Genius sociologist discovers secret to club access is who you know, girls, and money
Sociologist Lauren Rivera found an excellent technique to explore human interactions and social status: she got a job as a cigarette girl in a posh club, next to the bouncers.
She discovered:
[B]ouncers ran through a hierarchical list of qualities to determine in seconds who would enhance the image of the club and encourage high spending. Social networks mattered more than social class, or anything else for that matter. Celebrities and other recognized elites slipped through the door. And people related to or befriended by this “in crowd” often made the cut, too. Wealth is considered to be one of the strongest indicators of status, yet bouncers frowned upon bribes even though bribes are obvious displays of money. “New Faces,” as the bouncers called unrecognized club-goers, were selected on the basis of gender, dress, race, and nationality. Sometimes the final call boiled down to details as minor as the type of watch that adorned a man’s wrist.
If you want in to a club but don’t know anyone and don’t have money, then be female:
Bouncers weighed each cue differently. Social network mattered most, gender followed. For example, a young woman in jeans stood a higher chance of entrance than a well-dressed man. And an elegantly dressed black man stood little chance of getting in unless he knew someone special.
15 Jun 2010
Daily MPfree: Husky Rescue
A fuzzy, shimmering reworking of a nice tune from the Finnish indie veterans Husky Rescue by Dave Graham. It’s lovely. Enjoy.
14 Jun 2010
That trillion dollar find in Afghanistan? Old news and suspicious timing
From Wired
[T]he military (and observers of the military) have known about Afghanistan’s mineral riches for years. The U.S. Geological Survey and the Navy concluded in a 2007 report that “Afghanistan has significant amounts of undiscovered nonfuel mineral resources,” including ”large quantities of accessible iron and copper [and] abundant deposits of colored stones and gemstones, including emerald, ruby [and] sapphire.”
And also:
the timing of the “discovery” seems just a little too convenient. As Blake Hounshell at Foreign Policy notes, the Obama administration is struggling to combat the perception that the Afghan campaign has “made little discernible progress,” despite thousands of additional troops and billions of extra dollars.
14 Jun 2010
The Quitter wants to meet the Iron Lady: Sarah Palin plans a trip to London
According to the Daily Mail
Lady Thatcher has agreed to see Mrs Palin, who stood as the Republican vice-presidential candidate in 2008. A spokesman said: ‘We had an informal approach asking if Lady Thatcher would meet Mrs Palin if she comes to Britain and we said yes.’
Prime Minister Cameron, however, is a different story:
‘Palin’s people haven’t said anything about meeting Cameron. Their main interest is getting a picture of her with Lady Thatcher. I’m not sure they know who David Cameron is.’
14 Jun 2010
The Ugliest Buildings in London? No way, they are some of the best
Oh boy, these guys made a list of London’s ugliest buildings. And in a city with plenty of ugly, who knew what they would whittle it down to.
And their choices are: Chamberlin, Powell and Bon’s Barbican Centre? Okay, some people don’t like brutaism, we know, we’ll give it a pass.
Richard Seifert’s Centre Point at Tottenham Court Road? It’s a beautiful structure – in dire surroundings. Maybe they can’t sort the building from the site.
Norman Foster’s 30 St Mary Axe aka The Gherkin? Now they are just fucking with us.
Alison and Peter Smithson’s Robin Hood Gardens? WTF? Here’s the petition to save Robin Hood Gardens from demolition Also, petitions are a waste of energy. Write Tower Hamlets council.
If you are looking for a real monstrosity, this may fit the bill.
14 Jun 2010
Media gossip Madame Arcati packs it in after adults-only warning from Google
Queen Fleet Street bitch Madam Arcati has hung up her claws after getting an Adult Content warning from Google.
In ‘her’ post Madame Arcati censored, Madam complains that the Google-owned Blogspot.com service, which she uses to post her items, has had complaints from readers to Google, resulting in the 18+ warning.
While Madam gleefully posts pictures of dinks, here, here, and here and, to break things up, tits, in this very nice article on glamour girl Pamela Green, in no sense is her site porn. Unless you count pictures of dinks and tits as porn, which you probably shouldn’t.
Of course, had Madam used a regular website, rather than a freebie blogger service, she’d avoid this problem completely.
14 Jun 2010
Hideous Dalston slab cost £62 million and the loss of many gorgeous buildings
The Slab in Dalston not only knocked down many beautiful heritage buildings to build a concrete eyesore, it cost £62 million to do it, a mere £23 million over budget.
14 Jun 2010
Daily Mail has rules for pictures of women, starting with 'no trousers'
Susan George was held hostage, horrifically assaulted, and escaped murder in 2007 by a clever ruse: demanding a last cigarette and tipping off the petrol-station attendant, who then called the police. George relinquished her anonymity and now counsels victims of rape and encourages them to come forward.
In telling her story to the Daily Mail, however, the paper’s warped ideal of women came to light.
For the photo, George said that
she really liked the photos used previously, so could the Daily Mail use one of those? No, was the answer from the photographer; because the Daily Mail has strict rules for the photography of women that he must abide by. For starters, Susan was not allowed to wear trousers – because, according to the Daily Mail, only men are supposed to wear the trousers.
14 Jun 2010
Guardian amazed at Evening Standard's survival as a freesheet
Media Guardian is shocked—shocked—that a free newspaper can be a viable business, or as Peter Preston says, ‘barely credible’ and ‘courted incredulity.’
The lines of costs going out and cash going in have closed rapidly for 12 weeks now. It costs about £1.1m to produce the Standard over a week, and the paper, on current form, can bring in about £1.1m from advertising to meet those bills. Result, in a Micawber sense: relative happiness, plus sighs of relief.
14 Jun 2010
Snipe Highlights
Some popular articles from past years
- 9 poems about London: one for each of your moods
- Could red kites be London's next big nature success story?
- Margaret Thatcher statue rejected by public
- The five spookiest abandoned London hospitals
- Nice Interactive timeline lets you follow Londoners' historic fight against racism
- Random Interview: Eileen Conn, co-ordinator of Peckham Vision
- Punk brewery just as sexist and homophobic as the industry they rail against
- Summer Camp: Roll out those lazy, hazy, crazy days
- Hope and despair in Woolwich town centre
- Number of people using Thames cable car plunges
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