Cuttings: February 2016

This Is London by Ben Judah: the truth about a capital city utterly transformed - review by Blake Morrison in The Guardian. " Ben Judah’s epic account of contemporary London is ... motivated by a desire to show our capital in its true (new) colours: as a megacity of global migrants, some of them rich, most of them poor, few of them happy with their lot. Knightsbridge gets a chapter and so does Mayfair’s Berkeley Square, but it’s the people and places further out that really interest him – the Poles, Somalis, Afghans and Ghanaians in areas such as Beckton, Ilford, Edmonton, Catford and Harlesden. The ethnic majority, in other words: the 55% of London’s population that isn’t white British.... It’s when Judah sits down with someone and listens that the book really takes off. He is brilliant at getting people to speak: the London Underground cleaner; the Polish builder; the Egyptian heiress; the Filipina housemaid; the imam who washes the bodies of the dead; the teacher; the carer; the gang leader. Among the mass of migrant stories are recurring tales of the glamour of London as seen from afar, and the grime, fear, poverty and violence seen close up. We learn a lot about the work that migrants do and how they see the British. Mean, ugly, lazy, cruel, secretive and snobbish are among the words used about us, though there is respect for our constitution and amusement at how we’re always saying sorry."

Exhibition at the pictures: Orhan Pamuk's Museum of Innocence on screen - article by Orhan Pamuk in The Guardian. "I conceived the novel and the museum simultaneously, and explained the complex link between them in the novel: a young man from a wealthy, westernised Istanbul family falls in love with a poor distant relation, and when his love goes unrequited, he finds solace in collecting everything his beloved has ever touched. Finally, as we learn at the end of the book, he takes all of these objects from daily life – postcards, photographs, matchsticks, saltshakers, keys, dresses, film clips, and toys, mementoes of his doomed love affair and of the Istanbul of the 1970s and 80s whose streets he wandered with his lover – and displays them in the Museum of Innocence.... Innocence of Memories is based as much on the novel as it is on the objects that inspired it (clocks, coffee cups, photographs, clips from old movies set in Istanbul), on daydreams layered in poetic sequence, and on the actual landscape of the city. The camera’s exploration of the places where I found the objects for my collection befits my vision of what museums should be: the key to the future of museums is in our homes, in our daily lives, and on the streets.... Once I started wandering the streets of Istanbul in preparation for the novel and the museum, raiding flea markets, secondhand bookstores, and the homes of friends and family for old pillboxes, ashtrays, framed pictures of mosques, identity cards and passport photos, I realised that collecting artefacts for a museum is not very different from collecting stories and facts for a novel."

It’s not Cyberspace anymore - article by Danah Boyd in online magazine Points, referenced in John Naughton's Memex 1.1 blog. "It’s been 20 years — 20 years!? — since John Perry Barlow wrote 'A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace'  — a rant in response to the government and corporate leaders who descend on a certain snowy resort town each year as part of the World Economic Forum (WEF).... 'Governments of the Industrial World, you weary giants of flesh and steel, I come from Cyberspace, the new home of Mind. On behalf of the future, I ask you of the past to leave us alone.'... When Barlow penned his declaration, he was speaking on behalf of cyberspace, as though we were all part of one homogeneous community. And, in some sense, we were. We were geeks and freaks and queers. But over the last twenty years, tech has become the underpinning of so many sectors, of so much interaction. Those of us who wanted cyberspace to be universal couldn’t imagine a world in which our dreams got devoured by Silicon Valley. Tech is truly mainstream — and politically powerful — and yet many in tech still want to see themselves as outsiders.... There is a power shift underway and much of the tech sector is ill-equipped to understand its own actions and practices as part of the elite, the powerful. Worse, a collection of unicorns who see themselves as underdogs in a world where instability and inequality are rampant fail to realize that they have a moral responsibility. They fight as though they are insurgents while they operate as though they are kings."

