Monthly Archives: January 2012

the simple art of murder

Posted on by January 21, 2012
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There are things which are interesting again and again, forever. ↑Raymond Chandler‘s essay ‘↑The Simple Art of Murder‘ (1950 [1944]) I already have read multiple times, quoted from it in ‘↑Cyberanthropology,’ and so on. Now I just stumbled over it again, via the ↵cyberpunk reading list, where the essay is commented like this: When reading it, replace ‘mystery novel’ with ‘sci-fi novel’ and its amazing. Every complaint the Cyberpunk authors had about ‘classic sci-fi’ is there as a complaint about ‘classic detective stories.’ – Logan Joshua Ratner We ↵just had it that William Gibson prefers Dashiell Hammett and is not … Continue reading →

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rosa

Posted on by January 19, 2012
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ROSA is an epic sci-fi short film that takes place in a post-apocalyptic world where all natural life has disappeared. From the destruction awakes Rosa, a cyborg deployed from the Kernel project, mankind’s last attempt to restore the earth’s ecosystem. Rosa will soon learn that she is not the only entity that has awakened and must fight for her survival. ORELLANA, JESÚS. 2011. ↑Rosa [animated short film]. Barcelona: Orellana Pictures. … Continue reading →

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propaganda war games

Posted on by January 15, 2012
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In ↵manchurian operations club among other things I mused about the detailled historical naturalism of ↑Kuma Reality Games‘ ‘Kuma\War’ [scroll down a bit]. Now those games seem to have generated a dramatic backlash into empirical reality. The ↑Day 6 Documentary: Propaganda Games by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation: You don’t have to be a Middle East expert to recognize the relationship between Iran and its western foes has gotten just a wee bit tense.     There’s been sabre rattling military exercises, threats to slow the flow of oil to a trickle, downed drones and uranium enrichment in a highly protected … Continue reading →

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church of kopimism

Posted on by January 15, 2012
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Oh, how I do like this—first ↑The Pirate Bay was a website tracking torrents, then a ↑political party sprouted from it, now there’s a religion. In Sweden ‘Det Missionerande Kopimistsamfundet’ (‘↑Missionary Church of Kopimism‘) is officially recognized as a religion since late December 2011. Especially I do embrace the reference to ↑Aleister Crowley via the slogan ‘Copy and Paste what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law.’ [all in all there are five chapters on Crowley [rhymes on holy] in my old book ‘↓Metatrickster‘ (2004)]     At last year’s biannual conference (14-17 September in Vienna, Austria) of … Continue reading →

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e-lectricity

Posted on by January 14, 2012
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In a small township on the outskirts of Johannesburg, South Africa, paraffin has become the currency for trade. However, a rising paraffin shortage is threatening to plummet the township into complete darkness. Walter Hlase, a shy and introverted inventor decides that if he can create a new renewable energy source, he will gain the respect and friendship of the townsfolk. But is this easier said than done? MANNEKE, MIKLAS. ↑E-lectricity. [short film]. Johannesburg: AFDA. via GK at Facebook—tnx! … Continue reading →

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who is jumping?

Posted on by December 30, 2011
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zeph’s pop culture quiz #11 Who is jumping? And where to? I saw the movie as a kid on TV and since then I take the scene to be one of the most hilarious moments in motion picture history. It’s as fine a piece of comedy as possible. Spiced with a huge load of self-irony.     Just leave a comment with your educated guess—you can ask for additional hints, too. [Leaving a comment is easy; just click the ‘Leave a comment’ at the end of the post and fill in the form. If it’s the first time you post … Continue reading →

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abandoned asylums

Posted on by January 14, 2012
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↑Environmental Graffiti carries a ↑collection of 34 photographies shot at 10 different abandoned and meanwhile decaying former mental institutions in Great Britain. The pictures are haunting and really give me the creeps. After viewing them you know that all the versions of ↵Arkham Asylum are not the products of imagination.  via ↑entry at ↑infocult—tnx! … Continue reading →

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lolspeak thesis

Posted on by January 13, 2012
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That’s just wonderful and remembers me of ye ole days when I was still compiling a ↑dictionary of online lingo … ABSTRACT: Lolspeak, which I characterize as an internet dialect of English that is used in conjunction with images of cats, exhibits distinctive variations and patterns which differ from those of standard English. Lolspeak has influenced other language use and may have a significant impact on the English language, due in part to the internet’s role in the evolution of English (Crystal “Language and the Internet,” 2006:26-27). To approach this data, I created a multi-modal discourse transcription technique for analyzing … Continue reading →

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orwellian documentaries

Posted on by January 13, 2012
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In the sidebar of his blog ↑Dialogic blogger Thivai Abhor maintains a nice list of documentary films which are available online. After having skimmed through a bit, my personal interests were most matched by the three shortly described below. But Dialogic also points to ↑Top Documentary Films, a blog reviewing, commenting, and linking to 1800+ documentary films, all available online, and ↑sorted into categories. ‘↑All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace‘ (Curtis 2011) A series of films about how humans have been colonized by the machines they have built. Although we don’t realize it, the way we see everything … Continue reading →

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