(I’m currently using a wav file I found somewhere that says “You don’t have to be crazy to play here, but it helps!”)

I’m probably not even of whatever group you were just about to talk down about, but I’m human. And that’s more than I can say for some people.

Good day.

My frustration at the anti-computer attitude goes beyond the generational gap of an academic conference. I’ve found that this same attitude tends to be present in many workplace environments. Blackberries and laptops are often frowned upon as distraction devices. As a result, few of my colleagues are in the habit of creating backchannels in business meetings. This drives me absolutely bonkers, especially when we’re talking about conference calls. I desperately, desperately want my colleagues to be on IM or IRC or some channel of real-time conversation during meetings.

I’m 31 years old. I’ve been online since I was a teen. I’ve grown up with this medium and I embrace each new device that brings me closer to being a cyborg. I want information at my fingertips now and always. There’s no doubt that I’m not mainstream. But I also feel really badly for the info-driven teens and college students out there being told that learning can only happen when they pay attention to an audio-driven lecture in a classroom setting.

Once you read the rest of her post you’ll have a pretty good idea of how I feel too. I don’t have ADHD, and I’m not in school anymore, but I definitely relate to the need to have multiple input/output streams going on at all possible times. I think that’s why Twitter (and to a lesser degree Facebook) are so appealing – instantaneous (or very nearly so) updates from other points in the real world. That’s why I own a phone that can access the internet from anywhere. Ready access to information from anywhere you want, when you want it.

Not just her post on sociocybernetics, but the comments and discussion that followed it, are really an awesome read. I highly recommend you go check it out.

Also, I wish “sociocybernetics” had been a word, much less a degree choice, when I was picking a major.

But to announce auts and other events, our team of ringers would disengage that mechanism and ring changes, or permutations of tones.

-from Anathem, by Neal Stephenson

“Hey everybody, you know what time it is?”

“It’s MEME TIME!”

1. Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
2. Turn to page 56.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post that sentence AS YOUR STATUS. AND POST these instructions in a comment to this status.
5. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST book.

I’m going to close the comments here and move the discussion to Tumblr instead, as I think it’s easier to spread this along that way. Please post your responses here.

When Farrah Fawcett got to heaven, and went through the pearly gates, she was greeted by God.

“Wow!” exclaimed the Holy Ghost. “We really enjoyed your work here. Especially Charlie’s Angels! I still have a poster in my office of you with that red bikini!”

Farrah is a little taken aback. “Thank you, Lord…”

Jehovah goes on, “Well, I have a special reward for you. I’m prepared to grant you one wish. Have anything in mind?”

Not one to act selfish and change God’s opinion of her, Farrah thinks for a second and decides upon a wish. “I’d like for all the children of the world to be safe and sound forever.”

“Done!” exclaims the Heavenly Father. He snaps, and Michael Jackson appears next to Farrah.

[via]

Bonus joke!

Q: What time did Michael Jackson die?
A: 3:15 – when the big hand is touching the little hand.

[via]

You have a year, unlimited funds, and the choice of one skill to learn in that time. What is it?

Discuss.

Anyway. Anyways? Whichever form of the word is supposedly appropriate, insert here.

I’ve been focusing my posting attention on sites that don’t require quite the attention span or level of focus that a blog does. Because let’s face it, my prose here is so exquisite and extraordinarily clever that it clearly requires OODLES of time to read. And all the best literature uses words like “oodles,” in all caps no less.

Again, anyway. What was I saying?

Ah yes, sites that don’t require long bouts of attention. Sites like Twitter. And Tumblr. They just seem to fit my style more – short little bursts of info, little nuggets of thought as-they-happen. Writing in 140 characters or less makes one think about what exactly they’re trying to say rather than just word-vomiting into a textarea field. So… as I said, I’ve been posting to those sites pretty exclusively.

I’m going to try to post to my Tumblr stream more regularly from now on. I’ve generally tried to limit the range of topics to more technology- and web-based stuff, especially social/digital media and the like. Of course, I’m not afraid to throw in a LOLcat once in a while. I’m also going to work on improving the design… it’s not the greatest aesthetically, I know.

So… rather than feverishly checking here every couple hours to see if I’ve posted any new Pulitzer-worthy blogs, head over to my Tumblr stream instead.

Of course, it’d be awesome if I could pull a Peter Petrelli (early Peter, not Volume 4 Peter) and just rake in the powers as I go, collecting them Pokemon-style. Gotta catch ‘em all!

In more or less the order of my wanting-ness:

One: Psionics. This includes but is certainly not limited to telekinesis (bending the spoon with your mind), telepathy (only if it’s on demand rather than always-on), and mind control. Think Sylar + Matt Parkman. Technically you could do just about everything else on the list with enough control over telekinesis. Flight, shielding, strength augmentation, whatever. If you can control down to the atomic level, you can walk through walls, go invisible, command electricity, whatever. It’s like the ultimate power. And of course if you’re Sylar you can always go for the can opener effect.

Speaking of, you’d never have to worry about dropping something in a tight spot, or fetching a drink from the fridge in the other room. Just think (oops, no pun intended) of the possibilities. Of course, some of the next few

Two: Teleportation. Obvious choice here. Clearly, if you had strong enough telekinesis this might not be needed but it’d be pretty damn handy. Although I could see myself getting amazingly lazy. There’s a scene in the movie Jumper where you see Anakin… sorry, Hayden Christensen’s character “jump” from one seat on the couch to one closer to the remote. That’d be me.

Three: Invisibility. Oh come on. What person hasn’t wanted to be invisible at least once in their life, for whatever (likely less-than-noble) reason? It’d be so much fun, even if you leave out the obvious high school locker room fantasy scenarios. Just need to work out that pesky physics problem of keeping the ability to see while invisible. Stupid laws of nature.

Four: Self-healing/Rapid Tissue Regeneration. Had to clarify this one, as it’s not Linderman-style healing (sorry, if you don’t watch Heroes you’re missing a lot of references here) but rather the ability to heal from any wounds inflicted on you. Just like Claire Bennet or Wolverine. Pretty straight-forward here… this one more or less protects you against any unfortunate happenings you may come upon while enjoying the other powers you might have.

Five: Elemental Manipulation. Think Captain Planet, without the cheesy 80s stuff clouding up all the coolness. Or the rings. Not necessarily weather, but elements. I’ll use the Marvel universe here: combine Pyro, Iceman, Dr. Doom, etc. I consider electricity to be an element too, hence the good Doctor. If you’d prefer I stick to Heroes characters, fine: Elle. How cool would it be to have such a show-off power like arcing electricity between your fingertips? I’ve always wanted to do that. But… like I said… with enough control, a strong enough telekinetic could probably do the same thing.

In fact, I think electrical control might actually be one of the more plausible/possible “superpowers” to have. The human body runs on electricity, so why not? Get enough control over the electricity coursing through your body, manage to channel it and extend it outside your body… voila. Maybe. In my dreams, at least. You can’t take that away.

Unless you’re the Haitian.

Photo credits:
jin.thai, icanhascheezburger, and Nano Taboada.

We like the idea of taking a musician/artist out of their habitual context and putting them in a foreign one – we reckon it gives new life to the performance and makes it more interesting to watch.

Holy awesome, Batman. Watch: Jonathan Byers (The Badke Quartet) from Black Cab Sessions. (I’m not allowed to embed it here, sadly.)