Moving Home

Well the Net Nanny struck me down for a week or so and in the mean time I have registered a new home for this blog… www.fortuneunmasked.com

See you there!

Global treasures

The BBC News is reporting that the UN is putting global treasures online via it’s World Digital Library however a wag at Slashdot has pointed out…

“The collection is covered by numerous copyright laws, according to the legal page. With some of the contributions being over 8,000 years old, this has to be the longest copyright extension ever offered. There is nothing on whether the original artists get royalties, however.”

{Via Slashdot}

Society doesn’t need newspapers

Two thought provoking and insightful pieces on the imploding medium of using paper to distribute news.

“Society doesn’t need newspapers. What we need is journalism. For a
century, the imperatives to strengthen journalism and to strengthen
newspapers have been so tightly wound as to be indistinguishable.
That’s been a fine accident to have, but when that accident stops, as
it is stopping before our eyes, we’re going to need lots of other ways
to strengthen journalism instead.”

{Shirky | Continue reading}

“What matters at newspapers and magazines isn’t publishing, it’s
reporting. We should be talking about new models for employing
reporters rather than resuscitating old models for employing
publishers; the more time we waste fantasizing about magic solutions
for the latter problem, the less time we have to figure out real
solutions to the former one.”

{Shirky | Continue reading}

Natural Harvest

It seems I know way too many would be chefs willing to provide the ingredients. Serve with care – A Collection of Semen-Based Recipes by Fotie Photenhauer

What happened in the hotel?

Piece the story together from these pictures. It’s in Chinese but scroll down for the pics.

{Via Danwei}

Update: Some pictures of the making of the hotel pictures.

Lorem ipsum

Now I finally know what that stuff is that’s always filling up the insides of new document templates… “Even though using “lorem ipsum” often arouses curiosity due to its resemblance to classical Latin, it is not intended to have meaning.”
(but it does).

{Via Wikipedia Via Daringfireball}

Businesses Should Care About Corruption in China

I wish she could’ve dropped the “US” out of the headline because what she writes is equally valid for businesses from any country.

“Recessions fuel existing modes of corruption while breeding new forms growth on the fragile yet gargantuan underbelly of shadow economies. The current global economic situation has brought with it a multi-layered lesson in globalization: we are all- as countries, businesses, and individuals- interconnected. If one domino falls in the East, another domino may topple in the West and vice-versa. To quote Angel Gurria, Secretary-General of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, “[in corruption] there is an ethical dimension, and a moral dimension, and a business dimension. If you want others to play fair, you have to play fair too.” Now, more than ever, we’ve all been drafted for the same league.”

{ Aimee Barnes | Read more }

Who moved my brain

Revaluing Time and Attention a slide show.

From the dude with the girly smooth hands Mr Merlin Man of 43 Folders fame.

The mother of all funk chords

Sheer brilliance. Listen, watch, be stunned, Kutiman mixes YouTube.

{Thru YOU}

Ultrasound nails location of the elusive G spot.. or not

Well what do you know… “One clear finding is that each woman is different. This is one reason why women are so interesting.”

Especially in Rwanda it might seem.

{ G spot | New Scientist }

We Didn’t Start the Flame War

For anyone who has ever spent too much time reading blog comments. NSFW

{ CollegeHumor Video }

You don’t know what you want

“As anyone who has ever been in a verbal disagreement can attest, people tend to give elaborate justifications for their decisions, which we have every reason to believe are nothing more than rationalisations after the event. To prove such people wrong, though, or even provide enough evidence to change their mind, is an entirely different matter: who are you to say what my reasons are?

But with choice blindness we drive a large wedge between intentions and actions in the mind. As our participants give us verbal explanations about choices they never made, we can show them beyond doubt – and prove it – that what they say cannot be true.

This gives us a rare glimpse into the complicated dynamics of self-feedback (“I chose this, I publicly said so, therefore I must like it”), which we suspect lies behind the formation of many everyday preferences.”

{ Choice blindness | New Scientist }

Objectified

How often do we really consider the things we make?

{ Objectified: A Documentary Film by Gary Hustwit }

Rough Sundays

Music to get you through rough sundays.

{ Via 56minus1 | Read the interview }

Twouble with Twitters

Twouble with Twitters