February 28, 2010
Must be something sports-related…

Must be something sports-related…

February 7, 2010
what’s in a name?

@F414 There is no such thing as “capitalism” #

@sdv_duras @F414 [..] are you going to explain why we cannot describe the dominant socio-economic system in a term ? #

@F414 @sdv_duras “capitalism”is based ona simplistic,monolithic view of reality that is in turn based ona simplistic,deterministic view of history #

@sdv_duras @F414 of course I disagree but then you already knew that didn’t you, but then I tend to think that naming something helps us understand it #

@pareidoliac @sdv_duras @f414 naming may assist understanding and equally contribute to making hidden other things… #

@sdv_duras @pareidoliac sure i agree with that, but I would still maintain that a definition and name is a useful starting point… for example without # the name and concept of ‘feminism’ … well we know what that would mean in our society # […] I’m not speaking as a leftist here but as someone interested in why specific acts of naming are being refused # for example where ANT theorists refuse the notion of capitalism they end up with something un-understandable by non academics # for some reason that really bothers me… #

@pareidoliac @sdv_duras well i agree with @f414 that capitalism tends to be used in totalizing ways that are hardly productive of understanding # when used by non academics, ‘capitalism’ often tends to be entirely absurd! # when used by Marxist academics, ‘capitalism’ tends to play into a game of reification # perhaps if those who like the term were less ambitious with their goals… # i wonder if ‘capitalism’ is as misleading as ‘democracy’ or ‘terrorism’ for that matter? #

@sdv_duras @pareidoliac - that’s a different thing entirely, a matter of academicism, not being one its not my concern # a term like capital is a short hand which you can unpack and use, it’s a tool how you unpack it and use it is what amatters #

@pareidoliac @sdv_duras i agree with you re: ‘capital’ yet when we look at so many cases of how this is unpacked and used… that IS what matters! #

@sdv_duras @pareidoliac - if you reject all the huamn ‘isms’ including religion, science, democracy, liberal etc you reject all human knowledge #

February 6, 2010
Tweets of Interest: Facebook Edition

@1D4TW “FACEBOOK.COM: intelligence agencies’ espionage site” http://bit.ly/b0wtJW

@PhilippaBeeb RT @cward1e The sudden rise of facebook as portal for news is staggering. This data gives weight to my anecdotes about my students http://bit.ly/bqjSlv

@PD_Smith Five journalists have spent the last five days locked up in a farmhouse in France w/ only Facebook & Twitter to rely on http://bit.ly/bpYCCY

@evgenymorozov the world is coming to an end: New York Review of Books reviews books about Facebook http://bit.ly/9vgYq5

@ybalagian The Post-Breakup Facebook Effect http://bit.ly/8LMLT5

More Information than You Ever Wanted [pdf] - link between time on facebook and romantic jealousy http://bit.ly/1ger84 via @researchdigest

@semioticmonkey APA Style Blog: How to Cite Twitter and Facebook, Part II: Reference List Entries and In-Text Citations http://tinyurl.com/yhxrbjp #biblio

January 4, 2010
"Social participation is the oil of the digital economy. Life itself is put to work. The Social Web is free for us to use but the middleman is paid with our data. We are willing give up our anonymity for convenience and “free services.” We are then here to be traced and not to lost our names. Time spent on Facebook and Twitter stops us from pursuing the expropriation of the expropriators. It is a classic double bind. Many people depend on their web-presence and the wealth of their network when they enter the job market… The future may be user-led but each click for the benefit of the commons is also potential, profit in the pockets of the intermediaries."

semioticmonkey on Dec 30th, 2009

December 20, 2009
Twitter Mosaic - the human network.

via wildcat2030 + Brian Solis


I love how glitchy it looks. Apt :)

Twitter Mosaic - the human network.

via wildcat2030 + Brian Solis

I love how glitchy it looks. Apt :)

November 30, 2009
#isitme or are Brizzly users uber alles?

#isitme or are Brizzly users uber alles?

November 27, 2009
Irony is a class of its own

Irony is a class of its own

November 21, 2009
/grasping

/grasping

November 6, 2009
my @sixwordstories

  • Fearful, we stooped sudating.. then flinched.
  • Hoarse, I trade drops for hammers.
  • “You’re strange yourself,” she said. “Fine.”
  • She looked at him. He misunderstood.
  • Chapter I “Dialing remodeled geocities, altering their vistas” Chapter II “Depopulated, home changed with the cursory” Chapter III “Sans serf, sans master, L’Aventurier understood.” Chapter IV “Someday, he’ll touch the maximal. Maybe.”
  • Adventured in the Wilderness. Hence, parched.

