Old is the New New

Old is the New New

Dropping history like Galileo dropped the orange.

Entries from August 2008

The Great Algoritmi

September 28th, 2007 · No Comments

Short NYT piece on the history of the algorithm, from Muhammad ibn Musa al-Khwarizmi to Amazon’s Mechanical Turk–”a part man, part machine … oracle for our times.”

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Tags: Asides

It’s Whalers, not Whalies

September 25th, 2007 · 3 Comments

Henry Jenkins asks, “Was Herman Melville a Proto-Fan”?

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Tags: Books

Maybe Utah

September 24th, 2007 · 10 Comments

A trip to Salt Lake City, and other cool things.

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Tags: Real Life · Academia

:-)

September 24th, 2007 · No Comments

The smiley emoticon is twenty-five years old.

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Tags: Asides

Kugelmass and the Pit

September 15th, 2007 · 3 Comments

21st century pickup artists, the death of leisure, why twee and emo are the future of romantic honesty, and whether society has learned anything from Hitch.

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Tags: Asides

George Washington Puked Here

September 10th, 2007 · No Comments

Historical plaques to commemorate ephemeral and inconsequential moments.

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Tags: History@Play