When one observes magic, let it be clear that the magician is a skilful human, an artist, and not a born wizard. His acts are crafty examples of sleight-of-hand, and no supernatural forces are involved. Beyond the wonderfully positive effects of the Harry Potter series (for example, the reported growth in the number of book [...]
Archive for the ‘So satisfying’ Category
Reflection: If this be magic, let it be an art
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Afrodigiac, Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Learning from others, Narratives, So satisfyingTags: James Randi, magic, magic as art, misdirection, muggle magic, Project Alpha, sleight-of-hand, Stuart Lightbody
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Decrypting the Kryptos
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Learning from others, Narratives, So satisfyingTags: Analytical, Applied Cryptography, Bruce Schneier, Central Intelligence Agency, Christopher Farmer, CIA, Ed Scheidt, James J. Gillogly, James Sanborn, Kryptos, Metafilter, OPORD, predictive intelligence
This may sound like a movie script, but it is completely true: in October 1990, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) headquarters at Langley (which, by the way, is not Langley,VA, as many believe, but the Langley suburb of McLean,VA, in case you plan to visit), unveiled a strange, intriguing sculputre named Kryptos (“hidden” in Greek), [...]
Sweating it out at NaNoWriMo 2008
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Learning from others, Narratives, So satisfyingTags: All Novels Eve, Apotropaic Philosophy and Confabulation, Chris Baty, City of Califa, Dr. Wicked, drwicked.com, Flora Segunda, Huitzil Empire, kamikaze approach, Markus Zusak, NaNoLantern, NaNoWriMo 2008. National Novel Writing Month, National Novel Writing Month's Young Writers Program, peptalkers, The Book Thief, Write Or Die, Ysabeau Wilce
You may not be aware that you only have 18 odd days (as of now) to make it through NaNoWriMo 2008. NaNoWriMo – or National Novel Writing Month – is an international “seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing.” If you join this marathon, you undertake to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30. If [...]
Visionaries and torch bearers
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Afrodigiac, Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Learning from others, Narratives, So satisfyingTags: and Traffic Jams, Brand Magazine, Candice Turvey, Di Paice, electronic publishing, Herman Manson, Janusz Korczak, King Matt the First, Lev Konov, Mark, Marklives, marklives.com, Massively Parallel Microworlds, Media Toolbox, MIT Media Lab, Mitch Resnick, MTB, PICA Awards, Programmable Bricks, Scratch, Synthesis-Opera, Termites, the Computer Clubhouse, the creative thinking spiral, the King of the Children, the Lifelong Kindergarten, The Ugly Duckling opera, Turtles, Watling Trophy
In November 2007, I moved this blog from a test location to its curent place online – live and open for visits. In the 12 months that followed, ToingToing! received a solid stream of unique visits – 59604 for the year, or an average of 4967 visits per month. I am deeply grateful to Big Friendly for [...]
A gauntlet in your eye, Steve (update)
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Learning from others, Narratives, So satisfyingTags: chutzpah, Garett Rogers, Google Apps, Googling Google, MIcrosoft Office, Steve Ballmer
An interesting afterthought to my previous pieceon the battle between Microsoft Office and Google Apps was posted on Garett Rogers’ “Googling Google” blogon ZDnet’s Blogosphere. Rogers noted Balmmer’s belitteling remark on Google Apps – “you can’t even put a footnote in a document” and says: Perhaps what happened directly after he said that is precisely why Microsoft [...]
Chutzpah by any other name
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Learning from others, Narratives, So satisfying, TheoriesTags: Android, Apple, BlueBerry, chutzpah, ComScore, David Girouard, Gartner, Google Apps, John C. Dvorak, Linux, mobile Windows, OpenOffice, skipping Vista, Steve Ballmer, Symbian. Micrsofot Office, Windows 7, Windows Vista capable machines, Yahoo!
There are many definitions of the term Chutzpah- my gran’s description of someone with chutzpah is “a person who kills his parents and then asks for the court’s mercy becasue he’s an orphan.” I wish I could pit Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer against gran – she would have taken him apart.
An invreasingly digitally undivided universe
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Learning from others, Narratives, So satisfying, TheoriesTags: Arthur Goldstuck, count of the total number of active subscriptions, digeracy, digital divide, digitally undivided universe, John White, mobile subscriber data, Portio Research, total subscribers
Of course, I did not expect my piece on the end of the Digital Divide as we know it to go unchallenged. Arthur Goldstuck popped in for an e-visit: “The mobile subscriber data is misleading, as it refers to mobile accounts or connections, not users,” he wrote.
What digital divide?!
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Narratives, So satisfying, TheoriesTags: Android, Bill Bryson, Buzzwords, Cellphone, cellphones, Chrome, digital divide, digital existence, international submarine communications cables, iPhone, Linux, mobile phone subscribers, Nokia, Patrick Henry, Population Division, Portio Research Mobile Factbook, satellite technologies, Symbian, total world population
Catchphrases help us hold our intellectual head up high, socially. We can use buzzwords and Catchphrases as a mark of our understanding, our expertise, insight, intuition and general intellectual prowess. Some catchphrases were not really uttered but simply invented – – and then carried through the ages, delivered diligently from eager sender to ecstatic receiver. [...]
postscript: Print media: dead as a parrot
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Narratives, So satisfyingTags: Alan Rusbridge, content and context, content-neutral editors, Guardian.co.uk, guerrilla journalism, newsdesk, Press Gazette, subject-specific pods, The Guardian, The Observer
After this piece was published, I read what Alan Rusbridge, the editor-in-chief of The Guardian, The Observer and Guardian.co.uk had to say about the new structure his team plans to implement across the three publications. Speaking to Press Gazette, Rusbridge explained how the three publications’ news, business and sport staff will form a single team and [...]
Print media: dead as a parrot
Posted: by Rudy Nadler-Nir in Anthrodigital, Archetypes, Narratives, So satisfyingTags: Andrew Neil, BAE Systems, British shipbuilding industry, citizen journalists, Corante, Future of News workshop, guerrilla journalists, Paul Starr, Princeton University, The Scotsman, the shipyards of the Clyde, The World Association of Newspapers, WAN
How many movies you’ve seen, books you’ve read, after-dinner chats you had in the past 10 years were based on conspiracy-theories, urban-legends, word-of-mouth (WOM) sound-bites, e-mail hoaxes and other hard-to-substantiate sources? Now, let’s reverse this question – how many conspiracy-theories, urban-legends, WOM sound-bites, e-mail hoaxes and other hard-to-substantiate sources turned out to be the real, [...]