Practice and the Development of Expertise - article by Tom Gram in his blog Performance x Design. "It seems ... signatures of expertise are the result of years of effortful, progressive practice on authentic tasks accompanied by relevant feedback and support, with self-reflection and correction. The research team have labeled this activity 'Deliberate Practice'. Others have called it deep practice and intentional practice. It entails considerable, specific, and sustained efforts to do something you can’t do well—or at all. Six elements for are necessary for practice (or on the job experience) to be 'deliberate' practice: (1) It must be designed to improve performance. ... . Years of everyday experience does not necessarily create an expert. Years of deliberate practice does.... (2) It must be based on authentic tasks.... (3) The practice must be challenging.... (4) Immediate feedback on resuls.... (5) Reflection and adjustment.... (6) 10,000 hours... Fortunately we have a number of approaches available to us that align well to the conditions of deliberate practice... (a) Action learning... (b) Cognitive apprenticeship... (c) Communities of practice... (d) Simulation and games... (e) Feedback in the workflow... (f) Stretch assignments with coaching... (g) Open practice centres."

Can you make your own happiness? - column by Oliver Burkeman in The Guardian. "There might be a ... general rule here: that whatever self-improvement schemes you’re most attracted to, they’re the ones you should avoid, because your attraction could be rooted in fear of the alternatives. Applied rationality holds out the promise that self-mastery is possible, and that you can control how life unfolds. It assumes we know, roughly, what happiness would look like, and just need help making it happen. But if you’re already strongly invested in that viewpoint, there’s probably more to be gained from exploring the ways in which life isn't controllable, or the possibility that you don’t know what’s best, that reason isn’t always the answer. Put down that rationalist handbook and take up yoga, or magic mushrooms, or gardening, or dance, or prayer. Yet consistency requires I ask the same thing of myself. Why am I so keen to believe reason and data can’t be the path to fulfilment? Am I looking for excuses not to change, by painting my failings as too mysterious and complex for mere rationality to address?"

Mein Kampf: Eine Kritische Edition: taking the sting out of Hitler’s hateful book - review by Neil Gregor in The Guardian. "What impact will the republication have? There have been no shortage of lazy attempts to juxtapose the republication of Mein Kampf with the rising political tensions that have attended the massive influx of refugees into Germany. Such arguments stand within a long, undistinguished tradition of casting every act of everyday racism in Germany as evidence that the country stands permanently on the brink of the Fourth Reich. But if we are looking for the drift towards nationalist authoritarianism we should be looking at Poland; if we are concerned about populist nationalism the more obvious danger lies in France. Even the phenomenon of Pegida is too easily interpreted against the background of Germany’s Nazi past, whereas in reality its ugly blend of nationalism, Islamophobia and hostility to multiculturalism makes more sense when examined alongside Ukip. The point is not to suggest that Germany is now an oasis of decency in a desert of xenophobia. Rather, it is to underline that manifestations of far-right politics now draw on quite different sources to those that Hitler once did. Mein Kampf can now only really be read as history."

#Twitter crisis? Not if it decides that it can be a smaller, smarter platform - article by John Naughton in The Observer. "Whereas it is easy to give an answer to the question 'What is Facebook?', the answers for Twitter depend on who you ask. Technically, it’s a platform-independent micro-blogging service with a limit per post of 140 characters. For geeks, it’s a human-mediated RSS feed – that is to say, a way of plugging into the thought streams of people you choose to 'follow'. For celebrities, it’s a way to broadcast to fans. For journalists, it’s an efficient way of conveying breaking news from anywhere. For some people, it’s a combination of a giant phone book, a personal radio station and what used to be called a “party line” in the old days of telephony. For others, such as blogger Jeff Goins, it’s 'the cheapest way to send an instant message to someone interested in you ... the easiest mode of finding breaking news that’s relevant to you ... the most effortless way to meet a celebrity. Twitter is not the main stage; it’s the backstage. What happens over coffee and face-to-face, while others are schmoozing and dropping business cards on tables.' And so on, ad infinitum."

I love you, I love you, I love you … why we can’t stop using those three little words - article by Joe Moran in The Guardian. "The most recent modern rendering of this very British difficulty with getting the words out is probably Four Weddings and a Funeral, in which Charles (Hugh Grant) can only manage it by running after Carrie (Andie McDowell) on London’s South Bank and saying, 'Er, in the words of David Cassidy … while he was still with the Partridge Family … er, I think I love you.' Charles’s inability to say 'I love you' without scare quotes is just the most debilitating symptom of his general problem with words, which he tends to deploy in the service of embarrassing faux pas or creative reworkings of 'Fuck'. His deaf brother David has to intervene on his behalf at his wedding to the wrong woman, allowing him to finally speak of his love for Carrie through sign language."

