We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.

Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]

The Religion of Peace out does itself

The horror in Kenya is almost beyond belief. Almost. One hundred and forty seven dead, mostly Kenyan university students. I wonder how ‘the west’ will get blamed for this one?

Defying the New Endarkenment

Back in the 1986, we actually had that bastion of idiotarianism, Channel Four, run a program called “The New Enlightenment: the rebirth of liberalism”, about Frederick Hayek, Milton Friedman et al. But I would have never guessed that in 2015 we would be experiencing a New Endarkenment.

Fuck you. No seriously, fuck every last one of you who turned off those lights and made parts of glorious London look like North Korea.

Well my house was a gleaming beacon I can assure you, with every single light turned on. Maybe I will purchased some searchlights for next year’s endarkenment.

Yeah, this is my ‘hang over’ from ‘Earth Hour’ rather than this incident per se.

The novels of the future!

Whilst surfing for ‘Wet T-Shirt Contest’ sites, I accidentally came upon this wonderful advance… hardback novels for sale actually written in binary!

binary_novel_april_fool

Is this not awesome?

01000001 00100000 01101000 01100101 01100001 01110010 01110100 01110111 01100001 01110010 01101101 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110011 01110100 01101111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01100001 01100010 01101111 01110101 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01101100 01101111 01110111 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01110100 01101111 01110010 00100000 01110111 01101000 01101111 00100000 01100100 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101101 01110011 00100000 01101111 01100110 00100000 01110011 01100101 01110010 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01001111 01101101 01101110 01101001 01110011 01110011 01101001 01100001 01101000 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010011 01101011 01101001 01110100 01100001 01110010 01101001 01101001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110010 01110010 01101001 01101111 01110010 00101110 00100000

Snappy! A true page turner.

Samizdata quote of the day

Rather than engaging Russia in a futile pre-modern discourse about race and ethnicity, Ukrainians should integrate into multicultural, multiracial, tolerant Europe.

As for Russia, it would have done a lot better if after the collapse of the Soviet Union it had declared itself a new nation, born on the day it rose up to defeat the hardline communist coup in August 1991. Had it started from a blank page, the way the United States did in 1776, it might have freed itself of its damaging 19th century imperial hangups.

Alexei Bayer

The force is strong in this one!

Why? Because this is just too damn good…

You are welcome.

So here comes the next ‘moral panic’

I assume this risible claim by NSPCC (the quango responsible for the discredited family destroying ‘satanic‘ moral panic of the 1980’s/90’s), is priming the pump for the next assault on civil liberties to justify its existence, yes?

A tenth of 12 to 13-year-olds fear they are “addicted” to pornography, an NSPCC ChildLine survey has concluded.
One in five of nearly 700 youngsters surveyed said they had seen pornographic images that had shocked or upset them, researchers found

…”researchers found” is a phase that is pure gold, it is not? Perhaps children have fundamentally changed since I was one, but when I was in my early teens, if I saw a ‘helpline’ being advertised that could assist me regarding porn, I would have called it on the assumption they were going to help me find the ‘good stuff’ rather than those hairy porkers in Mayfair or Men Only 😉

Samizdata quote of the day

When you look at 19th century America or 18th and 16th century Europe, all of a sudden it’ll become clearer that the thing that broke the back of poverty and privilege in developed countries in the past was when property rights came around and destroyed feudal title.

Hernando de Soto

This could add a whole new meaning to having a car crash

I was watching this video about electric cars…

 

…and was struck by this remark by Mark Tinker, discussing driving a Tesla:

“I liken it to driving an iPad”

Hmmm…

Then I had a flash forward a few years into the future…

Me: Hello, sorry I am a bit late, but I had a car crash.

Friend: oh no, is everyone alright?

Me: Not that kind, I just had to pull over and wait for the car to reboot.

Samizdata quote of the day

The part I find hilarious is the divestment movement that’s popping up around this law. They’re basically saying that Indianans have done something they find deeply and personally offensive, so the boycotters are going to refuse to do business with them as a result. It sounds like a prima facie argument for the exact bill that they’re opposed to.

– Samizdata commenter Alsadius

Yet another superb argument for home schooling

When I read this:

Head teachers in Cheshire have warned parents they will report them to the authorities if they allow their children to play computer games rated for over-18s.

“We are trying to help parents to keep their children as safe as possible in this digital era.”

… I concluded the best way to keep your children safe is to home school them so that they stay as far away as possible, not from GTA, but from power obsessed busybodies like these people.

US state Indiana to allow freedom of association?

… and you cannot have freedom of association without freedom of disassociation.

Therefore I am perfectly willing to see a non-state owned company decline to do business with me because of my politics, or because of my hippopotamus fetish, or because I tend to wear red trousers. Of course by ‘perfectly willing to see’ I mean ‘that a company is legally permitted to discriminate against me’… I am not suggesting I would be thrilled by it.

So is there any reason anyone who cares about liberty should oppose this? Indeed would it not be better if the law just stated it was none of the state’s business who a company chooses not to do business with for any reason, absent any prior or overarching contractual obligation?

Feminist Jazz Hands!

This is one of the funniest things I have read in quite some time.

Please can we ask people to stop clapping but do feminist jazz hands? it’s triggering some peoples’ anxiety. thank you!

My goodness what timorous fearful little things they are! Not exactly the sort of women who might be up for a spot of defending Kobani with some fellow Marxists then, eh? Truly the western world’s loonie left is vanishing up its own backside.

Well should I have the singular misfortune to find myself in a room with these delicate little flowers, I might be moved to make a somewhat different gesture rather than “Jazz Hands” as an alternative to clapping. Think this might ‘trigger some anxieties’?

David_Niven_flicking_V_promo_still_Dinner_at_the_Ritz