“The diamond invention… is a mechanism for converting tiny crystals of carbon into universally recognized tokens of wealth, power, and romance…. To stabilize the market, De Beers had to endow these stones with a sentiment that would inhibit the public from ever reselling them.” The illusion had to be created that diamonds were forever —…
“…Dan would learn there was a time when anyone could go to the library and read journal articles, and even books, without having to pay. There were independent scholars who read thousands of pages without government library grants. But in the 1990s, both commercial and nonprofit journal publishers had begun charging fees for access. By…
“On these pages are five astronomy misconceptions that are so common they’re almost canonical. Is one of these lurking in your brain? ” Phil Plait —Top 5 Cosmic MythsSpace.com) Similar:Rip Van WinkleCertain it is, that he was a great favor…AcademiaWe don’t need more STEM majors. We need more STEM majors with liberal arts training.A chemist…
“Thousands of tourists in Greece are unknowingly facing heavy fines or long terms in prison for owning mobile phones or portable video games…Internet cafes will be allowed to continue to operate, providing no games-playing takes place. If a customer is found to be running any sort of game, including online chess, the cafe owner will…
Another use for 24/7 text messaging services: bullying children in the British school system. —When Text Messaging Gets UglyWired) Similar:Wet Book Rescuehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9_fwmdC…BooksWhat Twitter Can BeHardcore Twitterers have the savvy and p…BusinessThe magic of words opens a whole new world of funEmily Short’s work is always worth seeki…AestheticsExploring Myst's Brave New World”We wanted a true persistent…
“When a game is done well, the motion picture industry can’t compete. Last year, people spent $14 billion worldwide on films, but Americans alone spent $8 billion on games for their homes and another $7 billion in arcade playing.” Brad King —They Weren’t Meant to be Games (Wired) Similar:You are standing in a field. There…
“Raaaah! Gronk hate H.R. 3712, the Income And Property Tax Reassessment Act! Senator Gronk crush middle-class tax hike!” Sen. Gronk —Me Crush Middle-Class Tax Hike!The Onion) Similar:Jane Elliott’s “National Brotherhood Week” Lesson https://youtu.be/oGvoXeXCoUYCultureEven in the U.S., Chinese Students May Have Tiananmen ‘Amnesia’But now that he was at college in Americ…CultureBihar Boards: An annual ritual of…
“MIT professors claim the gear would let grunts leap 20-foot walls, become nearly invisible on command, deflect bullets, heal their wounds quickly, protect against chemical and biological agents — and strike fear into the hearts of evildoers everywhere. ” Noah Shachtman —America’s Might: A Comic TaleWired) The researchers reportedly used a comic book hero as…
“My idea is to pollute the source in order to discourage students from eagerly grabbing papers off the Internet and assuming they will get the grade that the term-paper service almost guarantees. ” Vincent Moore —Playing Dirty in the War on Plagiarism (Chronicle) Similar:In November 2001 I was blogging aboutIn November 2001, I was blogging about…
“A computer chat program that speaks Hindi could open up computers to India’s illiterate millions. ” —Hindi Chatbot Breaks New GroundBBC) Similar:‘Unexpected item’: how self-checkouts failed to live up to their promiseBusinesses still fret over these issues,…BusinessFacebook’s push of “related articles” to users without checking credibility draws fireThe links under your friend’s post got y…CybercultureHow…
“But after spending 20 minutes just designing the introduction page, the students still can’t answer the most basic question: What does the liver do? ‘I don’t know; we were supposed to do the gallbladder,’ answers a shy Latino girl with pigtails. They are learning how to use PowerPoint, but they have no idea what the…
“The next word in security is a system so thorough that it will reveal even the contents of a cigarette pack hidden in your coat pocket. Developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the scanner uses holographic imaging technology to provide full-body, 360-degree coverage of a person in near real time. ” —There’s No Place to…
“Navigating through digital texts was one of the e-book users’ biggest complaints. They found moving from page to page ‘tedious.’ They also found it difficult to find specific chapters in texts and to find particular words.” —Students Complain About Devices for Reading E-Books, Study Finds (Chronicle) Similar:Adding a media project to a semester-long paper assignment is…
“Citing creative differences, SatireWire’s founder and sole employee, Andrew Marlatt, announced that as of today, the site will no longer be updated. Unlike everything else on the site, this is not a joke.” Andrew Marlatt —SatireWire Has LandedSatireWire) SatireWire was never quite as good as The Onion, but it did have a pleasant “doing this…
“But what of the world’s water crisis? Currently the UN identifies approximately six ‘hot stains,’ places where water is so scarce that human life may not be sustainable and conflict over dwindling resources is an ever present threat. ” Ginger Adams Otis —A World Without WaterVillage Voice) Similar:Sports Meant So Much to Me. Why Wouldn’t…
“Why does the developed world worry so much about sustainability? Because we constantly hear a litany of how the environment is in poor shape. Natural resources are running out. Population is growing, leaving less and less to eat. Species are becoming extinct in vast numbers. ….There is, however, one problem: this litany is not supported…
A goose fitted with a £3,000 electronic transmitter to chart its migration has been tracked 4,500 miles (7,245 kilometres) by satellite – to an Eskimo hunter’s freezer. —Satellite Tracker Finds Goose in Freezer (BBC) Similar:Kids Whose Parents Limit Screen Time Do Worse in College, New Study Shows “Parents normally set these ru…AcademiaThis history of video…
“Science fiction has often featured ‘evil empires’ against which are set utopian ideas whose survival must be fought for against the odds by a small but resourceful band of men. Such empires often turn out to be amazingly fragile when faced by intelligent idealists.” —War of the WorldsGuardian) The argument that Osama Bin Laden was…
“U.S. federal Judge Colleen McMahon has dismissed a claim by British Telecom that it developed and holds a patent to the hyperlink technology used to whisk Web users from one site to another. ” Michele Delio —Judge Tosses BT Hyperlink Case (Wired) Similar:Goodby big Android… hello little budget iPhone SE 3rd.I just removed from my syllabus…
“Counter to the stories about tainted candy, the only conclusion that might be drawn from social science research is not ‘don’t take candy from strangers’ but perhaps ‘take candy from strangers, just not from your parents.’” —Emotional Selection in Memes: The Case of Urban Legends (Personality & Soc. Psych.) Similar:Tapdance / jazz music outing with the…