> img source

Internets

Moot steps down as administrator of 4chan after 11.5 years. If this news doesn't really matter much to you then you haven't encountered 4chan and are probably a much better person for that.

Scaling Kim Kardashian's back-end, hur hur (don't worry, it's about engineering, not arses.)

Al-Jazeera has a great webcomic about privacy in the era of Big Data called 'Terms Of Service'. Read it and be even more afraid of what your friendly data-guzzling service provider knows about you.

In the real world child vaccination opponents attract other vaccine opponents and they like to live close to each other to bolster their efforts to defeat herd immunity and create their very own epidemics.

• 'Disneyland measles outbreak spreads to Bay Area

In Ireland the wording for the marriage equality referendum was announced. The shrill debates have already begun. Suzy Byrne has the only take on it worth reading, so you should do that.

Eye Candy

Movie User Interfaces

Worth Pondering

Actually Useful

The Streamus extension for Chrome is an in-browser streaming music player that pulls tracks from YouTube. It allows you build and share your own playlists, has a radio mode which picks the next track for those of you just too lazy to do that yourselves and is quite brilliant for a thing that is free. Go get it.

Totally Confused

Taking apart a Rolex, spoken Wikipedia, Bjork interviewed, important crime news and spam subject lines.

Finally, "this is a card game for people who are into kittens and explosions and laser beams and sometimes goats."

Yours etc., @loughlin

---

Think you know someone who might like to receive more emails like this? Then forward this one on to them so they can read the words below. 

Hey! Want to be part of something hip and retro like a mailing list? Of course you do? Then head on over here to subscribe. I promise not to spam you or sell your email address to Facebook. Or Google. Or Twitter. Or anyone else at all.

Follow @WantYouToKnowHQ on Twitter for more bits and bobs.

The Pope has taken time out of his busy celibate schedule to tell his flock that they don't have to breed like rabbits, but a punch in the nose for anyone who says anything out of line about your mother is just fine.

Remember Google+? It really doesn't seem to be very active. At all. I suppose Google has just got bored with it, as has happened with many previous Google products (see below, and below that again.)

• 'Unsold Google Glass Units To Be Donated To Assholes In Africa'
• If you have difficulty interpreting the story above as satire that other lumbering activity tracker Facebook can help. You can now report things you see on Facebook as fake news stories or hoaxes. Within months I expect more reporting options such as "This story is too nuanced for me

Life among the disrupted. Life in Guantanamo Bay for a group of Cuban refugees who have been there for over half a century.

Eye Candy

Frozen flowers

Worth Pondering

Actually Useful

If you use Twitter a bit and at least occasionally click on links that people share then you should give Nuzzel a try. It collects and ranks all the links that people you follow share on Twitter. If that's not good enough for you, other features include –

• See stories shared by your friends' friends. A bit like stalking strangers!
• One-click retweeting to make others think you are erudite and have read all the things!
• Connect to Pocket to save the stories to your procrastination list!

Totally Confused

Advertising in your car, no-go Paris, mall fish, fall in love and fall out of love.

Finally, no I didn't stay up to watch the State Of The Union address. Pretty sure Obama just said he's going to spend the next two years reading your email and laughing.

Yours etc., @loughlin

---

Think you know someone who might like to receive more emails like this? Then forward this one on to them so they can read the words below. 

Hey! Want to be part of something hip and retro like a mailing list? Of course you do? Then head on over here to subscribe. I promise not to spam you or sell your email address to Facebook. Or Google. Or Twitter. Or anyone else at all.

Follow @WantYouToKnowHQ on Twitter for more bits and bobs.

credit

2015 eh? Here are the stories, non-stories and unclassifiable other things – around 10 from each month – that I enjoyed most last year. Because if this newsletter has its finger anywhere, it's on the pulse.

To prove that, here's some true crime. If you're missing Serial, this Italian cold but now hot case is equally fascinating and twisty and convoluted. It is unclear whether Sarah Koenig is aware of its existence.

This week I discovered that the Indians love a bit of Hitler. Specifically, his lengthy hate screed Mein Kampf is something of a bestseller there. This BBC podcast explores the tricky question of what should be done with Mein Kampf when its seventy year copyright expires shortly. It also means I now have 'BBC Radio 4 Mein Kampf' in my search history.

Portability isn’t a special requirement for a laptop. It’s not a premium feature. It’s the essential promise of the device’s whole concept. And until recently, they came with compromises that were technological, eating away at the ideology of the category. But that problem has pretty much gone away.

Will your next laptop be the last one you ever need?

It’s worth noting that what commenters say online isn't necessarily what they would say in a meeting at the office. Because of the online disinhibition effect, people feel more free to let loose their brain bile when they don’t have to do it in person.

Breaking news: Misogynists still running amok in comments sections everywhere in 2015. Don't read the comments in 2015.

• 'Why Women Don't Leave Comments Online'
• 'The Psychology Of Online Comments'
• Lewis' Law
• 'Meet Le Reddit Armie, the trolls who have taken over YouTube'
• Daily Mail Comments on Twitter

Eye Candy

The Rescued Film Project

Worth Pondering

via

Actually Useful

If you use Twitter a bit and at least occasionally click on links that people share then you should give Nuzzel a try. It collects and ranks all the links that people you follow share on Twitter. If that's not good enough for you, other features include –

• See stories shared by your friends' friends. A bit like stalking strangers!
• One-click retweeting to make others think you are erudite and have read all the things!
• Connect to Pocket to save the stories to your procrastination list!

Totally Confused

Hackers like movie that portrays hackers sympathetically, ISIS TV, #sexualorientation, and abstract art bots.

Finally, Linus Torvalds still comes across as a bit of an ass after all these years of coming across as a bit of an ass.

Yours etc., @loughlin

---

Think you know someone who might like to receive more emails like this? Then forward this one on to them so they can read the words below. 

Hey! Want to be part of something hip and retro like a mailing list? Of course you do? Then head on over here to subscribe. I promise not to spam you or sell your email address to Facebook. Or Google. Or Twitter. Or anyone else at all.

Follow @WantYouToKnowHQ on Twitter for more bits and bobs.