“I was eight years old when my parents bought these for me, and I can still remember those chewy little peanut butter sticks more vividly than almost anything else from my childhood. I’ve wanted more of them for three decades!” —Space Food Sticks Similar:Parallels (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 11) Worf gets technobabbled into…
Kathleen, I wanted to do this in this most potentially embarassing way possible, and I figured doing it here and now, in front of a quarter of a million strangers was as good a way as any. CmdrTaco —Geek in Love (Slashdot) Similar:I am not up on My Little Pony lore. Can anyone suggest why…
A short series of philosophical exercises, in a futuristic setting, which asks you to evaluate different definitions of personal identity. (Do you step into a spacecraft that has a 50% chance of killing you, or have your whole body scanned, destroyed, and re-constructed somewhere else three minutes later?) At the end, your choices are analyzed.…
“I have lost all touch with reality, and only live to comment on the comments that other bloggers have made in reference to my notes about their comments. Is anybody out there?” —Blog ad Nauseam (The Weekly Standard) Similar:Coined by Shakespeare? Think againFor years, Shakespeare has been thought …AcademiaShakespeare’s Genius Is NonsenseJust as comedians generally…
“It may sound far-fetched, but a U.S. federal court will hear preliminary arguments next week to determine if this most elemental of Internet activities is the business property of a lone company, protected in the form of a patent.” —British Company Claims Patent on Hyperlinks (Wired) Similar:Just finished a good literature class discussion on this…
What’s it like interviewing college students at job fairs? "What a snooze. By the sixth interview of the day I vow that I’ll hire anyone who can make me remember their name, and I’ll sign over my 401(k) to any candidate who can make me laugh." Erin Cronin —Honesty, Shining Throughb> (WashPost) Similar:Split Infinitives in…
(Word Circuits): Hypertext poetry by Stephanie Strickland —The Ballad of Sand and Harry Soot Similar:King Oberon Midsummer Make-upMidsummer closes tonight, July 23. My da…CultureThe joy of text – the fall and rise of interactive fictionAlthough the IF community first formed a…CybercultureLove Online”The exchange of love letters was centra…CultureHow I Joined Teach for America and Got…
"Calling the theological giant’s stranglehold on the religion industry ‘blatantly anti-competitive,’ a U.S. district judge ruled Monday that God is in violation of anti-monopoly laws and ordered Him to be broken up into several less powerful deities." —Judge Orders God to Break Up into Smaller Deitiesb> (TheOnion) Similar:A Matter of Time (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season…
"Write simply. Keep headings, summaries, sentences, paragraphs and documents short. Get to the point. Then stop." Gerry McGovern —The Need for Simple English on the Web Similar:Prime Stage Theatre Makes A Statement With Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” For Carolyn Jerz, who plays Viol…CultureMa Rainey's Black Bottom ( #AugustWilson #CenturyCycle, 3 of 10)August Wilson’s Century Cycle > …BooksOkay,…
"Poor sad Mac, born in a plastic age. / A time when the world still thought in beige. / Crafted and molded just like a piece of art. / An orphan, abandoned. It’s enough to break your heart." [Which column would you put this one in? Sometimes I wonder why I continue to split my…
Kaycee Nicole, an attractive student dying from leukemia, shared her ordeal via on online diary. Her mother started a companion diary. Web surfers became close friends with this family through email, chatroom, and even phone conversations. The New York Times even quoted Kaycee about college life. When she finally died, her online friends grieved like…
Yahoo recently ran a story about a man suffocated by a stripper’s breasts… but it was a hoax first published in a tabloid. You may have heard recent reports about the airliner passenger stuck to a toilet seat. (MSNBC, BBC, CNN) Note that no names or dates are given. It’s a hoax. (Unless it’s a…
What is life like for a person who has trouble recognizing human faces? —Face-blindness Similar:Media Bias Chart 8.0 (Liberal / Moderate / Conservative on the X axis; Factual / Opinion /…Don’t reject a news source just because …AwesomeBreaking up with your favorite racist childhood classic booksA good article analyzes the strong cultu…BooksMale Supporting Characters…
"[T]he search and directory firms have put their futures in question by flouting time-tested business practices that require an absolutely clear separation between editorial content and advertising." Hal Plotkin —Doom Ahead for Search Engines That Charge (SF Gate) Similar:In July, 2000, I was creating handouts on the sounds of poetry, prototypes, and writing fo…It seems…
When congressional Web sites are good, they’re really good. But most aren’t, says a nonprofit group that rated more than 600 of them. —Congressional Web Sites: Not So GoodCNN) Similar:Why liberal arts and the humanities are as important as engineeringWe learned that though a degree made a b…AcademiaScammer tricks YouTuber who exposes scams to delete…
found after 165 years. The watercolors were prototypes for engravings that the impoverished poet hoped would pay his bills. (Daily Telegraph) —Watercolors by William Blake Similar:CNN Profiles Former White House "Chief Calligrapher"Today was the last day of the manuscript…AestheticsThe Decline and Fall of the English MajorThis essay is yet another reminder of ho…AcademiaLiberal Arts Majors…
, creator of Pippi Longstocking, dies at 94. (Guardian) —Astrid Lindgren Similar:A Christmas Carol (WAOB Audio Theatre)Marley was dead. (I voice the narrato…BooksBeauty and the Beast (St. Vincent Summer Theatre)The girl (blue skirt and pigtails), who …Current_EventsSerious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say The brain was not designed for r…BooksDownloading…
“The Web has decentralized the control of ideas, as A&LD proves. A few years ago the exchange of opinions and theories had to be managed by people living in great metropolitan centres, the intellectual world’s version of imperialism. But with the Web it can be done anywhere.” Robert Fulford —I Want my Arts & Letters…
"Don’t let anyone tell you that as a programmer you don’t have to make moral or ethical decisions. Every time you decide that making users feel stupid is better than fixing your code, you’re making an ethical decision." —Programmers Make Ethical DecisionsJoel on Software) Similar:When He Clicked the Link, You Won't Believe How Disappointed He…
(CLA) is a fellowship of individuals who share experience, strength, and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem with clutter and help others recover. The only requirement for membership is a desire to eliminate clutter and bring order into our lives. (via Remarked Bookmarks) —Clutterers Anonymous Ironic: when I was an…