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Old Voices Show

Impressionists. Comedy voices. Capturing the essence of the funny.Read More

Cancel culture is a blunderbuss social justice. Not every casualty is legitimate. Not every target is as guilty as a Cosby. Not every target deserves to be sentenced to life in exile, without parole.Read More

Comedy Bits of the Decade Show

Best comedy bits as selected by the world’s most discerning connoisseur audience: past attendees of the Skankfest festival.Read More

Roasting & One-Liners Show

Roastmasters. Roastvictims. Friars. Zingers. Comedy feed. Simple one liners, 100 years of public performance domain, shuffled and presented in a 24/7 blunderbuss.Read More

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The Banners of the King of Hell Advance

24 October 2021

Edward Curtin “Vexilla regis prodeunt Inferni” Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: The Inferno Try to look ahead and see if you can see what’s been coming for decades. Try to climb higher and see the beautiful things that Heaven bears, where we came forth, and once more see the stars and raise a banner of resistance …

CDC Director: “We may need to update our definition of ‘fully vaccinated'”

23 October 2021

Kit Knightly Audio Version New Feature! Yesterday, in a press conference, the director of the CDC warned that they may have to “update” the definition of “fully vaccinated”. At the virtual presser accompanying the approval of “mix-and-match” booster jabs, Dr Rochelle Walensky told reporters that: We will continue to look at this. We may need …

Goodbye Mr Marx

23 October 2021

Darren Allen Many of the problems with socialism, both official and unofficial, in fact many of the problems with the world, can be traced back to Karl Marx. Not that all leftists are, say, Marxist materialists — many today are idealists (e.g. pacifistic Buddhists) — nor that all leftists are uncritical of Marx — they …

Debunking CIA and MI6 Syria narratives – one by one

22 October 2021

Vanessa Beeley Audio Version New Feature! The UK/US deep state talking points about Syria are familiar. The President is a “tyrant”, the state is “authoritarian”, “political prisoners” abound and the nation is a “police state”. These reductionist labels stick. They stick because regime change-pushing media outlets repeat them ad nauseam until they are absorbed into …

“David’s Law”: How the Amess attack will be used to control the internet

21 October 2021

Kit Knightly Audio Version New Feature! On October 15th Sir David Amess MP was attending a constituency “surgery” at Belfairs church in Leigh-on-Sea. During the meeting, a young man emerged from the crowd and stabbed the MP several times. Ambulances and police were called. They attempted to revive him at the scene, but he was …

What is the “Global Public-Private Partnership”?

20 October 2021

Iain Davis Audio Version New Feature! The Global Public-Private Partnership (GPPP) is a world-wide network of stakeholder capitalists and their partners. This collective of stakeholders (the capitalists and their partners) comprises global corporations (including central banks), philanthropic foundations (multi-billionaire philanthropists), policy think-tanks, governments (and their agencies), non-governmental organisations, selected academic & scientific institutions, global charities, the labour …

Propaganda, Character Assassination & the Campaign Against Prof David Miller

19 October 2021

Dr Piers Robinson Audio Version New Feature! On October 1st 2021, the University of Bristol decided to buckle in the face of a near 3 year-long pro-Israel lobby campaign and fire Professor David Miller. I have worked with David for many years now, co-published work on the theory of propaganda, researched and written about the …

Current Members of the U.S. House of Representatives

9 February 2021

This is a list of individuals currently serving in the United States House of Representatives as of the 117th Congress

QAnon vs. Hitler's Brownshirts

28 January 2021

The world has seen QAnon before. It was called Nazism.

World Headlines: Capitol Siege by MAGA Mob

10 January 2021

On January 6, 2021, white insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol, proudly displayed the confederate flag, and set up gallows on the Capitol grounds.

U.S. Senate Seats up for Reelection in 2022

8 January 2021

It's 2022 vision time. The U.S. Senate elections will be held on Tuesday, November 8, 2020. Thirty-four of the 100 Senators are up for reelection and will serve a six-year term from January 3, 2023, until January 3, 2029. The time to start organizing is now.

