“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:Major…
“[T]he Internet story has come to an end.” Reuters —Silicon Alley Reporter Magazine Closes (Wired) Similar:Newsworthy vs snoozeworthyJerz > Writing > Journalism JournalismChapbooks — the latest assignment in my “History and Future of the Book” class.Students have already done a 400-word sp…AcademiaFormer Setonian editor-in-chief Amanda Cochran visits my journalism class to discuss her c…AcademiaToday's annoying adventures of adulting: fixing…
“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:Did Google just kill PR agencies? Lots of links, lots of repeated key wo…BusinessDon't Be Cruel[M]angled syntax, disordered thinking, a…AcademiaClose reading is hard to do in a state…
“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:Robots Are Coming for Our PoemsThe robots are quickly and surely coming…AestheticsLet's talk about AI art (long, scrollworthy…
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:Undergrad Danielle Sidoti Nails an Oral Interpretation/Analysis of "Barbie Doll" by Marge …In my online “American Literature” class…AestheticsWhat Is The Value Of An Education In The…
(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:About that Cough, Rough, Pony, Bologna MemeDo the spellings of cough…
(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:BREAKING: All ITT Campuses Will CloseAll ITT Tech campuses will be shut down,…AcademiaAn interesting analysis of Trump's rhetorical strategy.In the Washington…
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:Choice of the Journo: A Branching-path Phone-friendly Role-playing Simulation for Journali…How can a nostalgic, branching-path stor…AcademiaGoogle Favors Good Reporting, Not Liberal…
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:The Ongoing Obsession with Shakespeare’s True IdentityI’ve never been all too keen on Shakespe…AcademiaThe Rise of "Synthespians"”Mr. Serkis is the human actor…
“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:Special ed teacher quits: ‘I just cannot justify making students cry anymore’The disorder is in the system which requ…CultureWhy Twitter’s Dying (And What…
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:The Problem with Quotes on the InternetAmusingStories from the…
“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:Scratch StatsScratch is a kid-friendly programming sa…CybercultureWhy Twitter’s Dying (And What You Can Learn From It)Someone who…
“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:Out &…
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:Everyone Should Get an ADoes a bus-driver-training school rank i…AcademiaThe Post-Coding Generation?I knew the command line well, and very o…CybercultureNASA…
“Ever since Stalin and the Nazis, reality has transcended fiction.” (BBC) —Playwright Arthur Miller on Terrorism Similar:Storage Wars Sued By Its Star; Show Is Faked And Execs Were Confronted By Cast, Court Pape…”Reality TV” star is shocked — shocked …AmusingThe Girl Wins the Upper Division Monologue in the 25th Annual Pittsburgh Public Theatre's …CultureEncyclopedia Smithsonian:…
‘‘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:Musician Daryl Davis Has Converted Hundreds of KKK Members Over 30 Years — Here's HowYears later, after earning my degree in …AwesomeA Christmas Carol…
“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:Sperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack informationFrom whaling and sealing stations to mis…AwesomeIn April 2000, I was blogging about HTML frames, the future of reading,…