The New StumbleUpon
An opinionated summary for those who are still lost and bewildered
(non-stumblers will want to skip) With the changes made final in December, the concept of friends was replaced with “mutual subscribers” and “direct shares” — creating a more distant, anonymous relationship between stumblers; one which focuses on what we do rather than who we are. The visual editor was removed and 22 colour backgrounds reduced to 7 for the sake of a “consistent” look across the network and to discourage use of SU to create personal scrapbooks.The wish for this uniformity is reiterated in official notes accompanying the New SU but has been grasped only slowly by stumblers (including me) who wailed for months about the loss of personal choice and individuality. What’s New, alerting stumblers to the latest reviews by their friends, was replaced with a “Recent activity” page alerting them to what those friends have thumbed up, as against what they’ve posted in their own words. ~ ~ ~ The mantra from management was that the new SU was “simpler, searchable and more social”. It IS simpler if the intended action is for stumblers to primarily click buttons, thumb up sites and dash off the odd brief review (with no fancy formatting), perhaps a la Twitter. It IS more searchable — this is the one gain, and I like the options when I search on a keyword to do so within my own favourites, from among the pages of my friends or from the whole database.
But more social?
This has been the big problem.
It can’t be called more social if the focus is on website discovery and rating rather than writing or presenting something personal. The problem for both SU and we stumblers is that so many of us were more interested in what our friends had to say about a site than in the site itself.
That interest in what I had to say or you had to say is what made it social; most of us would not have spent the time and energy that we did if it was primarily, or only, to be guided to good websites. I certainly checked out sites my friends recommended or sent me, but I was just as likely to be interested in them and their lives, and they in me.
It’s only human. Merely thumbing sites does not make relationships.
I could look at your site, go through your discoveries, tags and subject matter and read your reviews if you have written any, but unless there’s something of “you” on the page I am unlikely to even want to send you a greeting. That, in my opinion, is why so many of us have decamped to Tumblr, where we can “be ourselves”, present whatever we like without the pressure to review websites, and also free ourselves from the policing, censorship and copyright issues that have grown as SU morphed from community to corporation. Now, with an unofficial add-on visual editor no longer working, I may never post on SU again but to be honest I’ve moved on. SU is for sharing pages and quick messages, looking up bookmarked websites and copying a bit of code (eg with Photoblog It, which thankfully hasn’t been removed), while Tumblr actually feels friendlier and puts the focus on people.
Well-heeled
Quite the opposite, in fact — I will happily wear one pair of comfortable shoes till they have holes in the soles, and my boots, being of the R M Williams and Havana Joe brands, will do me for life now. But looking is another thing — you can look at every kind of shoe you can think of here and browse in categories such as colour and material used. My only grumble is that a promotional video obscures some of the index words.
Love eastern European music … then treat yourself.
This is a gem of a video featuring a folk group and inspired animations.
View is of a lamp hanging from the spiral ceiling of Gaudi’s Casa Batilo in Barcelona.
The interrogation of Detainee 063
“I think on the left wing of the Democratic party, there are some people who believe that we really tortured”
— Dick Cheney, January 2009
Detainee 063 at Guantanamo Bay, the subject of this log, is Mohammed al-Qahtani. It was originally published in Time magazine four years ago and covers an intensive period of 20-hour-a-day interrogation between November 02 and January 03. First, a little background on him from the site: On 23 November 2002 at 02:25, when Al-Qahtani was being bolted to the floor in his interrogation booth at Camp X-Ray, he had been in American custody for almost a year.
In December 2001 he was captured in Afghanistan; in July 2002, after his fingerprints linked him to a pre 9-11 attempt to enter the US, he was marked as a prospect for more aggressive interrogation.
The interrogators’ log records the daily sessions spent with al-Qahtani and his responses to questions. It is as clinical as you would expect and makes a pretty horrifying read, no less so as presented here, in blog form.
Extract: 0230 Source received haircut. Detainee did not resist until the beard was cut.
Detainee stated he would talk about anything if his beard was left alone.
Interrogator asked detainee if he would be honest about himself.
Detainee replied “if God wills”. Beard was shaven. Detainee stated he was on strike from interrogation on all teams.
A little water was poured over the detainee’s head to reinforce control and wash the hair off.
Interrogator continued futility approach. Detainee began to cry when talking.
Al-Qahtani was eventually charged in early 2008 with war crimes and murder but the charges were dropped three months later.
New charges were brought in November that year but they too were subsequently dropped (a year ago) on the basis that he had been tortured.
The Wikipedia entry on him includes a long list of sickening and humiliating techniques used to extract answers from him.
A wise man can see more from the bottom of a well than a fool can see from the top of a mountain.
unknown (via verymuch) (via infoneernet)
In that case, I am moving to South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands. Or one of them.moving to antigua
the rumors are true, kiddos: the ragbag is picking up and moving to antigua. you can now reach it at its new address
now, when discussing with your grandmother about the anthimeria involved in watching milfs getting hardcored 24/7, you can direct her to the simplified—old folks friendly—web address. thank you.
Especially now that I know it is British (kind of) and reindeer mingle there with fur seals and penguins.
Btw, RAGBAG — or RAGB.AG — is an inspired Tumble blog with a focus on words and wit. I would have featured it sooner or later even if he didn’t give me the nudge to set sail across the Pacific in search of my own domain.
Creme de la creme for lovers of old books
He is well read (goes without saying, I suppose) and always tries to include extracts from the text and place the titles and artists in historic context. The site is meticulously indexed and also includes a long list of links to related sites. This is one of my absolute favourite sites on the net.
I have to confess, when I am looking at photos such as these
I am looking only at the aesthetics — the ambience (if it can be called such) of rooms that have been abandoned, the twisting lines and grimy colours. A thing with pipes and wheels all over the place could just as easily be Heath Robinson to me; it looks absurd and even comical. But then I have Cloggo to explain that it actually all makes sense!He will get me in front of these machines and tell me precisely what’s going on, or used to go on, and it was that sense of wonder combined with engineering knowledge that drew me to him in the first place. So now that I’ve been living near him for a while I’ve acquired all sorts of collectibles with working parts, as you can see here … most of them given to me by him. I mostly just mess about with them and if a bulb occasionally lights up I have no idea how it happened. And yet he gave me a job as a mechanic, sight unseen!
LOL. And I still need to tell you about the flying lessons, don’t I. But then again what can I say?
I thought everyone could do it.
I’ve been exploring forbidden places — underground tunnels at a great place called Sleepy City.
I am posting some photos to show where I was.
And it was a blast, by the way. I love this kind of shit, the grimier the better.
Question: do we love and even identify with abandoned places because we feel abandoned ourselves?
Or are we just reacting against the consumer culture that presses the shiny, plastic and new onto us so aggressively?
Personally, I think old things need new friends and defenders, and I’m prepared to be radical about this.
As the team at Sleepy City are. A neat thing with the website is the way it’s organised — I do love a good tag cloud, and intriguing words hook me in every time. Interesting people there too (what people there are). Had a chat with the guy you’re looking and he was pretty cool. His name is Greg and he lives down there in the summer.
The tunnel comes out near my current digs in Royston Vasey, where Cloggo also lives. In fact he found this place for me and partially furnished himself before I even arrived, knowing my love of deep red, velvet, wood and objects with a past. I will tell you more about this place and my thoughts on RV soon but you can go into the room without me and when you do Cloggo will be there to explain the period during which I was transformed from underground explorer to high-flyer (by RV standards, ha ha). Say hello to him!






