One less voice of the filth and the fury. Damn. We could have used him around these days.

“The new groups are not concerned
With what there is to be learned
They got Burton suits,
ha you think it’s funny
Turning rebellion into money”

» BBC News: Clash star Strummer dies
» BBC News: Joe Strummer: Tribute board

Warchalking and SmartMobs make it into the New York Times review of the “Year in Ideas” for good or for ill.

» New York Times magazine: The year in ideas [requires registration]

FWIW*, I just stamped my stuff with a Creative-Commons license. You can do it to your stuff too!!!

Well done all involved.

* For What It’s Worth: Why put a licence on my personal ramblings? Ideas above my station? Maybe – but more because they are ‘out-there’ and I might as well as not. The ease of use and clarity of language employed by the Creative Commons license generator means it is a neglible amount of effort for an individual producing their own works to protect them with a licence. Imagine if sites or services that encouraged user-generation of content: i.e. Amazon, AOL or even a major British public-service broadcaster were to allow contributors to self-licence. In tandem with the mass-amateurisation of publishing, this could be profound.

I’m trying to find a quote which goes something like, and I have almost certainly got this entirely wrong, this:

“There are two ways to make systems work: make the small enough to fix, or slow enough to learn”

Any ideas?

The talented Mr. Beck gets his own trading card in this excellent series from DesignTutor.
» Designertradingcards.com: Harry Beck

At Doors, one of the participants mixed up his words while presenting, and said instead of ‘possibility’ the wonderful, fantastic:

“Possidifficulty”

This word has already found much usage, in my work-life particularly, for example:

“that phase of the project is an area of possidifficulty”

Or, with elbow-patches on my blazer and attempting my best, most-pompous Carl-Sagan-type voice:

“Social software is an area that presents boundless possidifficulties”

Try it yourself! The possidifficulties are endless!

From New Scientist:

“Websites are like shifting sands. The average life of a Web page is 100 days. After that either it’s changed or it disappears. So our intellectual society is built on sand.”

» NewScientist.com: Way back when: Brewster Kahle interview

I don’t plan to make a habit of this, but Steve Hunt who did the IA and interaction design within the team that redesigned the BBC homepage, is looking for a new gig as an information architect. If you know of anything, mail him not me at steveh [at] hiphop.com

This comes in email from Dan Hill and the fine team of people at BBCi Music:

J.G. Ballads – Various Artists

“Drive” – The Cars (Concete Island)
“Always Crashing In The Same Car” – David Bowie (Crash)
“Airport” – The Motors (The Unlimited Dream Company)
“Crawling From The Wreckage” – Dave Edmunds (Concrete Island)
“They Shoot Horses Don’t They” – Racing Cars (Crash)
“Under My Wheels” – Alice Cooper (Crash)
“Cocaine” – JJ Cale (Cocaine Nights)
“Human Fly” – Sonovac (The Sound Sweep)
“I Believe I Can Fly” – R Kelly (The Unlimited Dream Company)
“High Rise” – Hawkwind (High Rise)
“Inner Space/Outer Space” – Flanger (“Which Way To Inner Space?” for New Worlds magazine)
“On The Beach” – Neil Young (The Drowned World)
“Turning Japanese” – Vapors (Empire Of The Sun)
“Atrocity Exhibition” – Joy Division (The Atrocity Exhibition)
“Walking on The Moon” – Police (The Man Who Walked On The Moon)
“Octopuses Garden” – The Beatles (The Drowned World)
“The Urban Spaceman” – Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band (The Impossible Man (featuring the line ‘and here’s the twist, I don’t exist’)

“California Uber Alles” – Dead Kennedys (Why I want to fuck Ronald Reagan, short story)
“Independence Day” – Comsat Angels (The Comsat Angels, short story)
“China Girl” – David Bowie (Empire Of The Sun)
“Nobody To Love” – 13th Floor Elevators (High Rise)
“Crash” – The Primitives (Crash)
“To All the Women That I’ve Known” – Willie Nelson/Julio Iglesias (The Kindness Of Women)

[couldn’t remember your contribution at the time (except 13th floor elevators, due to ‘environmental conditions’ when we thought of the idea – apologies – any more to add?]

Additions/suggestions below please!

…would be this

While, shameless self-promotion would be this.