“Human communication across the globe began with the same primitive metaphors, logic associations and rules, all of which emerged from three main concerns: food, sex and territory…” Rosella Lorenzi —Is Rock Art a Sign of a Universal Mother Language?Discovery Channel) Similar:xkcd: Headlines It: nailed. xkcd: Headlines.AmusingAn Academic Conference Where YOU are the Hero: Interactive Fiction…
A collaborative online glossary is being developed for the forthcoming book Interactive Fiction Theory. Anyone can edit existing entries or suggest new terms. —Glossary of Interactive Fiction (IF Theory) Emily Short is the editor-in-chief for IF Theory, and I’m the editor of the theory section. The book should be out within a year. Similar:Bye Facebook, hello…
“One of Canada’s top business schools has decided to stop selling the paper version of its journal and will give the publication away online instead…. ‘We’re not interested in making money, although by switching to online-only, we’ll save about $300,000 a year in print-production costs.’” —Canadian Business School’s Journal Opts Out of Print and Onto…
“Remote bell-tower hacking is just one of the ways the wireless network is changing life at Dartmouth. The network is subtly but profoundly altering teaching techniques, social interaction, study habits, and personal security. In spite of its remoteness, the college has long been one of the most wired places on earth, fashioning its campus into…
“The planetarium show sped forward, and ticket holders’ seats literally shook as subwoofers installed under each chair created a rumbling lift-off effect. Tom Hanks’ voice filled the dome-shaped hall, and an image of the Orion Nebula burst into view overhead…. What are astronomers trying to do when they design planetariums?” Diana Michele Yap —Costs, F/X…
“The pre-modern in [T.S.] Eliot’s poetry is a matter of Fisher Kings and fertility cults; in his prose it is a question of classical order, Tory traditionalism and the Christian church. In both cases, however, a discredited individualism must yield to a more corporate form of being, roughly at the time when laissez-faire capitalism was…
“An amateur astronomer may have found another moon of the Earth. Experts say it may have only just arrived…. It could be a passing chunk of rock captured by the Earth’s gravity, or it could be a discarded rocket casing coming back to our region of space.” —New ‘Moon’ Found Around EarthBBC) Did you know…
“In 1855 two Portuguese translators, José da Fonseca and Pedro Carolino, produced an English phrasebook so unbelievably bad that it was reprinted for half a century as a masterpiece of hilarity, under the title English as She is Spoke…. I thought it would be interesting to compare Fonseca and Carolino’s translations with Babelfish‘s….” —English as…
“Skyscrapers in general, and the twin towers of the World Trade Center in particular, symbolize, for many writers, either prideful arrogance, or a new technological beauty. This site attempts to survey what has already been written on this topic.” —World Trade Center: Literary and Cultural ReflectionsDennis G. Jerz) Similar:The belief that if people only were…
In case you haven’t already been inundated by anniversary memorials, you can compare before & after images of the attack site. Meanwhile, First Lady Laura Bush says turn off the TVs on September 11. —WTC Satellite Images: Before & AfterSpaceImaging.com) Similar:The Ensigns of Command (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 2) Data plays MacGyver to sa…Rewatching…
“On a random day, on a random flight, they found themselves – unwarned, unprepared, unarmed – on the front lines of a vicious new kind of war. And somehow, in the few confusing and terrifying minutes they had, they transformed themselves from people on a plane into soldiers, and they fought back. And that made…
“We hope you enjoyed watching the construction of the butter cow live. If you missed last year[‘]s construction, watch the high-speed, time-lapsed Real Player video from start to finish.” —LIVE Shot of the Butter CowIllinois State Fair) Similar:Peter's Evil Overlord ListPeter Anspach posted this list. Here are…AmusingA Time magazine with Trump on the cover hangs…
“Wisconsin-born professional cheese sculptor Sarah Baumann (now of Cincinnati) admits her cheese-head heritage is to blame and has been fashioning cheese figures for advertising and publicity for the food industry, retail and foodservice clients for five years…” —Cheese ScupltureWOXY) Similar:Reading should not carry a health warningThis is probably the first time in histo…AcademiaThis morning I…
“But while the day [9-11] will surely be difficult to endure, it remains unclear which television network will rise to the occasion, with its sensitive, cathartic anniversary coverage helping us decide what to feel while bringing a sense of closure to our national period of mourning.” —Who Will Bring Closure to a Grieving Nation?Satire from…
“How did technologists, government officials and a host of other early players turn something with no obvious business model into a system that has become so intrinsic to the new century?” Dan Gilmor —10 Choices that were Critical to the Net’s SuccessMercury News) Similar:Standardized-test robo-graders flunk“According to professor of theory of kno…AcademiaMorgan 'Super Size Me'…
“The interest in poetry in the wake of the calamitous attacks of last fall surprised some observers. But the art of poetry makes the breath of any one reader its medium: a commanding appeal, heightened at a time when many of us felt overdosed or overwhelmed by mass media.” Robert Pinsky —Poetry and Sept. 11:…
What did September 11 have to do with Nostradamus? Oliver North? Snapple? All feature in assorted urban legends about the attacks. —Osama Bin Ladin is Alive and Well and Living in UtahSalon) Similar:What are 'Judeo-Christian values'? Analyzing a divisive termblock of American society. But for crit…AcademiaCNN Holds Morning Meeting To Decide What Viewers Should Panic…
“With the eyes of the world focused on a small number of related events, many stepped into the role of amateur journalist, seeking out sources and sometimes assembling these ideas for others. Most striking, perhaps, were the wide number of accounts from those who had seen the World Trade Center collapse, or had in some…
“From the comfort of their desktop or laptop, co-eds can add soap and fabric softener that is dispensed by the washing machine. Finally when the wash is done, kids can get an e-mail telling them to come and get it.” —IBM Hooks up Dorm Washers, Dryers to WebForbes) Similar:Web Literacy for Student Fact-Checkers: Four MovesThe…
“The US State Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have granted TransOrbital, Inc. of La Jolla, California, permission to send its TrailBlazer probe to map the surface of the Moon and photograph Earth.” —First Commercial Moon Landing Gets Go-aheadNature) “He was a junkman with an extraordinary dream…to salvage the junk left on the…