October 23, 2009
#BNP #BBCqt > tweets of interest

@hannahnicklin My 2p: Putting the #BNPonBBC doesn’t legitimise them,1000s of people voting for them does.People are racist, we need to face this in public. +

@autobees First car crash point. Jack Straw should not be trying to compete with the BNP on who has the toughest immigration policy. Argh! #bbcqt +

@syrianews Warsi calls for limits on numbers of immigrants. Idiot. She is playing the BNP’s game. Idiot. +

@pickledpolitics Sayeeda Warsi and Jack Straw position on immigration is the same. She just said it better #BBCQT +

@syrianews They are trying to be better immigrant-bashers than the BNP. This is how low British politics has sunk. #bbcqt +

@pickledpolitics But the Conservative Party’s policy on immigration is the same as Labour’s. #BBCQT +

@pickledpolitics Chris Huhne sounding a bit hawkish on immigration… unusual for him. Suspect they’re all trying to outmaneuver Griffin #BBCQT +

@hannahnicklin #bbcqt I’m so bored with this fallacious anti-immigration rhetoric -a debate entirely cultivated by lazy right wing media +

@hannahnicklin And it hurts that Labour can’t acknowledge how bloody necessary immigration is to our ageing population, and groaning public sector #bbcqt +

@syrianews Griffin: we are the aborigines here (FACTUALLY BOLLOCKS) +

@LostLondon Is anyone going to tell them all idiots they would not be so many immigrants if they stopped messing other countries up?! #bbcqt +

@hannahnicklin OK, according to the internet, if a ‘proper Britain’ has to be as of 17000 years ago, we need to be Ukranian http://bit.ly/2Wp6j8 #bbcqt +

@autobees All of the parties are tripping over the topic of immigration to show they have the toughest policy & are pandering to BNP tactics. +

@autobees The most challenging questions on immigration came from patriotic British Black/Asian people. Interesting. +

@autobees One of the moments where the audience laughed & heckled the most: indigenous English are like Indigenous Red Indians & were there 1st. +

@jamiepotter RT @paulbradshaw: If you think #bbcqt somehow burst the BNP bubble remind yourself of these reactions http://bit.ly/3yMOMa +

@ninapower Never mind Griffin, the whole debate took place on racist terms. Fucking depressing. +

@kpunk99 RT @bat020 Warsi’s drivel demonstrates how the very presence of the BNP pulls political discourse sharply to the right #bbcqt +

@kpunk99 Of course the reverse is also true. Reason that the BNP has gained ground is how right wing the mainstream discourse on immigration is. +

@nextleft #bbcqt ‘cast conventional politicians in a largely favourable light which they have not enjoyed for many a month’ John Kampfner, guardian +

October 20, 2009
"Reformers rarely feel responsible for the bad that their fantastic new reform effects. Their focus is always on the good. The bad is someone else’s problem."

- Lawrence Lessig

@pareidoliac: this notion that Deleuze belongs to a Marxist lineage amounts to a betrayal of Deleuze’s philosophy to my mind

@sdv_duras: @pareidoliac - yes I understand this ‘betrayal’ you suggest, but actually it is you who wish to restrict #Deleuze by following Delandas line the mystery to me is why you would want to, since there is nothing to be gained and everything lost by this anti-marxist posi

@pareidoliac: @sdv_duras on contrary, DeLanda’s reconstruction of Deleuze’s ontology shows us we have many more options than ‘capitalism’ & ‘socialism’ - something that is obscured by an obsessive focus on Marxism and the dialectical politics common in representative democracies

@sdv_duras: But @pareidoliac we’ve always known that there are other options, the real question is how we avoid the unpleasent ones

@pareidoliac: @sdv_duras yup and i choose different options from the so called marxist lineage….

@sdv_duras: @pareidoliac - yes I recognize that, but what i’m trying to suggest is that it’s not a binary decision

see also: http://tumblr.com/xra3l9pmx

October 18, 2009
clock shock

clock shock

September 22, 2009
Surrender! Foucault and Twitter (via @naxos)

Surrender! Foucault and Twitter (via @naxos)

September 21, 2009
What Do Socrates, Einstein, McLuhan, and Edith Wharton Have To Say About Social Media?

via @SocialMedia411

September 10, 2009
a little help from my friends

re: http://tumblr.com/xra31sjp7, @pareidoliac:

Have you read http://www.shaviro.com/Blog… on DeLanda’s ontology/assemblage theory? i haven’t really read too much of harman, not really that interested in that line haven’t had much time… there is a scientific way of understanding ‘singularity’ ‘multiplicity’ in relation to virtual - actual its very precise. i would say DeLanda brings philosophy and science together in a remarkable way… recommend ISVP the full text.

and yeah there are bifurcation points for instance http://is.gd/36wk2 at which things tip. other way to approach it is to think of ‘attractors’ http://is.gd/36wr2 of which there are a variety. if you are interested in a social science pov in relation to such concepts > Wallerstein > Bifurcation and Agency http://is.gd/36wyW + The Reality of the Virtual: Bergson and Deleuze http://is.gd/36wNa Keith Ansell-Pearson + World-systems analysis: an introduction By Immanuel Maurice Wallerstein http://is.gd/36wTC

the interwebz is good ppl :)