The Marijuana Industry's Dirty Little Secret

14 May 2019

The runaway-growth in the cannabis industry, fueled by rolling de-regulation and a high demand forecast, is bringing with it a growing carbon footprint.

A Personal Account of Hawaii's False Missile Alert

20 February 2018

Countries North Korea Can Currently Hit With Their Missiles

29 May 2017

Should North Korea ever have the capacity to launch a nuclear missile that could reach the U.S. mainland, Trump would have approximately ten minutes to react and make a decision to counterattack.

Reuters Highlights: Mid October 2021

21 October 2021

The post Reuters Highlights: Mid October 2021 appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

A woman sits on a rock as the full moon, known as the Hunter’s Moon, rises at l-Ahrax Point on Marfa Ridge, outside the village of Mellieha

21 October 2021

The post A woman sits on a rock as the full moon, known as the Hunter’s Moon, rises at l-Ahrax Point on Marfa Ridge, outside the village of Mellieha appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Mbappe-Messi double act earns PSG comeback win against Leipzig

20 October 2021

The post Mbappe-Messi double act earns PSG comeback win against Leipzig appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

Austrian glaciologists explore cavity of disintegrating glacier near Galtuer

19 October 2021

The post Austrian glaciologists explore cavity of disintegrating glacier near Galtuer appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

A specialist sanitizes a railway station amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Moscow

19 October 2021

The post A specialist sanitizes a railway station amid the outbreak of the coronavirus disease in Moscow appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

The skies over the South China Sea

19 October 2021

The post The skies over the South China Sea appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

ICYMI – Afghan orphanages appeal for funding as billionaire-backed space race sends Captain Kirk to space

19 October 2021

The post ICYMI – Afghan orphanages appeal for funding as billionaire-backed space race sends Captain Kirk to space appeared first on Reuters News Agency.

The Psychological Tolls and Moral Hazards of Drone Warfare

24 October 2021

Two new books shed light on what remote warfare does to military operators, the standing of the U.S., and societies abroad.

The post The Psychological Tolls and Moral Hazards of Drone Warfare appeared first on The Intercept.

As Sen. Joe Manchin’s Star Rose in West Virginia, the FBI and IRS Probed His Closest Allies

23 October 2021

Decades of federal investigations looked into Manchin’s inner circle and business associates.

The post As Sen. Joe Manchin’s Star Rose in West Virginia, the FBI and IRS Probed His Closest Allies appeared first on The Intercept.

Ro Khanna on Reconciliation

23 October 2021

The progressive House representative discusses the current state of negotiations over the president’s budget bill.

The post Ro Khanna on Reconciliation appeared first on The Intercept.

ICE Review of Immigrant's Suicide Finds Falsified Documents, Neglect, and Improper Confinement

23 October 2021

An internal review of Efraín Romero de la Rosa's death in ICE custody found almost two dozen policy violations during his stint in detention.

The post ICE Review of Immigrant’s Suicide Finds Falsified Documents, Neglect, and Improper Confinement appeared first on The Intercept.

Palestinian Rights Groups That Document Israeli Abuses Labeled "Terrorists" by Israel

23 October 2021

Israel designated six leading Palestinian human rights groups "terrorist organizations," but refused to reveal any evidence to prove the accusation.

The post Palestinian Rights Groups That Document Israeli Abuses Labeled “Terrorists” by Israel appeared first on The Intercept.

Private Prison Companies Pursue Creative Workarounds to Biden Executive Order

22 October 2021

The administration should “enforce its order,” said an ACLU attorney, “or admit that it’s going to let the private prison operators reduce that order to meaningless words on paper.”

The post Private Prison Companies Pursue Creative Workarounds to Biden Executive Order appeared first on The Intercept.

Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Is the Dying Scream of the Corporate Democratic Party

22 October 2021

Sinema’s subservience to big moneyed interests is a holdover from an era of politics that is fading noisily into the past.

The post Sen. Kyrsten Sinema Is the Dying Scream of the Corporate Democratic Party appeared first on The Intercept.

