June 2002 Archive Page

Don't Be Square, Try a Hexagon: "Welcome to the Hall of Hexagons, which is where you'll find .. er... hexagons. There are many ways to use hexagons, many places you'll find them." David King [See also: Hexagon "Minesweeper"]

A federal appeals court ruled Wednesday that reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in public schools is an unconstitutional "endorsement of religion" because of the addition of the phrase "under God" in 1954 by Congress. --Lawmakers Blast Pledge Ruling (CNN)

FlingTheCow.com: A catapult... a target... a cow. Don't just sit there... fling the cow!

"Dr. Seuss makes Horton the sort of agent... who dominates stories from Beowulf to Braveheart, powerful, generous, and resourceful; and he makes Horton's goals unmistakable, admirable, and urgent: the struggle not to be cast out of his community, the survival of a whole people." Brian Boyd --The Origin of Stories: Horton Hears a WhoPhilosophy and Literature)

"I had seen a 9-year-old boy blowing away guards with a shotgun in a preview version of State of Emergency, an ultraviolent Rockstar game that encourages players to smash shop windows and assassinate executives in an urban street riot.  'That's not cool,' he said flatly. 'We're not about cute games for kids.'" Logan Hill --Why Rockstar Games Rule Wired)

"Um ... there're these psychologists, right? And they've, uh, come up with, like, the idea that 'um' and 'uh' are really words, which speakers, um ... use to highlight their conversational problems. Ok?" John Whitfield --'Er' Cautions Listeners to Stay on SideNature)

The complex sociology of a college dorm: "'We play video games at least half the day,' says freshman Tyler Manker. He’s exaggerating. A little. He estimates that he spends five hours a day playing video or computer games, two hours watching TV or videos, and an hour on the Internet. Oh, yeah—he also spends three hours in class and an hour or two doing homework." Hillel J. Hoffmann --ZipUSA: Aimes, IANational Geographic)

"I strongly believe that Toast is the very thread which holds together the uneasy seams of modern society. Therefore, it seems only appropriate that I pay some sort of homage to this humble Slice of Heaven." --Dr. Toast's Amazing World of Toast

"What is in common between faith and programming?... both are about truth." Hierodeacon Makary --Orthodox Faith and Computer ProgrammingPravda)

Welcome to www.villainsupply.com, your best online source for everything EVIL. If you are a supervillain, mad scientist, warlord, dictator, or despot, then this is the place for you.

"Shakespeare was a hugely popular commercial writer who asked big questions about the world he lived in. The world has changed but the questions remain the same, and they still need asking."  --Guns and RosesGuardian)

"Open the pod bay doors, please," astronaut Dave implores Hal 9000. We command, the machines execute. If they fail, they do so politely: "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that." W. Wayt Gibbs --Whatever You SayScientific American)

Playwright Arthur Miller, on anabolic steroids: "Let’s imagine you’re a young playwright, trying to stay clean... But over at the Virginia you know there’s a writer shot up with more Lasix than a Kentucky thoroughbred and he’s going to take your ticket-buyers, your house, your money, your troubled and needy movie-starlet wife." --Surrey with the Syringe on TopMorning News)

"A gap between how web designers and ordinary surfers think is causing frustration on the net." --Web Design "Causes Confusion"BBC)

"A Writer's Perspective on an Emerging Medium" --What's Happening on the Web?

"Someone made a mistake and forgot to get you a glittery Token Autistic Author with three Ph.D.s and a Nobel prize. Instead they accidentally got you one out of the trash heap you put us in after you are done putting up with us in school." --The Conference Presentation I Won't Make (But Want To)autistics.org)

"A threatening letter from her lawyer and an opportunity to retake an exam hours before graduation helped a West Valley high school student get her diploma last month." --Student Gets Diploma After Threatening LawsuitArizona Republic)

"The principal of Franklin Elementary School in Santa Monica . . . banned the children's game of tag--for reasons that included issues of self-esteem--from the playground late last month." --At This School, "It" Is a Touchy SubjectLA Times)

(University of Illinois press release) "When dads or other father figures get personally involved, kids do better in school. The finding, says a University of Illinois researcher, suggests that schools should encourage male interaction, especially with at-risk kids." -- Personally Involved Father Figures Enhance Kids' Learning in School

"I must have been a dinosaur," says John Seely Brown. "I thought hypertext was a joke. I hated video games; I thought they were a complete waste of time." Then he met three people who challenged him to think about how new media might fundamentally alter how people communicate among themselves as well as with students. (HBS Working Knowledge):

The most popular Bejing newspaper falls for Onion gag.

"The study of English is whatever people within the community of inquiry known as 'the English department' happen to count as the study of English. There is no objective referent, such as "the nature of literary language," to use as an arbiter among approaches. The foundation has not shifted--it has vanished." Louis Menand --UnidisciplinedWilson Quarterly)

"The National Science Foundation's annual symposium concluded Monday, with the 1,500 scientists in attendance reaching the consensus that science is hard." --National Science Foundation: Science HardThe Onion)

"These critics and, unfortunately, most video game players have a basic misunderstanding about the nature of games. They believe that the purpose of a game is to imitate something in life. They think the more realism the game has, the closer it will come to imitating life, and the better the game will be. They are simply wrong about this." Robert Abbott [Check out Robert's free online maze game, "Theseus and the Minotaur"] --Video Games are Incredibly Stupid!logicmazes.com)

"A group of girls tormented one poor soul by sending her flowers under the name of a boy she had a crush on, sending him a sexually explicit letter under her name and telling a teacher she was cheating on tests. These examples provide a darkly fascinating portrait of the incredible lengths to which girls will go to humiliate other girls." --Are Girls Mean?nbsp; (Seattle Weekly)

"[B]y reading evidence of Communist influence into every film with a rich villain, a corrupt politician or a dispossessed hero, Radical Hollywood inadvertently makes McCarthy and HUAC seem more rational than they really were." --Radical Hollywood Salon)

"{A}fter September 11, a slew of new or refocused media junkie/political sites reshaped the entire Internet media landscape. Blog now refers to a Web journal that comments on the news--often by criticizing the media and usually in rudely clever tones--with links to stories that back up the commentary with evidence. --Online UprisingAmerican Journalism Review)

Admit it. You didn't read the f---ing manual.  You didn't read it because you're a geek and you don't need no stinkin' manual. Or you didn't because you're not a geek, and the manual gave you brain cramps. --Read The F---ing Story, Then RTFMWired)

AARDVARK a million miles to put 26 animal puns in alphabetical order. I'd BADGER you and I'd keep CARPING on the subject, until I have no i-DEERs left. I'd have no EGRETs, however, as I FERRET out more animal puns. Jim Ertner