The No-Webcock Algorithm

Favrd picks up Tweets based on how many times they’ve been favourited -not the first, but possibly the best. The funniest bit is from their own about page, though, because this actually made me snort out loud:

“FAVRD runs on a no-webcock algorithm. If you see Twitter as a venue for public relations or marketing, or as an audience eager to hear news of a post on your ‘blog’, or a rich hot sticky vertical, or if you consider yourself a web strategist, or if you talk earnestly about social media, or if you can read Techcrunch or listen to the Gillmor gang with a straight face, it’s very unlikely the things you say on Twitter will show up here.“

Seriously. I loled.

For the Lost aficionados: the Time Loop Theory, the idea that all the various mysteries of Lost can be explained if the Island is a time machine.

Worldchanging has an interesting interview with Mark Anielski on his Genuine Wealth model, both for what he’s talking about -how to measure societies more subtly than GDP does- as well the questions about how to handle and present data.

Soaking It Up Like A Sponge

I don’t know how I forgot this one, but in the last few weeks I also finally got around to reading Michael Chabon’s The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay, which was every bit as good as everyone says. It doesn’t hurt that I’m a comic-book geek in any case.

Speaking of comics: I’m enjoying the SMASHiness of World War Hulk, god help me. And I see Thor’s back. Wasn’t gone for very long, was he? Yawn. The Dark Tower comics are more like the books than I expected, which is a good thing. I keep obsessively re-reading Kabuki – The Alchemy by David Mack, though this one isn’t new. And in current DCdom, I’m not terribly impressed by Sinestro Corps and still not following Countdown properly. Evil Kyle is so totally not working. Also, why are they shuffling Flashes like a deck of cards? Just pick one… Any one. Joss Whedon’s Buffy Season Eight is … well, it’s okay so far. Vaguely Buffyesque, though I’m having a little difficulty recognizing people beyond the core characters. I’ll tell you what’s good, though: Mike Carey’s Crossing Midnight is really going places. I missed the entire Annihilation mega-event, and perhaps because of that I was pleasantly surprised by Annihilation Conquest: Prologue. Not least because Moondragon and the new Quasar -of all people- as a gay couple seems to actually work, and hopefully will not end with one of them getting killed and the other one crying in the rain. Arcana is rubbish. Avengers (both New and Mighty) was a little meh for a while, though I do want to try and follow the upcoming Skrull-invasion mega-event. (Why? I don’t know, I’m compelled. Anyway, it’s not like I’m buying this stuff for money or anything.) Oh, and another unexpected treat is Shazam – The Monster Society of Evil by none other than the magnificent Jeff Smith, he of Bone fame. And I actually am enjoying the extra-vile The Boys by Garth Ennis. It’s very Ennis, only more so.

Television: watched Battlestar Galactica season three. Weak overall with a few nice episodes, I thought. So… goddamn… cheesy. I seem to remember liking the early part of  the season better, but it never really recovered from all the filler episodes in the middle. Unfortunately, I could give a fuck whether Adama Jr. and Starbuck end up boinking or not. And I like All Along the Watchtower as much as the next guy, but that was a rather bad cover version. That said, the finale was… an interesting choice of last-minute-twist. Tigh and the Chief are the only characters I actually like, so expect me to be voting Cylon from next season onwards.

I’ve been seeing a lot of Heroes-hate on certain feeds of my acquaintance. After watching Heroes and Battlestar Galactica back-to-back in the last few months, I have to say: man, I wish Lost was back already. Or Prison Break, or something. Or I need to start watching this Dexter thing everyone’s on about. Or Bones. People are recommending Bones. If it sucks, please, people, tell me now before I risk my fragile brain.

And speaking of risking my fragile brain, isn’t there another Harry Potter coming out or something? Ugh.

Judas

I love it that there are people out there who keep a WAAALT! count, though they’re lagging behind. Number of people so far who now refer to Michael as the “Judas Beast” = 4. Please, join the club. Man, I hate that guy. “My booooy! My boooooy!” Aw, go build a raft.

Lost-related coincidences in real life are a little freaky. Roommate bought a copy of Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men the day before we watched Every Man For Himself.

I found the Sri Lanka Video a little -annoying, actually, because it seems clumsy and lazy. Not the video itself (that too, perhaps), but the fact that it’s the “Sri  Lanka” video. It sounds like they just picked this place because it’s convenient shorthand for “far away”, a nonplace, a placeholder -something which is both exotic and generic.  Also, “far away” doesn’t work for us what live out here. It’s not far away, it’s right here -and I can’t picture Rachel Blake running away from the Hansos and Mittelwerks on the streets of my own home town. It’s ludicrous. Too close to the real world and the fragile suspension of disbelief shatters.

I’m not too hot on the whole let’s-pretend of The Lost Experience with all its games on the intarwebs and half-a-billion fake websites for everything from fake corporations to Enzo Valenzetti’s grandmother. This is Franken-fiction, struck alive by a post-modern lightning bolt and staggering off the table. But when it shambles down the street -your street- you can see the scars of clumsy surgery, and you know it’s just a monster.

It looks so much better on TV.