Speak like a pirate day, every day!

Congratulations to us, there’s now at least one pirate in the EU parliament!

I don’t hold representative democracy in high regard, but it’s going to be interesting to see if Christian will get anything good done; Here’s hoping the green or left block buys him off by adopting the pirate platform in exchange for his support!

The panorama above is from the voting place at the central station in Stockholm Sunday evening, and the image below is the same panorama I always do whenever I’m on Skeppsholmen and am waiting for the bloody bus.

Vote Mateusz!

Tobias Hermansson is an evil man that enjoys clubbing seals, tearing wings off of flies, and doesn’t relent in his insistance that I look like Pedro. He used the power of Photoshop to make his case more convincing:

Speaking of voting, I’d urge all of you eligible to vote in the upcoming Swedish EU parliament election to support the Pirate Party. For real, if you don’t vote for them, you probably hate democracy. And puppies. What the fuck do you have against puppies you puppy–hating democracy–hater‽

Seriously though: “If voting changed anything they’d make it illegal” is more or less correct, but you could vote PP for shits and giggles if for no other reason. If you actually believe representative democracy is a good idea (oh, aren’t you adorable!) you ought to vote Pirate Party because every other party, left to right, doesn’t understand how the laws we’re passing on a national as well as international level are undermining every citizens right to privacy, and by extension all the provision that are in place that try to ensure a transparent democratic process and private communication and debate.

Who watchers the watchers, and so on. Go vote, you lazy bum. Piss off a few retarded politicians.

You’re being a smartass again.

I’m not even a real doctor; I’m just a veterinarian who got tired of dogs. It’s been three years and somehow no one’s asked to see my, uh, what do you call it… ‘human license’?

→ A magazine for astronauts and the rest of us: Collider #2

What would you say are the elements of personal charm? What resources would you recommend for someone seeking to be charming?

→ Ask.Metafilter.com, Astro Zombie: The Elements of Charm

Your enthusiasm is awesome but your lack of organisation has made me want to cry and/or bring a gun to class on several occasions.

→ University of Alberta, Pete Hurd: Past Anonymous Student Evaluation Comments

[flv:https://monocultured.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/hattochblas.flv https://monocultured.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/hattochblas.png 640 360]

Yesterday I was acting doorman at Enrico Pallazzo again, and at one point some guys with instruments showed up outside. Jan shot a video which serves to teach you two things:

1) Keep drunk girls the fuck away from tambourines.
2) Boys often believe that hats make up for practice when it comes to music; this is wrong.

It’s not only your mothers day.

I always miss holidays so it’s a good thing that other people keep track. Like Nate DiMe of The Memory Palace for example, who celebrated his tenth podcast by doing one about mothers day. I didn’t know the background to this holiday, and if you don’t know the story either, give it a listen and then go and read up on Ann Jarvis.

[audio:https://monocultured.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/episode-10_-international-brotherhood-of-mothers.mp3]

Pirates, pirates all around!

I’ve linked to NPR:s Planet Money before. This time they have an eye-opening story on the pirates outside the coast of Somalia: A ship belonging to a Danish company is boarded and what ensues is a straightforward business negotiation. It’s the most educational 25 minutes you’ll have this week. You’re welcome.

[audio:https://monocultured.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/planetmoneypirates.mp3]

Also, in regards to what Žižek and others have said about capitalism being the superstructure onto which democracy or tyranny is latched:

Once they get online unsupervised, do we expect Chinese Internet users, many of them young, to rush to download the latest report from Amnesty International or read up on Falun Gong on Wikipedia? Or will they opt for The Sopranos or the newest James Bond flick? Why assume that they will suddenly demand more political rights, rather than the Friends or Sex in the City lifestyles they observe on the Internet?

→ Boston Review, Texting Toward Utopia: Does the Internet spread democracy? By Evgeny Morozov.

blod och pingpong

A couple of days ago Philipp Rode from LSE (London School of Economics and Political Science) held a lecture at Chalmers on the sustainability of cities and changes we’ll be forced to make. Ana invited me to the dinner afterwards, and rather soon we were talking about what might be the driving force behind such changes.

Philipp seemed to suggest that economic incentives might be enough for private enterprise to adopt a greener stance and long term goals rather than focusing on next years dividends; I don’t buy it, but it’s a majority view and a model of change that most people prefer right now to Earth Liberation Force.

