The New York Times Co. has agreed to buy About.com from Primedia Inc. in an all-cash deal valued at about $410 million. —NY Times agrees to buy About.com (New York Business) About.com is a collection of free resources compiled by “experts” in a format that resembles a blog. The About.com authors are part-timers, enthusiasts who post…
The pile of garbage included the equipment used by the children in the litter hunt: a dozen plastic bags and two dozen pairs of plastic gloves. The cost of this recycling equipment obviously exceed value of the recyclable items recovered. The equipment also seemed to be a greater burden on the environment, because the bags…
A pair of NASA scientists told a group of space officials at a private meeting here Sunday that they have found strong evidence that life may exist today on Mars, hidden away in caves and sustained by pockets of water. —Brian Berger —Exclusive: NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars (Space News) The…
We, the guests were already disgusted with the whole affair when Trimalchio, who, by the way, was beastly drunk, ordered in the cornet players for our further pleasure, and propped up with cushions, stretched himself out at full length. “Imagine I’m dead,” says he, “and play something soothing!” Whereat the cornet players struck up a…
Playing off the self-esteem theme, digital artist David Sullivan’s contribution to the show is the Ego Machine, a project that uses Google to project Sullivan’s soul into the future and puts the fun back into funeral. —Michelle Delio —Immortality Through Google (Wired) If it has anything vaguely to do with technology, Wired is there. Similar:Those…
—Name Voyager (The Baby Name Wizard) Very cool site, that illustrates the popularity of baby names over time, from 1900 to 2003. For every million babies born in 2003, about 1600 were named “Xavier,” while about 84 will go through life with the head-scratch-inducing label “Xzavier.” Thanks for the link, Rosemary. Similar:Tapdance / jazz music outing…
To prove his point that the commons is under attack, Bollier has filled Bullies with example after example of how corporate lawyers have swooped in on artists and consumers who have tried to use products and logos in ways other than those prescribed by the corporations themselves. As an example, Bollier presents the case of…
More than two thousand years ago, the Roman poet Horace claimed that literature is “sweet” and “useful.” Since then, literature has been traditionally understood, at least in Western cultures, as having the dual purpose of entertaining and educating its audience. Literary texts are constructed in effect as objects of beauty, sources of pleasure and as…
Humans specialize in distraction, especially when the task at hand requires intellectual heavy lifting. All the usual “Is it lunchtime yet?” inner voices, and external interruptions like incoming phone calls, are alive and well. But in the era of e-mail, instant messaging, Googling, e-commerce and iTunes, potential distractions while seated at a computer are not…
The “Third Bridge” is the nanotechnology and artificial intelligence revolution, which Kurzweil predicts will deliver the nanobots that work like repaving crews in our bloodstreams and brains. These intelligent machines will destroy disease, rebuild organs and obliterate known limits on human intelligence, he believes. Immortality would leave little standing in current society, in which the…
I can see part of my son’s shoulder, and almost all of the board. His opponent looks about three years older. I’ve seen her try to slip her white bishop through an empty black square… the judge asks her to put it back. “Excuse me,” says a voice at my side. “We ask that the…
For the past hour, Peter (who is not yet seven) has been giving the instructor a bit of a workout. He planted himself on his carpet square directly in front of her. His hand has been up almost constantly. Whether he has been called on or not, he offers answers and finishes her sentences with…
Search engines are some of the most commonly accessed Web sites online. Millions of people turn to search engines daily to find information about news, health concerns, products, government services, their new neighbors, natural disasters and a myriad of other topics. At the same time, recent trends suggest that the search engine market is shrinking,…
I was talking about Wikipedia, and he launched into a rant about its failings. In particular, he complained about the several inaccuracies in an article about a topic with which he was deeply familiar. “So,” I asked, “did you fix them?” “No,” he responded, “I don’t have time for that kind of thing.” Talk about…
The poets made all the words, and therefore language is the archives of history, and, if we must say it, a sort of tomb of the muses For, though the origin of most of our words is forgotten, each word was at a stroke of genius, and obtained currency, because for the moment it symbolizes…
Ten presidents and chancellors of prominent research universities, in a report written with the American Council on Education and released Thursday, called for innovations such as giving young academics more time during child-rearing years to complete research before being put up for tenure. —Study Calls for Tenure Flexibility (AP/My Way) See the PDF exectuive summary of…
Many students having difficulty understanding Shakespeare would be surprised to learn that he wrote in modern English. But, as can be seen in the earlier example of the Lord’s Prayer, Elizabethan English has much more in common with our language today than it does with the language of Chaucer. Many familiar words and phrases were…
Playwright Arthur Miller, the creator of The Crucible and Death of a Salesman, has died at the age of 89. —American playwright [Arthur] Miller dies (BBC) Thanks for sending me the sad news, Rosemary. I wrote on All My Sons and Death of a Salesman in my dissertation-turned-book. Similar:Who is the more dramatic — my extroverted…
NASA — Last year was the fourth warmest year on average for our planet since the late 1800s, according to NASA scientists. To determine if the Earth is warming or cooling, scientists look at average temperatures. To get an “average” temperature, scientists take the warmest and the coolest temperatures in a day, and calculate the…
James Guckert, who reported from the White House for the Talon News Service under the name “Jeff Gannon,” announced he was quitting the business “in consideration of the welfare of me and my family.” —White House reporter’s credentials questioned (CNN) Hmm… I interned at a radio station where one of the news reporters went by a…