Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can't Index

Executives at Google, the rapidly growing online-search company that promises to “organize the world’s information,” announced Monday the latest step in their expansion effort: a far-reaching plan to destroy all the information it is unable to index. —Google Announces Plan To Destroy All Information It Can’t Index (The Onion (Satire)) Hooray! It looks like The Onion’s…

You say ''Looting,'' I say ''Finding''

You say ”Looting,” I say ”Finding” (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Two interesting discussions on Flickr, regarding the ethics of captions that accompany stories about the looting in New Orleans. See: “Racism on Flickr.” It’s certainly worth noting that in one picture, a black an is identified as “looting,” but in a different picture, two other people (initially…

Reading with Our Ears

Mayor Cabot,” he wrote, “cast the only dissenting vote.” Then the editor reconsidered. Without altering its meaning in any way, he recast the sentence to read, “The mayor cast the lone dissenting vote.” With a stroke of the pen, so to speak, he had achieved a line of perfect iambic pentameter. The MAY-or CAST the…

A Word Involves the Whole Body

An inseparable but special part of the feeling of words lies in the fact that they have to be produced by a human body — with an exception noted for parrots and the like. The act of producing a word involves breath and muscle, and various kinds of muscular activity tend to produce various kinds…

Classes Start

—Classes Start (Jerz’s Literacy Weblog) Today is the first day of classes. I’m teaching News Writing, Drama as Literature, and two sections of American Literature I. I also advise the student paper, The Setonian. Similar:Stapler jam during a midterm exam.My years of watching MacGyver definitely…AcademiaThe College Fear FactorWhat happens in a literature discussion …AcademiaLet's talk about…

The Dream of a Lifetime

Engelbart encountered the idea of the Memex while serving as a radar technician in the U.S. Navy during World War II. It took root in his imagination and, in 1950, he had an epiphany, one that guided him and his work for the next two decades. Markoff writes that Engelbart “saw himself sitting in front…

Miles O'Brien's Hurricane Blog

Mayor Ray Nagin told folks to make sure they fill their upstairs bathtubs with water, and in case of real trouble, make sure you have a way of hacking through your roof — so you are not trapped by rising water. —Miles O’Brien —Miles O’Brien’s Hurricane Blog (CNN) The CNN newsman is blogging Katrina. Similar:Keeping things…

Mate a Movie 10

Two or more movies, combined to make one much funnier movie. —Mate a Movie 10 (Worth 1000) Mike Arnzen, you might enjoy “Freaky Friday the 13th,” but keep scrolling until you find the Robin Williams movie. Via Sarcasmo. Similar:Joe Turner's Come and Gone (August Wilson's Century Cycle, 2 of 10)August Wilson’s Century Cycle >  Spoi…BooksHow We…

A Day in the Life of Thomas Jefferson

In his pockets, Jefferson carried such a variety of portable instruments for making observations and measurements that he’s been dubbed a “traveling calculator.” Among his collection of pocket-sized devices were scales, drawing instruments, a thermometer, a surveying compass, a level, and even a globe. To record all these measurements, Jefferson carried a small ivory notebook…

Desperately seeking wonder.

As an avid gamer for over 20 years, I’ve begun to wonder if I’ll ever feel the immersive sense of wonder brought on by Infocom or the old Sierra adventure games. Maybe I have become jaded over the years—many a gamer lost faith during the dreaded CD-ROM/Full Motion Video ‘Game’ era—and look at today’s over-licensed,…

Klingon Fairy Tales

“Goldilocks Dies With Honor at the Hands of the Three Bears” —Klingon Fairy Tales (McSweeney) Silly. Making the rounds of the Net. I actually like “Other Poll Questions That May One Day Appear on an Unnamed Internet News Website, Given Its Recently Asked Question “Have You Ever Been in an Accident Involving a Plane?” Following the…

Playwright Wilson says he's dying

August Wilson, 60, one of America’s greatest playwrights, has told the Post-Gazette he is dying of liver cancer. “It’s not like poker, you can’t throw your hand in,” he said by phone from Seattle. “I’ve lived a blessed life. I’m ready.” —Christopher Rawson —Playwright Wilson says he’s dying (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) I’ll be teaching Wilson’s Fences in…

HOAX! Did Sgt. Dan Kennings die in Iraq? Not really.Did Sgt. Dan Kennings even exist? Well, no.So who was that little girl writing the letters?

Word that Sgt. Dan Kennings had been killed in Iraq crushed spirits in the Daily Egyptian newsroom. The stocky, buzz-cut soldier befriended by students at the university newspaper was dead, and the sergeant’s little girl–a precocious, blond-haired child they’d grown to love–was now an orphan. They all knew that Kodee Kennings’ mother had died when…

The Story of the Iraq Museum

Cuneiform, the world’s first script, was born in southern Iraq, and carbon dating indicates it originated between 3400 and 3300 B.C., writes Robert Biggs in one of the book’s finest essays. There must have been quite a burst of innovation, because within a century or two the wheel appeared as well. It was quickly put…