"Everything about him was old except his eyes and they were the same colour as the sea and were cheerful and undefeated…" wrote Hemingway in his 1952 novel, The Old Man and the Sea. Gregorio Fuentes was Hemingway’s friend, and probably the inspiration for the story. —Hemingway’s "Old Man"Dies at 104 (BBC) Similar:The crisis in…
“Once ejected into space, wouldn’t the flattened, living-room-sized, and extremely solid panes of trash that result from such a primitive, unidirectional trash compactor pose serious hazards for Empire starships in the vicinity?” —On the Implausibility of the Death Star’s Trash Compactor (McSweeney’s) Similar:Phantasms (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 6) Data's Trippy Dreams; Riker's Brai…Rewatching…
A teenager has attracted international attention for developing a glove that can translate sign language into printed text. —Glove Lends the Deaf a Hand (USA Today) The article suggests that a glove that reads finger positions will free deaf teenagers from needing the services of adult interpreters. Yet sign language is a rich and complex…
"The practice of using the secret Word format for interchange impedes the growth of our community and the spread of freedom. While we notice the occasional annoyance of receiving a Word document, this steady and persistent harm to our community usually doesn’t come to our attention." Richard Stallman —We Can Put an End to Word…
This is the time of year that college departments hiring new faculty members whittle down to two or three promising candidates, from the dozens or even hundreds of applicants. (A candidate for a UWEC English department job is interviewed towards the end of the article.) —The Tightening [Adacemic] Job Marketb> (Chronicle) Similar:Daughter doing a thing.…
: "Nowadays, art that prompts ‘controversy’ usually has one thing in common: it’s bad. Bad in conception or bad in execution, and frequently bad in both." Lileks —Does the Pope S– In the Woods? Similar:Adobe steals your colorWhat a horrible situation. The Adobe mon…AestheticsDown with Fake Politics! Down with Fake Government! Long Live the Free…
"If Einstein had died as a child, someone else would have discovered General Relativity; if Beethoven had died as a child, the Opus 111 Sonata would never have been written." Dennis Dutton —What is Genius? (Philosophy & Literature) Similar:Frodo Baggins, A.B.D.When I had pneumonia a few years into my…AcademiaMy students seem increasingly confused by the…
"With the rise of search tools that unerringly bring you to the page you want, the need for a highly specific domain name — one that a casual Web user would be able to guess — has practically disappeared." Dan Gillmor —"’Google Effect’ Reduces Need for Many Domains"b> (SiliconValley.com) Similar:Wander (1974) — a lost mainframe…
(Abstracts due Feb 7) "We’re looking for essays that shed light on the history of interactive fiction, especially if they discuss how IF has evolved technologically and in its conventions; essays that teach and illuminate the craft of IF, including but not limited to puzzle design, world building, characters, prose style, and atmosphere; and essays…
A student project on why Microsoft is evil includes this parody of the Alcoholics Anonymous "12 step" program. Sammy Carranza —12 Steps to Stop Using Microsoft Similar:Can't upload photos to Facebook from my MacBookI spent 30 minutes trying to upload abou…CybercultureMaking the Switch to GMail Our wonderful IT folks have set up a…CybercultureHomeownership in America…
A clueless fellow looking for a job in information technology sends out his resume in a mass mailing. Bernard Shifman, an unrepentant spammer, then threatens to sue practically anyone who even mentions the incident. Pete Moss documents what is most likely the end of Mr. Shifman’s career. —Bernard Shifman is a Moron Spammer Similar:Blender Griffin,…
From a blurb on the National Coalition against Censorship webpage: Jan Carroll’s weblog offers a substantial amount of collected poems written in response to September 11; articles on poetry and politics; interviews with poets about September 11; and musings on the role of art and aesthetics in times of tragedy.” [Jan created her poetry weblog…
An experiment in which group members could pay for the privilege of fining free-loaders suggests that the threat of being punished by angry peers helps to check selfish behavior. (Consider this in light of the "Bernie Shifman" article.) —Anger Plays Key Role in Human Cooperationb> (New Scientist) Similar:"Godspell" is sure to entertain audiences of all…
“It began as a fireside story spun by a Catholic dad. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings became a great epic that has inspired conversions, steeled young people in virtue, and changed lives — including mine.” John Zmirak —The Lord and the Ring (catholic.net) Similar:Finished the female officers for my neovictorian steampunk personal project. #blender3d,…
“There’s only so much time. And there are so many great books. And every year more books are published, some of which will be great. Reluctantly, the reader begins to acknowledge the appalling necessity of choosing to read certain good things and not other good things.” —Reading Anxiety (Nat’l Post) Similar:Educated, uplifted, boosted, and fed.…
Hundreds of websites that used to give their content away for free are now charging for their services. This weblog chronicles the changes. —The End of Free Similar:Orson Scott Card Builds an EmpireVideo games are a viable storytelling me…CybercultureOne of my undergrad lit papers. Dot-matrix printed, with hand-written instructor annotatio…AcademiaVirtual debates about homelessness in Sim…
Yelling out of cars, turning your speakers out the window to blast your music onto the street, setting off M-80 firecrackers, firing automatic weapons into the air—these are all well and good. But none of them create a merry atmosphere of insouciance and bonhomie quite like a revving motorcycle. —Wow, Check out that Motorcycle Revving! (The…
You have not truly lived, until you have seen Star Wars rendered as ASCII animation. The FAQ page includes the answer to “Why (oh, God why)?” Similar:Sons of Mogh #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 15) Worf's brother Kurn seeks an ho…Rewatching ST:DS9 Worf wins a furious…EthicsYes, I spent the last hour designing this brutalist…
is an open-source encyclopedia. If it doesn’t have an entry for something, you can write it yourself! —Wikipedia Similar:The Emma Watson nude pictures hoax shames our ‘news’ cultureDid you hear that a shady group of antis…CultureBetween static hand-coded HTML pages and modern content-management systems, there used to …When I started my blog in 1999 (by…
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse… [More or Livingston? Authorship uncertain.] —“A Visit from St. Nicholas” Similar:John Dewey: Portrait of a Progressive Thinker: His ideas altered the education of children…“You can concentrate the history of all …AcademiaNellie Bly statue to be…