A few of my favorites:
Go, Daddy, go! The syncopated world of swingtech, from the Ellington Locomotor to the unstoppable Lindy Drive.
Ben Franklin returns, with a time-traveling chess-playing robot and a cast of dozens, in my mostest award-winningest post.
I’m still the luckiest guy in the world.
The transnational turn in American history vs. fat, worshipful biographies of the Founding Fathers.
The true story behind Boston’s Curse of the Bambino. Also: girly burlesquers!
Most recent posts:
Is John Hodgman the last observer of Gilded Age telephone etiquette? I WOULD NOT PUT IT PAST HIM.
Write up and reflection on THATCamp 2008, an excellent “unconference” on digital technology and the humanities.
I’m psyched for this weekend’s digital humanities conference but feel a bit the phony.
Just a cool little story about electrification from the early days of the USSR.
Synopsis of my new course on science, technology, and global history.
In loose Borgesian categories:
Several months ago, I stunned the world with the late-breaking news that Moby Dick is awesome, but I don’t think I conveyed how completely Melville had harpooned my imagination. Now Henry Jenkins, who I’m going to see this week, asks: “Was Herman Melville a Proto-Fan?”
Tags: Books
Interwob links to confound and bemuse:
Depends. Is Hayden Christensen In It?
“Would you rather go see the latest Star Wars movie, or a giant card catalog?” NYT on the Mundaneum, the cardboard internet noted here a few months ago.
Lousy Cheapskates
Guess my so-called friends were outbid: that first telephone book sold for $170,500. I would have “settled” for the ENIGMA machine which went for $104,500.
City of Shadows
Long-exposure photographs of St. Petersburg turn the bustle of urban crowds into beautiful shoggoths of human smoke.
My Name Is Charles Guiteau
Garfield without words was inspired. Garfield without Garfield was, I thought, kinda gilding that lily. But Garfield plus Garfield is the winner.
Shan Carter and Amanda Cox Have A Posse
Another swell interactive graphic from the people who did the box office one, this time showing demographic margins for Clinton and Obama.
Good Luck Getting the DeLorean to 88 MPH
Tyler Cowen and his readers discuss survival tips in case you are unexpectedly stranded in the year 1000 AD. Would it surprise you to learn that I think about this all the time?
Oral History of the Internets
Because I get all my history of technology from Vanity Fair. (No, actually, it’s not half bad.)
Captured Monsters
“Give me an underground laboratory, half a dozen atom-smashers, and a girl in a diaphanous veil waiting to be turned into a chimpanzee…” A blog of stills from old monster movies.
The Financephalograph
Your war bonds at work: Brett Holman at Airminded follows up my link to MONIAC with more history, smart analysis, and lots of pictures.
The Telectroscope
It’s no giant mechanical elephant (what is?), but, yes, the telectroscope is wicked boss keen. Once again, I live in the wrong London.
Invisible elves make our site go:
© 2001–2007 Rob MacDougall
3 responses so far ↓
1 Tom // Sep 25, 2007 at 10:08 am
Um…hrm…on the one hand Melville as Whaling fanboy makes the entire book a lot more understandable. On the other hand, most fan fiction is complete and utter drek.
Now that I think about it, I bet Moby Dick would be super-cool awesome if it were wikified. You could just read the story and peel off along the links to the side digressions and alternate takes. Better yet, you could totally rewrite that bogus, shaggy-dog ending.
later
Tom
2 Kevin // Oct 22, 2007 at 6:37 am
Hi Rob, — Just wanted to say that I absolutely love the new layout. Very cool!
3 Rob // Oct 23, 2007 at 10:38 am
Thanks, Kevin! Congratulations on your 1000th post - that’s like five times what I’ve managed in twice the time.
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