Swimming
I like swimming:
http://www.oceanswims.com/
- Love this site (used to map my weekends and live by it when in Sydney).
- Love the cultcha that Paul Ellercamp lives, breathes and exudes.
A credit to the Aussie ocean swimming scene, which would certainly not be as developed or as good a community without his services.
https://www.outdoorswimmingsociety.com/
...and when over 'ere in the UK.
Links
Where do you put this stuff?Where was that place?
https://www.latlong.net
Australian Shark Attacks (not as fatal as you assume).
https://i.redd.it/0kvtdgra9qez.png
6 August 1991: The www is launched.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/08/06/the-worlds-first-website-went-online-25-years-ago-today/
Technology Adoption
I'm not sure where this fits, so for now it can percolate / ferment here.Some people, including myself, cite the example of the pornographic industry as a harbinger of change. Most recently the adoption of the www and business models around the web were driven by the porn industry,. VHS as a medium was cost prohibitive to all but the porn industry...which ultimately made it affordable for the masses with economy of scale. etc.
It all starts with the Gutenberg press....
CHANGING TECHNOLOGIES, CHANGING LITERACY COMMUNITIES?
Denise E. Murray
Macquarie University, Sydney
The claim is that the Reformation was possible because the Bible could be in the hands of the common people who no longer had to rely on the priests to interpret it for them. Similarly, the period in Europe referred to as the Enlightenment, with its ideas of individualism and nationalism, is attributed to the introduction of the printing press.
This common view of the Gutenberg revolution does not, however, reflect the realities of history. The technology itself did not cause the Reformation or the Enlightenment. Certainly there was immediate print production: In the 50 years after 1450, between 10,000 and 15,000 different titles were produced; legal codes were printed; vernacular Bibles were produced. However, print did not impinge on most people's lives and was not nearly as pervasive as some have claimed. For example, only about 200 copies of the Gutenberg Bible were ever produced (Cook, 1990). It was equally a product of the élite as were the earlier Bibles that were hand-scribed by priests and monks. Not only was it not distributed to the common people, but even if it had been, they could not have read it because well over 90% of the European population could not read (Pattison, 1982). Literacy was the province of the clergy, scholars, and some aristocrats--all men. In fact, even literacy among the aristocracy was very limited because they employed scribes. "Far from being revolutionary, Gutenberg's efforts reflected established social, religious, and economical (sic) institutions of his day" (Cook, 1990, p. 32). Even the Gutenberg Bibles themselves were not revolutionary; they were identical in form and function to scribal manuscripts, with the same thick letter forms, ligatures, and abbreviations, the same page layout, and even the same elaborate hand-drawn illuminations. In other words, the new technology initially changed the means of production only. Indeed, for long after the introduction of the printing press, scholars continued to copy texts by hand, often copying printed texts, either because such texts were readily available or because the scribe chose to excerpt only certain parts of a text or texts, thereby creating his own anthology--an activity similar to, but also very different from, instructors photocopying selected texts and patching together their own anthology!
http://llt.msu.edu/vol4num2/murray/
The Information Age and the Printing Press
Looking Backward to See Ahead
...Countries that failed to take advantage of the printing press fell behind Europe. Those that strictly suppressed the printing press fell were eclipsed on the world stage. Even in Europe, countries that tried to suppress "dangerous" aspects of the printing press suffered. This strongly suggests that the advantages of the printing press outweighed the disadvantages. Further, it suggests that, in retrospect, it was more important to explore the upside of the technology than to protect against the downside. In the information age this suggests to me that the Internet should remain unregulated. The printing press was and is regulated to some extent, but those countries that regulated the printing press least gained the most. This should be a powerful argument in favor of regulating the Internet as little as possible. We should work through the problems of pornography, copyright protection and other such problems, rather than risk throwing the baby out with the bath water.
https://www.rand.org/pubs/papers/P8014/index2.html
Porn, the Low-Slung Engine of Progress
When Gutenberg's press brought the written word to the masses in the late 1400's, it didn't take long for printers to discover that the masses wanted more than Bibles. A book of erotic engravings depicting lovemaking positions, published in 1524 and suppressed by the Pope, inspired a collection of sonnets by the first modern pornographer, an Italian named Aretino.
http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/09/arts/porn-the-low-slung-engine-of-progress.html?pagewanted=all
AUDIO: Tech & Consequences
An interesting theological interview here. (It is the David Dean talk. He is specific at the 10 minute mark but I think to get the context you really need to wade through the whole piece).
CBC Radio’s Mainstreet has been taking stock of the anxieties people have about digital technology, including concerns about privacy and surveillance, bullying, and porn consumption.
“There is a symbiotic relationship between technology and cultural development,” Deane says.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mainstreet-tech-consequences-an-in-depth-look-1.3012331
Pornography, Technology and Progress
by J Coopersmith
http://robinperrey.com/berlin/imgpo/pornography-technology-and-progress.pdf
Gutenberg and the Book that Changed the World
http://retinart.net/beautiful-things/gutenberg-book-changed-world/
Humor
I liked this disclaimer: Warning: this page occasionally contains links to sites with strong language (which may be unsuitable for children) and unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults)...where would we be without Mr Adams?
http://dilbert.com/
I loved this animation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlMAKpxN8N0
https://xkcd.com/
Some Christmas crackers:
With what do you cut through giant waves?
A sea-saw.
How do you make gold soup?
Put nine carrots in it.
How will Christmas dinner be different after Brexit?
No Brussels.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comedy/what-to-see/50-best-christmas-cracker-jokes/
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