Some totally unrelated links of interest:

[franceslievens]

* Reclaim Privacy: a great tool to scan the privacy settings of your Facebook account. (via numerous sources)

* Shareable Futures: a series of SF short stories on Shareable.net. First in line: The Jammie Dodgers and the Adventure of the Leicester Square Screening by Cory Doctorow. (Unfortunately I've got such a backlog of reading and writing to do that I've got no idea whether I'll ever come round to reading these.)

* More reading: Douglas' Adams 1999 essay "How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet". How come I never read this thing? (via Maud Newton)

* And the more pressing matters: As if this could be possible for a nation, but Israel has lost its mind (via Crooked Timber), as has most of the blogosphere when trying to explain the Mexican Gulf oil spil (by Mark Bernstein).

Comments

[sister-luck.livejournal.com]

It's so true about the oil spill.

Also, it seems that there are not enough media-worthy pics of oil-encrusted birds to be had - something that I remember from all the oil tanker spills of recent memory. Apparently most of the oil is still under water, so it's largely invisible. Or are both traditional and new media just terribly bad at reporting this?

[frances-lievens.livejournal.com]

I have the feeling the media is terribly bad at reporting this. I saw some disconcerting images yesterday, though. Taken from the air: there was oil everywhere. Unfortunately I can't seem to find these pictures any more. I hate my regular (Flemish) news site. They are so preoccupied with Belgian petty news. *sigh* As always BBC has the best images.

All this reminds me that at home I love to watch the children's news (Karrewiet) because it can make difficult matter easy and comprehensible for children without dumbing it down.