“When all is said and done, what is the role of journalists in breaking news? Are journalists relics of a golden era, now useful only as a conduit to pass along the whispers of the hive-mind to the unplugged masses? Or have we been reduced to Stamps of Approval, as we validate blog-based trends with…
"Storytellers – specialists in the art of conveying human emotions — rule this future. And in this future, everyone is a storyteller. Everyone creates the collective experience. Everyone creates the collective intelligence." Dale Peskin —Preparing for the Coming Era of Participatory News (Online Journalism Review) Similar:Newspaper For Sale: The Growing Threat of News Deserts in…
“Just 11 years after it was born and about 6 years after it became popular, the Web has lost its luster. Many who once raved about surfing from address to address on the Web now lump site-seeing with other online chores, like checking the In box.” —As the Web Matures, Fun is Hard to Find…
“The instructions in this manual explain more about how to get fired than about how to succeed at work…. For instance, employees are asked to follow ‘rules’ that include stealing, disobedience, and excessive absenteeism (or should they have been termed ‘actions that may result in termination’?).” (Suggested by Jason Amdor.) —Worst Manual Contest (Technical Standards,…
(NPR) —100 Best Fictional Characters since 1900 Similar:JANE EYRE Steps In and Out of Darkness at PICTJane Eyre is not a two-person show, and …AestheticsBilbo's party sociological infographic.AestheticsAdam Savage’s 10 Commandments Of MakingAdam Savage took a few minutes today at …AestheticsPerspective | After a stunning news conference, there’s a newly crucial job for the Americ… I…
"Whether made by the Gap or American Eagle, a pair of khakis with a 32-inch inseam and a 34-inch waist will fit you just about the same. A Panasonic phone will plug into the jacks in your home as easily as a phone from AT&T…. Today, according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology,…
2-year-old Morgan was broad-sided by a man who admitted he was distracted by his cell phone. Morgan was killed; the guy on the phone got a $50 fine and 2 tickets. —Don’t talk on the phone while driving. Similar:Grading the MOOC UniversityThe MOOC classrooms are growing at Big B…AcademiaFBI Raids Star ABC News Producer's HomeIn…
(PBS) A report on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers (teens talk back). —Merchants of Cool Similar:How Common Core Testing Damaged High School English ClassesHelping my students understand how my ro…AcademiaMystery Science Theater 3000: The Definitive Oral History of a TV Masterpiece The show was awash in quick, smart wis…HistoryMillennials Shy Away…
There has always been a gap between those people and communities who can make effective use of information technology and those who cannot. Now, more than ever, unequal adoption of technology excludes many from reaping the fruits of the economy. —Digital Divide Basics Similar:Halloween Candy Poisonings, School Shootings and Human Psychology What can parents do…
It may turn out that the “digital divide”—one of the most fashionable political slogans of recent years—is largely fiction. —Debunking the Digital Divide Similar:How Russia’s Disinformation Apparatus Ran Aground in UkraineSkillful propagandists always leverage p…CultureFacebook Hired Journalists to Train Its Trending Topics AlgorithmRecently I noticed an unusually incendia…BusinessThe Business 9 Women Kept A Secret For…
"After one too many bad presentations, I decided to see if I could do something about it. Back in my hotel room I decided to show what Abe Lincoln might have done if he had used PowerPoint rather than the power of oratory at Gettysburg." Peter Norvig —Gettysburg Address on PowerPoint Similar:IPads in the classroom:…
“Computer technology was supposed to replace paper. But that hasn’t happened. Every country in the Western world uses more paper today, on a per-capita basis, than it did ten years ago.” —The Social Life of PaperNew Yorker) Similar:Academics want to preserve video games. The game industry is fighting them in court.For decades, champions of the…
I have a small collection of text-based computer games that you can play via a web browser. These online versions won’t let you save and restore games, but they ought to get you started. —Interactive Fiction Online Gallery Similar:In June, 2002, I was blogging about… a female autistic scholars lament, Dr. Seuss, Ortho…In June, 2002,…
The first space colonists will probably take their faiths to the stars. The reference to “Star Trek” in the title of the article is cute, but Star Trek: The Next Generation was almost universally hostile to religious concepts (except when aliens presented them, that is). The more recent TV show Bablylon 5, although created by…
A progressive critique of Bush’s response to the 9-11 attacks, interpreting Bush in terms of George Orwell’s bleak totalitarian novel 1984: "1984 has arrived. In his address to Congress Thursday, George Bush effectively declared permanent war — war without temporal or geographic limits; war without clear goals; war against a vaguely defined and constantly shifting…
“‘Nigerian Money Offers’ zoomed from the seventh to the third most common type of online fraud last year, and the reason is obvious. In days gone by, the scammers had to canvass potential victims one at a time by fax and snail mail; now they have the speed, cost-effectiveness and anonymity of the Internet at…
"Asked by the firing squad commander if he had a last request, James Roges said, ‘Why yes. A bullet-proof vest!‘" Christopher Orlet —The Last Words (Vocabula Review) Similar:McCain's 2008 Concession Speech: Republicans interrupt their candidate's concession speech…That moment during McCain’s concession s…CultureIn October, 2000, I was blogging about bobbed hair, Woolf, a CFP for interactive…
The survey, published by an organization promoting "World Book Day," probably does not count time spent in chat rooms, reading web pages as "reading", but the news item does not raise that issue. Related question: has feminism harmed boys? —Girls Read Twice as Much as Boys (BBC) Similar:IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE — Berkeley Rep audio…
A "collaborative hyperdrama" purports to be the archives of a young psychiatrist offering his services to the employees of a dot-com. "Through transcripts of therapy sessions, patient diaries and logs, doodles, personnel records, telephone conversations, and other written and graphical materials, the Company Therapist is designed to allow a deep exploration of its characters and…
Fine-Tuned is a free, text-based game, playable in many formats. From a review by Adam Cadre: “Not only has the author created an absolutely wonderful world, full of ‘anti-autoists,’ roving herds of goats, and fist-shaking train engineers, but it dares — and manages to pull off — a number of pieces of participatory comedy, which…