I’m working on a couple of posts that are a little bit more substantive – but I ain’t there yet so here’s some links this week. It’s also a carbon tax free zone (more on that later).

You would think that getting a group of former jihadists, neo-Nazi skinheads, Irish extremists and US gang members together for a conference would be something you’d only see in a Bond movie. As it turns out, Google is interested. Shawn Donnan explains on Slate.com

If you haven’t heard of the News of the World phone hacking scandal, chances are it’s because you only read News Limited Newspapers. Jonathan Holmes on Mediawatch sums it up and looks at the Australian implications.

And some very thought-provoking articles about gender and social media:

• Recently no-longer-anonymous blogger Amy Mullins talks about how people act online when they perceive you as male on ABCs Unleashed. Check out her blog here. 
• Randall Monroe (of XKCD fame) discusses how Google + forces you to publish your gender for all to see.
• Lisa Wade on Sociological Images looks at how some people call bullshit on public advertising by posting on it – and sharing the images. (Lisa is also a Lindy hopper and has a number of posts on race and historical videos taken out of the context of the time) The anonymous subversion of the public advertising for a different purpose is intriguing – it reminds me of an installation piece done by Sydney (now Hong Kong) artist Julia Burns.
• New Scientist reports on a tool that analyses text and determines whether the writer is female or male (and it’s right 85% of the time, which is pretty darn suprising). This blog post scores neutral 96%, Amy Mullins’ most recent article scores 56% male.