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Living in the Future.
Essex police charge man over water fight planned on BlackBerry Messenger
In 2008 there was a spate of mass water fights in British towns and cities that were organised through social networks. Most remained peaceful. This month a water fight attended by thousands of young Iranians attracted the attention of Tehran's morality police and led to a ( Read more... ) -
Media Studies
I was cleaning out the storage room in my mom's basement last week. With the help of N, I sorted through assorted trinkets and about 12 years worth of math drill sheets, spelling quizzes, and art projects. The majority got trashed, but I still ended up with two boxes of nostalgica ( Read more... ) -
state capitalism + extended families + Confucian values = most convoluted family bribery dramas ever
I hate being the judgemental foreigner sitting in my smug little niche of independence carved out on the back of luck and emotional labour/manipulation. But then again, I do appreciate always hearing "socialism with Chinese characteristics" said in colloquial conversations with a sneer ( Read more... ) -
on the subject of shitty metafilter threads
Before the more recent Johann Hari episode, there was a disastrously stupid thread on metafilter about his rage-on for ebooks. I didn't bother reading the article because hating on ebooks for aesthetic reasons already seems obsolete, and so can't speak to its merits or lack there of. But what a weird reversion to techno-utopic-libertarianland to ( Read more... ) -
empty content signifier
News of Great Proletarian Cultural Revival has worked its way to metafilter, unfortunately via a piss-poor Washington Post article (but I repeat myself, har har). Surprisingly, I had relevant content to contribute since I went to one the 90th Anniversary galas a few nights ago, and am about to leave for a repeat performance later tonight. Here's ( Read more... ) -
desert-ed
Mingqi Li seems over-optimistic by, like, 10000 li. Especially about Tonghua. Which seems too close like hyperactive mob vigilante justice for comfort from here, what with our age of flesh search engines and every person a nation and every relationship a social clan networked system. I can't even pretend to know the jargon to pull that off. Sad ( Read more... ) -
tech woes
Hey So I know I'm supposed to be writing about my adventures and documenting the people I meet who will later find a place in an over-earnest piece of hah literary hah fiction hah hah ( Read more... ) -
sometimes you get aces and sometimes you get faces
On my first butt-numbing 8 hour train ride I got talking to a woman who spent a few years singing in Singaporean bars, getting paid under the table. She's back in China now, married, and teaching at a private singing school she opened herself. They're trying for a kid now, and she's just begun fertility treatments. She said the men in Singapore ( Read more... ) -
soliciting advice
I've finally started taking pictures! Usually I'd use facebook and extract the links but that method isn't very fast and clearly not feasible with the GFW in place. What photosharing/hosting should I use instead ( Read more... ) -
no lower east side.
05/12 Jintan, 11:20 PM ( Read more... )