Sonnet (inspired by Sonnet 22) - revisiting of Shakespeare sonnet by Wendy Cope in The Guardian. "My glass can’t quite persuade me I am old – In that respect my ageing eyes are kind – But when I see a photograph, I’m told The dismal truth: I’ve left my youth behind...."

Terry Pratchett statue to bring Discworld author home to Salisbury - news piece by Alison Flood in The Guardian. "Almost 9,000 people have signed a petition calling for a permanent statue of the Discworld author, who died last year, to be installed in a prominent position in his hometown.... The statue is set to be designed by Paul Kidby, the artist whose iconic illustrations adorn Pratchett’s Discworld books.... His drawing suggests a life-sized statue of Pratchett in bronze, in which the author is, he says, 'standing in a relaxed pose, wearing his iconic hat and carrying a book under his arm.... There is the possibility to add some Nac Mac Feegles (Scottish-style pixies from Pratchett’s writing) to the sculpture, which would add an element of humour and surprise to the piece. I think these Feegles would be best placed behind Terry’s feet so they only visible when walking to the back of the sculpture. I think they should be doing something mischievous such as prising the letters off the base and carrying them off – or similar. These small characters would bring an aspect of his Discworld creation directly into the overall piece.' ”

You Could Do Something Amazing With Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]: a killer’s testimony - review by Gavin Knight in The Guardian. "The Northumbria Police won’t ever forget Raoul Moat. The week of July 2010 when Moat went on the rampage was unprecedented. Moat, a 37-year-old Geordie bodybuilder, was serving a short sentence for assault in Durham prison when his 22-year-old girlfriend Sam dumped him for a younger man. Two days after his release, Moat shot and killed the new boyfriend with a sawn-off shotgun, then turned it on Sam, hospitalising her. He declared war on the Northumbria police and blinded one of their officers, who was sitting unarmed in his car. On the run for seven days, Moat camped out in the woods of Northumberland.... Surrounded by armed police, Moat shot and killed himself.... Now Andrew Hankinson, a journalist from Newcastle, has constructed a narrative from Moat’s own written and recorded source material. Why devote a book to him? His purpose is to show Moat as a product of our culture and society. The author takes us inside the killer’s head without giving the reader the privilege of distance in which to judge and dismiss him. The result is an uncomfortable, claustrophobic read.... He deploys the urgent present tense and the second person. 'They release you from prison at 10.55am.' This gives the narrative the feel of an unfolding video game. It also has the familiarity of advertising copy, the 'you' of opportunity, which is compounded by the ironic title and cover in the style of a 50s advert."

Preston Sturges: how a master of daftness conquered Hollywood - article by Sarah Churchwell in The Guardian. "It was a sprint worthy of his greatest farces: between 1937 and 1944, Preston Sturges made some of the funniest films Hollywood ever produced, including The Great McGinty, The Lady Eve, Sullivan’s Travels, The Palm Beach Story, The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek, and Hail the Conquering Hero. Then suddenly, as if his frantic, frenzied comedies had exhausted not only himself but his form, Sturges ran out of steam. Blending the comical and serious, farcical and cerebral, high and low, Sturges found catalytic energy in mixing formulas like a madcap scientist; as if he had released actual kinetic energy, he went ricocheting through Hollywood cinema, until he fell to earth with a thud."

All the attention came from women telling me how stupid my book was - article by Polly Vernon in The Guardian. "I knew Hot Feminist would prove contentious when I wrote it.... While the reviewers were at odds about Hot Feminist, Twitter was united. My book and I instantly became the target of unbridled internet scorn.... I tried fronting it out, but I couldn’t sustain the defence. I was promoting the book on TV and at festivals, wired on caffeine and adrenaline, not really eating, not really sleeping; checking Twitter compulsively. Four days after publication, I developed a facial twitch. ... I got over it. It took time, friends, therapy, a couple more good reviews, quitting Twitter. Now? I’m fine. Almost completely restored. Almost. Because I do wonder if I’ll ever take such risks – publish anything as heartfelt, as exposing – again. Probably not. And I wonder who else is choosing not to say things they really mean, for fear of how Twitter will react."

