"’Ah, it was a bunch of boring stuff,’ said a slouching, mumbling Geremek, 17, at a press conference shortly after his return from the future Monday. ‘It totally blew.’" —Sullen Time-traveling Teen Reports 23rd Century Sucks (The Onion) Similar:Practicing Intellectual, Evidence-based DisagreementThis is what a busy literature seminar o…AcademiaWhat a great time everyone had at…
(Wired) Multiplayer online games face a barrier in Europe and Asia: many people who live in the same time zone don’t speak the same language, so it’s hard for them to interact with each other. A universal translator may be the solution. (I linked to this article mostly because I was amused that, this article…
"EthnoQuest takes students to Amopan, a fictional eastern Mexican village… The game starts with students’ assuming the roles of grant-writing ethnographers and follows them as they complete reports detailing their anthropological research." Similar:SCUBA Diving at the PoolBecause a beautiful sunny day at the poo…CultureIN-ZOOM (A world-premiere 10-minute play)A very current short play by Bill Irwin….CultureGoogle…
“Every now and then, though, pieces like ‘Fun is Hard to Find‘ arrive, like anachronistic throwbacks, to remind us that some writers and editors in the newsrooms of America still can’t get the Web straight, still think it’s a passing fad — and still, in some cases, can’t wait to dig its grave.” Scott Rosenberg…
I spent some time today getting reacquainted with some old friends: the Texas Instruments 99/4a (1979), the Atari 800 (1980), and the Commodore C 64 (that I took to college with me my freshman year, 1986). (Thanks for the link, Bruce.) —OldComputers.com Similar:Thoreau's Cellphone ExperimentWhen I teach “Intro to Literary Study,” …AcademiaThe Religious Origins of…
“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:Harvard Science Historian Publishes Results of Unprecedented 30-Year Census of…
“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:How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s LifeA PR professional should have known bett…Business'History has treated her badly': Hamnet and the 400-year-old mystery around Shakespeare's …Anyone seen “Hamnet”? I was not too i…CultureNarnia board game — enjoyable family activity (but it's weird that the Pevensies compete …It’s…
"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:That Class Where Stanford Profs Projected Hundreds of Zoom Students on a Video WallOf course, not all…
(PBS) A report on the creators and marketers of popular culture for teenagers (teens talk back). —Merchants of Cool Similar:Cost of Living (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 20) Alexander's Jolly Holodeck H…Rewatching ST:TNG Who’d love to see ano…EmpathyI didn't ask for the AI icon on my Kindle app. I can't turn it off.I really…
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:Like digging ‘your own professional grave’: The translators grappling with losing work…
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:Farewell Internet Explorer: You Weren't All BadThe main reason I still dislike Internet…BusinessIt's unfair to treat every gaffe as evidence of malice or incompetence. But were Trump's d…Public officials misspeak all the…
"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:Haiku'da Been a Spam…
“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:The Essayification of EverythingThe word Michel de Montaigne chose to de…EssaysA former student working in SEO shared this.…
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:Using a Typewriter Simulator to Teach Media HistoryWorking on the syllabus for my “Media an…Culture30 Web Designs…
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…