How Eurocrats see the world

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Another one from the “you couldn’t make it up” school of film-making. At first I thought it was a spoof. But it’s not — it’s a “public affairs” (aka propaganda) film for the EU.

Anya Topolski has a lovely analysis of it on openDemocracy.org.

Europe is symbolized as a white woman walking and wading through puddles of water in a warehouse. For those that know their Greek mythology, this cannot simply be a coincidence. Europa, the virgin daughter of an Asian king, was frolicking in the ocean when whisked away by the Greek God Zeus, disguised as a white bull, who then raped and abandoned her. The night before she was assaulted, Europa dreamt of being attacked by the continents of Asia and Libya (the Greek name for what is now Africa) and finally being rescued by ‘civilization’. Just as in the myth, Europe – in the EU video – is attacked by three ‘barbaric’ men. First comes the attack from the East, an aggressive Asian looking kung-fu fighter. Next Europe is attacked from the Orient by a sultan with a massive blade that cannot but convey images of the Crusades and the fight against the infidels. Last but not least comes that half-naked African. Enough said. Europe, reminding the world of its superiority and its ability to put violence in the past in the name of Reason simply stares condescendingly at the barbarians. She multiplies herself – as a good woman ‘created’ to reproduce it implies ought to do – and encircles her enemies who relinquish their weapons. Each of the ‘identical’ women then becomes a star on the European flag and the three barbarians , that is the world in all its diversity, are erased – they vanish.

Aw, shucks: it’s good to know that the EU is still willing to shoulder the white man’s burden.

It’s rumoured that the video has been withdrawn by the Commission, so catch it while you can.

Park your Porsche elsewhere

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Lovely idea: “17 Easy Ways To Offend Googlers” — a list of things that offend against the corporate culture. I particularly like #17:

Acting like a rich guy

A Google employee “threatened to take a baseball bat to any fancy new car that would appear after the IPO.”

“In The Plex describes a case where, after Android’s acquisition, one employee (I believe it was Andy Rubin) had to park his Porsche elsewhere.”

The Boss speaks — in Mandarin!

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This is absolutely fascinating. Just when I was gloomily concluding that I would have to learn to speak French, along comes Microsoft Research with software that can learn the sound of your voice, and then use it to speak a language that you don’t. There was a lovely demonstration at Microsoft’s Redmond campus on Tuesday in which Microsoft researcher Frank Soong showed how his software could read out text in Spanish using the voice of his boss, Rick Rashid. Turns out that Rick now ‘speaks’ Italian and Mandarin. Terrific!

(On the other hand, a small still voice reminds me of Heidegger’s observation that “technology is the art of arranging the world so that you don’t have to experience it”.)

Buried treasures

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Quentin has been clearing out his files and he came on this — a little essay I wrote for the Observer about his role in the invention of the webcam. It was one of the most rewarding pieces I’ve ever written because it was what caused me to meet him, thereby launching a great friendship, an unending series of gadget wars (in which each tries to bankrupt the other by buying gizmos) and a fascinating sequence of not-for-profit joint enterprises (not all of which were intentionally charitable!) Sometimes journalism is its own reward.

PDF of the article here.

The Kony video: an ethical virus?

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My take on the Kony video.

According to YouTube, 60 hours of video material are uploaded to it every minute – an hour a second. In the midst of such abundance, how can anything get noticed? Attention is now the scarcest commodity in cyberspace – which explains why virality is so craved by those with things to sell or messages to transmit. In that sense, the most significant thing about the Kony video is that it represents the most successful exploitation of virality to date. But when you delve deeper, it turns out that its success owes something to network theory as well as to storytelling craft.

Many years ago, the Stanford sociologist Mark Granovetter published a seminal article in the American Journal of Sociology on the special role of “weak ties” in networks – links among people who are not closely bonded – as being critical for spreading ideas and for helping people join together for action.

An examination of the spread of the Kony video suggests that one weak tie in particular may have been critical in launching it to its present eminence. Her name is Oprah Winfrey and she tweeted: “Have watched the film. Had them on show last year” on 6 March, after which the graph of YouTube views of the video switches to the trajectory of a bat out of hell. Winfrey, it turns out, has 9.7 million followers on Twitter.

The venerable PC: not dead yet

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This morning’s Observer column.

Unless you have been holidaying on Mars, you will have gathered that Apple launched a new version of its iPad last Wednesday. They’re refusing to call it the iPad3 but everyone else is. I’d be more inclined to call it the iPad2S, following the nomenclature the company has adopted for its mobile phones. That’s because, no matter how the Apple Reality Distortion Field spins it, the latest iPad is really just an evolutionary advance on its predecessors.

Granted, it has a significantly better display, a more powerful processor (therefore better graphics performance), a better camera, which will record HD video, and a wider range of mobile connectivity options. But otherwise, it’s the mixture as before – though that didn’t stop the Apple website being swamped on Wednesday evening, presumably by folks anxious to pre-order the newest new thing. (Memo to Apple: why not set up a system whereby customers’ salaries are paid directly to the company and they are then issued with food stamps and other necessities as the need arises?)