Del.icio.us links for June 14th through June 25th:
- PUNKADIDDLE: Robert Jordan, The Wheel of Time (1990-2005) – But of course it goes without saying that reviewers respond to the book they have read, not to the idea in their heads of the sort of people who like the book they have just read. Apart from me, I mean. Obviously when I review, I do so specifically to mock the value-systems and worth of people who read. People like you, sir. And you madam.
Tags: reviews criticism sensitivity - The unspeakable in full cahoots with the indefensible – Most public sector workers will have a pay freeze for three years, meaning a de facto pay cut by whatever the rate of inflation is (currently 3.5%). Average real term spending cuts will amount to 25% except in ringfenced spending in health and international aid. 25% is a huge reduction, even bigger than anticipated, or advertised. There are a few off-setting measures that would in theory protect the poorest – linking pensions to earnings, increasing child tax credits – but the net effect will be a severe squeeze on working class consumption.
Tags: economics recession coalition neoliberalism classwar - Emergent Gameplay: Deus Ex Made Me Part 2 – I ponder how incredibly difficult it would be to make a game like that for a major publisher today. Reasonably advanced for 2000, today it’s clear DX’s simple environments and primitive people enabled both its scope and its depth. Our standards have risen in some ways, but are they unequivocally the right ways? [...] Optimistic or simply naive, I hope that someday we will shed our destructive addiction to technology and production value as ends rather than as means. In the Deus Ex I play today, the physics aren’t too janky, the characters not too low-poly, the environments not too boxy to inhibit the experiences: of exploring, experimenting, and imagining. I strongly believe our success as a medium depends upon our ability to rediscover and cherish these very best qualities of games; to trust in the intelligence of our players, and challenge them to learn and grow. That was the golden age DX seemed to promise us, and it may yet come.
Tags: games gaming deusex ionstorm history - Mark Weisbrot, “How the Media Mislead the Public about Venezuela: The Case of Stephen Sackur’s Interview with Hugo Chávez” – Most of the western world thinks that Venezuela is some kind of dictatorship where Chávez has made people poorer. They have no idea why he has been re-elected twice, each time by a larger majority. This kind of reporting explains why they are so misinformed; sadly, it is all too typical.
Tags: journalism interviews media bias Venezuela hugochavez - School Daze – by Liel Leibovitz – In Israel’s fractured electoral system, the ultra-Orthodox parties still wield an obscene amount of power and influence, and the laws governing aid to unemployed students were designed to benefit their constituents, the majority of whom do not work and spend their days studying Torah. But a law, Jenny thought, was a law; it couldn’t discriminate between the ultra-Orthodox and the secular. She decided to appeal to the Supreme Court.
This was in 2000. She heard nothing. Struggling, taking on odd jobs wherever she could find them, she managed to complete her studies and began a master’s degree in social work at the university. She was determined to spend her life helping women who suffered the misfortunes she had had to overcome. For a decade, no word came from the court.
Until this week. The discriminatory policy, the court finally ruled, was to be overturned immediately. The ultra-Orthodox politicians called it an “evil verdict,” and promised to resist.
Tags: israel judaism politics religion segregation conservatism democracy - Mr.B The Gentleman Rhymer on MySpace Music – Gentlemanly English hip-hop, squire.
Tags: band music - Hightide Hotel on MySpace Music – Warm & friendly emo/indie in the vein of Snowing, or Mineral crossed with Grown Ups.
Tags: band music - By Surprise on MySpace Music – Rough-edged indie / punk rock band.
Tags: band music - Punknews.org | Gatorface – Stream of Gatorface’s new record.
Tags: band music - Philadelphia Grand Jury on MySpace Music – Touring with JoFo later in the year.
Tags: band music - KEROUAC on MySpace Music – “where will you drink when these wells run dry?”
Tags: band music - GALLOPS on MySpace Music – V. cool experimental electronic outfit, forthcoming release on Holy Roar.
Tags: band music - don kenn gallery – Awesome drawings of monsters on post-its.
Tags: art drawing sketch monsters - That’s How I Roll – A Scientific Analysis of Dice – It turns out that I *was* rolling more 1′s.
Tags: gaming studies - The politics of budget cuts – An analysis of the forthcoming battle over public spending cuts, including examination of the role of the Labour Party in the same.
Tags: britain politics recession publicspending cuts classwar - The capitalist calculation problem – In the real world, rational economic decision making is only possible to a limited extent due to the existence of an extensive non-market sphere, socialised public bureaucracies, national statistics agencies, offices for public planning and development, local authorities with oversight, etc etc. Tellingly, their behaviour becomes more irrational, wasteful and incompetent the more they are penetrated by marketised logic, the more they attempt to behave like corporations. They accumulate high overhead costs, duplicate capacity, fail to collect relevant information, and undermine the very rationalising aspects of service delivery that they are there to provide.
Tags: economics statistics calculation methodology capitalism - KOSMOCHLOR: Umberto Eco’s Rules for Writing (Well) – “After those lists of 10 rules for writing The Guardian recently published*, I thought Umberto Eco’s rules should be on line, too, in English–I haven’t found other translations so far…”
“The rules used to be 40, but four of them bore no meaning for non-Italian speakers. As the saying goes, the worst treason to the original text is literal translation; so mine isn’t. The square-bracketed notes are mine. I have also added a few links for the curious and the brave.”
I do think I’ve seen these before but, still good.
Tags: writingtips funny writing literature - Barbaric Document: a notorious story – China Mieville on H. P. Lovecraft.
Tags: literature racism prose art prejudice video - New Statesman – War of the words – “If science fiction is no longer a viable form, it is because the humanist assumptions that underpinned it are no longer credible even as fictions. The hybrid type of writing that has evolved in recent years is symptomatic. “Slipstream”, “cyberpunk” and “new weird” blend together influences as diverse as Arthur Machen and Mikhail Bulgakov, Charles Williams and William S Burroughs. What these styles of writing have in common is an absence of politics. No world-changing project features in any of them.” I don’t feel this is a correct assertion, but it’s certainly a thought-provoking article.
Tags: books reviews politics utopia humanism hope sciencefiction