Wes Anderson Films and Their Actors [OC]

24 October 2021

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is escape a crime?

24 October 2021

submitted by /u/Mmaps_interlude to r/MapPorn [link] [comments]

In Major Shift, NIH Admits Funding Risky Virus Research in Wuhan - The "conspiracy theorists" were 100% right

24 October 2021

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Do you prefer to listen to songs that have a male vocalist, or a female vocalist?

24 October 2021

View Poll

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Have you seen this AWESOME special heritage bus livery?! This New Routemaster / New Bus for London (NRM/NBfL) double decker bus, with Go-Ahead London, Fleet No. LT60, Registration No. LTZ 1060, wears London General’s old red & white livery! Seen here at Strand on route 87 from Wandsworth to Aldwych.

24 October 2021

submitted by /u/HighburyAndIslington to r/london [link] [comments]

Anybody else lost so much respect for academia?

24 October 2021

I study human-centered IT. I'm dropping out of my masters because the theories they present to us seem so detached from reality to such a degree that I don't feel like I'm learning anything. Also our teachers constantly talk about race, gender and other identity politics. I have a teacher who will make sure to mention the gender and race of the author of a paper whenever he presents it. A few times he's also been very apologetic when the only authors to find on a certain subject have been straight white men. I feel like I'm the only one in the class who is thinking that if it's good science and allegedly genuine knowledge that we're presented, then why the fuck should their gender or race matter?

I also took a programming class, where the teacher started out by saying that there are waay too many white men in programming. I can't help but feel like I don't give a shit who writes the software, as long as the software works as intended, but apparently not? At the university there's also such things as coding cafés for women, women in tech mentorship opportunities. This is all great. But there's no coding café for men (or all genders). Do they expect men not to need help? Why are people getting mentorships based on their gender first, skills second?

They're also planning on at least 50% of PhDs will be women from now on.

There are countless other examples, but this post shouldnt be too long.

I, as a straight white man, genuinely don't feel welcome there, but that's not why I'm leaving. I could take all of this silliness and feeling "unwelcome" if I felt like I was learning something useful. I genuinely, besides all of this, feel like the teachers don't teach very useful ideas and I personally don't want to waste my time. Maybe they're too caught up in strange ideas, maybe I chose the wrong Master's, it doesn't really matter.

In my bachelor's I wrote an exam paper which I thought was absolute nonsense. I genuinely didn't believe in any of the theories that I used, but I got an A+ and I was flabbergasted. I feel like academia have become more about agreeing with a certain subset of ideas rather than actual truth seeking. What do you guys (yeah, I'm using a 'gendered word'. Fuck you) think? What are your experiences?

Edit: Made it a bit more readable

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Arrest Fauci

24 October 2021

Did you know he kills puppies?

Dr Fauci led NIH funding to remove the vocal chords of beagle puppies, drug them, pin their heads in cages and allow sand flies to attack them and infect them with deadly parasites. Then killed them and dissected them.sCIenCEhttps://nypost.com/2021/08/12/dr-faucis-niaid-slammed-for-reportedly-r-beagles-euthanizing-them/

https://preview.redd.it/c3cyf6aodev71.png?width=4096&format=png&auto=webp&s=c473602074e08dc4e55fc997d666aab794d75a74

submitted by /u/Yuge-cack to r/conspiracy_commons [link] [comments]

Design principles on the Clearleft podcast

13 October 2021

The final episode of season three of the Clearleft podcast is out. Ah, what a bittersweet feeling! On the hand it’s sad that the season has come to an end. But it feels good to look back at six great episodes all gathered together.

Episode six is all about design principles. That’s a topic close to my heart. I collect design principles.

But for this podcast episode the focus is on one specific project. Clearleft worked with Citizens Advice on a recent project that ended up having design principles at the heart of it. It worked as a great focus for the episode, and a way of exploring design principles in general. As Katie put it, this about searching for principles for design principles.

Katie and Maite worked hard on nailing the design principles for the Citizens Advice project. I was able to get some of Maite’s time for her to talk me through it. I’ve also got some thoughts from my fellow Clearlefties Andy and Chris on the topic of design principles in general.

