.” Great guest article about the social and historical significance of LSD
  (tags: revolution rebellion counterculture culture society acid LSD drugs)
• 5 – Sam Raimi Confirms Evil Dead 4 with The Bruce | /Film
  “During Comic-Con this weekend, the chainsaw began sputtering once again for Evil Dead 4. Director Sam Raimi [...] announced the return of Bruce Campbell’s Ash to fans…”
  (tags: news awesome funny zombies comedy horror film)

• 1 – Orcinus – Of Madmen and Martyrs
  Sara Robinson writes from the heart about Unitarian Universalism, in response to the recent shootings at a UU church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
  (tags: unitarianism eliminationism activism politics progressives religion violence)
• 2 – Orcinus – ‘A line was crossed at Postville’
  Dave Neiwert follows up on earlier coverage and analysis of large-scale ICE raids rounding up illegal immigrants last month. It’s chilling stuff.
  (tags: kafkaesque USA waronterror crime racism immigration)
• 3 – New Statesman – Taking apart the west
  “A People’s History of the World is the first attempt to provide a single, accessible, grass-roots account of the development of human civilisation.” I think the New Internationalist attempted something similar, but this book sounds great regardless.
  (tags: review history books)
• 4 – LENIN’S TOMB: Don’t ban this filth
  “Andrea Dworkin, (boo hiss), once noted the curious propensity for all of the ordinarily repellent evils of capitalist society to somehow be magically transformed in the wonderland of pornography.” A follow-up to Chomsky’s response to the Hustler intervie
  (tags: violence capitalism eroticism misogyny sexism pornography)
• 5 – BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Italy targets illegal immigrants
  “Under new laws approved by the Senate, illegal immigrants convicted of crimes will now face jail sentences a third longer than those for Italians.” Italy is going a bad way, very fast.
  (tags: silvioberlusconi crime law racism italy)
• 6 – New research on aging hints we might be able to prevent it | Blog | Futurismic
  “It appears the prevailing theory as to why we age could be wrong–and that would be good news for anti-aging research” – interesting stuff. Anyone for a God-Emperor?
  (tags: genetics death aging science research)
• 7 – SF Diplomat: Escalation, Failed States and The Dark Knight
  “It’s all very well being cunning and discrete like Marlo Stansfield in The Wire, but when Batman turns up in a tank and leaves your battered and bleeding body on the steps of the police station then those skills are not going to be of much help to you.
  (tags: philosophy politics film criticism review)
• 8 – SF Diplomat: Reader’s Block : A 21st Century Ailment
  “What amuses me so much about this ailment is that it so wonderfully encapsulates the 21st Century attitude to culture.” The original article does make one fair point – that you shouldn’t feel obliged to finish every book you start.
  (tags: capitalism consumption culture novels books reading)
• 9 – Daily Kos: State of the Nation
  “In the last twenty years alone, we’ve consumed about one third of available resources. Want to make a guess as to how long this can continue?”
  (tags: resourceconflict recycling science futurism technology sustainability scarcity resources)

• 1 – A Reader’s Manifesto
  “Nothing gives me the feeling of having been born several decades too late quite like the modern “literary” best seller.” Fascinating dissection of contemporary literary writing, published in 2001.
  (tags: books novel art poetry language critics criticism literature fiction writing)

• 1 – My disastrous career as a music journalist by Tim Lott | Music | The Guardian
  “Quite quickly, I made the discovery that musicians weren’t, for the most part, very godlike or even particularly interesting. In fact, they seemed rather dim.”
  (tags: writing popculture rockstars musicindustry journalism music)
• 2 – Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! — WEB ∞.0
  Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!
  (tags: geek funny khaaan!)

• 1 – MySpace.com – CRAZY ARM – Plymouth, UK – Punk / Rock / Country
  Superb country-punk band from Plymouth. Turns out they’re ex-NoComply and ex-Once Over Twice, so a band with pedigree…
  (tags: music band)
• 2 – The man with the musical broomstick | Music | The Guardian
  “We wouldn’t be happy if it were to change back to Bing Crosby or Les Paul or Mary Ford, or whatever it was. Nothing wrong with it, but it’s gone. There’s a new kind of music, and it’s on its way.” Great article about Les Paul.
  (tags: innovation guitar article music)
• 3 – Britain tries to block green energy laws | Environment | The Guardian
  “Documents obtained by the Guardian show the UK wants to block attempts to give renewable electricity sources such as wind farms priority access to the national grid.”
  (tags: news environment politics policy EU climatechange UK renewableenergy)
• 4 – George Monbiot: Don’t be fooled by the climate change bill. Carbon trading torpedoes it | Comment is free | The Guardian
  “The rigged statistics and exported emissions will render worthless the apparently radical targets Labour is now setting.” Depressing, if hardly unexpected.
  (tags: government labourparty politics UK sustainability environment climatechange)
• 5 – LENIN’S TOMB: What are the odds?
  “If you find yourself struck by a curious aphasia on the matter of trying to prosecute not only American officials but British ones too, what right have you got to exult about the capture of one lowly thug by the agents of the world’s biggest thugs?”
  (tags: warcrimes radovankaradzic ICC czechoslovakia serbia bosnia)
• 6 – The Quietus | News | Demise Of Tartan Films: What Went Wrong?
  “At the end of June, after years of overcoming hostile censors and beatdowns by enraged republican directors Metro Tartan went belly up.” Summarises the life and death of Tartan Film and highlights some of its strongest releases.
  (tags: international distribution business film)
• 7 – Punknews.org | Gaslight Anthem: “The ’59 Sound”
  New video from the tGA’s forthcoming album. Eeees nice.
  (tags: thegaslightanthem video music band)

