Too much information? “[T] this weed in our informational landscape has just sprouted–it is only about 50 years old. Up until then, more information was almost always a good thing.” David Shenk —Data Smog Similar:Halloween Candy Poisonings, School Shootings and Human Psychology What can parents do to minimize thei…Current_EventsCan you melt eggs? Quora’s AI says…
“Log onto almost any college Web site and you’ll see the same beautiful students talking about their beautiful campuses and how much they learn. But there are no numbers, no studies, no objective measurements.” —Wash. Monthly —What Do the US News Rankings Measure? Similar:AI is better at writing poems than you’d expect. But that’s fine.…
“Hey, all you crafty, capable women wearing chunky, horn-rimmed glasses (this year) and doing your brainy chick thing…” Hank Stuever, Wash. Post —Velma Rules — Jinkies! Similar:Pac-Man”The kids who grew up steering Pac-Man a…DesignGreat moments from Pride and PrejudiceI haven’t read Pride and Prejudice in ab…BooksHow Bad Design Wrecked Steve Harvey's "Universe"The consequences weren’t as…
Failed to Practise What It Preached The magazine that chronicled the excesses of the dot.com revolution did not spot the extravagances that led to its own downfall. Mark Tran —Industry Standard Similar:A 27-Story Vertical Forest Grows in MilanBosco Verticale was conceived in respons…AestheticsAll About Those Facebook 'Like' Scam PostsWhen you click “like” for a cause…
Include Your Children when Baking Cookies New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half —Real Headlines Similar:DHS official whose office compiled ‘intelligence reports’ on journalists and protesters ha…Was it a lizard person who was collectin…Current_EventsFirst Stanford code poetry slam reveals the literary side of computer codeLeslie Wu,…
Despite the technological hoopla, nobody’s paying attention to e-books but the courts. “Digitizing the printed page has put the very nature of books up for grabs, unleashing heated battles among writers, readers, librarians and technologists over who should control electronic books.” Chicago Tribune —E-Books Solving a Problem Consumers Don’t Have. Similar:The End of Headphone Jacks,…
Not-Work: “CNN acts like they’re the network of record in Millennial America, just because of their award-winning Gulf War coverage. That was so 10 years ago, and people only watched because there was no MSNBC back then.” The Onion —CNN Should be Named the Crappy News Similar:Relics (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 4) When…
At first, Huck Finn said “as if” instead of “like,” “wasn’t” and not “warn’t,” and described a night sky “sprinkled”–not “speckled”–with stars. A new edition of the American classic traces Mark Twain’s efforts to refine the speech of his most famous character. LA Times —A New Read on Huck Finn’s Distinctive Voice Similar:Consciousness: Where Are…
(Watch them instead.) “Create a few alternative designs, show them to a group of users, and ask which one they prefer. Wrong. If the users have not actually tried to use the designs, they’ll base their comments on surface features.” Jakob Nielsen —First Rule of Usability? Don’t Listen to Your Readers. Similar:The Tyranny of…
At a graveyard near where Beatrix Potter (author of the “Peter Rabbit” stories) spent her youth: “Names on headstones included Mr Nutkin, Mr McGregor, Jeremiah Fisher, Tommy Brock – and even a Peter Rabbett.” BBC —But what about Jemima Puddle-Duck? Similar:One Does Not Simply: An Introduction to the Special Issue on Internet MemesWhen we envisioned…
“A modern language changes when we change it, and the metaphor that makes it autonomous only obscures our real task, which is to consider just how and why we change it.” Mark Halpern Similar:My Shakespeare students are off peer reviewing their term paper rough drafts. I’m official…AcademiaThis Is What It Is Like To Be Deaf…
“Author Jessica Kingley expressed regret Monday that she had ‘pretty much used up all the hardship‘ from her early life in her recent first novel Bitter Root, leaving her nothing to write about for her follow-up book.” The Onion Similar:In October 2001, I was blogging about nothing, apostrophes, the anthrax scare, and Boilerp…In October 2001,…
That said, we’ve decided to acknowledge our very favorite Web sites—five each in 10 subject areas—with the Scientific American.com Sci/Tech Web Award. It is an eclectic mix—from the practical to the academic to the downright silly. Among this year’s winners are sites that decode computer acronyms, explain group theory, unravel the genome, track chemistry in…
The second most popular form of entertainment after television, video games have rapidly become the largest segment of the entertainment industry. Mounting evidence lends support to what parents have suspected all along — violent videogames encourage violent behavior. Contemporary Pediatrics Similar:Walking in Another's Skin: Failure of Empathy in To Kill a MockingbirdThe money quote: “In…
: “Every report you ever write from this day until the day you die should start out by saying something nice about the product or service you are reviewing. Then you can get down to business.” Tog —How to Deliver a Report Without Getting Lynched Similar:ChatBot Helps Crack the Case of the Missing 45GBThe other…
. Painfully funny small-town satire from The Onion. —Wal-Mart Opens Store in Winesburg, Ohio Similar:Facebook Updates News Feed So Your Favorite Friends Rise to the TopNow, News Feed, at its most basic level,…BusinessMars Is a Hellhole: Colonizing the red planet is a ridiculous way to help humanity.Some of Elon Musk’s stunts have caught m…BusinessWhat to…
“If anything, the recent expansion of literacy and educational opportunities has increased our access to literature and our enjoyment of it.” J. Peder Zane —What Good is Literature? Similar:Context for Hayles, My Mother was a Computer (Ch 3 & 4)My undergraduates are working their way …AcademiaThe Decline and Fall of the English MajorThis essay is…
“Today, I’m one of the world’s leading anthropologists, an accomplished archaeologist, and an award-winning novelist. And, at 41, I’m only now becoming aware of the globetrotting rut I’ve been in my entire life. Looking back on everything I’ve seen and done, I can’t help but ask, ‘Is that all there is?’” more satire from The…
Microsoft Word requires at least 30% more keystrokes and 100% more mouse moves to accomplish certain editing tasks than would an optimal word processor. Forbes —Bad Design Can Be Costly Similar:Humans are being hired to make AI slop look less sloppy The illustrations clients bring to her…ArtSchisms (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 5)Rewatching ST:TNG…
“We are the Gist Generation. We have acquired a taste for hit-and-run, cut-and-paste knowledge. We expect a home page or e-mail correspondence to give us the gist and only the gist—time is money and you’re a click away from an iconographic trash can, so get to the point.” Jeff Barbian Similar:He couldn’t get over his…