Videogames are Art

Roger Ebert recently tweeted this video, calling it a “Brief, well-made video mounting an optimistic defense of videogames.”   Similar:Snowfall at the White House (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour, Jan 7) Tweeted by W…My social media feed was full of people …AestheticsTechnical and Literary Writing: What’s the difference? « DekonztruktschonIn an advanced new…

The 2010 Lyttle Lytton Contest

“I shouldn’t be saying this, but I think I’ll love you always, baby, always,” Adam cried into the email. –Shexmus Amed The winner from Adam Cadre’s “Lyttle Lytton” contest (an awful-first-line contest, named after the author who famously penned “It was a dark and stormy night”) My favorite was actually: There was only one man…

WTF Moment: LOC to acquire Twitter?

Similar:The lesson of Rolling Stone and UVA: protecting victims means checking their stories It is a depressing certainty that th…Current_EventsInmates in a Brazil prison shorten their sentences by writing book reviewsAn amazing story of hope and dignity. T…BooksPlato's Allegory of the CaveIn The Republic, Plato uses an extended …AcademiaWhy No One Clicked on the Great…

Copyright Law at 300

The world’s first copyright law was passed by the English Parliament on 10 April 1710 as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning’.  The Queen Anne Statute, as it is known, marked the beginning of modern copyright law.  Professor Gillian Davies, author of ‘Copyright and the Public Interest’, describes it as ‘the foundation upon which…

Pixels

PIXELS by Patrick Jean from ONE MORE PRODUCTION on Vimeo. Similar:Is There a Santa Claus?Update, Dec 2020: https://www.youtube.c…CultureWhy Tetris is the 'perfect' video gameRather than wanting to make a film about…AestheticsWhich of my colleagues wants attention?Academia31 Undeniable Truths That Journalism Majors Can All Agree OnBecause you know you have the chance to …AcademiaEssay on the…

Video games: the addiction

Today the most consistently pleasurable pursuit in my life is playing video games. Unfortunately, the least useful and financially solvent pursuit in my life is also playing video games. For instance, I woke up this morning at 8am fully intending to write this article. Instead, I played Left 4 Dead until 5pm. The rest of…

In Which a Young Lady Receives Her Illustrated Primer

Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age (1995) features a fantastic interactive book that educates a neglected guttersnipe, turning her into a capable, intelligent independent heroine.  The iPad doesn’t quite match the vision of that book, but this video is still amazing. Similar:Journalists report what sources say and do. They can't report what sources think, believe …EmpathyBirthright, Part…

Lorem iPad

Jason Kottke uses standard Latin typesetting dummy text to express his opinion of the technology media’s coverage of the iPad. Hilarious! Lorem iPad dolor sit amet, consectetur Apple adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua Shenzhen. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud no multi-tasking ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip…

13 of the Brightest Tech Minds Sound Off on the Rise of the Tablet

A pre-release critique of the tablet culture. Compared to other kinds of information that computers process today, text has an exceptionally small footprint. With the arrival of the tablet, we have crossed a critical threshold: Where text is concerned, we effectively have infinite computational resources, connectivity, and portability. For decades, futurists have dreamed of the…