“Librarians have degrees. They go to graduate school for Information Science and become masters of data systems and human/computer interaction. Librarians can catalog anything from an onion to a dog’s ear. They could catalog you. Librarians wield unfathomable power. With a flip of the wrist they can hide your dissertation behind piles of old Field…
“Nerve activity in the teenaged brain is so intense that they find it hard to process basic information, researchers say, rendering the teenagers emotionally and socially inept… The team found the speed at which people could identify emotions dropped by up to 20 per cent at the age of 11. Reaction time gradually improved for…
“The Web site Arts & Letters Daily returns today, following its purchase by The Chronicle of Higher Education.” —Arts & Letters Daily to Resume Publication After Purchase by The Chronicle (Chronicle) O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay! Similar:On the Hatred of LiteratureGoing back to Plato—perhaps the first ha…AcademiaWriting Effective Dialogue (Punctuation and Actions in Creative Writing)“Punctuating dialogue…
“ANCHOR: Now, this breaking news. Something has reportedly happened. Details are sketchy, and we really don’t have any idea of what it might be, but let’s show these impressive aerial shots from our helicopter. Now let’s go to our correspondent in the field to tell us that he doesn’t know anything. Bob? ” Howard Troxler…
“More than 30,000 employees at Indian call centers, among whom Radhika becomes Ruth and Satish becomes Steve, are told to adopt American names and say they are calling from a U.S. city in order to put their American customers at ease. Their training includes a smattering of U.S. history and geography, along with speech therapy…
“When the question period came, he started with the first of the four large men. ‘You say the probate records show very few guns, and argue that this proves people in early America didn’t have guns. But when my father died, there was nothing in his will about his guns… Are probate records really a…
“Google Inc has been sued by a search engine optimization company, which claims Google deliberately altered its ranking when it realized the SEO company was competing with it.” —Google Sued by Search Optimism CompanyThe Register) Note the reference to “optimism” in the title… Optimism leads me to hope that The Resister will one day optimize…
“Truly happy people live by the maxim ‘Overrate thyself.’ They are raised by loving parents who slather them with praise. They stride through life with a confidence built on an amazing overestimation of their own abilities. And they settle into an old age made comfortable by the warm glow of self-satisfaction. Each of these people…
“A newspaper reporter questioned the practicality of the Internet bookmobile. Wouldn’t it be better to print materially more cheaply at a central location and then distribute them normally through book stores, online sales, or libraries? … The bookmobile reminded me of an itinerant vegetable cart which is a now a rarity in the United States.…
“Virtually every encyclopedia or textbook etymology of the word ‘robot’ mentions the play R.U.R. Although the immediate worldwide success of the play immediately popularized the word (supplanting the earlier ‘automaton’), it was actually not Karel Capek but his brother Josef, also a respected Czech writer, who coined the word. The Czech word robota means ‘drudgery’…
“The genesis of Churches ad hoc was the photograph I made of a cross that seemed to rise up out of a tree. The cross, located in a park overlooking Eugene, Oregon, created a controversy regarding the separation of church and state. Proponents of the cross called it a war memorial. Others saw it as…
“Catholic church authorities were displeased by passages in Copernicus’ text that seemed to contradict Scriptural teachings. But, the Inquisition decided not to ban De revolutionibus outright because its observations might be needed in the future to adjust the Gregorian calendar. Instead, a Papal decree in 1620 demanded alterations in ten specific places in the text.…
“Hi! I’m Sally, and I’m Johnny… Welcome to our website: Black People Love Us! We are well-liked by Black people so we’re psyched (since lots of Black people don’t like lots of White people)!! We thought it’d be cool to honor our exceptional status with a ROCKIN’ domain name and a killer website!!” —Black People…
“You are a games theorist. Your object is to defend games (and yourself) from the imperialism of a thousand theories. Navigate the four levels of narratology, psychology, film theory, and pathology. Control the spaceship with your mouse.” —Game LiberationJesper Juul) Similar:Influencers overtaking journalists as news source: reportTikTok influencers and celebrities are i…CybercultureTexas lawyer trapped by…
“The toy area has its own distinct odor: sort of a musty, mildewy, plastic, sour-milk, baby-vomit, metallic, rotting-cloth smell… It isn’t quite the smell of evil-just despair.” —Goodwill Toy Section Most Depressing Thing EverOnion) Similar:She’s on her way to the @thepublicpgh for two shows today as Margot in Dial M for Murder.She’s on her way…
“Telemarketers make use of a telescript – a guideline for a telephone conversation. This script creates an imbalance in the conversation between the marketer and the consumer. It is this imbalance, most of all, that makes telemarketing successful. The EGBG Counterscript attempts to redress that balance.” Martijn Engelbregt —Anti-telemarketing Script (EGBG) Similar:Interview: Bjarne P. Tveskov, Classic…
“When cell phones started ringing during Peter Telep’s classes at the University of Central Florida, the English instructor came up with an unusual solution: He gets to answer the call…. ‘This is the English teacher, and we’re busy right now.’” Amy L. Edwards —Cell Phones are no Class Act, Teachers SayOrlando Sentinel) Similar:No space for…
A fan of the multiplayer role-playing game EverQuest opines about a cheat in which players can create loads of in-game money: “I am not an economist, but if one person in a month can create as much as the ENTIRE economy can in a day, there is going to be huge, post WWI-like German inflation…
“This program takes lessons learned from the classic I Love Lucy TV show and uses them as a discussion starter for small group study!” —“I Love Lucy” Bible Study” Words fail me. Similar:Dr Jerz I think your microphone glitchedhttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPqnXF7A…AcademiaSeton Hill Hogwarts Dinner What would I get if I added powdered…AcademiaPeter's Evil Overlord ListPeter Anspach posted this…
“Those pieces are short, rarely more than 200 words, and offer links to other Web sites or news reports. The discussions then can go on for hundreds and even thousands of postings by readers, offering comment, argument and further research. Those who want to post without using their names are allowed to, but the system…