My political analysis is very traditional: It’s class war all the way, baby, and the changes for public good (eight hour workday, voting, right to trial, etc) have all come about with the implicit or explicit threat of violence or revolution. Nothing is ever given, only taken, which posits that whatever economic measures that governments would have to put in place would be met with tremendous resistance.

The objective must be to create a model for and mode of co-operation where radical ecological direct action as well as large scale economic systems can be included as viable routes. How to bring together actors in a way so progress is made in an inclusive and progressive way, one small step at the time? How can a largely uninformed and busy public ever take responsibility and charge of their societies in the long run?

Maybe alternative reality games (ARG:s) can be seen as a method for co-operation? Check out all the smart stuff that Jane McGonigals has to say; She’s is creating ARG:s and thinking about games for a living. As opposed to a traditional game, where little is at stake and there’s no ambiguity as to the puppet masters role, think of harnessing our collective intelligence in search of a solution to a particular problem. I don’t know how far you can abstract “reality” or parcel it up so that people with little knowledge could play with it, but if you could turn the tedious task of long term planning into something fun you’d actually have people who’d want to participate:

As the leading edge of research, industry, politics, social innovation and cultural production increasingly seek to harness the wisdom of the crowd and the power of the collective, it is urgent that we create engaging, firsthand experiences of collective intelligence for as wide and as general a young audience as possible. Search and analysis games are poised to become our best tool for helping as many and diverse a population as possible develop an interest and gain direct experience participating in our ever-more collective network culture.

→ Jane McGonigal, Why I love bees: A study in collective intelligence gaming. [pdf]

Remember how Internet used to be something that you thought only geeks would ever use? Or when email seemed like a fad and you never thought you’d own a cellphone? Well, if you want to be ahead of the curve you really should read what Jane has to say.

Case in point: Fold.it, a game where you muck around with protein in search for a cure for cancer. You learn the rules of the game, and then you’re doing science. For real.

End of show, summery.

The course that I’ve been teaching at Chalmers is over. The fifth year students are finishing their masters projects and there’s some running around and mild panic regarding the final exabition, but for all intents and purposes the course itself is over.

It’s tempting to attempt a summery of things that were experienced and lessons learned, but I refrain from doing one giant monster post on the subject and instead maybe shower you with the golden sparks of detail.

For example: Architect Carl-Johan can be seen below, pointing in the general direction of something visionary and awesome. He joined me and Ana two weeks ago in doing the final critique of the projects. He’s brother of the artist formely known as Andreas-in-Gothenburg, with whom he shares laughter and a mischievous wink.

I smell a target demographic!

Judging from the people visiting here yesterday, maybe I just ought to rename the blog and start selling blow-up E.T. dolls or something. (And all you people who scoffed at my suggestion of doing an intergalactic Hustler! I could have been filthy rich! Hey, maybe it’s not too late? Who’s in? I need models who enjoy nudity and tentacles!)

In other news, here’s a pdf with instructions on how to handle yourself in case the swine flu goes pandemic. In my head this might as well be a zombie survival guide (stock up on food, water and guns) with the exception that maybe you don’t have to “smash their brains” in order to feel safe.

→ PandemicInfluenza Preparation and Response: A Citizen’s Guide [via Ask.Metafilter.com]

Required reading: Consumer-mediated reality.

Signs do, however, point clearly to Apple steering away from consumer as creator of data and toward consumer as data itself. I no longer create the data I sync, the data is me and it syncs on its own.

→ @Lonelysandwich, Adam Lisagor: Why me?

[…] and I will turn to her and say, Honey, uh, honey, there is a certain feeling but I cannot name it and cannot cite a precedent-type feeling, but trust me, dearest, wow, do I ever feel it for you, right now. And what will that be like, that stupid standing there, just a man and a woman and the wind, and nobody knowing what nobody is meaning?

→ The New Yorker: JON by George Saunders.

Certainly the psychologists who have prescribed so much Prozac that it now shows up in the piss of penguins, saw what they did as necessary. And the doctors who enable the profitable blackmail practiced by the medical industries see it all as part of the most technologically advanced medical system in the world. And the teacher, who sees no problem with 20% of her fourth graders being on Ritalin, in the name of “appropriate behavior,” is happy to have control of her classroom. None of these feel like dupes or pawns of a corporate state. It seems like just the way things are.

→ Joe Bageant, Escape from the zombie food court. [Via metafilter.com]