Author: mklang

Never Whistle While You're Pissing

A badly kept secret about myself is that I suffer from a sci-fi/fantasy/murder/mystery deficiency. It’s a bit like dyslexia (which oddly enough is a very difficult word to spell… is this sarcasm on the part of the non-dyslectics?). Anyway it’s a bit like dyslexia in that I like, enjoy and get sci-fi/fantasy films but it’s really grueling work for me to read even the shorter books. Reading Lord of the Rings was almost as difficult as reading Joyce’s Ulysses – and I enjoyed the latter more! In the interest of honesty I admit to reading Dan Brown’s Da Vinci code but it made me cringe with embarrassment at its banality and silliness – I would have preferred to read a porn magazine on the bus but I realized that the rest of the bus probably didn’t care what I read.

Due to this deficiency I am often being educated by more knowledgeable people (mainly sci-fi/fantasy nerds and most under 16) about points I need to know. Most recently one of my students emailed me a link to the Wikipedia page on the fascinating Celine’s Laws.

Celine’s Laws are a series of three laws regarding government and social interaction attributed to the fictional character Hagbard Celine from Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus! Trilogy. Celine, a gentleman anarchist, serves as a mouthpiece for Wilson’s libertarian, anarchist and sometimes completely uncategorizable ideas about the nature of mankind. Celine’s Laws are outlined in the trilogy by a manifesto titled Never Whistle While You’re Pissing.

The three laws are

  1. National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity.
  2. Accurate communication is possible only in a non-punishing situation.
  3. An honest politician is a national calamity.

Pessimistic and reasonably accurate. I like it, very dystopian so I guess I have found another sci-fi/fantasy book to punish myself with.

Oh, I don’t mean that I don’t read fiction. Right now I am on the final chapters of the brilliant and strange Haruki Murakami’s A Wild Sheep Chase.

Posted on by mklang

The Art of Community

One of the best things about the internet is the amount of cool material is available online. Now The Art of Community by Jono Bacon is available under a Creative Commons license. Here is some information from his website http://www.artofcommunityonline.org/

When I started work on The Art of Community I was really keen that it should be a body of work that all communities have access to. My passion behind the book was to provide a solid guide to building, energizing and enabling pro-active, productive and enjoyable communities. I wanted to write a book that covered the major areas of community leadership, distilling a set of best practices and experiences, and illustrated by countless stories, anecdotes and tales.

But to give this book real value, I was keen to ensure the book could be freely accessed and shared. I wanted to not only break down the financial barrier to the information, but also enable communities to share it to have the content be as useful as possible in the scenarios, opportunities and problems that face them. To make this happen O’Reilly needed to be on board to allow the book to be freely copied and shared, in an era in which these very freedoms threaten the publishing world.

Even if you don’t buy it, I would be hugely grateful that if you like it, please go and review it on Amazon. This is a hugely contribution. Thanks!

You can download the The Art of Community here.

Posted on by mklang

Effective Copyright

In March this year William Patry presented at the Society for Computers and Law

William Patry went on to surprise many by his emphatic rejection of an approach to copyright which classified it as property. He sees it as a creature of a government programme, and believes that that should bring with it an approach akin to that applied to government housing or educational initiatives. In fact, the copyright debate is dominated by references to moral cases and what is right and just, with scant account taken of the public interest or economic realities.

This is a very refreshing view of where copyright should be from one of the most important copyright figures in law today. Recently I ordered his book Moral Panics and the Copyright Wars which I hope (and believe) is as good as its hype so worth reading. You may want to check out William Patry’s blog.

Posted on by mklang

XKCD book finally out

The long awaited event has finally occurred, xkcd: volume 0 is now available from the XKCD website. Price 18? dollars, rubles, sheep? it doesn’t say. I want!

xkcd: volume 0 is the first xkcd book! It features selections from the first 600 comics, including various author and fan favorites. It was lovingly assembled from high-resolution original scans of the comics (the mouseover text is discreetly included), and features a lot of doodles, notes, and puzzles in the margins.

The book is published by BreadPig, a company founded by my friend Alexis, and their portion of the profits will go to build a school in Laos through the charity Room to Read.

Posted on by mklang

Fake youtube viral from Denmark

Politiken.dk has an article revealing the truth about #Karen26 the YouTube film where a young Danish mother with a baby in her arms is trying to find the father of her child. She has forgotten his name. The youtube information includes:

Help me find the Father of Little August. If you can help please mail danishkaren26@gmail.com, see more about August here: http://karen26.mono.net/

This film was a huge success and it was only later (even if many saw it as a bluff straight off) that it came out that it was a paid advertisement from the Danish tourist board. Part of the visit Denmark campaign. Blogger adland nicely sums it up

Forget Tivoli, that teeny disappointment of a statue known as the little mermaid, the beautiful light of Skagen that inspired world renowned art, Legoland, the quaint walking street Strøget, Danish design, the ‘lawless’ Christiania with its art, music and funny cigarettes and open-minded living. These days Denmark is most known for cartoons that offend muslims, deporting muslims asylum seekers by forcing them out of churches in the middle of the night, and hippie-land Christiania is about to be torn down. Good thing they still have loose women and unprotected sex to sell the country by, right? Come to in Denmark.

What a wonderful image of Denmark. Visit Denmark and meet slutty women. I really doubt that (1) danish women would like this message, and (2) that the person who approved it was a woman. 

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Men lie more than women… or maybe women get caught out half as much?

Men lie more than women! Hardly a newsflash from the Daily Mail. But they do list the top ten lies from men and women:

Top ten lies men tell:

1. Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine
2. This will be my last pint
3. No, your bum doesn’t look big in that
4. I had no signal
5. My battery died
6. Sorry, I missed your call
7. I didn’t have that much to drink
8. I’m on my way
9. It wasn’t that expensive
10. I’m stuck in traffic

Top ten lies women tell:

1. Nothing’s wrong, I’m fine
2. Oh, this isn’t new, I’ve had it ages
3. It wasn’t that expensive
4. It was in the sale
5. I’m on my way
6. I don’t know where it is, I haven’t touched it
7. I didn’t have that much to drink
8. I’ve got a headache
9. No, I didn’t throw it away
10. Sorry, I missed your call

Posted on by mklang

Twitter Power

When Lance Amstrong tweeted:

“Hey LA — get out of your cars and get on your bikes. Time to ride. 7:30 tomorrow am. Griffith Park, LA Zoo parking lot. See you there.”

His fans showed up! Read about the way in which Lance Armstrong is using twitter to communicate with his fans & take them out for ride in the LA Times.

Posted on by mklang