Jeff Maki

Broken neck, hit from behind.

Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:05:17 -0500

Broken neck, hit from behind.

For generations people have been told: Think for yourself; come up with your own independent...

Thu, 09 Feb 2012 09:44:41 -0500

For generations people have been told: Think for yourself; come up with your own independent worldview. Unless your name is Nietzsche, that’s probably a bad idea.

Very few people have the genius or time to come up with a comprehensive and rigorous worldview. If you go out there armed only with your own observations and sentiments, you will surely find yourself on very weak ground. You’ll lack the arguments, convictions and the coherent view of reality that you’ll need when challenged by a self-confident opposition.

The paradox of reform movements is that, if you want to defy authority, you probably shouldn’t think entirely for yourself. You should attach yourself to a counter-tradition and school of thought that has been developed over the centuries and that seems true.

Ahh, very good advice—a point I could certainly be more aware of(!).

Those crazy signs of virility...

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:37:12 -0500

The visiting Ahly fans displayed a sign questioning the virility of Port Said fans, and the game was halted temporarily because of scuffles in the stands.

After El Masry came from behind to win in a 3-1 upset, its fans stormed the field, chasing Al Ahly’s players back to their locker room and attacking its fans with knives, clubs and stones.

When folks ask me why a civil society is so important, when they ask why we shouldn’t have a market-based society, I’ll remember the event described above.

In the market-driven society, those who are fit would have better armor to defend themselves against the clubs and knives, or better yet, would be watching the game from afar on TV. The rest of us would be left to rely on our helmets, chain and mail and shields. Just like D+D! Yay gamification!

This HBG LHO(oq) Repair Manual guide is a...

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 15:43:49 -0500

This HBG LHO(oq) Repair Manual guide is a maintenance/troubleshooting and instruction owner manual reference used for maintaining, disassembly and servicing the HBG LHO(oq) in Albanian.

Upon closer inspection, or if you read Albanian, it turns out to be a camouflaged short novel written in a totalitarian regime and smuggled out for you.

(via HBG LHO(Oq) | Dent-De-Leone)

"The key to these systems is that they take an action (which could be a wild guess at the right..."

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 17:47:44 -0500

“

The key to these systems is that they take an action (which could be a wild guess at the right answer at first), receive feedback, make an adjustment and the cycle repeats – the faster, the better.

The emphasis on speed and iteration makes this model a perfect complement to neoliberal capitalism, with its rapid iteration, just-in-time manufacturing, constant turn-over, optimization and creativity.

Here, it appears that neoliberal capitalism is also anti-intellectual – it does not think, it simply acts and reacts to feedback.

”

- Feedback Systems are Counterrevolutionary

An Ambitious Plan For Putting Kickstarter Out of Business

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 16:28:58 -0500

An Ambitious Plan For Putting Kickstarter Out of Business:

The remaining question is: what accounts for Kickstarter’s popularity among the hip progressive left? How can we account for the strange coincidence of left countercultural values with a business model that would make all but the most hardened Objectivist blush? The short answer is that Kickstarter embodies what I want to call “Good™ values”.

The critique of Good™ is priceless.

On Jobs...

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:58:00 -0500

“Contrary to the president’s constant disparagement of people in business, it’s one of the noblest of human pursuits. The late Steve Jobs—what a fitting name he had—created more of them than all those stimulus dollars the president borrowed and blew.”

—Mitch Daniels

“Yo, they probably call him Steve Jobs cause he got ‘em / He can give a job to anybody, man, no problem”

—Himanshu aka Heems (of Das Racist)

"Having a market economy is really different from having a market society. What we are asking for,..."

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 10:51:48 -0500

“Having a market economy is really different from having a market society. What we are asking for, via education reform, is that the state take on a different role.”

- Student Protests Rile Chile - NYTimes.com

Travel patterns: Amtrak seat plastic pattern, not the sky.

