“Children can’t differentiate between toys and nutritional items”
No, it’s not a classic piece of ‘Onion‘ reportage; it’s a quote from Miriam Gruß, a member of the German parliamentary children’s committee, on why the Germans plan on banning Kinder Eggs (are these available in the US?).
Charlie Brooker’s characteristically hilarious retort is best placed here.
What, really? Don’t get me wrong - I think children are idiots. But even I find that statement a tad unfair and sweeping. I used to have a spud gun when I was a kid. In case you’re not familiar with that concept either, it was a small metal pistol that fired chunks of potato. Not once did I aim the potato at anyone. Or try to deep-fry the gun. And I was thick as sh!t. I guess it was luck.
In fact my run of luck was pretty impressive. Other toys I failed to ingest include a Scalextric, several boxes of space Lego, the board games Operation and Mousetrap, and a complete collection of Paul Daniels’ TV Magic Tricks - even though the latter included an egg-shaped gizmo called The Magic Egg. Somehow, miraculously, my conker-sized kiddywink brain managed to differentiate it from a real egg. Thus my life was saved by a whisker.
Gruss won’t countenance such a slapdash approach to child safety. Not on her watch. “It’s a sad fact,” she said. “Kinder Surprise eggs have to go.”
Voting America consists of a series of animated and interactive maps (with commentary) visualising how Americans have used their votes since 1840.
Voting America examines the evolution of presidential politics in the United States across the span of American history. The project offers a wide spectrum of cinematic visualizations of how Americans voted in the presidential election at the county level, from the beginning of the American party system though the modern day. Here you can see historical developments in American voting patterns as they moved across the landscape of the United States.
via MeFi
In December 1969 John Lennon and Yoko Ono held one of their famous “bed-in for peace” protests at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. This was when a 14-year-old Jerry Levitan sneaked into their hotel room and secured an interview with Lennon on the topic of World Peace.
38 years later Levitan produced an animated film of the interview, using the original interview recording as the soundtrack. You may recognise it; the film was nominated for Best Animated Short Film at the 80th Annual Academy Awards (2008).
I Met The Walrus
The New York Times goes inside the world of online trolls, who “use the Internet to harass, humiliate and torment strangers”.
[…] Even if we had the resources to aggressively prosecute trolls, would we want to? Are we ready for an Internet where law enforcement keeps watch over every vituperative blog and backbiting comments section, ready to spring at the first hint of violence? Probably not. All vigorous debates shade into trolling at the perimeter; it is next to impossible to excise the trolling without snuffing out the debate.
If we can’t prosecute the trolling out of online anonymity, might there be some way to mitigate it with technology? [One possible] answer is persistent pseudonymity, a system of nicknames that stay the same across multiple sites. This could reduce anonymity’s excesses while preserving its benefits for whistle-blowers and overseas dissenters. Ultimately, as Fortuny suggests, trolling will stop only when its audience stops taking trolls seriously. “People know to be deeply skeptical of what they read on the front of a supermarket tabloid,” says Dan Gillmor, who directs the Center for Citizen Media. “It should be even more so with anonymous comments. They shouldn’t start off with a credibility rating of, say, 0. It should be more like negative-30.”
Of course, none of these methods will be fail-safe as long as individuals like Fortuny construe human welfare the way they do. As we discussed the epilepsy hack, I asked Fortuny whether a person is obliged to give food to a starving stranger. No, Fortuny argued; no one is entitled to our sympathy or empathy. We can choose to give or withhold them as we see fit. “I can’t push you into the fire,” he explained, “but I can look at you while you’re burning in the fire and not be required to help.” Weeks later, after talking to his friend Zach, Fortuny began considering the deeper emotional forces that drove him to troll. The theory of the green hair, he said, “allows me to find people who do stupid things and turn them around. Zach asked if I thought I could turn my parents around. I almost broke down. The idea of them learning from their mistakes and becoming people that I could actually be proud of… it was overwhelming.” He continued: “It’s not that I do this because I hate them. I do this because I’m trying to save them.”
via Mind Hacks
I recently watched all six hours of Commanding Heights; a great documentary that attempts to trace the rise of free markets during the last century, as well as the process of globalization. It acts almost like a primer on 20th century economics.
I have just re-discovered the PBS supplementary website for Commanding Heights and am suitably impressed with this information rich resource. It’s not without accolades:
- BAFTA for Best Achievement in Online Education
- One of Time Magazine’s Top 50 Websites of 2003
- Two nominations for the 2003 Webby Awards from the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (Best Practices and Best Broadband Site)
- I.D. Magazine’s 2003 Interactive Media Design Review; Bronze Winner
- 2002 Emmy Nomination (the only Web site nominated; interactive television)