Every country has its own distinct way to fight terrorism. The Americans: shock and awe. The French: a dismissive laicite. The Dutch: an obsessive multiculturalism. And us? Wit. Satire is a uniquely British skill. Oswald Mosley never got within an inch of power because we couldn’t take fascists seriously – all that goose-stepping and black uniforms, it offered just too much material. Satire works when it mirrors reality, and there is no shortage of material among the Jihadis. Think of Abdulmuttalab, the Christmas pants bomber, or the “Toronto 18” cell who couldn’t remember the name of the Canadian Prime Minister they were plotting to kill.  A report published by our friends and research partner Demos has found a significant part of al-Qaeda’s appeal is not its ideology or message, but its mystique, glamour and modish coolness. Its members style themselves as modern day James Bonds and Che Guevarras, playing their role as a heroic warrior against Western tyranny. If the biggest draw to al-Qaeda is its “cool-factor”, then one of the key policies in fighting terrorism should be to make it boring, says Demos.


Thanks to Demos for this story and report author Jamie Bartlett.

Facebook = Skynet? Well, some people think so. At the F8 conference this week, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg announced a raft of new tools that backed up the company’s vision to be at the heart of social media. At the core of these tools, is the popular ‘like’ button, which will be extended to web pages and businesses. When people click on this, news and feeds will be published on their Facebook newsfeed. The whole package aims to offer an intuitive web experience, with people and their friends at the centre of everything. With this move, Facebook has thrown the gauntlet down to Google as to who ‘owns the internet’, and raised the question yet again of privacy and ownership and use of information. The need for privacy in a transparent internet world is probably going to be the defining generational divide between digital natives and tourists. In the meantime, watch who you poke.

The time it takes to get from personal frustration to collective frustration and eventually united action has been reduced significantly. People united by technology have rallied against a variety of wrongs, from poorly applied fake tan to apartheid to HSBC. These online frustration communities have been coined ‘gripesites’, or ‘complaint’ or ‘sucks’ sites if you’re American. Real-time comment or commitment isn’t the point here; it’s easy to click ‘like’ or ‘become a fan’. It’s much more interesting to look at real-time empowerment. Obama is the laboured example, but perhaps Nick Clegg will build on the country’s collective frustration in the coming weeks. A new frustration community we’ve spotted is Lets Fuck Cancer. Ok, sounds a bit aggressive, but its defiant approach and the ability to share collective frustrations aims to empower, rather than victimise patients. Gathering people with a shared frustration is not only easier, quicker and more directly empowering, but it can stretch to the most personal of fights.


Thanks to Sam Payne for this story. Sam is Dan Broadwood but nice.

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Whenever pirate radio makes the news, it’s portrayed as a game of cat and mouse, but the reality was more like whac-a-mole, writes Matt Mason in the Guardian. “We had so many listeners the Met Police paid us to run ads. Nothing says defeat like buying ads from the enemy.” As explored in a pirate radio docu for Vice TV, a new law cracking down on urban nights along with the rise of the internet, is leading to the decline of pirate radio, and with it, underground music. What Mason points out is that it’s actually easier than ever to be a pirate DJ. Why risk liberty and limb shinning 20 floors up a lift shaft to hide a transmitter, when you can upload a video to YouTube? Ofcom can’t catch you if you’re bouncing your old-skool garage show off a server in Nevada. The pull of pirate radio isn’t that you might get thrown in prison. It’s the buzz you get from doing your community a service. Now that we all have a potential station on our iPhones, could a new age of piracy be around the corner?


Reference
The Guardian Guide, pretty much word for word by the brilliant Matt Mason.

As evident in our office, fixed-gear bikes and iPhones go hand in hand in the young creative’s man bag. Which is why we’re seeing the rise of Bike Apps as the new must-have accessory for the urban cyclist. One of our favourites is the Bike Dashboard. It sits on the handlebars of your bike and shows a display of speed and distance you’ve covered. It even operates the bike’s light and horn. It was the winning idea for the Nokia’s Push N900 “Mod in the USA” competition, which asked creatives and technologists to hack and re-appropriate the N900 mobile device. Then there’s the iPad Pocket Sprocket, which is a wearable app that displays signals of the cyclist’s navigational intentions to fellow motorists. If the rider slows down or stops, the iPad will display a STOP sign etc. Nifty.


Thanks to Neil Bennett for this story.


Reference
PSFK

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