December 2010
41 posts
“People used to say that the great thing about the Internet was that it had no...”
– Recently deceased Denis Dutton, the founding editor of Arts & Letters Daily, in 1999.
“The eminent linguistic philosopher J. L. Austin of Oxford once gave a lecture in...”
– Steven Strogatz, “The Enemy of My Enemy”
I have now lost count of the number of times I’ve heard or read this anecdote.
“The Economist does not print by-lines identifying the authors of articles, other...”
– I don’t like The Economist’s policy on editorial anonymity.
1 tag
Reason #34 I Am Bad At My Job
Me: Hi, I need to speak to Mister Bater, please.
Me: (withholding giggle)
[...]
Mister Bater: Hello?
Me: Hi, Mister Bater
Me: (no longer withholding giggle)
Mister Bater: (no longer on the line)
1 tag
Reason #34 I Am Bad At My Job
Me: Hi, I need to speak to Mr Bater, please.
Me: (withholding giggle)
[...]
Mr Bater: Hello?
Me: Hi, Mr Bater
Me: (no longer withholding giggle)
Mr Bater: (no longer on the line)
“A veteran like Cringely must surely be aware that E-mail was corrupted not by...”
– ‘The Decline and Fall of E-mail’ by Joe Clark.
Wait, what? Sometimes I wonder what Joe Clark is parodying.
1 tag
NO RETURN FOLLOW →
THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: THE PEOPLE ON THIS LIST WILL NOT FOLLOW YOU BACK JUST BECAUSE YOU FOLLOWED THEM.
1 tag
NO RETURN FOLLOW →
THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: THE PEOPLE ON THIS LIST WILL NOT FOLLOW YOU BACK JUST BECAUSE YOU FOLLOWED THEM.
5 Typical Acts of Politeness That are Inefficient... →
I understand the function of politeness and social conventions: how they make people feel at ease, how they provide a familiar, comfortable context for interactions in which all is not known. I like politeness and social conventions for this, but I think that some are inefficient and should be banned. Here are five.
Counting on Google Books →
Humanities scholars may someday count as a watershed the paper that appeared on Wednesday in Science, titled “Quantitative Analysis of Culture Using Millions of Digitized Books.” But they’ll have certain things to get past before they can appreciate that.
Geoffrey Nunberg talks about Google Books’ giant corpus of literature and the ramifications it could have on...
Returning My iMac 2: Revenge of the Mac Lovers →
The vitriolic posts reminded me just how flat the print medium is, how readers so angered by my piece weren’t there to see me wink at the screen, chuckle at my pseudo-serious twists of phrase. It’s a phenomenon Roger Ebert, now mute, wrote about beautifully last week: “[Stressing] certain words, adding inflection, adjusting pace… these areas are almost as important as...
Returning My iMac 2: Revenge of the Mac Lovers →
The vitriolic posts reminded me just how flat the print medium is, how readers so angered by my piece weren’t there to see me wink at the screen, chuckle at my pseudo-serious twists of phrase. It’s a phenomenon Roger Ebert, now mute, wrote about beautifully last week: “[Stressing] certain words, adding inflection, adjusting pace… these areas are almost as important as...
Fear and Gaming: Muumuu →
Jonathan Gourlay plays the game Braid, a platformer about time travel and regret.
This is really cute.
The Humble Bundle is letting you pay what you want for Braid and 4 other games at the moment, if you didn’t know. Now’s a good time to get into it. (One of the others is Machinarium, which I also highly recommend.)
1 tag
Heather won’t let me buy fancy shoes because “you don’t wear clothes that nice.”
“I just realised that I found the word ‘superfluous’ unnecessary and...”
– /r/linguistics
2 tags
You idiots! You let yourself think it would be ok, didn’t you? Oh, the Tumblr queue has worked for a few days now, you thought, looks like maybe we’re over that hump.
Well fuck your optimism, and fuck your stupid queued posts too, because they’re gone.
“You know there’s a German word for “painful ovulation”
– Heather
SOUR / MIRROR →
This is amazing.
Via Waxy, who recommends you let it connect to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. I agree.
The Information Palace →
The word “information” has grown urgent and problematic—a signpost seen everywhere, freighted with new meaning and import. We hardly need the lexicographers of the Oxford English Dictionary to tell us that, but after all, this is what they live for. It is a word, they tell us, “exhibiting significant linguistic productivity,” a word that “both reflects and embodies major cultural and...
The Viral Me →
gq:
Every update, every tweet, every check-in, ultimately began to feel not unlike doing my expenses. The experience isn’t unusual. I think old people like me (I’m 38) often do this stuff to feel like the world hasn’t yet left them behind, but we don’t have any natural hunger for it. It’s kind of like androids having sex: We know we’re supposed to do it, but we’re not really sure why....
“I don’t have a visceral (look it up) problem”
– Aaron Sorkin on Huffington Post, knowing his audience. (via Nick)
1 tag
'Tis the season for exploiting your readership...
Comes earlier every year.
If only weathermen were honest and said forecasts... →
Weather forecasters must be breathing a sigh of relief this weekend and congratulating themselves as they watch it billow out in front of them. They successfully forecast a big weather event. There’ll be no hostile headlines. No one asking what we’re paying these wastrels for and why we don’t go back to consulting chicken gizzards. They could still be in trouble with their...
