fistful of links

Image by Andrew Moore, via the Cosmo-Inspiro Cloud.

Shuffle over and let me drive for a moment: some news.

The internet is a crazy place: a site called "God hates fags" offers the following wisdom: "There are multiple levels of Gay Music. Some bands are what we like to call Gateway Bands. They lure children in with Pop Grooves and Salacious Melodies leaving them wanting more. They’ll move on to more dangerous bands and the next thing you know you’ve got a homosexual for a child." Totally makes sense. Gateway Singer Ricky Martin comes out. Not gay: science; Cern finally gets their shit on; the opposite of gay: the giant sperm race.


Golden Gate, via BLDGBLOG.

Moving on: Liam Young, (Tomorrow's Thoughts Today) just got back from the future (aka South by Southwest). Turns out they treat bloggers a bit differently over there (like, check that shit!); Also tech: a rare article in praise of the iPad; how to recycle a jumbo-jet; mood-pencils; town battered by raining fish; Isn't it wonderful to think that at some point in time this actually happened? Yeah. I guess. Honda concept; use spades, not ships; the banksy/robbo war continues... Leo DiCaprio (he'll always be Jack to me) does the VO on Imax's new 3D Hubble film. How to name your futuristic theory...

In architecture, SANAA has won the Pritzker... (notwithstanding mediocre projects like the Serpentine or New Museum); Sell outs, if you ask me, I can't tell the difference between Art & Art Snacks. Related: "NY, just as I pixeled it". Also, 26 Gigapixel Paris. Lego House; Solar Furnace.

Finally, several awesome films:

1.Flying pants, via WTF Japan, Seriously:



2.The best ending to Judge Judy ever (via csessums)...



3.And last, but not least: an Academy Award-winning trailer [catchphrase!]:



Peace and Love Millennium Peeps.

the origins of my short attention span

I got my tea from the bar and shuffled over to the sofa near the window "Oh yeah, I remember Messenger" Bella said, in answer to my question "the thing I really hated about it was how everyone tried to talk to you at once. I could only have one conversation at a time, so I would block all the other contacts I wasn't talking to."

That's funny, I thought. Isn't multiple and simultaneous conversation the whole purpose of using a chat program? It started a train of thought that lead me to one conclusion: the origins of my digital multitasking was Messenger. In the days when my net connection was still only 2kb/s the idea of browsing was an impossibility. In any case, I'm not sure there was anything much to browse. The net was for e-mail and chatrooms... you remember, like, before the peodos got there?

Not only can we no longer concentrate on one thing for any appreciable period of time, but we can neither concentrate on one person – by spreading our attention across multiple discussions we fail to achieve any depth of communication with any of them.

Millennium People out.

informal hiatus

One of Armstrong + Millers' RAF pilot sketches. See also for real, yo.

Yeah, I took a three-week hiatus and I didn’t tell you. What are you, like, my mum or something? I don’t owe you anything. Now, back to the high-quality free content you’ve come to respect & expect:

The next three weeks are going to be mostly London oriented, with a few techie/future pieces thrown into the mix – I’m going to be talking to an architect and her partner about building communities on the Thames; telling you what’s on and what's what in town; describing what its like to walk the buried river Fleet; exploring some of the City’s hidden gems and forgotten spaces… I’ll be speculating about some emerging trends in the online world and I’m also expecting a state of the nation address from Eleanor Dodman – Millennium People’s new political editor. Yeah, look at us, a political editor, like we’re the fucking BBC or some shit.

As though this isn’t enough, I’ll be cramming in several juicy fistfuls, starting next Tuesday. Word on the street is that a brand new Millennium People is in beta (MP2.0) – should be fully up and running by summer. Part of that is recruiting regular contributors, if you'd like to tell us what you’re up to, or submit a guest post then drop a line to info@millenniumpeople.co.uk we’d love to hear from you.

Word.

baby with the bathwater

Left vs. Right, via Information is Beautiful.

"I pity you politicians" a noted novelist remarked last night, turning to Boris Johnson – mayor of London. The response from the Question Time studio was an odd, humourless laughter. This audience, chosen as an indicative cross-section of the nation, were divided on many a subject, but on one thing they all agreed: the state of British politics is unsustainable. Like Psalms, politicians move from strength to strength – finding ever more ingenious ways to mud-sling and expose and scandalise. The QT yardstick of Britain (aka the Vox Populaire) seems to be growing tired of the complete lack of policy presented by anyone.

What Britain needs is an Obama (albeit perhaps one with a sharper tongue). Watch this space for more news on this apparent apogee of political discontent.

fistful of links

Alone, by Mark Weaver.

How Millennial are you? Unsettlingly, Millennium People is only 89% New Millennium. We say 11% of the test is out of date. Still Millennium: The Long Now, Rosetta Disk and LongPlayer (the 1000 year long song). Not Millennium, 25 nostalgic images. Different Millennium, a line of burning torches lighting all of Hadrian's wall; a futuristic short film doing the rounds (weak plot, strong images).

Signs of the times: Information is a verb (photography and that); a timeline movie of the contruction of the International Space Station (ISS); when will Facebook get its Mario? Also, how much data Americans consume in a day; Twitter on your car radio (en francais); does web 3.0 exist yet? MP says no. The Memory Marathon.

Battle Popes, 2007 by Jamie Adams.

Class statement: how the web is creating a new wave of consumers. Related, the working class of the knowledge economy. Microsoft sucks. Look at who use it. The submerged ice lake forests of Russia, also water, the bike that filters your drinking water as you ride. Images of London in the 1960's - Images of London today (I really like this photostream) - what I'm really getting at is London, now and then; things got weird. Art: Ali Bosworth. The new US embassy is causing a stink; moving a whole town in Sweden; a post-secret variant + angry science letters from 3rd graders. Light photography using fireworks; an amazing Russian singer (via an old friend of MP).

Finally, the world's most generic news report: