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cases in point

Saturday, December 27th, 2008

I have been very lax in the blog posting department recently. I have been exceedingly busy, or perhaps Santa…

However this does not mean that the internet here & elsewhere is not still brilliant.

Cases in point:

The year is coming to an end, which makes it possible to discover the best scandals of 2008. Not included on that list was the heinous case of some guy reported only by some other guy.

In case you were not wondering & had therefore not clicked the link, the image at the top of this post is from If Charlie Parker Was a Gunslinger, There’d Be a Whole Lot of Dead Copycats which is reliably graphic as far as weblogs go. the picture is the following:

Mayor Destroys Last of Slot Machines.

New York — A modern St. George conquering a moral dragon, Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia of New York City has the personal satisfaction of destroying some of the 2000 slot machines which were loaded on a municipal barge, towed out to sea, and dumped. They are believed to have been the last machines in the city. The money remaining in the machines at the time of confiscation will be turned over to the police pension fund. Watching the Mayor are Police Commissioner Lewis J. Valentine and State Senator Joseph Esquirol, sponsor of a bill outlawing the evil. (1934)

A truly beautiful moment in the history of self-righteousness.

NOTICE: I have also recently discovered the secret of eternal life. If you want to discover the meaning of life then please donate five pounds to my paypal account:

NOTICE1.1: If you think that you can get the secret of eternal life for just five pounds then you clearly don’t deserve to know it. In order to receive the secret of eternal life please donate the amount you think it is worth to my paypal account:

NOTICE1.2; DISCLAIMER: This may or may not be a reworking of a Peter Cook sketch that I was unable to find a link to. I may or may not be in possession of the secret of eternal life.

Use either your own skill & judgement or the nearest thing you have.

Love regards etc

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mechanical turks

Wednesday, August 6th, 2008

So it seems that Amazon are expanding again & have launched their Mechanical Turk service. Which caught my eye largely because it reminded me of The_Turk, which is one of my all time favourite Wikipedia articles.

Amazon’s mechanical turk did grab my attention enough for me to take a look. Offering cash for tasks that can’t be automated in an online marketplace is an interesting idea. The sort of thing I might email to the recent graduates I know who complain that they can’t find a job. Except the remuneration for taking a HIT (Human Intelligence Task) is almost exclusively peanuts.

And you know the phrase – Only monkeys get out of bed for peanuts.

Which brings us to something that IS brilliant, The_Turk.

Which was a chess playing machine built in the late 18th century that claimed to be an automated chess machine but actually concealed a human chess master in a small cupboard. The Turk toured for the best part of a hundred years, and amongst other achievements, beat Bonaparte and was the subject of a Poe article.

A brilliant sense of imagination, wonder & showmanship at work in this story. Which reminds me of the Werner Herzog film Jeder für sich und Gott gegen alle (Every man for himself and God against them all)

So thank you amazon for reminding me of these. And interesting that you might name your new venture after an infamous hoax. I hope it’s irony I’m appreciating there.

Posted in the internet, wishful thinking | 1 Comment »

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