skandalon

When creating a post, you can now attribute its content (eg. a pull quote or image) to a source outside of Tumblr. That source gets clearly attributed everywhere that post is reblogged on Tumblr. The bookmarklet will automatically set the source, confirming that the current page is in fact the content’s origin.

✖ Via Tumblr Staff: Fixing Content Attribution (Once and For All), September 3rd, 2010

Looks like a nice technical improvement. But the basic argument is all wrong. First, the content attribution problem ―which is not exclusive to Tumblr― is not fixed at all. Second, the bookmarklet may automatically set a source but in no way will it be able to confirm that the page reblogged is the content’s origin.

If you’re surfing ffffound and happen to stumble upon a nice picture, the bookmarklet will display this : “fffound.com photographed or created this image”. Which is wrong, as wrong as before.

The fact is that no simple software implementation is capable, for the moment, to replace human judgement. The problem remains : if one wants to know the “source” of any content, one will have to make the effort to think and to do some research. Unfortunately, this condition for attributing the right source to a content seems to contradict one of Tumblr’s main tagline: “Tumblr makes it effortless to share anything you find or create” (Why Tumblr).

• Sep 04, 2010 link notes reblogged from staff [via] tagged: Tumblr attribution blog bookmarklet content interface research source technology adequate references

The purpose of science is to get paid for doing fun stuff if you’re not a good enough programmer to write computer games for a living (Schulman et al. 1991). Nominally, science involves discovering something new about the universe, but this is not really necessary. What is really necessary is a grant. In order to obtain a grant, your application must state that the research will discover something incredibly fundamental. The grant agency must also believe that you are the best person to do this particular research, so you should cite yourself both early (Schulman 1994) and often (Schulman et al. 1993c).

✖ Via Annals of Improbable Research: “How To Write A Scientific Paper” by E. Robert Schulman, Vol. 2, Issue 5, Sep/Oct 1996

About Improbable Research:

>Improbable research is research that makes people laugh and then think. Improbable Research is the name of our organization. We collect (and sometimes conduct) improbable research. We publish a magazine called the Annals of Improbable Research, and we administer the Ig Nobel Prizes.

First spotted via Neatorama.

• Aug 26, 2010 link notes tagged: science communication research academia paper publication humor how-to knowledge grant

I don’t know if you’re a detective or a pervert.

✖ Via Blue Velvet, David Lynch, 1986

Full script over at the Internet Movie Script Database (IMSDb)

• Jul 14, 2010 link notes tagged: art movie film research academia detective pervert lost representation pathology psychology