Already under duress from years of budget cuts, poor ratings and reduced influence, CBS News suffered a crushing blow to its credibility yesterday because of a broadcast that has now been labeled as both factually discredited and unprofessionally produced. —Bill Carter —Post-Mortem of a Flawed Broadcast (NY Times) This article describes the fallout from the apparently…
If the notion of hacking DNA sounds like genetic engineering, think again. Genetic engineering generally involves moving a preexisting gene from one organism to another, an activity Endy calls DNA bashing. For all its impressive and profitable results, DNA bashing is hardly creative. Proper engineering, by contrast, means designing what you want to make, analyzing…
Many high school and college students accustomed to sending unlimited instant messages on their computers do not adapt easily to text messaging’s pay-per-message format, and end up with unexpectedly high bills when they get involved in keypad conversations that involve hundreds, even thousands, of messages a month. The results are angry confrontations with parents, long-term…
I had dinner with two big name photographers in L.A. recently. These are folks who’s name you might recognize even if you are not in the photography industry. I asked them both under what circumstances could use their images without paying them, they both immediately responded emphatically “under no circumstances!”–Jason Calacanis —Fair use of photos…
The Bush administration paid an African-American pundit $240,000 (£127,000) to promote its education policies to the black community and urge other black journalists to do the same in the run-up to the presidential election. In an effort to promote its controversial education reform programme, No Child Left Behind, the education department paid Armstrong Williams “to…
The problem with Italy’s antiquities and culture is that there is simply too much. How do you conserve ancient and priceless artefacts at the same time as letting people come and see them? —David Reid —Technology rescues Italy’s art (BBC News) Thanks for the link, Rosemary. I’ve toyed with using VR to reconstruct the interior of…
Adventure – based on the classic text game of the same name – was the first game ever to contain an easter egg. —Is That A Dragon or a Duck? (Metafilter) It’s great to see Adventure get a mention, but no, the Atari version was a graphics game that really shared nothing besides the name with…
—The Blogosphere By the Numbers Nothing terribly quotable, but a good source of statistics relating to weblogs. Similar:Computer Interfaces in Star Trek's "Assignment Earth"I was watching classic Star Trek with my…CybercultureHappy memories of PC games I played with my son (now 19) sitting on my lap.While doing some spring cleaning around …CultureThat Much-Despised Apple Ad…
I don’t have many positive associations with any sport, beyond lots of “quality time” with Dad in kiddie leagues. In high school I once accidentally caught a pop fly ball in my baseball cap. I somehow managed a flabby toss to a teammate, who tagged a passing runner for a double play. But traumatic run-ins…
In England it is called the “Graveyard Grannies” problem, in France the “Chere Grand’mere,” while in Bulgaria it is inexplicably known as “The Toadstool Waxing Plan” (I may have had some problems here with the translation. Since the revolution this may have changed anyway.) Although the problem may be international in scope it is here…
IF as a genre, fundamentally unchanged for more than twenty years, evolved in a world of gaming where graphics were non-existent and words were the sole medium of expression. The game described locations, objects, and actions in text, and the player controlled the story’s protagonist by typing commands in English (or any other natural language…
—Weblogging Software Leader Six Apart Acquires LiveJournal (Biz Yahoo) There’s really nothing quotable in this rather dry press release, but I’m linking to it as a reference anyway. SixApart is the company that makes MoveableType, the software I use for blogs.setonhill.edu. An increasing number of my students are familiar with the LiveJournal style of personal blogging…
The X-Monkey comes from a line of monkeys originally bred by the military for the purpose of driving tanks. It’s a good fit, because the modern Apple sedan is actually a tank in a fancy shell. The X-Monkey’s only drawback is that he can only drive a car from Apple. Show him any other vehicle,…
Anders Jacobsen is offering to donate $1 for every blog posting a link to his page and the following tsunami relief organizations. You can add mine to the list, Anders! I tell you what I‘ll do. I‘ll add my own $5… —Okay, I’ll Bite [Tsunami Relief Links] (Wordmunger) Link-whoring with a social conscience. This I like.…
A few months into my new job as a “new media journalism” teacher at Seton Hill University, a small liberal arts school in southwestern Pennsylvania, I was at a fancy on-campus dinner event, where the university president was working her way through the crowd, laying on the charm. I heard her relate a slightly off-color…
At the Marine base several miles southeast, high-speed wires snake down hallways, through doors and out windows. The Navy engineers play “Half-Life 2.” At the gym, where seven Playstations get heavy use, Marines wage “Madden NFL 2005” tournaments. “Neverwinter Nights” reigns in the public affairs office. —Troops stationed in Iraq turn to gaming (MSNBC/AP) Similar:Thank you,…
While the number of new blogs is rising, readership is growing even faster. —Dan Gillmor —A Medium Coming Into Its Own (Dan Gillmor on Grassroots Journalism) Gillmor is commenting on a datum from a new study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Similar:Woman comments on man's looks. Man FREAKS OUT.If I ever over-react to…
Ultimately, it became very clear that the most active and influential members of the project–beginning with Jimmy Wales, who hired me to start a free encyclopedia project and who now manages Wikipedia and Wikimedia–were decidedly anti-elitist in the above-described sense. Consequently, nearly everyone with much expertise but little patience will avoid editing Wikipedia, because they…
Leading British computer games maker Peter Molyneux has been made an OBE in the New Year Honours list. The head of Surrey’s Lionhead Studios was granted the honour for services to the computer games industry. —Call of honour for UK games maker (BBC) OBE = “Order Of the British Empire”. The article’s last paragraph: “Being an…
Crichton doesn’t like the idea that someone else is better placed to make judgments than he is. He seems convinced that global warming is largely an invention of careerist scientists abetted by a partisan press. And he seems to find something smug and stifling, if not dishonest, about consensus: “the work of science has nothing…