Bookmarks for the 3rd of June, 2014

  • 800 Years Of Human Sacrifice In Kent

    Fascinating stuff, especially when it comes to where the victims grew up:

    • 36% local
    • 32% southern Norway or Sweden
    • 20% western Mediterranean
    • 12% indeterminate
  • How Google is Killing the Best Site On the Internet

    A couple [of] weeks ago, Matt Haughey, the founder of TLDR’s favorite website, Metafilter, announced that his website is dying. And he says it’s because Google algorithmically stopped directing traffic to the site over a year ago. Alex tries to figure out what you do when Google’s algorithm decides it no longer likes you.

  • MeFi Fundraising Update

    As of right now, 1868 members are contributing a dollar or more monthly, for just about $10,000 in recurring donations after fees have been removed. For one-time donations we have 1063 members that have given us a total of nearly $40,000 after fees.

    Hooray!

  • Parrhēsia Today: Drone Strikes, Fearless Speech and the Contentious Politics of Security

    Foucault is more often used to theorise political logics of securitisation than to understand the contestation of security policies. Yet Foucault’s work offers a wealth of conceptual tools and ideas pertinent to the study of the contentious politics of security. In his lectures on parrhēsia in Ancient Greece, Foucault explored the practice whereby individuals choose at great risk to confront rulers or publics with uncomfortable truths. This article argues that a refashioned concept of parrhēsia can illuminate certainelements of the contentious politics of security today.

  • Apple issues first conflict minerals report, says majority of suppliers are in the clear

    A ‘majority’ isn’t really good enough, but still.