“A mysterious new obstacle has emerged for Chinese internet surfers attempting to use the Google search engine – entering politically sensitive search phrases crashes their internet connection.” —Google keywords knock Chinese surfers offlineNew Scientist) Similar:Gawker Media Files for Chapter 11 BankruptcyThis is fallout from losing an invasion …BusinessRossum's Universal Robots (Act 2)https://youtu.be/XfOONrGsf2I For my b…CultureLessons…
“Belief in freedom of speech does not require us to sit by passively as our systems, networks, work and lives are suffocated under an unending torrent of useless and often fraudulent e-mail. This is not to suggest we throw spammers in jail. As appealing as the thought might be…” —A Call to Jail the SpammersWired)…
On the hyped-up TV news reports of terrorists in Florida: “Television reporters were certainly connecting dots — lots of dots, some of them seemingly from another planet — but if journalism is about facts and not hype, then they definitely weren’t doing what they were supposed to do.” —TV Dots Airwaves with InaccuraciesMiami Herald) Similar:New…
A blogger with too much time on his hands uses a search engine to compare the rank-and-file content of an organization’s website to its official rhetoric. “[W]hen one types the word “abortion” into NOW’s search engine, 853 articles that mention the subject appear. But surely childbirth is something an organization that claims to be ‘for…
Description of an Irish museum exhibit: “A giant mechanical bug, it looks like a demented cross between a bat, a praying mantis and the superstructure of a blimp… once it senses someone’s presence its arms begin to hover menacingly, as if they had eyes, over the viewer. ” Daithí Ó hAnluain —Man, Machine: Can’t We…
Here’s what’s reputed to be an archive of the first e-mail message that included a smiley. —The First Smiley (Microsoft) [I wish I’d found it instead of Micro$oft. :( In 1979, someone named Kevin MacKenzie suggested the symbol -) for “tongue in cheek”. It’s not a “smiley”, of course, but it serves the same function.…
“In the old days, it was magnetic stones, magnetized trees, and magnetized air. Today, it’s magnetic bracelets, magnetic necklaces, magnetic shoe inserts, and now, magnetic mattresses. What’s next? Magnetic jock straps? But I knew that Grandma wouldn’t listen to a history lesson or a science lecture, so I thought I’d try another approach. ” Nada…
“[R]ather than examining why online writing is so undisciplined and attempting to appreciate the virtue of such impertinence, O’Conner and Kellerman are determined to impose on electronic communication all the limitations of the forms to which they’re already accustomed.” Review by Jonathan Keats —“You Send Me” by Patricia T. O’Conner & Stewart KellermanSalon) Similar:What If…
“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:The Article is Dead. Long Live the ArticleTake the background paragraph. It ill-se…CulturePlato's Allegory of…
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:Journalists write to…
“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:Do you know you could be a…
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:Essay on how much a professor learned about teaching from his mentorI had a similar…
“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:Plato's Allegory of the CaveIn The Republic, Plato uses an extended …AcademiaCollege Instructors Don't Require Enough WritingI was…