DDD SUGGESTED READING LIST ~ JAN 23, 2015

1. Australian comics creator Christian Read has something to say about right-wing-troll-slash-actor Adam Baldwin, the role he played in Gamergate, and the recent controversy about his scheduled appearance at the biggest genre convention Down Under, Supanova. I think it's worth reading, so I'm linking to it in this space. It begins:

Let’s talk about Adam Baldwin at Supanova, an Australian pop culture convention. I’ve debated a few days about posting this but my voice is being dismissed as simply agitating, so I’ll bring it home.
I have worked in the games industry. I know a few women in the games industry and maintain casual internet friendships with a few more. I know women games journalists. I know a lot of women gamers.
Gamergate, which Adam Baldwin started and supported, has made a lot of us angry. It is transparently an organised attack on women and if you think differently, you’re wrong. No debate will be entered in to.
I spoke out against it online. My partner, a tech journalist spoke out against it. And the both of us copped flak. Just reply after reply ranging from faux ‘oh be reasonable’ to personal insults, each one tediously stupid. Me? An SJW? Don’t make me laugh.
Then, the doxxings, the death threats, all that appeared. Go check it out. And that shit gets your attention.

Read is no knee-jerk identity politics whine-monger. That's why I consider his take on this issue to be so valuable. I urge anyone interested in the subject to read the entire thing.

2. If you ever think you've spotted a USB port sticking out of a wall, street curb or other piece of civic infrastructure... turns out you may not have been hallucinating! 

Aram Bartholl came up with this idea for an art project called “Dead Drops” in order to create an anonymous, offline file-sharing network in public space. These USB drives are completely public and anyone can plug in their devices to drop or find files. Each ‘Dead Drop’ USB is empty except for a .txt file which explains the project.
The idea is pretty unique and fun but your laptop may get scratches or a broken USB port. However, it may get handy if you want to start a revolution through an anonymous file sharing from a flash drive.

There's even a handy how-to video at the link. The phenomenon is mostly restricted to New York these days, but I have a feeling you'll be seeing more of these odd little info-pipes sticking out of things in other metropolitan areas in the very near future. The implications are just too good!

3. [adult swim]'s "Infomercials" series presented us all with what was, at times, satire of such exceedingly high quality that it's literally surprising to me when one of their videos falls flat. And fall flat is exactly what Farcopter, the very least among that series' efforts, does in style. In fact, it's so unsuccessful that it's actually worth watching if you harbor any creative ambitions of your own, just to see what not to do if tasked with creating short form nonsense comedy for cable TV. Ah well... they can't all be SmartPipe!