David Cameron on social media

In February 2011:

"This movement belongs to the frustrated Tunisian fruit seller who can’t take his product to market. And to the students in Cairo who can’t get a fair start, and the millions of Egyptians who live on $2 a day. In short, it belongs to the people who want to make something of their lives, and to have a voice. It belongs to a new generation for whom technology – the internet and social media – is a powerful tool in the hands of citizens, not a means of repression. It belongs to the people who’ve had enough of corruption, of having to make do with what they’re given, of having to settle for second best."

August, 2011

The government is exploring whether to turn off social networks or stop people texting during times of social unrest.

Fine snark

Nicked from kate_nepveu:

The civil-rights movement might have ended segregation and beat back centuries of slavery and oppression, but let’s save a slow clap for well-meaning white folks with the moral courage to put themselves at the center of the narrative.

Which

Upcoming book are you most excited about?

One sentence fragment taken out of context

one of those writers I read a lot of when younger [...], then sort of lost sight of afterwards.

On the one hand, rediscovering them can be fun. On the other, writers' careers can end because too many people lost track of them at the same time; if there's a good way to avoid doing that (1) I am open to suggestion.

Occasionally I poke through one of my libraries looking for old favourites I have not reread recently or an online discussion will prompt me to see if I have a copy of same somewhere. Or worst, some times it's an obit that sends me into the stacks...

1: "Publishers should publicize the midlisters more" isn't going to happen, absent technological developments making it cheaper to do so. And even then, I keep encountering upcoming books about which I can find no public online information.

something about tor.com

I know I've had Greek letters turn up in the recapcha and someone in a recent thread mentioned Hebrew letters? Hat tip for the inclusiveness but at some point will tor.com be giving pointers in how to produce those characters with a standard keyboard.

For the record, I just found a site with Greek letters and used cut and paste. I don't know if there's a better method.

I watched two hours of Karaoke?

SPOILER
( Read more... )

Because I ignored the brain bleach icon I am sharing this.

nicked from illian

BART joins Mubarack fan club

Nicked from mme_hardy

This week, EFF has seen censorship stories move closer and closer to home — first Iran, then the UK, and now San Francisco, an early locus of the modern free speech movement. Operators of the Bay Area Rapid Transit system (BART) shut down cell phone service to four stations in downtown San Francisco yesterday in response to a planned protest. Last week, protesters disrupted BART service in response to the fatal shooting of Charles Blair Hill by BART police on July 3rd. Thursday’s protest failed to materialize, possibly because the disruption of cell phone service made organization and coordination difficult.