Debate Linky

[Friday linky again on a Thursday this week – tomorrow is an NZ public holiday]

So for the last decade-and-a-half I’ve had this one-act play sitting around in draft. A student screenwriter outlines some dumb movie ideas, among them: a fish-out-of-water dramedy about an angry black youth who ends up on the school’s debate team, entering the most whitebread field of conflict imaginable, and of course he triumphs through upending the rules and embracing hip hop and…
…well it turns out, as usual, the real world is way ahead of any fiction I could dream up. Debate in the US is apparently in huge upheaval right now, and POC debaters are right at the core of it. The article is suggestive more than enlightening – don’t read the comments unless you want some headdesk – but the suggestions are compelling indeed.

I’m in a phase where I can’t think about climate change too hard or I get despondent. Hot Topic has a punchy state of play about the NZ political situation:

For Tim Groser, climate change is an international relations problem, to be solved by tough negotiation where New Zealand’s interests — as defined by Key & Co — are paramount. For John Key, climate change is a political problem. If the other side thinks it’s important, then by definition his party has to say it’s less important. Such is the nature of parliamentary party politics, as played by shallow people who don’t understand the breadth of the problem they are supposed to confront.

*sigh of rage*

Naomi Klein on climate change “Climate change is the fight of our lives – yet we can hardly bear to look at it” (via Grant Buist)

Watch Chuck D learn about the internet in 1994 in this 3 minute clip from MTV. Of course it uses the word “cyberspace”. That same year Chuck put an answerphone message about the possibilities of digital music distribution on new PE album “Muse Sick’n’Hour Mess Age”, and only a few years later PE was attempting to put a remix album online and, after being blocked by their studio, they quit and went independent. Chuck in ’94 is a hunt’n’peck typist – you can bet that changed…

Muppet Twin Peaks! (But, as discussed with Gem Wilder, there ain’t enough female Muppets to extend the gag. More female Muppets needed, it’s 2014 for pete’s sake!)

Epic essay/interview on the wonders of Adventure Time, which I really must watch one of these days.

Definitive stereotype map of Great Britain & Ireland

A very cool interactive map of the Game of Thrones world. Best feature: the “spoiler slider” so it only shows you things you’ve already read/seen!

Mash is doing a great run of posts on Neuromancer. Part 3 is a doozy – sure, Neuromancer is a caper story, but what do you see if you look it at as a knightly quest?

Drowning simulator

And finally, the brilliant interactive Cyberpunk Sauna Saga

2 thoughts on “Debate Linky”

  1. Thanks for massive Adventure Time bit! Fascinating that Cartoon Network ignore the 1m+ adults they think watch it.

    I think the show’s become increasingly dark, so am interested to hear that the emphasis is still definitely 6-11 year olds.

  2. I’m kinda hoping that the Wee Beastie becomes an Adventure Time enthusiast in a couple years, and we can bingewatch the whole thing together. Not sure when I’ll get the time otherwise…

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