Friday Reading S02E12

It’s that time again. Friday afternoon. Or Saturday morning. Or Monday morning and you don’t want to open your email yet. Whatever, here’s some stuff I enjoyed reading (and writing) this week/last week, which you might enjoy too…

“Forget about the mobile internet” by Ben Evans. 1,000 times this. If you still divide the world between “the internet” and “the mobile internet” imma come round your house and sort this out.

Well, I have strong opinions about press regulation and also a great track record in generating IPSO complaints so I was interested to see that Dominic Ponsford’s verdict at the Press Gazette was:

“A year on from the launch of the Independent Press Standards Organisation, I would give it full marks for its job as a complaints handler. But as a regulator which was supposed to clear out the Augean stables after the debacle of the hacking scandal, I would have to give it a fail.”

Ask Full Fact: “does the NHS spend £30 million pulling kids’ teeth because of sugar?”

Have a guess…

“I am prepared to accept the misogynistic backlash that inevitably accompanies taking a stand in the hope that it empowers at least one other woman to feel she doesn’t need to sit back and accept sexist ‘banter’. I accept that I’m in a more privileged position than most, so I hope to use that to my advantage. At the end of the day, this may be just a drop in the ocean – but we can’t challenge an entire system of sexism without taking issue with its constituent parts.”

“I’ve been called a ‘Feminazi’ for calling out a sexist man on Linkedin – but I spoke out for all women” – Charlotte Proudman

And I did a study of exactly what that backlash meant – “A four hour window into the storm of abuse ‘Feminazi Lawyer’ Charlotte Proudman faces on Twitter”

Talking of Twitter. Not linked to: 800 tedious words on “Why I quit Twitter in favour of retaining my regular paid newspaper column”

Mate, nobody gives one.

More worthwhile on Twitter: “The Ongoing War Against Stolen Tweets, And How You Can Help”

Although tbh I find it a mildly annoying rather than the end of times.

Jessica Valenti argues for the end of online comments underneath articles. Katharine Murphy disagrees – “Don’t lament the comments thread – sharp audience feedback is fine with me”. And always worth re-reading is Rob Manuel talking about the class structure the web implies, with “The top half of the web looks down on the rest”

“It seems to me like society has a firm opinion as to what ‘sexy videogame women’ should look like, whereas opinions on ‘sexy videogame men’ seem … more complex.”

“The ‘Hot Ryu’ Meme: Sexiness vs. Sexual Objectification” by Maddy Myers is a good breakdown of why people going “Huh! Huh! Hot Ryu! That’s just the same as sexy girls in my videogames” etc is off-beam. Probably don’t read the comments on that one, though, to be honest.

“Here’s how electronic ticketing gates perpetuate inequality” – an unlikely sounding but pretty compelling argument in CityMetric

“A couple of weeks before the election, a Conservative campaign poster appeared on the billboard by the main road, round the corner from my flat. It boasted of the strength of the economy. It was on the side wall of a shop which had closed down; the doorway was stuffed with a sleeping bag and a couple of cardboard boxes. I looked up at the poster and I laughed out loud. Why were they wasting their money? Nobody round here votes Tory. Then one Friday I was walking down the hill, heading in the opposite direction – literally and figuratively – to the usual snake of rush hour traffic, and it dawned on me. The poster wasn’t there for us. Of course it wasn’t. It was for commuters, heading out of London with their windows wound up tight, towards the sloping lawns and sweet, sweet leaves of Hertfordshire.”

“Last House On The Left: Following Jeremy Corbyn’s Campaign Trail” – Taylor Parkes

“As the cassette business plummeted, they bought up a rag-tag collection of machinery from manufacturers across the US who threw in the towel. The team are constantly battling to keep the ageing equipment going, and have adopted ingenious solutions to keep the obsolete technology pumping out tapes”

“Inside the only company that never stopped believing in cassette tapes” – Alex King

That’s how I feel about keeping a blog running to be honest.

A sentence unlikely to be beaten this year…

“The royals themselves were not exempt from the nicknaming game, according to Page. The Queen’s call sign was “Purple One”, and her husband was referred to as “Phil the Greek”. Prince Andrew, meanwhile, was known simply as “The Cunt”.”

[The URL is pretty good too]

I actually out-source all my blogging now after reading this.

I don’t believe a word of this but who couldn’t love this headline?

“Russian five-year-olds dig their way out of nursery to buy sports car”