Well, shit.
MCA
1
Instawarrant
The LRB points out a new program in the UK, leading up to the Olympics, that is using an app to report on suspected criminals:
Today, as the web is being undermined by the rapid dominance of apps for smartphones and tablets, the Iranian police would probably, as the jargon has it, ‘go multiplatform’. That, at any rate, is what their colleagues in the Metropolitan Police have just done: unveiling, ahead of the Olympics, a new app called Facewatch ID.
You enter your postcode, and are shown CCTV images of people committing minor crimes in your area. If you recognise anyone, you can let the police know straightaway using the app. The idea is that, if popular, the app will work as a deterrent while also allowing the general public to share in the burdens – and joys – of policing.
The police – or the people who provide them with the technology – may be hoping for other, less obvious benefits from the new system, which could help prepare the ground for fully automated facial recognition systems.
Master’s Seminar in Web Video
The online video ecosystem long-ago crossed the threshold between an archive of cultural ephemera and a dadaist chupacabra bloodthirsty for nostalgic cereal ads. But I present these two – both parts of my bookmarks bar – as a kind of sonic zen koan. They are simple compared to what I could have put up here but I enjoy them.[1]
- Look, it’s the final week of the semester. This is the soundtrack to my brain. Sorry. ↩
Borrowing from Friends
Because of the specifics of the McGill library’s holdings–specifically, they are lacking–I am a frequent user of the Inter-Library Loan system. The coolest kids call this “GETTIN’ ILL.”
GETTIN’ ILL also means getting familiar with a lot of libraries’ cataloguing systems and paratexts. Sometimes you get some real gems. Like this volume from 1953 that my library had to bring in from Iowa State–look at that crest!–and has been untouched basically since publication. I love that they decided to use the same check-out slip from sixty years ago. Most libraries don’t do this. If they still have the slip attached, its last checkout stamp will usually be in the early 1990s, or whenever they switched to a barcode system. If you look closely, you can see that the last time it was checked out was April 20th, 1955. But what I really enjoyed is the threat of a three-cent-a-day fine. I don’t want to antagonize the fine folks at Iowa State, so I’ll save the precious few Canadian pennies that are left.
The Public Sphere
If you spend any time on a message board, especially an anonymous one, you know it’s like being at the Oxford Debate Union crossed with the most romantic fantasies of 19th century coffee houses. Except it’s exactly like that if you replaced all of that with an acid-fueled garbage disposal.