Harvey Goldsmith/Led Zep/Ebay – wtf?

I used to think that Harvey Goldsmith was a genius – one of the good guys, with a serious talent for A&R and an even bigger talent for Making Things Happen.

So it’s a bit sad to see that he’s got it all bass ackwards on something as simple (and as complicated) as ticketing for one of his shows… The long and the short if it is that he, like so many before him (stand up, Michael Eavis, live 8, the entire Mean Fiddler Group) has his knickers in a twist about sales of Led Zep tickets on Ebay.

New ways of seeing search

There are some incredible developments taking place in the field of visualising data – none more so than the Seadragon project. Now it seems that researchers at the Uni of Southampton have gone one step further and created a search engine capable of constructing semantic spaces which mirror physical reality, in order to catalogue, display and search for photographs.

Camera as confessional?

The Guardian has a piece today about Phil Collins’, one of the Turner Prize nominees, new show: Created by gathering interviews from ten people who say that reality TV ruined their lives, the piece explores what happens when we turn to the camera, the media and the power of television to fix ours selves – and more specifically, what happens when it goes wrong.

One researcher tellingly describes a woman’s reaction to her predicament as “pure TV gold” – even though she had been lied-to, betrayed, mistreated and insulted.

Nick Bostrom Scares me

He looks nice enough, and he’s very clever. But Nick Bostrom has this slightly alarming tendency to talk in universal terms.

Now, I know that a sense of perspective is important but reading his stuff is a little bit like trying to get careers advice out of Zaphod Beeblebrox. It’s interesting, entertaining, thoughtful and new. It’s also slightly unhinged in an ‘are you going to pull a probability drive out of your arse’? sort of a way.

Elizabeth Hasselback gets Whoopi-ed

Combining several of my favourite subjects (reproductive rights, feminism, silly rich girls), here is Whoopi Goldberg pasting Elizabeth Hasselback to the wall for her ridiculous views on abortion. Enjoy!

Via Feministing and Dollymix

What is it with the old skool?

I’m an avid reader and supporter of the Guardian’s Free Our Data campaign. You can read more about the campaign here: Free Our Data.

From their website:

“Government-funded and approved agencies such as the Ordnance Survey and UK Hydrographic Office and Highways Agency are government-owned agencies; they collect data on our behalf. So why can’t we get at that data as easily as we can Google Maps or the Xtides program?

Booze makes you clevererererer

I knew it! Deep down I always knew it. It is big AND clever to drink.

According to today’s Register, some Kiwis have proven that a few cheery jars a day is good for your brain (if you’re a rat) and stops you from walking on electrified black squares… or something.

Clearly I’ve been neglecting the brain juice. Gotta go – got some catching up to do…

(I wonder what Ben Goldacre would make of all this…)

via The Register and Scientific American.