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 20:51:22 -0500

Travel patterns: Amtrak seat plastic pattern, not the sky.

"In a brilliant paper titled ‘Forking Free Sofware’, delivered at the Make Art Festival..."

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:21:43 -0500

“

In a brilliant paper titled ‘Forking Free Sofware’, delivered at the Make Art Festival in Poitiers last December, Simon Yuill explained how the free software community was being recuperated by a neoliberal logic.

Yuill quoted Charles Leadbeater, British futurologist, management consultant, and one-time adviser to the Tony Blair government:

The avant-garde imagined that spectatorship would give way to participation permitting people to become more social and collaborative, egalitarian and engaged with one another, to borrow and share ideas … Mass participation, Debord’s antidote to the society of the spectacle, has turned into YouTube and social-networking sites on which we can all make a spectacle of ourselves.

”

- Managerial_Authorship

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ (via Former M.T.A. Chief Recounts His Ups and the...

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 16:14:34 -0500

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

(via Former M.T.A. Chief Recounts His Ups and the System’s Downs - NYTimes.com)

Found in thrift store in Sterling Heights, MI

Tue, 27 Dec 2011 17:47:21 -0500

Found in thrift store in Sterling Heights, MI

mthvn: Letter to a Eurocrat about Data Retention189 letters...

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:21:51 -0500

mthvn:

Letter to a Eurocrat about Data Retention

189 letters posted to current and former Europarliamentarians who voted for data retention. Each letter comes with a “prototype,” a mirror-clad, credit card-sized object.
In memory of Sophie Scholl. Part of the exhibition Verdeckte Adressaten at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich. Curated by Axel Wieder.
Metahaven, November-December 2011.

Electricity and radiation: what a timeless combo. From my basic...

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 13:11:00 -0500

Electricity and radiation: what a timeless combo.

From my basic understanding of how these wirelessly-read power meters work, the transmitter is actually powered not by the load placed through the meter, but by a small lithium battery designed to last for years. So the radiation potential here is super low.

Curious whether people’s perception of these meters as a health hazard is informed more by the idea of these meters being “high voltage” (compared to a home’s electrical gear) and “high voltage” being equated to “danger”, rather than any real science of the dangers of radio waves… the picture above doesn’t do anything to ease the rhetoric when the technician has what I’m guessing most people will perceive as a “radiation shield” face mask (actually to prevent blinding from electrical arcs?)

The linked article also mentions how these meters will eliminate the need for human meter readers. Will the fear of hidden techno-danger (radiation) be the thing that limits the “efficiency” of these technologies, keeping human meter readers reading?

(via Smart meters stir debate | Detroit Free Press | freep.com)

Copper prices rise

Sat, 24 Dec 2011 10:03:19 -0500

Copper prices rise

Power adapters

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:55:36 -0500

Power adapters

Parts

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:54:50 -0500

Parts

Hand drill

Thu, 22 Dec 2011 21:54:07 -0500

Hand drill

CNBC: “People are treating Google like their most trusted...

Sat, 17 Dec 2011 18:13:00 -0500

CNBC: “People are treating Google like their most trusted friend. Should they be?”

Google: “Well, I think judgement matters. If you have something you don’t want anybody to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. But if you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines, including Google, do retain this information for some time…”

Make sure YOU have judgement.

(via Google CEO: Secrets Are for Filthy People)

"Ed’s approach from the start has been that face-to-face is overwhelmingly the most important..."

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 18:42:03 -0500

“

Ed’s approach from the start has been that face-to-face is overwhelmingly the most important mode of communication for Transitioners. He is committed to cause Transitioners to “spend as little time in front of computer screens as possible.”

Ed is therefore much more than a web developer or platform builder. His work spans network, community and event design, and facilitation. “Sharing community-based knowledge depends multiple elements in different combinations at different times,” he explains; “there can be no one-size-fits-all solution.”

”

- John Thackara: How Do You Make a Website for Transition?: Observers Room: Design Observer