About
'It's that on the surface it says that "the internet is a new form of democracy". So what you're seeing is a new pluralism, a new collage, a new mosaic of all sorts of different ideas that's genuinely representative. But if you analyse what happens, it simplifies things. [Those in social media] are parasitic upon already existing sources of information - they do little research of their own.'What then happens is this idea of the 'hive mind', instead of leading to a new plurality or a new richness, leads to a growing simplicity. Far from being "the wisdom of crowds", it's the stupidity of crowds. Collectively what we are doing is creating a more simplified world.'
Adam Curtis.
So this is me stealing other people's creativity (including Adam Curtis'...), what do you think? Get in touch.
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Try looking for brilliant, oddities in Lego, Parkinson's Disease, or The Weekly Spotify Playlist Project.
Enormous 1845 Panorama of London.
1) This is awesome. Props to IanVisits for putting it up. A range of other ways to view it by clicking the link to him
2) Moving there in two weeks. A bit to the left of Vauxhall. Any tips?
Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal World Heritage Site
Today is World Heritage Day.
A selection of reports broadcast from 1945.
Snow (1963)
“In a mere half-dozen films released between 1959 and 1975, director Geoffrey Jones revealed himself as an outstanding talent, embracing industrial filmmaking as consistent with a personal style, blending movement and sound into a joyous, rhythmic whole. Brilliantly aided by Wolfgang Suschitzky’s shimmering camerawork, the Oscar-nominated ‘Snow’ is Jones’ masterpiece. It’s crisply invigorating enough to induce brief amnesia about our trains’ notorious inability to cope with the white stuff - then and now.” — Patrick Russell
” Viewing Snow can be a hypnotic experience. Jones begins the film with a slow military throb, with the railway station and tracks all but buried beneath a mountain of snow and ice. The pace increases with the workmen’s clearing of the tracks, and while the trains barrel through the snow-covered countryside, the music accelerates. The percussive editing between trains and environment reaches a joyous crescendo with a rapid succession of pounding snow, churning pistons, fields of livestock and the ever-present tracks, ending in a wild flourish of percussion.
Snow received at least 14 major awards upon its release, as well an Oscar nomination in 1965. It has been screened around the world and remains a favourite of fans of Geoffrey Jones’ work and British Transport Films. Most importantly, this film marked the first full realisation of Jones’ signature style, which he would expand upon and refine in subsequent films like Rail (1966), Trinidad and Tobago (1964) and Locomotion (1975).” — James White

Fascinating little experiment in post-blogging. More on the phenomenon here