Ektopia

I’m not sure how safe for viewing at work Lego S & M is but it goes on and here’s the evidence.

Cory Doctorow’s latest Guardian column - Our dangerous statistical ignorance.

“The single most pernicious threat to liberty today is humanity’s natural
tendency to misunderstand the statistics of rare events. We’re just not wired to have good intuition about things that happen with extreme infrequency.

I’ll prove it. If we were good at understanding statistics, then here’s what would happen when you flew to Las Vegas. You’d step out of McCarran airport, stare down the Strip at all those glittering, palatial casinos and say to yourself, “Holy crap – think of all the suckers who must have lost everything to finance this place!” Instead, our foolish minds are filled with thoughts like, “Man, look at all the money in this town – I’m going to win big!” And another casino is built.”

… read on…

Between the 11th of March 2001 and the 11th of March 2002, Ellie Harrison photographed everything that she ate. That’s 1640 photos.

All food must be photographed before it is eaten.
All food photographed must then be consumed.
Any additional food eaten, not included in the original photograph, must be photographed separately (second helpings, extra portions, desserts etc).
In places where photography is prohibited (cinemas etc), food must be photographed prior to entering or not consumed at all.
In the case of party food (crisps in bowls etc), wherever possible all handfuls should be photographed.
Liquid is exempt, however drinks which are considered to have some solid content should be photographed (soups etc).
Chewing gum is also exempt as it is not consumable.
If any of these rules are broken, details must be recorded in the log.

Now that’s just obsessive…and I kind of like that kind if thing. I had the opportunity to check out the hard copy version of her Eat 22 book last weekend. The rules -

I love it when trees engulf things.

There are 46,000 pieces of plastic litter in every square mile of ocean in the world. Fran Crowe walked the beaches of East Anglia with the aim of collecting just one single mile’s worth of debris. She did it too! I really love the obsessive nature of how she went about her task! Now she’s exhibiting her collections locally.

As the Christian Filipinos get ready for their customary crucifixion ritual the local health authority have issued a health and safety alert in the form of some friendly crucifixion guidelines -

They have urged them to get tetanus vaccinations before they flagellate themselves and are nailed to crosses

To practise good hygiene.

To check the condition of the whips they plan to use to lash their back and make sure that they are well-maintained.

Make sure that the nails used to fix people to crosses must be properly disinfected first.

Happy Easter everyone! [via]

Steve Greenberg has created a concise cartoon about bottled water. Enlightening.

Public Domain Donor - “Why let all of your ideas die with you? Current Copyright law prevents anyone from building upon your creativity for 70 years after your death. Live on in collaboration with others. Make an intellectual property donation. By donating your IP into the public domain you will “promote the progress of science and useful arts” (U.S. Constitution). Ensure that your creativity will live on after you are gone, make a donation today.”[via]

The Interrobang (the mutation between an interrogative point and a bang/exclamation mark) could be the most useful punctuation mark that you don’t use. It was invented by Martin K. Speckter in the 1960s and was designed to be used in a few ways - “(1) asks a question in an excited manner, (2) expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question, or (3) asks a rhetorical question”. I often struggle with what to use in such instances and often use a “!?” or “?!” and even miss them both out sometimes when I’m really troubled by what to do! While the “!?” and “?!” are semi-acceptable in informal writing I’ve always felt a little embarrassed when I’ve use them. Not any more though.

I propose that an International Interrobang Appreciation Society (IIAS) should be created to force all typeface creators to include the useful mark and also keyboard manufacturers to include one - maybe in place of the tilde and preferably on an Ektopia Modified Quektopia keyboard. Anyways, I don’t have the time or know-how to save the interrobang (apart from use it here and everywhere else I can) so I offer you the International Interrobang Appreciation Society (IIAS) to use as you will. The International Interrobang Appreciation Society (IIAS) is licenced under a
Creative Commons Licence so use the interrobang, create websites, print t-shirts, publish books, hold conventions, protest peacefully or do anything else you feel is fit for getting the interrobang back in business. Good luck…I have a feeling we’ll need it!

De-Baptise Yourself - “Liberate yourself from the Original Mumbo-Jumbo that liberated you from the Original Sin you never had. You can display your Certificate of De-Baptism proudly framed in your hallway (porch, loo, lean-to, etc.) as an outward sign of the inner rationality that inspires your being…After due deliberation, I ________ having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.” [via]