Linkpile

• 200 Examples of anti-Obama merchandise: During health care debate, 2008-2010. Via Coudal.
• The joy (and pain) of abundance: “The overstuffed houses of hoarders and the ultra-minimal, bare bones interiors featured in design magazines are two ends of a spectrum of beliefs about homes and happiness. I could just as easily take on the hoarders as the zen-modernists, except for one thing — no one is advocating the hoarder lifestyle. Even the hoarders view their condition with shame. Minimalism, on the other hand, is often preached as a lifestyle nirvana — a blissful, transcendent state achieved by letting go of material things.” From a very enjoyable essay on aesthetics and abundance (including some thoughts about evolutionary factors that I’ve tried to articulate in the past, with little success, but that I agree with completely).
• Digital decay and the archival cloud: Interesting Nicholas Carr rumination on potential threats to digital archives kept in “the cloud.” My impression is that a lot of people are thinking about these problems, and that we’re still likely to end up with a massive glut of digital “information.” The quality of what gets kept may vary widely, of course.
• The nonexistent purpose of people: “When it comes to religion, most believers reason that we’re here ‘for’ some divine purpose. Even if they’re not particularly religious, people often reference some vague purpose to human existence, such as ‘to love one another’. As Albert Camus wrote, ‘revolt against man is also directed against God’. But many of us go one step further than this, saying that individual members of our species exist ‘for’ a special reason.” Via Mindhacks.
• The ROFLCon II Schedule @ ROFLCon.
• Can you judge an album by its cover?: Somebody is doing a study to find out. You can participate via this link if you like.

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