Play nice! How the internet is trying to design out toxic behaviour - article by Gaby Hinsliff in The Guardian. "A software engineer who built and moderated online comment platforms, [Aja] Bogdanoff spent her days wading through insults, and her spare time firefighting more urgent incidents. She could see platforms being overwhelmed by the sheer volume of antisocial users, but couldn’t figure out how to get one jump ahead of them.... '[Stephen Pinker's Better Angels of Our Nature] says people always believe that their actions are justified. No matter what they’re doing, they think there’s a valid reason,' she recalls... 'So, I realised we had to get in there and interrupt that process; make people think about it, that these are real people.' Instead of constantly running to catch up with 'bad' posters, could she design better behaviour in from the start?... This is where Civil Comments, the startup Bogdanoff founded with Christa Mrgan, comes in. The idea is simple (although the software is so complex it took a year to build): before posting a comment in a forum or below an article, users must rate two randomly selected comments from others for quality of argument and civility (defined as an absence of personal attacks or abuse). Ratings are crunched to build up a picture of what users of any given site will tolerate, which is then useful for flagging potentially offensive material. Crucially, users must then rate their own comment for civility, and can rewrite it if they want (in testing, about 5% did)."

How we made Angry Birds - feature by Jaakko Ilsalo and Tuomo Lehtinen in The Guardian. "I was working on something that let you sling balls around, then I added some blocks for them to collide into. When we got the birds from Jaakko, things all started to come together. But the aiming mechanism wasn’t working: the birds didn’t fly where you expected them to, which wasn’t fun – players had to be able to figure out where they had failed. Jaakko spent a lot of time tweaking the blocks, too, so that when there was a hit, things broke in a way that was satisfying: they couldn’t collapse too easily, couldn’t wobble too much. We initially had a castle much closer to the slingshot – you could see both on screen – but when we moved it further away, the extra flight time meant the anticipation and excitement grew."

England’s schools make us the extremists of Europe - article by Danny Dorling in The Guardian, based on his book A Better Poltics: How Government Can Make Us Happier. "In terms of education, instead of looking at ways to increase wellbeing, England has turned itself into the extremist of Europe and the effects are not going to make anyone happier. Education in England is expanding into new extremes of elitism. The covert message is that a small elite, made up of superior individuals, should lead us. The mechanism to select such individuals is being constantly honed.... Universities say they want to attract the most academically able individuals – without justifying how they define 'most able'.... Like the clergy and conjurors of old, their academic judgments can never be questioned. In schools, we rank institutions by the performance of the children – and the result is that schools are encouraged to exclude those least likely to do well in exams.... Our government encourages it and apparently has no idea that in this England is highly unusual in Europe."

Four neuromyths that are still prevalent in schools: debunked - article by Bradley Busch in The Guardian Teacher Network. "Many 'neuromyths' are rampant in our classrooms, and research suggests that people are often seduced by neuroscientific explanations, even if these are not accurate or even relevant.... Such myths are a drain on time and money, and it is important to explore and expose them. So which popular neuromyths exist in schools and how did they catch on? (1) Learning styles... (2) You only use 10% of your brain... (3) Right brain v. left brain.... (4) Playing brain games makes you smarter."

'The Role of the Game Designer' - Chapter 1 of Game Design Workshop: A Play Centric Approach to Creating Innovative Games, by Tracy Fullerton, 3rd edition, CRC Press (Boca Raton, FL), 2014. "As a game designer, a large part of your role is to keep your concentration focused on the player experience and not allow yourself to be distracted by the other concerns of production. Let the art director worry about the imagery, the producer stress over the budget, and the technical director focus on the engine. Your main job is to make sure that when the game is delivered, it provides superior gameplay.... In some ways, designing a game is like being the host of a party. As the host, it's your job to get everything ready - food, drinks, decorations, music to set the mood - and then you open the doors to your guests and see what happens. The results are not always predictable or what you envisioned. A game, like a party, is an interactive experience that is only fully realized after your guests arrive. What type of party will your game be like? Will your players sit like wallflowers in your living room? Will they stumble around trying to find the coatroom closet? Or will they laugh and talk and meet new people, hoping the night will never end?" (pp 3-4)