• 1 – ‘My son was killed by knife but he was failed by system’|26Jul08|Socialist Worker
  “Jackie Ranger tells the story of her son Leon’s life and tragic death and in her second article argues that we must stop the demonisation of young people if we are to find solutions to violent crime.”
  (tags: youth racism prison media politics UK london knifecrime crime)
• 2 – What If You Have Many Different Interests and Cannot Commit to Any of Them?
  “I don’t want to commit to any one thing for life. I don’t even like committing to just one thing for a month. I have too many interests. If I picked just one thing and let all the rest go, I wouldn’t be happy.” I’m not alone!
  (tags: lifehacks hobbies interesting diversity)
• 3 – LENIN’S TOMB: Fascism, workers and the ‘national community’.
  “Tim Mason has described how the Hitler regime, even once it had physically liquidated its trade unionist and socialist opponents during the first half of 1933, was not capable of simply overriding the interests of the working class.”
  (tags: workingclass socialism ww2 nazis fascism history)
• 4 – Tom Waits: a conversation with himself – Features, Music – The Independent
  “Join me now for a rare glimpse into the heart of Tom Waits. Remove your shoes and no smoking, please…”
  (tags: awesome interview music tomwaits)
• 5 – Ulrich Beck: All aboard the nuclear power superjet. Just don’t ask about the landing strip | Comment is free | The Guardian
  “Are we witnessing the beginning of a real-life satire, at once amusing and terrifying? Its theme is the smothering of the nuclear power risk by catastrophic climate change and the oil crisis.”
  (tags: politics energy earth futurism environment science sustainability renewableenergy nuclear)

My apologies for the lack of real updates, everyone. I’ve recently been enjoying being busy, a little stressed-out, and not sleeping properly, which is never a good combination. Hopefully things will calm down soon and I’ll be more inclined to write and blog.

• 1 – Ancient Atomic Warfare – Part 1
  Completely and utterly barmy, but full of fascinating ideas and stories.
  (tags: resources fiction prehistory victoriana archaelogy history mythology)
• 2 – Science Centric | News | Dye-coated glass to channel energy into solar cells
  “Can you imagine windows that not only provide a clear view and illuminate rooms, but also use sunlight to efficiently help power the building they are part of?” Oh hey, I can!
  (tags: solarpower sustainability renewableenergy technology physics design research science)
• 3 – Q&A: ‘Watchmen’ creator Alan Moore | Alan Moore | Comic-Con Q&A | Books | Entertainment Weekly | 1
  A short and entertaining interview with Alan Moore. When I am old, I too will grow that beard.
  (tags: anarchists popculture culture film television writing fiction comics alanmoore)
• 4 – LENIN’S TOMB: Islamophobia in the US
  “I just found this very interesting video from ABC News, in which the programme sets up an experiment to detect Islamophobia among random Americans.” Very, very worth watching.
  (tags: sociology islam prejudice racism religion usa islamophobia)
• 5 – WorldChanging: The Apocalypse Makes Us Dumb
  “Believing in a millennial future, or even frequently telling stories of such futures, blinds us both to what history teaches us about collapses [...] It makes us bad at thinking intelligently about the future.”
  (tags: humanity sustainability futurism fiction postapocalypse apocalpse)
• 6 – Warren Ellis » World Wide Week 2008
  Looks like my demented drunken mug has made it onto one of Warren Ellis’s reader pic posts. Behold the fear!
  (tags: blogging funny)

• 1 – Liberal Conspiracy » Not the right sort of person | creating a new liberal-left alliance
  ‘Of course I watch the news. What sort of people would you stop?’ ‘You know, the sort of people who commit crimes. You watch the news.’ I guess they were at least smart enough to not say “we’re only stopping black people and kids with hoodies”.
  (tags: liberty society police crime civilrights britain UK)
• 2 – AncientWeb.org: The Ancient Worlds Great Civilizations
  “The Ancient web is an online resource for Students, Teachers, and anyone interested in the cultures of the ancient world.” Neat!
  (tags: reference religion mythology archaelogy civilization world science culture history resources)
• 3 – LENIN’S TOMB: Torturing Immigrants
  “There is some alarming evidence of high-octane battery being inflicted by officials at all levels [...] Bruised and swollen faces, fractures to the ankles and ribs, a leg that had to be plastered.” Hurrah for this glorious racist state.
  (tags: privatisation racism newlabour UK britain immigration)
• 4 – Street Use: Guns on Segways
  “When the lovable Segway was unveiled, who would have guessed that its chief street use would be a platform for cops and soldiers.” I guess the silver lining is that anyone riding a segway looks ridiculous.
  (tags: funny transport technology appropriation police photos)
• 5 – Damn Interesting » Outer Space Exposure
  “Ever since humanity first began to probe outside of our protective atmosphere, a number of live organisms have been exposed to vacuum, both deliberately and otherwise.” A good accessible article about vacuum exposure.
  (tags: SF physiology research medical science vacuum space)
• 6 – Punknews.org | Bomb the Music Industry announces 7 new projects
  “I’m pretty sure we’re gonna cover “Gold Soundz” by Pavement, but who knows what the hell we’re actually gonna do. Or when! Just kidding u guyz! we’re gonna make the deadline!!!” Oh Jeff.
  (tags: punk news awesome bombthemusicindustry music band)
• 7 – YouTube – Star King #8 – Five Year Old Blind Genius Pianist (en)
  This is all kinds of awesome.
  (tags: savant piano music awesome youtube video)