Flickriver
Flickriver: I’m loving this site. It’s a great way to browse Flickr images without having to deal with the Flickr interface, which for pure, good old-fashioned browsing is a bit on the pants side and too full of distractions. If you’ve half an hour to spare, check it out. You might find something you like.
Squeeze The LIME
I’ve been getting more and more serious about this photography lark for quite a while now, and one of the sites that I’ve been enjoying most is that of Belgian pro photographer Bert Stephani, particularly his video series Confessions of a Photographer. Today, Bert and his friend Pieter Van Impe have announced their new project [...]
Meet the meatpuppet
Matt Revell has started posting a series of interviews with the Launchpad Development Team. His interview of yours truly, Meet Graham Binns, is the first up: Matthew: What can we go and look at that you’ve done on Launchpad? Graham: The bugs pages ! Actually, a great deal of my work is work you don’t [...]
Theft
Once again, he hotlinks XKCD, but it’s a message worth spreading (click to embiggen): (And as Reynolds pointed out, The Open Rights Group fights against this sort of nonsense, so please, if you feel at all strongly about this, join them)
Portfolionation
It’s funny, isn’t it: I first set up this blog to be a place where I talked about my writing. These days it’s more of a place where I talk about my photography. What a twisted web we weave. Two people in the last week have asked me whether I have a photographic portfolio. The [...]
On religion
Beautiful quote from Catherine Deveny about religion and National Youth Day (Link, via Pharyngula): I question some of my progressive, believing mates about if they believe in Noah’s ark, the Immaculate Conception, Adam and Eve, the Resurrection, even heaven, and they squirm a little and try to change the subject. They get vague, defensive and [...]
5 million
One of my photography idols, Rebekka Gudleifsdottir , has passed 5 million views on her Flickr stream. That's insane. Congratulations Rebekka!
At the request on one Sir Warren Ellis
I'm posting this to remind all you good people about FreakAngels, a weekly web comic written by King Ellis and drawn by Paul Duffield. It's updated every Friday at noon UK time (UTC +1, if you need to know). This week's episode is #15. That'll be all. Go back to your existences.
Another petition for you
Another link to another petition for you, this time via BoingBoing (link) and the Open Rights Group: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to abandon plans to create the Information Sharing Index, a national database of all children aged between birth and eighteen. You can find the petion at petitions.pm.gov.uk as usual. Right, that's [...]
Make your mark
A friend just posted a link on Facebewk to a petion to the Prime Minister's Office to: … cease the creation of more faith schools, take existing public-funded faith schools from the control of religious bodies and convert them to unbiased schools for all. A worthy cause, I think. Go and sign it, if that [...]
To be filed under WTF
From BBC news (link): A British teacher has been found guilty in Sudan of insulting religion after she allowed her primary school class to name a teddy bear Muhammad. Gillian Gibbons, 54, from Liverpool, has been sentenced to 15 days in prison and will then be deported. Which is bad enough. I mean it's a [...]
I know that feeling
Whilst I feel his pain, it's good to know in some ways that Neil Gaiman suffers the same problems of the rest of us, even the massively inexperienced and by comparison untalented ones (Link): … I am still somewhere in the hell that's either Chapter 5 or Chapter 6 of THIS DAMNED BOOK which seems [...]
Do unto others, etc.
From BBC News: Feuding nuns force convent demise: A convent in Italy is being shut down after a fight between its last three remaining nuns. So badly did relations deteriorate between the sisters of Santa Clara in Bari that the Mother Superior ended up in hospital with scratches to her face. The best bit is [...]
Like a star
BBC News: Carvings riddle stumps villagers: The sculptures feature the same carved symbol and come with a riddle attached. Each of the heads, which are up to a foot tall, looks different but all feature the same carving – which appears to spell out the word "paradox" – and a note bearing the riddle: "Twinkle [...]
Inspiration
Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir is insanely talented. Massively, stupendously so. And, as always when I come across someone who is massively, insanely talented (or even talented and massive or insane, which isn't the case here so far as I can tell), I wanted to tell you lot about it before going and finding a corner in which [...]
The Man Who Sued God
From Religion News Blog (link): Nebraska Democratic State Senator Ernie Chambers has decided to go straight to the top in an effort to stop natural disasters from befalling the world. … The suit asks for a “permanent injunction ordering Defendant to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats.” … Chambers also cites [...]
End of the Line
Warren Ellis, and later Wil Wheaton, linked to an amazing photo essay, End of the Line. It's an awe-inspiring set of photos from the beaches of Chittagong, Bangladesh, where half of the world's supertankers get disassembled.
When bassists ruled the world
Spinal Tap played "Big Bottom" at the Wembley Live Earth gig, with a herd of bassists. Youtube video (via BoingBoing)
The future is probably weirder than we can imagine
Charlie Stross has a written a nice piece illustrating the difficulty of positing plausible possible futures. Unpacking the Zeitgeist (via Simon Willison): … it is making my head hurt because there are too many prior assumptions nested recursively inside it to unpack easily. … There are thirty years' worth of future shock condensed into this [...]
Have… no… words…
Illinois baby obtains gun permit (BBC) Bubba Ludwig may only be 10 months old, but he has already successfully obtained a gun licence in the US state of Illinois. Bubba’s father, Howard Ludwig, applied on his behalf after his grandfather gave him a shotgun as an heirloom. Bubba? Come on.
Always, always, always look before you buy
Buyer finds mummy in Spanish flat (BBC) Jordi Giro bought the flat in the Costa Brava resort of Rosas at an auction after the previous owner defaulted on her payments. He told police that he was shocked on going into the flat for the first time to discover her body sitting on the sofa. It [...]
Gotta love New Scientist. And geeks, for that matter
Today's New Scientist tells me that if you try to use Google Maps to find directions from anywhere in North America to London, you invariably get directed to swim across the Atlantic via Boston. from:New York City to: London gives the following snippet: 21. Merge onto Atlantic Ave (0.8 mi)22. Turn right at Central St [...]
