The Internet has become so pervasive that to be truly literate in 2006 demands some degree of technological fluency or at least familiarity. According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 73% of American adults had used the Internet or e-mail as of March 2006. For the first time, the National Association of Adult…
—Periodic Table of the Elements (Popular Science) This is a detail from the “Oxygen” entry for this photographic periodic table of the elements. Last night for his bedtime reading, when asked to choose from a small stack of books that also included adventure and humor, for his bedtime story my eight-year-old chose “The Mystery of the…
We started laughing, and I forgot that I didn’t like this and that I’d rather be doing something else. We worked together and never actually hit a point where we couldn’t make things work on our own. It was a nice, independent sort of feeling (which is a feeling that has been quite rare for…
The 99 tips in this article make up the best in email practices. From how to ethically use the ‘BCC:’ to what attachments will make your mobile emailing compatible with everyone else’s, this list covers everything you need to know about emailing. —Hacking Email: 99 Email Security and Productivity Tips (IT Security) I don’t really care…
constructing a pie with the topology of a sphere from 20 triangular sub-pie modules attached with amazing magnets. —modular pie-cosahedron (Instructables) Now this is geeky. Via boingboing. Similar:Okay, a lot of the world is pretty awful right now, but here's an uplifting video about th…https://youtu.be/umW4koJU3e0AmusingLife would be so much better if all the interfaces we encountered…
I would like to send my condolences out to Catherine Altman, Robert Altman’s wife, as well as all of his immediate family, close friends, co-workers, and all of his inner circle. I feel as if I’ve just had the wind knocked out of me and my heart aches. If not only my heart but the…
The bricks are so meticulously made that the company claims that out of every 1 million elements made, just 18 will be declared defective and removed from the set. Impressive numbers, considering that the LEGO Group is producing 15 billion components a year–that’s 1.7 million items an hour, or 28,500 a minute. Tire production accounts…
With the aid of a photo, master illustrator Rob Sacchetto will hand-illustrate a custom portrait depicting you as a brain-chasing ghoul. —Zombie Portraits Similar:Orson Scott Card Builds an EmpireVideo games are a viable storytelling me…CybercultureThe elements, in haikuEach element of the periodic table gets …AmusingThe Decline and Fall of the English MajorThis essay is yet…
When someone forwards you an urgent e-mail message, it’s often something you really do need to see; if a cellphone call breaks through while you’re desperately trying to solve a problem, it might be the call that saves your hide. In the language of computer sociology, our jobs today are “interrupt driven.” Distractions are not…
—Asteroid’s Revenge This resembles a videogame version of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, the modern play that retells Hamlet from the perspective of two minor characters. The website calls it “Asteroids Revenge,” but I’ll excuse the mistake. Similar:If you win the very first time you play a game, that means you are skilled and brilliant,…
This short study examines Wikipedia’s credibility by asking 258 research staff with a response rate of 21 percent, to read an article and assess its credibility, the credibility of its author and the credibility of Wikipedia as a whole. Staff were either given an article in their own expert domain or a random article. No…
Persons making noninfringing uses of the following six classes of works will not be subject to the prohibition against circumventing access controls (17 U.S.C. § 1201(a)(1)) during the next three years. 1. Audiovisual works included in the educational library of a college or university’s film or media studies department, when circumvention is accomplished for the…
This face says, “GOD! I am WAY TOO BUSY having a mouthful of braces and a hot-rolled ponytail to smile for you, Mom! GOD!” —bershon (flickr pool) The world needed a word to describe this attitude. I haven’t been able to trace its origin, though. Update: My German classes were a long time ago, but…
Mr. Banks learns that the British Empire, its banks and many other manifestations of authority should be undermined, or at least taken less seriously. Life would be better if parents allowed themselves to dance like chimney sweeps and fly kites in the park. They shouldn’t just pay more attention to their children; they should become…
About 300 eighth-graders at South Valley Junior High in Liberty, Mo., are blogging this fall about Guerrilla Season, a book about a 15-year-old living in Civil War-era Missouri. The book’s author, Pat Hughes, is joining in the online discussion from her home in Philadelphia. “I love being able to communicate with the author because it…
NASA scientists conceded on Tuesday that the 10-year-old Mars Global Surveyor is probably lost in space after the U.S. agency tried unsuccessfully for two weeks to contact the probe. —NASA’s Mars Global Surveyor believed lost in space (Reuters) This link will probably expire soon, so here’s Wikipedia’s Mars Global Surveyor page. Similar:Facebook shrinks fake news after…
—Leonard Nimoy (Spock) – Music Video (YouTube) Watching this video caused me so much deep pain that the only way I could relieve it was to share it with you. You will probably feel either filthy or angry after watching it. Similar:As yearbooks die, colleges lose a link to the pastThis year, for the first time…
We got to go there – but not back again … Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh (who directed/wrote the Lord of the Rings films) —Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh Talk THE HOBBIT (The One Ring.net) Jackson and Walsh won’t be involved in The Hobbit movie or a planned prequel to The Lord of the Rings. Similar:The…
[Image showing a few paragraphs from a story spoofing the “Encyclopedia Brown, Boy Detective” book series.] >>> —Adam Cadre —The Case of the Captured Koala (adamcadre) Make sure you stick with it until you get to the solution, which is where you’ll find the gimmick that makes this story worth blogging — especially if you know…
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act may give shopkeepers the power to force Linden Labs to delete copied items, but it will not provide financial compensation to the victims of infringement unless they file a federal lawsuit. Given the cost of these virtual goods, there aren’t going to be many infringements worth the expense of suing.…