Data is being created all the time without us even noticing it.

Much of what we do every day now happens in the digital realm, leaving an ever-increasing digital trail that can be measured and analysed.

Just how much data  do our  tweets, likes and photo-uploads really generate?

For the third time Domo has the answer and the numbers are staggering.

Key figures  in this graph  show  how much data is generated – every minute:

• Facebook ‘likes’, 4,166,667
• Twitter347,222
• Skype calls 110,040
• Instagram,  1,736,111

Domo found that the global internet  population grew  18.5% from 2013-2015 and now represents 3.2 billion people.

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Of all the  criticisms about the TPPA, who would have  thought the most damaging  could  come  from its key proponent – President Obama himself.

This week the Washington Post  reported him “hailing the historic 12-nation Pacific Rim trade deal completed here Monday as an accord that “reflects America’s values…”

We’re sure it does  but, scary thought,  could those values become part of the deal as well?

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What if Hamlet was fat?

‘Picture for a moment Hamlet, the melancholy prince of Denmark. Chances are, you’re imagining a dashing gentleman who looks like one of the many famous actors who’ve played him. Kenneth Branagh, say, or Laurence Olivier, or Jude Law or David Tennant. You might even picture Benedict Cumberbatch, who is drawing crowds to London to see him play the role. As the Guardian’s Michael Billington put it, “Cumberbatch has many of the qualities one looks for in a Hamlet. He has a lean, pensive countenance, a resonant voice, a gift for introspection.”

‘Billington is right: One does look for a Hamlet that is lean and pensive or, failing that, an action hero like Mel Gibson or Keanu Reeves, who both played the role in the 1990s. Cumberbatch combines aspects of both, having recently played both Sherlock Holmes and a genetically engineered supersoldier in Star Trek Into Darkness.

But what if our mental image of Hamlet is wrong? What if the grieving, vengeful prince is actually fat?’ Read more at Slate: http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/theater/2015/09/is_hamlet_fat_the_evidence_in_shakespeare_for_a_corpulent_prince_of_denmark.single.html

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Free society,  jailed ideas

‘George Orwell is famous for his searching and sardonic critique of the way thought is controlled by force under totalitarian dystopia. But much less known is his discussion of how similar outcomes are achieved in free societies. He’s speaking, of course, of England. And he wrote that although the country is quite free, nevertheless unpopular ideas can be suppressed without the use of force’.

(Leading American intellectual Noam Chomsky) Read more at: http://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/noam-chomsky-why-powerful-factions-america-are-hellbent-spreading-mideast-chaos

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How we’re rated on tackling climate change: ‘Inadequate’.

‘New Zealand’s commitment is not in line with any interpretations of a “fair” approach to reach a 2°C pathway: if most other countries followed the New Zealand approach, global warming would exceed 3–4°C. Comment from Climate Action Tracker’.http://climateactiontracker.org/countries/newzealand

We’re in the same league as Australia, Russia, Chile, Canada, Singapore, South Africa, and the Ukraine and way behind tiny Bhutan.

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