It’s nineteen minutes long and well worth a listen.

And with that, season three of the Clearleft podcast is a wrap!

Changing Situation

10 October 2021

The Situation persists. But it has changed. There are no longer any official restrictions to speak of here in England. Instead it’s down to everyone to figure out individually what’s right.

Everyone is evaluating the risks, making calculations and coming to different conclusions. It’s only natural that everyone—myself incuded—thinks they’ve found the Goldilocks zone. “That person is being far too blasé! And that person is being far too cautious! But I’m doing exactly the right thing.”

With that in mind, I’m trying not to be judgemental about the decisions other people are making (apart from the decsion not to get vaccinated—I’m judgemental as hell about those selfish assholes). For example, I wear a mask when I’m on public transport. Other people don’t. I try not to judge them (although really, how hard is it to wear a piece of cloth for the duration of a bus ride? …sorry, that’s judgy).

This tendency to comparison extends to the country level too. Right now England has the highest case numbers for COVID-19 in Europe. I look at Ireland with its magnificentally low levels of vaccine hesistancy and I’m jealous: why can’t we be like that? But then I look to the United States and think, yowzah!, things could be worse.

Jessica and I have made a couple of trips to London. One involved indoor entertainment—the long-delayed premier of Akram Khan’s Creature at Sadlers Wells. We wore masks. Not everyone did. I tried not to judge. Others would judge me for just being inside the building.

The other trip to London was a dog-sitting visit, hanging out with Cider who is a very good boy.

After each excursion like that, we do a lateral flow test. So far, so negative. Having access to free testing makes a big difference to making post-hoc evaluations of risks. It boggles my mind that testing is pricy luxury in the States (there I go again, making comparisons).

We’ve also started playing tunes at a session in our local pub. We make sure to test ourselves before going. Spending an evening in a pub—even a nice chilled-out pub on a Monday evening—is still a risk. But it’s worth it. Each time we go I think “this is nice.”

This isn’t the first time we’ve had to make risk assessments. I remember it was like this last year between the first and second wave. Can we sit outside a restaurant? Can we go see the new Christopher Nolan film?

But it feels different this time because of our vaccinations. I know the Delta variant has altered the game, but the stakes certainly aren’t the same as pre-vaccine times. So while I’m still trying to avoid catching this damned disease, I’m also trying not to let it rule every decision the way it did last year.

It’s a balancing act. It’s the same balancing act that everyone is undertaking. We’re all walking our own individual tightropes. But at least being vaccinated, the tightrope doesn’t feel quite so high off the ground.

I’m speaking at a conference in Lisbon next week. That means going to an airport. That means getting on a plane. That means spending time inside a conference venue.

But it also means I’ll be travelling to a country with a wonderfully high vaccination rate, where I’ll be able to enjoy the sunny weather and dine outdoors in the evening.

Risks. Benefits. Running the numbers. Making decisions. Trying to do the right thing. Trying to stay safe but also trying to live life.

The Situation persists. But it has changed. I look forward to it changing more. I’m in line to get a booster shot before the year is out. That’ll be another factor in my calculations.

I look forward to a time when I won’t have to keep making these calculations. That time isn’t here yet.

Measuring design on the Clearleft podcast

6 October 2021

A new episode of the Clearleft podcast just dropped and I have to say, this is one of my favourites so far. It’s all about measuring design.

There was a bit of a theme running through UX Fest earlier this year. On the one hand, there was all the talk of designers learning to speak the language of business (to get that coveted seat at the table), which means talking in numbers. But on the other hand, isn’t there a real danger in reducing user experience to numbers in a spreadsheet?

For this episode I put the narrative together using lots of snippets from different talks, not just from UX Fest but from previous Clearleft events too. I also got some good hot takes from my colleagues Chris, Andy, and Maite. Oh, and it opens with former US Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara. If you know, you know.

This episode comes in at 22 and a half minutes and I think it’s well worth your time. Have a listen.

