More river adventures, and today's links
Yesterday was spent down at the Cahaba with the affluent young scions of the local old families. It's rather amazing and English in some ways - the same kind of boarding-school youngsters hanging out, drinking beer, flirting with each other and later descending on the local pub to mix with their social inferiors, who look on with faint amusement; but I feel really different about going to the Shack with the son of the local judge than I do when I'm with Chip.
The judge's son is exactly like the best kind of English gentleman - slightly eccentric, one of those classic faces which looks older than his age, courteous and generous in a bluff patriarchal style, a good sport. But many of the other kids are fine enough but not more than that - the same kind of people that I get more uncomfortable around at home. But here I am more detached and able to play the role of the observer better than I can in England, where I get twitchy and feel self-conscious about the judgements that are constantly being made about me.
Links:
A Tom Coates post from a couple of months ago regarding the whole tagging/web semantics thing - really well written and I love the Gullivers Travels reference. For me this really encapsulates the interesting side of the web's semantic structures and how they are currently so underdeveloped compared to our instinctive use of 'real' languages. But more in another post...
More stuff on the structure of tags, search, email and filing systems. Basically I just want to be able to tag every single thing on my computer like in delicious, give it a ranking and never have to do any filing again. But again, more in another post, when I get the time...
If Ken Clarke became Tory leader I might even consider switching my vote. Why do I have a weakness for old-fashioned qualities when it comes to politics?
This blog has some really interesting research and interesting hypothesizing about oil, potential strategies to manage our use of the stuff, and the political consequences.
As the Iranian election continues to surprise and reveal so much about the country, I hope you're all paying attention...IranScan 1384 is a pretty interesting read to get the mood on the ground as well as some analysis.
Yesterday was spent down at the Cahaba with the affluent young scions of the local old families. It's rather amazing and English in some ways - the same kind of boarding-school youngsters hanging out, drinking beer, flirting with each other and later descending on the local pub to mix with their social inferiors, who look on with faint amusement; but I feel really different about going to the Shack with the son of the local judge than I do when I'm with Chip.
The judge's son is exactly like the best kind of English gentleman - slightly eccentric, one of those classic faces which looks older than his age, courteous and generous in a bluff patriarchal style, a good sport. But many of the other kids are fine enough but not more than that - the same kind of people that I get more uncomfortable around at home. But here I am more detached and able to play the role of the observer better than I can in England, where I get twitchy and feel self-conscious about the judgements that are constantly being made about me.
Links:
A Tom Coates post from a couple of months ago regarding the whole tagging/web semantics thing - really well written and I love the Gullivers Travels reference. For me this really encapsulates the interesting side of the web's semantic structures and how they are currently so underdeveloped compared to our instinctive use of 'real' languages. But more in another post...
More stuff on the structure of tags, search, email and filing systems. Basically I just want to be able to tag every single thing on my computer like in delicious, give it a ranking and never have to do any filing again. But again, more in another post, when I get the time...
If Ken Clarke became Tory leader I might even consider switching my vote. Why do I have a weakness for old-fashioned qualities when it comes to politics?
This blog has some really interesting research and interesting hypothesizing about oil, potential strategies to manage our use of the stuff, and the political consequences.
As the Iranian election continues to surprise and reveal so much about the country, I hope you're all paying attention...IranScan 1384 is a pretty interesting read to get the mood on the ground as well as some analysis.
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