Author: mklang

Grumpy old men

TechnoLlama has written an excellent rant against Helprin’s Digital Barbarians here is a short excerpt:

Several things bother me about what I have read about Digital Barbarianism. Obviously, the title is a non-too-subtle slight against digital culture, those of us engaged in online environments are the barbarians at the gates, and real creators and civilised people who must stand up against the onslaught of the unwashed masses, upstarts, amateurs and misguided young kids. I have read several excerpts, and Helprin comes across as a grumpy old man who is not actually defending copyright, but attacking youth.

It’s well written and argumented so read it!

Posted on by mklang

Postdocs

The cool cool Humlab in Umeå has

five international postdoctoral positions in the digital humanities are now available at HUMlab, Umeå University, Sweden from September 1, 2009 or January 15, 2010. The call is open, but 1-3 positions may be allocated to the areas of “religion and the digital”, “digital journalism”, “architecture and the digital”, “next generation digital humanities tools” and/or “visualization in the digital humanities”.

Posted on by mklang

Give grandma a blog

From the Guardian: A Spanish woman who is thought to be the world’s oldest blogger has died at the age of 97. María Amelia López began blogging at 95!

In a 2007 interview, López told the Guardian that the internet had given her a new lease of life. In one of her last posts, published in February, she wrote; “When I’m on the internet, I forget about my illness. The distraction is good for you – being able to communicate with people. It wakes up the brain, and gives you great strength.”

Her first post was made on her 95th birthday. It read: “Today it’s my birthday and my grandson, who is very stingy, gave me a blog.”

Will we be blogging when I am 95?

Posted on by mklang

Wikipedia goes Creative Commons

The Wikimedia Foundation board has approved the licensing changes voted on by the community of Wikipedia and its sister sites. The accompanying press release includes this quote from Creative Commons founder Lawrence Lessig:

“Richard Stallman’s commitment to the cause of free culture has been an inspiration to us all. Assuring the interoperability of free culture is a critical step towards making this freedom work. The Wikipedia community is to be congratulated for its decision, and the Free Software Foundation thanked for its help. I am enormously happy about this decision.”

Read all about it here.

Posted on by mklang

How not to prepare for a run

In a few hours I am heading of to the starting line for GöteborgsVarvet the local annual half marathon and I am really, really not prepared. Some of the stuff is down to bad excuses – probably most of it. An ischias injury stopped my running for a few months. The yearly summer allergy kicked in a week ago which is annoying. So much for the bad luck section.

The real bad stuff was going to Uppsala to attend a great workshop this week. Lots of sitting and eating – the only exercise was intellectual and there was plenty of that. Great and entertaining but really crap for the running. Not to mention the fact that the nights were late and with too many beers.

Anyway I am off to the run soon way in the back at starting group 15 (way in the back) nr. 52041 – hope to make it around 🙂

Posted on by mklang

Stuffed birds in the Cathedral?

About five years ago the artist Banksy performed hang and run art. What he would do was to take art with him into a museum and hang it up among the other artwork. This is a fun idea since most museum security is concerned with keeping the visitors from destroying or removing art – not adding to it.

See more about Banksy’s hang and run here.

While in Uppsala this week I came across an interesting variation on the theme. While attending a workshop on mashups we were taken on a guided tour of Uppsala Cathedral. It’s an amazing building filled with loads of dead kings, queens, nobility and a random selection of famous people. In short its a nice place to tour.

At the end of the Cathedral is the Vasa Chapel were the Gustav Vasa is buried with his wife (nr 9 on map). The chapel has a gate and sitting on the gate someone has stuck small stuffed birds…

photo: stuffed birds by wrote (cc by-nc)

The birds may look realistic but I can assure they they are very dead. When I asked our guide he was surprised to see them and my guess is that this is a variation of Banksy’s guerilla art project. Lots of fun. I wonder how long they have been there and how long they will remain there.

Posted on by mklang

Catching the runner

What would happen if the poor old Wile E. C0yote ever caught Road Runner? Everyone needs goals in life and what happens when we attain the goals? In the worst case we end up like this brilliant cartoon on Popped Culture

Popped Culture is also looking for the origins of the cartoon – So if anyone knows where it’s from contact Popped Culture.

Anyone know where this image is from? I’ve been scouring the interwebs trying to source it, but to no avail. It has the look of Family Guy, but doesn’t appear to be.

Posted on by mklang

The worlds happiest places

According to a new report released by the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), happiness levels are highest in northern European countries. In their World Factbook the happiest top ten are

1. Denmark
2. Finland
3. The Netherlands
4. Sweden
5. Ireland
6. Canada
7. Switzerland
8. New Zealand
9. Norway
10. Belgium

On average, around 60% of people in OECD countries reported a high satisfaction with their life, and a slightly higher share for their life five years from now. Among OECD countries, the share of people reporting high life satisfaction ranges between 85% or more in the Netherlands, Finland and Denmark, and less than 30% in Turkey, Hungary and the Slovak Republic. The non-OECD countries report lower life-satisfaction but are generally more optimistic about their future. Satisfaction with current life is around 20% or lower in Indonesia, China, India and South Africa, but higher in Brazil.

The only thing that confuses me is that Finland is in second place! I like Finland but I was always told that Finns are generally depressive lot. An article about the OECD report from Forbes.

Posted on by mklang