This is the penultimate episode of season three. Just one more to go!

Twenty years of writing on my website

30 September 2021

On this day twenty years ago I wrote the first entry in my online journal. In the intervening two decades I’ve written a further 2,817 entries.

I am now fifty years old, which means I’ve been blogging for two fifths of my lifetime.

My website has actually been around for longer than twenty years, but its early incarnations had no blog. That all changed when I relaunched the site on September 30th, 2001.

I wrote at the time:

I’m not quite sure what I will be saying here over the coming days, weeks, months and years.

Honestly I still feel like that.

I think it’s safe to assume an “anything goes” attitude for what I post here. Being a web developer, there’s bound to be lots of geeky, techy stuff but I also want a place where I can rant and rave about life in general.

That’s been pretty true, although I feel that maybe there’s been too much geeky stuff and not enough about everything else in my life.

I’ll try and post fairly regularly but I don’t want to make any promises I can’t keep. Hopefully, I’ll be updating the journal on a daily basis.

I made no promises but I think I’ve done a pretty good job. Many’s the blogger who has let the weeds grow over their websites as they were lured by the siren song of centralised social networks. I’m glad that I’ve managed to avoid that fate. It feels good to look back on twenty years of updates posted on my own domain.

Anyway, let’s see what happens. I hope you’ll like it.

I hope you still like it.

Here are some of my handpicked highlights from the past twenty years of blogging:

Hyperdrive, April 20th, 2007

Last night in San Francisco.

Design doing, November 11, 2007

The opposite of design thinking.

Iron Man and me, December 1st, 2008

The story of how one of my Flickr pictures came to be used in a Hollywood movie.

Seams, May 12th, 2014

There is a crack, a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.

Web! What is it good for?, May 28th, 2015

Not absolutely nothing, but not absolutely everything either.

Split, April 10th, 2019

Materials and tools; client and server; declarative and imperative; inclusion and privilege.

Innovation on the Clearleft podcast

29 September 2021

We’re past the halfway mark for this season of the Clearleft podcast. Episode four came out today. It’s all about innovation.

At the beginning of the episode, I think you can hear the scorn in my voice. Y’see, innovation is one of the words—like “disruptive”—that gets thrown around a lot and everyone assumes it only has positive connotations. But words like “innovative” and “disruptive” can be applied to endeavours that are not good for the world.

Bitcoin, for example, could rightly be described as innovative (and disruptive) but it’s also a planet-destroying ponzi scheme—like a lovechild of the trolley problem and the paperclip maximizer designed to generate the most amount of waste for the least amount of value.

So, yeah, I’m not a fan of innovation for innovation’s sake. But don’t worry. For this episode of the podcast I set my personal feelings to one side and let the episode act as a conduit for much smarter people.

The whole thing clocks in at 25 minutes but I think this episode might have the widest range of contributors yet. There are snippets from an internal Clearleft discussion, soundbites from a panel discussion, extracts from conference talks, as well as interviews with individuals. From Clearleft there’s Chris How, Andy Thornton, Jon Aizlewood and Lorenzo Ferronato. From the panel discussion there’s Janna Bastow, Matt Cooper-Wright, Dorota Biniecka and Akshan Ish. And from UX Fest there’s Radhika Dutt, Teresa Torres and Gregg Bernstein.

I happily defer to their expertise on this topic. Have a listen and hear what they have to say.

Halfway through season three of the Clearleft podcast

28 September 2021

Each season of the Clearleft podcast has six episodes. Three of the six episodes of the current season are available with another three still to come.

In case you missed them, the episodes of season three released so far are:

Coaching What’s the difference between training, coaching, and mentorship? Design Engineering A role that sits at the intersection—or rather, the gap—between design and engineering. Design Research The journey from evaluative research to generative research.

That’s quite a mixed bag. You might think that there’s no particular unifying to a season of the podcast.

Well, that’s kind of true. There’s no specific theme. But each season does have a meta-grouping.

At Clearleft, we think about our services in three interconnected categories: explore, create, and grow.

