“Coming very near the bottom of an official list of religions put out by the [U.K.] Statistics Office, Jedi Knight is known by the code 896. Heathen comes in at 897. Followed by Atheist at 898 and lastly None with 899.” Kieren McCarthy —Jedi Knights Achieve [Sort of] Official Recognition as Religion (The Register) Similar:A…
“[T]he Internet story has come to an end.” Reuters —Silicon Alley Reporter Magazine Closes (Wired) Similar:Out of the Zuckersphere, (back) into the BlogosphereThis is why I still blog. While commerci…AcademiaTolkien v. Orwell: Who understood modern surveillance best?Interesting set of observations explorin…CultureI survived my first day teaching in a masked, hybrid classroom. I survived the first…
“a cybernetic process whereby people in power deepen their dominance by using online communication to negotiate for the consent of the subjugated.” Mike Dorsher —Hegemony Online (UWEC) Similar:Meme alleging Trump said “Africans Are Lazy, Good at Sex, Theft” is a hoax I’ve seen this meme shared by severa…EthicsCrowther's Adventure: Tough Memes to Squash Will Crowther,…
“The Argument: A dying human being is like an automated spacecraft leaving the Solar System and entering interstellar space. Do we leave this world and arrive at another world?” Poetry by Jonathon Vos Post —Valedictory on Software Similar:Thornton Wilder’s Optimistic Catastrophe: “The Skin of Our Teeth”From a review of a 2017 production in Br…CultureJournalism In…
MIT will offer its courses online for free: “This ‘OpenCourseWare’ initiative represents a radically different approach to digitizing, marketing and globalizing education.” —Brave New World for Higher EducationTechnology Review) Similar:Ready to teach another set of students what research is (and what it isn’t).AcademiaSeton Hill's #CIO @PhilKomarny is moving on to @robotsNpencilsSeton Hill’s #CIO @PhilKomarny (who…
(CNet) :”Sometimes they were raw, sometimes they were pretentious and sometimes they were flat-out wrong–I’d dare say that many times it was all three combined!–but the information was fresh and real and unmediated by any intervening institutions.” Charles Cooper —When Blogging Came of Age Similar:Why Fears of Fake News Are OverhypedFacebook seems to have made…
(SiliconValley.com) “Via e-mails, mailing lists, chat groups, personal Web journals and non-standard news sources, they received valuable context that the major American media couldn’t, or wouldn’t, provide.” Dan Gillmor —Webloggers Offer View Media Can’t Similar:Pope Leo XIV names AI one of the reasons for his papal name…I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There…Current_EventsWhat…
Of course, you can’t trust everything that you find on the Internet…. weblogs and e-mail chains are also responsible for spreading hoaxes: “Is it true, for instance, that Osama bin Laden profits directly from sales of gum arabic, a food additive? Or that radio DJs are forbidden to play more than 150 popular songs now?” …
“Every time he excuses his own refusal to observe the rules he dictates to everyone else on the grounds that he ‘knows his audience’, take one drink…. Every time he quotes statistics from an unrelated study to prove a point about Web usability, take one drink.” Jakob Nielsen Drinking Game Not that I’m condoning the…
“In which we take apart the news and put it back together all wrong.” A collection of short stories composed by re-arranging the words found in front-page news stories. Shelly Jackson —Front Page News Similar:Reading should not carry a health warningThis is probably the first time in histo…AcademiaTo Learn More, This High-Schooler Left The ClassroomNick…
Imagine 50 people getting together to write a 20,000-line epic poem, on time and on budget. Software programmers have an added constraint — it has to run! —Software Development as Community Poetry Writing Similar:How newsroom managers can invest more time developing their staff — and why it mattersOne of my most consistently rewarding pr…BusinessWhat Could…
“These angry radicals who have now declared war on the West emerged from a movement we financed and armed. Then it turned against us.” LA Times —The Warnings Were on Page 1 Similar:In August, 2001 I was blogging about… Broken Links and Poor Information Ar…AestheticsTop Russian News Site Calls Out Putin's 'Paranoiac' War Journalists at…
From the user license for Microsoft FrontPage 2002: “You may not use the Software in connection with any site that disparages Microsoft, MSN, MSNBC, Expedia, or their products or services…” Ed Foster (I don’t have FP 2002, so I can’t check this. –DGJ) —A Punitive Puppeteer? Similar:A Message from Hester Prynne (Student Video)Have I mentioned…
“The popular image of the computer hacker seems to be part compulsive programmer preferring the company of computers to people, and part criminal mastermind… But this is at best only half the story.” Gisle Hannemyr —Technology and Pleasure Similar:In November 1999, I was blogging about books, camomile tea and Skylon 4, the death of Star…In…
“By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history’s unmarked grave of discarded lies.” George W. Bush —The President’s Speech Similar:I…
, the captain gave an inspirational speech over the loudspeaker, and concluded: “Now, since we’re a family for the next few hours, I’ll ask you to turn to the person next to you, introduce yourself, tell them a little about yourself and ask them to do the same.” Wash Times —Aboard Flight 564 Similar:Memory of…
Many modern idioms are mechanical: “she has a screw loose,” or “he broke down crying”. Every culture has its in-jokes and specialized language. The Jargon File defines computing terms such as “404 compliant” and “kluge“. Similar:You didn’t make the Harlem Shake go viral—corporations didI never found “Harlem Shake” videos to b…BusinessThe Rage of Virginia Woolf”The…
“Ever since Stalin and the Nazis, reality has transcended fiction.” (BBC) —Playwright Arthur Miller on Terrorism Similar:Pict Free Summer Webinar: Shakespeare’s HeroesCulturePuns really matter to us over here in English.I swore I would wield my powers only for…AcademiaI accidentally did too much DuoLingo. I don't want to advance to the harder league. Come o…Education'A Klingon…
‘‘Hello,’’ a man’s voice, not my husband’s, said. I had no idea whom I’d called, but I had finally gotten through to New York, to news. NYT Magazine —Talk to Me Similar:UVA administrator awarded $3M in Rolling Stone caseJurors awarded a University of Virginia …AcademiaNo, Trump's tweet about "Heritage, History, and Greatness" is not a…
“The freedom we have enjoyed in the states has been unusual in world history and may be becoming more unusual.” (BBC) —Novelist John Updike witnessed the WTC Attack Similar:Socrates envisaged a time when we would forget how to remember.From Daisy Dunn’s review of Puchner’s Th…BooksThe coronavirus is today just as contagious and just as serious…