Del.icio.us links for February 3rd through February 7th:
- The rest is noise: Throats’ guide to metal – “…we turned to Alex, Thom and Mark from Holy Roar’s newest noiseniks, Throats – who are well and truly flying the flag for rage and bile with their debut EP, Throats – for the lowdown on their favourite bands.”
Tags: metal music - The Encyclopedia Of Decency: The White House Tapes – (Rush transcript – Oval Office recorder 1.4 – start time 14.29, 1/23/10)RAHM EMMANUEL: You wanted to see me, Mr. President?
PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, Rahm. Take a seat. We may have… (Oratically brilliant Presidential pause) …a rather significant problem.
EMMANUEL: Yes sir. Can I take it you’re referring to the column in today’s London Observer?
Tags: funny nickcohen satire decentism - British Newspapers Make Things Up | Psychology Today – In April 2008, I wrote that British journalists interpret “freedom of the press” to mean that they can make up anything they want and publish it as fact in British newspapers. Now another evolutionary psychologist has learned the lesson the hard way.
Tags: britain journalism newspapers lies news science media - Mass Effect 2 editorial « The Cynical Brit – When is an RPG, not an RPG? This is what it boils down to. There are certain people that believe Mass Effect 2 sacrificed too many RPG elements from its predecessor and became at best a fancy cover-shooter and at worst, a Gears of War rip-off. Hyperbole and enraged, impotent screaming aside, is there any merit what-so-ever to these accusations? Let’s take a look at the so-called ‘RPG elements’ of the original Mass Effect.
Tags: gaming rpgs masseffect2 review - The Myth of Meritocracy – Of course, there is no culture large or small which is able to hold a purely unbiased view of the people who participate in it. Gamer culture is no exception. Personal characteristics that count against you in the real world and its dominant, mainstream culture carry over into the virtual world. Gender is one of the largest biases which skew the meritocracy most gamers try to abide by, leading to a culture where hard work and practice pay off – but they pay off much less for some people.
Tags: gaming gender sexism - Overton window – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – The Overton window is a concept in political theory, named after its originator, Joe Overton, former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It describes a “window” in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on an issue.
Tags: politics psychology theory propaganda society marketing rhetoric - Why I Think RaceFail Was The Bestest Thing Evar for SFF – So here’s what I think. RaceFail was a good thing. In fact, I think it was a necessary thing — not just for me and other writers/fans of color, but for the SFF field as a whole. Bear with me; I’m going to have to put on my psychologist hat to explain this.
Tags: racefail09 race writing genre fandom sff - McGOP: The Virtues and Vices of Sameness – I’m not going to comment too much on the topline findings of the Daily Kos / Research 2000 poll, of Republican identifiers, which many others have written about extensively. What I found more striking, actually, were the cross-tabs. On just about every question, the results showed essentially no difference based on age, gender, race, or geography — once we’ve established that you’re a Republican, these differences seem to be rendered moot.
Tags: statistics analysis republicans usa rightwing conservatism - Daily Kos: State of the Nation – As I’ve mentioned before, I’m putting the finishing touches on my new book, American Taliban, which catalogues the ways in which modern-day conservatives share the same agenda as radical Jihadists in the Islamic world. But I found myself making certain claims about Republicans that I didn’t know if they could be backed up. So I thought, “why don’t we ask them directly?” And so, this massive poll, by non-partisan independent pollster Research 2000 of over 2,000 self-identified Republicans, was born. The results are nothing short of startling.
Tags: usa republicans rightwingbullshit batshitcrazy - Kid Pix: The Early Years – Ben: Dad, what have you been doing upstairs?
Dad: Writing a short history of Kid Pix.
Ben: Do you really think anyone is going to want to read that?
Tags: software history computers childhood parenting education mac - Dirty Scavenger on MySpace Music – Dirty Scavenger are a grungy 3 piece band, based in England, performing songs written by Jo Maultby about her experiences of life on the streets, protesting, and other adventures. (She has a pretty awesome voice.)
Tags: band music - Brighton Pavilion: A Green leap forward? – John Harris voyages to the seaside seat where Caroline Lucas could become Britain’s first Green MP
Tags: politics electoralpolitics greenparty labourparty conservativeparty britain brighton sussex carolinelucas - No cops, no parks, halted economic activity: conservative paradise – We often wonder what a conservative paradise would really look like on the liberal blogs, and it looks like Colorado Springs—home to many defense contractors and to Focus on Family—has become a shining star in the much-desired collapse of basic government services that Grover Norquist and other anti-government fanatics have always wanted. Unfortunately, it seems less paradise to have much-slashed government, and more stinky, ugly, boring, and scary.
Tags: taxes publicservices civicplanning business industry economics usa - LEATHERFACE on MySpace Music – New song from Sunderland’s finest!
Tags: band music hotdamn!