“Explore” is all about the big strategic picture. “Create” is the nitty-gritty work of delivery. “Grow” is what connects those together.

Each season of the podcast focuses on one of those categories. This season it’s all about “explore” with a bit of “grow” thrown in.

The next three episodes of this season will double down on the big-picture thinking. I don’t want to give any spoilers, but I’ll just remind you that if you’re not already subscribed to the Clearleft podcast, I highly recommend rectifying that situation.

Subscribe via RSS, or on Apple, Google, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts from.

And if you’re already subscribed …thank you. If you’re enjoying listening to it half as much as I’m enjoying making it, then I’m enjoying it twice as much as you.

Seriously though, if you like what you hear, please share it around. Drop a link to the Clearleft podcast into your work Slack channel or share it in a tweet.

Thank you for listening.

Design research on the Clearleft podcast

22 September 2021

We’re halfway through the third season of the Clearleft podcast already!

Episode three is all about design research. I like the narrative structure of this. It’s a bit like a whodunnit, but it’s more like a whydunnit. The “why” question is “why aren’t companies hiring more researchers?”

The scene of the crime is this year’s UX Fest, where talks by both Teresa Torres and Gregg Bernstein uncovered the shocking lack of researchers. From there, I take up the investigation with Maite Otondo and Stephanie Troeth.

I won’t spoil it but by the end there’s an answer to the mystery.

I learned a lot along the way too. I realised how many axes of research there are. There’s qualitative research (stories, emotion, and context) and then there’s quantitative research (volume and data). But there’s also evualative research (testing a hyphothesis) and generative research (exploring a problem space before creating a solution). By my count that gives four possible combos: qualitative evaluative research, quantitative evaluative research, qualitative generative research, and quantitative generative research. Phew!

Steph was a terrific guest. Only a fraction of our conversation made it into the episode, but we chatted for ages.

And Maite kind of blew my mind too, especially when she was talking about the relationship between research and design and she said:

Research is about the present and design is about the future.

🤯

I’m going to use that quote again in a future episode. In fact, this episode on design research leads directly into the next two episodes. You won’t want to miss them. So if you’re not already subscribed to the Clearleft podcast, you should get on that, whether it’s via the RSS feed, Apple, Google, Spotify, Overcast, or wherever you get your podcasts from.

Have a listen to this episode on design research and if you’re a researcher yourself, remember that unlike most companies we value research at Clearleft and that’s why we’re hiring another researcher right now. Come and work with us!

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia targets zero carbon emissions by 2060

24 October 2021

Top crude exporter Saudi Arabia will aim to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2060, its de facto ruler said on Saturday, days before the COP26 global climate summit.

Disruptions to schooling fall hardest on vulnerable students

24 October 2021

Even as schools have returned in full swing across the country, complications wrought by the pandemic persist, often falling hardest on those least able to weather them: families without transportation, people with limited income or other financial hardship, people who don't speak English, children with special needs.

France launches state-of-art military communications satellite

24 October 2021

France has successfully launched a state-of-the-art satellite into orbit, designed to allow all of France's armed forces across the globe to communicate swiftly and securely.

Climate change disrupting natural cycles at drier Lake Tahoe

23 October 2021

Drought fueled by climate change has dropped Lake Tahoe below its natural rim and halted flows into the Truckee River, an historically cyclical event that's occurring sooner and more often than it used to—raising fears about what might be in store for the famed alpine lake.

US targeting Feb. 2022 to launch new lunar program Artemis

23 October 2021

NASA is aiming to launch its uncrewed lunar mission Artemis 1 in February next year, the space agency said Friday, the first step in America's plan to return humans to the Moon.

Study says tech firms underreport their carbon footprint

22 October 2021

Large technology companies such as SAP, IBM and Google are underreporting their greenhouse gas emissions at a time of heightened scrutiny over the role of corporations in driving climate change, a study released Friday claimed.

Big tech data centers spark worry over scarce Western water

22 October 2021

Conflicts over water are as old as history itself, but the massive Google data centers on the edge of this Oregon town on the Columbia River represent an emerging 21st century concern.