Old is the New New

More robots, more infomancy, more “wonderful and pathetic factoids”: the internet is our flying car.

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Paul Collins on the Mundaneum, a networked encyclopedia on fifteen million index cards (shades of the Memex?). Plus index cards as (literally) the U.S. War Department’s killer app.

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Feast your ears on the oldest known sound recording–from 17 years before Edison’s phonograph. (Via Corn Chips & Pie.)

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I think we all knew the truth as early as Usenet: social networking is a pain.

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That’s an actual NYT headline: Monkey’s Thoughts Propel Robot. Troubadour Jonathan Coulton is the sole voice of reason: “Is this really a good idea?”

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Cabinet of Wonders recalls the semaphore towers of 18th-century France’s optical telegraph network.

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I have reservations about linking to “College” “Humor,” but this is a pretty fun trip down memory lane.

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Ben Franklin’s ghost tapped John Murray Spear to build an electrical messiah and save the world. Who was using who?

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Henry Jenkins offers a Boston-centric history of video games, from Spacewar to Guitar Hero.

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“Fortuitous electronic connections are emerging as hallmarks of humanities scholarship in
the digital age.” Great article from a few years back, via JOHO.

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Technology & Culture reviews an exhibit of video game history at the Science Museum in London.

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How I spent 1993. Or, why computer games are not effective tools for teaching history and how they could be.

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Actionable Offenses, a collection of indecent and illegal phonograph recordings from the 1890s, recovered from the Edison Archives and now available on CD. (Edit: I scooped the New York Times!)

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But seriously, are these really any crazier than the West Edmonton Mall?

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Days of Future Past, ketchup reigns supreme, bonk!

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