“What happens to friendship when everything goes wrong all the time? Laurel and Hardy perpetually get in each other’s way, they get on each other’s nerves, and while the general battle is against humiliation, they are always busy with the effort to extricate themselves from the fine mess they bring about in one another’s lives.…
“They wanted to have an intelligent discussion, to avoid sensationalism, to give me a chance to make my arguments. They would have some representatives of the games industry and someone from one of the media reform groups. One producer almost convinced me that “Donahue” was a serious news discussion program.” Henry Jenkins —Ambushed on “Donahue” (Salon)…
“What is a hoax, exactly? When does a good deal become too good to be true, and where does belief end and credulity begin?” Thomas Hayden —The Art of the HoaxUS News) Similar:Courage Wolf: Write "Could Of" or "Would Of." I Dare You.AmusingBecause Internet: the new linguistics of informal EnglishI’m planning to begin my online…
“We asked police why we were being arrested, and they said, `Everybody is receiving equal treatment from the Houston Police Department tonight.’ It didn’t matter what you were doing; they arrested you.” —450 peaceful teens arrested in K-Mart raid (Houston Chronicle) Similar:Okay yes, this affirmation does matter to me and it will go into my annual…
“Welcome to the world of a half million (and counting) Weblogs, where anyone can instantly publish his passions and favorite Weblinks. And the fun’s just begun.” Steven Levy —Living in the Blog-osphereNewsweek) Levy is a computer historian and insightful observer of geek culture. Similar:One Man's Mission To Keep AOL's Legacy Alive”Hi. I’m Jason Scott, and…
Latest weapon against junk e-mail: poetry. —Haiku’da Been a Spam Filter (Wired) The title of the article wins the prize for “Most Obscure Reference to Marlon Brando.” Similar:A WELL HOUSE FOR A LARGE SPRINGI was digging through my archives and ca…AestheticsThe Incredible Shrinking Ad [The Future Web Is Mobile]Is higher education ready for the switch…AcademiaMore…
“The passion, if not the logic, of her argument is clear and perhaps casts a new light on the deliberate destructiveness of the motives that lay behind her literary innovations. She was nothing if not a great hater of all that had gone before her.” Theodore Dalrymple —The Rage of Virginia Woolf (City Journal) Dalrymple is…
"Before the Internet, the only opportunity most students had to speak with their professors was during scheduled class sessions or office hours. Now, more professors can be in touch with students at any time — morning, noon, and night, seven days a week." [The article focuses mostly on courses that meet only online, but this article…
"First released in 1989, HyperCard still has a fiercely dedicated following despite no meaningful update in about 15 years." —HyperCard Forgotten, Not Gone (Wired) Similar:Terms of ServiceFascinating example of new media journal…Aesthetics[E-Mail is for Old People] –[E-Mail is for Old People] (User Frie…AmusingWhich of my colleagues wants attention?AcademiaIn January, 2002 I was blogging about… A 20-something…
The second issue of Game Studies is out. Similar:Haiku'da Been a Spam FilterLatest weapon against junk e-mail: poetr…CybercultureMLA Citations: Citation generators make mistakes. Here’s how to spot 5 errors they often m…Overview Animated GIFIndividual SlidesC…AcademiaThis Woman Inspired One of the First Hit Video Games by Mapping the World’s Longest CaveThe Medium headline calls Colossal Cave…
“D[ungeons]&D[ragons] sort of came about after a monster marathon week of reading Conan novels, eating popcorn until it was coming out of my ears-no I was not on drugs-and we got the idea to do something in a dungeon.” —Dave Arneson Interview (GameSpy) A “monster marathon”… ha, ha. Similar:Am I a Bad Father Because I…
“Once upon a time, in a part of the house where grownups rarely visited, there was the Land of the Stuffed Animals… But Professor Blue Smush DinoBaby’s warning came too late. First a slight tremor came from within the box.” Jon Hansen —Tales of the Plush Cthulu Similar:"Know that I glory in this nose of…
"The true link between technology and art, regarded in modern times as something shameful, is becoming increasingly apparent, and the evidence suggests that artists’ dependence on machines has been not only extensive but long-lived…" Charles Paul Freund —Traces of Genius: Is Art Sullied by Technology? (Reason) Similar:Facebook’s push of “related articles” to users without checking…
"Debate has raged in recent years whether it was even fair to call Pluto a planet, given its newfound status as one object among many in the Kuiper Belt — which actually contains more mass than the better-known asteroid belt between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter." Steve Kettman —Pluto: Too Hip to Be Out…
“Instead of a library, the school has a resource center equipped with computer workstations that can access the Web, e-books and online journals. The resource center also houses several meeting tables, audio-visual materials and a few paper magazines — but no books.” Katie Dean —Who Needs Paper? Not Iowa College (Wired) Similar:President JoAnne Boyle Announces…
Is this for real? "The controversial suicide device will be promoted under the name "Aussie Bags" and will be shipped with the warning ‘DO NOT put this bag over your head. It could kill you.’" —Aussie Suicide Bags Delayedb> (AAP) Similar:No, Dr. Seuss is not being "banned" or "censored" — but Dr. Seuss Enterprises is…
"Mr. Storch has found that the ease, speed and accuracy of writing with a computer keyboard have vastly reduced the occasions on which he might turn to a pen or pencil. As a result, he and many others who spend hours a day using computers say that the penmanship they learned in school is deteriorating…
"Several years ago, the State University of New York at Buffalo took stock of its proliferating Web sites and found more than 250,000 pages spread out across 17 different servers. Not surprisingly, students and faculty members were having a hard time finding information they needed, even though they knew it was probably online — somewhere." Florence…
“Soon. Like in the next half hour or so. Given that I can’t do anything about it, I thought it might be interesting to stay online as long as I can and tell you what transpires…. I taste salt and something else. I exult in these moments. it’s the payoff for the bad times, the…
"After posting his father’s poem — a bitter reflection on the state of Egyptian society and culture after Egypt was defeated in the 1967 war against Israel — Shohdy was arrested in November 2001." Sergey Kuznetsov —Father’s Poem, Son’s Conviction (Wired) Similar:High Schooler's Fake Story of Stock Riches Fools New York Editors”If your mother says…