Department of Departments

The second nice Sunday we've had in a row. I could get to enjoy this. The Comstock (a bar) opened down below us. One more bridge and tunnel trendy spot for the hipsters. "Oh look, Camper, It has a swuf statue of Emperor Norton. OMG - LOL". Back in the old days, we used to..mutter..mutter. And we never..grable...grable... I'll start this week's linkdump with entertainment. We could all use a bit of that.

• Lewis Carroll's surreal poem, which features in Tim Burton's new adaptation of Alice In Wonderland, is read by Sir Christopher Lee at the British Library video.
• I feel real pity for musicians sometimes. I mean, look at this mess. Listen to it. What the heck is left of them and their craft of music? Every aspect of production, distribution, socialization even, has been virtualized and network-distributed. Musicians have really been close to the fire there for a long time. And their troubles aren’t over, either, not by a long chalk.
• Charlie Chaplin was one of the greatest directors and actors the cinema has ever seen, but, like most great artists, his life was filled with controversy and struggle.
• Their stupendous size seemed to fuel dreams of daring-do and glamour... like smoking a cigar on board of a giant flying boat bound for some nameless Central American lake, discussing the odds of finding an ancient treasure with a sultry brunette lady - seemingly a fellow adventurer but, very possibly, a rival spy.

This next one is sure to get the fur flying. There be more than a few folks doin the watusi while they search out cameras and talking heads to expulge this vicious degradation of all we stand for.. and just let me say... shocking.. the history we've been taught to accept.. Or maybe it will just fall back down the memory hole.

• While we are all familiar with the role played by the United States and the European colonial powers like Britain, France, Holland, Portugal and Spain, there is very little discussion of the role Africans themselves played.

The last batch mixes Politics, computer crime and big money, just like in real life.

• The Effectiveness of Political Assassinations: I wouldn't have believed you if you'd told me 20 years ago that America would someday be routinely firing missiles into countries it’s not at war with.
• Who’s got the biggest cloud in the tech universe? Google? Amazon? Lots and lots of servers, but not even close. Their capacity pales to that of the biggest cloud on the planet, the network of computers controlled by the Conficker computer worm.
• I can’t seem to get the Orwellian thought of a “National Department of Bigness” out of my head – where everything is kept small and local…except the Department.
• Goldberg’s salary depends on his not understanding your point; surely you didn’t expect anything else: epistemic closure
• They throw their double-foam latte in the faces of their aides when it isn’t perfect, and they’re not afraid to return a martini four times until it is just right.