Description of an Irish museum exhibit: “A giant mechanical bug, it looks like a demented cross between a bat, a praying mantis and the superstructure of a blimp… once it senses someone’s presence its arms begin to hover menacingly, as if they had eyes, over the viewer. ” Daithí Ó hAnluain —Man, Machine: Can’t We…
Here’s what’s reputed to be an archive of the first e-mail message that included a smiley. —The First Smiley (Microsoft) [I wish I’d found it instead of Micro$oft. :( In 1979, someone named Kevin MacKenzie suggested the symbol -) for “tongue in cheek”. It’s not a “smiley”, of course, but it serves the same function.…
“In the old days, it was magnetic stones, magnetized trees, and magnetized air. Today, it’s magnetic bracelets, magnetic necklaces, magnetic shoe inserts, and now, magnetic mattresses. What’s next? Magnetic jock straps? But I knew that Grandma wouldn’t listen to a history lesson or a science lecture, so I thought I’d try another approach. ” Nada…
“[R]ather than examining why online writing is so undisciplined and attempting to appreciate the virtue of such impertinence, O’Conner and Kellerman are determined to impose on electronic communication all the limitations of the forms to which they’re already accustomed.” Review by Jonathan Keats —“You Send Me” by Patricia T. O’Conner & Stewart KellermanSalon)
“Human communication across the globe began with the same primitive metaphors, logic associations and rules, all of which emerged from three main concerns: food, sex and territory…” Rosella Lorenzi —Is Rock Art a Sign of a Universal Mother Language?Discovery Channel)