…but still kinda cool.
“The Dumpster”
This might or might not be “something:”
The Dumpster (2006: Golan Levin, Kamal Nigam and Jonathan Feinberg) is an interactive online visualization that attempts to depict a slice through the romantic lives of American teenagers. Using real postings extracted from millions of online blogs, visitors to the project can surf through tens of thousands of specific romantic relationships in which one person has “dumped” another.
Via my Reader feed and danah’s blog apophenia.
Improv freezing around the world
From Improv Everywhere comes this map of group freezing from around the world, all based on this previously completed Grand Central Station stunt.
The zombie future doesn’t look good for me.
I stumbled across this via Jenny’s “Working Blue” blog:
The old hit parade
For reasons not worth going into, I spent some time playing around with Google analytics tonight and I learned a couple of fun facts.
- My old blogs are still getting more hits than this new one. I guess just because there is a lot more content there.
- Top hit on the academic blog? “Period Trick,” which has to do with resizing periods in a word processed essay to create the illusion of a length. Note this wasn’t my tip– just a link.
- Five of the top ten picks have to do with searches having to do with “flip video sample” and other related terms, which inevitably brings up this video of our dog Sophie playing with a ball.
Thank God I offer my thoughts on the state of academia for all to read.
Dude…
From boing-boing.net comes this post on craigslist, which I will reproduce in its entirety, about the pizza business in Ann Arbor:
To The Stoner Who Works At Cottage Inn Pizza
Date: 2007-09-18, 11:30AM EDTYou: the guy who answers the phone at cottage inn pizza
Me: Hungry and stoned out of my gourdI called you from my cell phone but had completely forgot who I was calling by the time you answered the phone. Of course, you were also baked to bajeezus and forgot to tell me that I had called Cottage Inn.
When you answered and said, “Whatsup?” I thought about it, and after a 20 second pause I told you that was hungry. You suggested I try a pizza, and I agreed that it was probably a good idea.
Then I asked you if you sold pizza and you said that you could make me one. I said I wanted anchovies and something else on my pizza. You asked me what that something else was.
We spent five minutes listing toppings until we figured out that I was trying to remember how to say: “Sun dried Tomatoes.” When you said: “We’ll bake that right up for you,” we both started laughing uncontrollably.
It was the best pizza I ever had; I just wanted to thank you for helping me out.
Ah, those sophisticates in Ann Arbor…
Wednesday (and not partying in the French Quarter) Links
Well, since I’m not in NOLA and up to Lord only knows what Steve B. and Bill HD. and my other typical conference partners in crime are up to right now, I thought I’d post a whole bunch of links from my Google Reader feed:
- A book about cursing in over 69 different languages.
- A link to a mashup video of “I’m F*cking Obama.” I came across this on a blog I read on a regular basis (sorry, I can’t remember which one now) that suggested that this was a sexist video. I dunno, I think it makes sense because Clinton is on the attack and has kind of opened herself up to that. I have to think that it’s only a matter of time before we get to the “I’m F*cking Hillary Clinton.”
- Here’s a weird one: http://superbad.com/ You would think that this has something to do with the movie Superbad, but I don’t have a clue what this is. Entertaining though.
- “Professors should embrace Wikipedia” from Inside Higher Ed. This one might actually be useful in teaching about wiki and Wikipedia stuff next year, maybe even this spring. The comments are particularly telling.
- “Experimental Use of Blog-Based Peer Review Gives Mixed Results” in CHE and a reply/rebuttal from the site where the blog peer review took place. Personally, I think a blog is a better place to prewrite/think through a manuscript/project in progress rather review a draft polished enough to send to a publisher.
- What might be an interesting book/web site/blog/wiki to check out later, Wikinomics.
- Finally, another story in the New York Times of a plagiarism policy being plagiarized. Lots of good links here, too.
Great purposefully ugly web site
Improv Everywhere’s “site redesign” is their April Fools joke, but it is also a fantastic teaching moment for a class like “Writing for the World Wide Web.” I hope this link stays live for a while….
Those google jokesters
Via Lifehacker comes this list of April Fools Day jokes from Google (and others, I think) around the world. I like the one where every YouTube link goes to this video instead of what you want.
I don’t think this is real
But I do think it is still pretty darn funny.