“[P]prior to the Second World War the refereeing process, even where it existed, had very little effect on the publication of novel ideas, at least in the field of physics. But in the last several decades, many outstanding scientists have complained that their best ideas? the very ideas that brought them fame?were rejected by the…
—Did you hear the one about men hunting women with paintballs? (Sun-Sentinel) Good post-mortem of the whole ridiculous “Hunting for Bambi” scenario. It’s amazing how gullible people are. I still can’t believe the “There will be no bananas in 10 years” story because I first heard it around the time I heard the “Blondes will become…
“Most of the Web’s content today is designed for humans to read, not for computer programs to manipulate meaningfully. Computers can adeptly parse Web pages for layout and routine processing?here a header, there a link to another page?but in general, computers have no reliable way to process the semantics: this is the home page of…
One of the stars of cult sci-fi series Blake’s 7 has signed a deal to bring the show back to screens more than 20 years after it ended. Paul Darrow, who played the ruthless anti-hero Avon, is in a consortium that has acquired the rights to the show from the widow of its creator, Terry…
“I’m no more “unprotected” from spammers on my WiFi node (something I’ve yet to see a single published account of, despite the continuous warnings about it) than I am from spammers sending Nigerian 419 letters from the next terminal at the library. It’s like saying that restauranteurs are “unprotected” from bank robbers who use a…
“There were no traffic helicopters swooping down to get a better look at the crash and no reporters dispatched to the stretch of highway where the pileup took place that morning. Instead, Japanese TV viewers first saw the crash thanks to another truck driver who used his camera phone to shoot video of the wreckage.”…
“The rule of thumb is: you need to give before you receive. That is, you need to give other people loads of links, point to them, talk about their sites and have your readers go and check them out. When your readers appreciate that you have pointed them to some good sites, and/or they fell…
“I understand that news wire services often edit, add, remove or write new leads for stories. What amazed me was that a story could have my byline on it when I contributed only a few sentences at the end–and in later versions I didn’t contribute anything at all.” Deanna Wrenn —Dear Elizabeth: I Didn’t Do…
“The study found that young adults spend more time on the Web than with any other media source and are not likely to be partial to one medium, as older generations are. Teenagers surveyed spent an average of 16.7 hours online per week, excluding e-mail. The next most popular medium was television, which teens turned…
“The number one criticism of Johnson is that he’s a dipshit who can’t work Google: if only the poor fool were slick enough to type ‘apple fruit’ or ‘granny smith’ in the search bar, he wouldn’t get three pages of computer links. That may be true, but that’s the point: apple, the fruit, is conceptually…
“Once you start, you will be presented with two poems. In all likelihood they will both be abysmal pieces of nonsensical garbage. That’s ok. All you have to do is read them both and pick the one you find more appealing, for whatever reason. Your decision might be based on a single word that you…
“I was in a lot of pain, but managed to do about 15 minutes of material while on the floor, passing out every now and then because of the pain, and then coming round to do the punchline.” — Mark Olver —Funny Bone (This Is Bristol) Olver broke his leg onstage 15 seconds after beginning his……
“The self-service checkout lines that are springing up everywhere are the first sign of the trend. | The problem, of course, is that all of these robots will eliminate a huge portion of the jobs currently held by human beings. For example, there are 3.5 million jobs in the fast food industry alone. Many of…
“The chief innovation of the new edition has been to thread coverage of electronic publishing throughout the Manual, to address ‘all of the changes in the way people now work with words,’ says Anita Samen, the 15th edition’s chief manuscript editor. People wonder, she says, ‘what is a publication anymore? And, what is a page?’…
“The parents of Ghyslain Raza, the Quebec teenager who became a celebrity this spring after classmates posted on the Internet a video of him mimicking a Star Wars character, allege that their son was so humiliated by the experience that he had to get psychiatric care.” —Parents File Lawsuit over Star Wars Video (Globe and…
“The antiquities dealer who shocked the world last year with a burial box purported to hold the bones of Jesus’ brother was arrested yesterday, after Israeli police found forging equipment in the man’s home.” —Ossuary Owner Arrested for Forgery (Canada.com) I’ve blogged this story a few times before, but this little twist is worth mentioning. Similar:How…
“What is so interesting about death? Is it the science? Is it like a ‘forbidden fruit’ that you want to know about, but are too afraid to touch? Is it because it is such a taboo subject in our society? Why is it such a taboo subject? Are we afraid of it or are we…
“Mr. Berk has become higher education’s humor guru, a title for which, admittedly, there wasn’t much competition. Along the way, he has racked up a shelf full of teaching awards, a cadre of wisecracking disciples, and stacks of gushing student evaluations.” Thomas Bartlett —Did You Hear the One About the Professor? (Chronicle) Similar:SHU Italy Trip «…
“‘There is no more feminism,’ I explain. Game Over. But it took me a day or two to name the new game. It’s ‘girlism’ — women want to be sexy girls and use all the tricks girls use. Crying, flirting, begging, winking, stomping their feet when they don’t get their way, general trotting around showing…
“Google is beginning to have a subtle, but noticeable effect on research. More and more scholarly publications are putting up their issues in PDF format, which Google indexes as though they were traditional Web pages. But almost no one is publishing entire books online in PDF form. So, when you’re doing research online, Google is…