Gin, Television, and Social Surplus
This essay by Clay Shirkyon has been making the rounds in the last few days.
In short, he argues that people will continue to spend less time watching sitcoms and more time creating and sharing information. A "cognitive surplus" that was wasted on passively watching television, is being used to generate gains for all of society.
I'm not sure I agree, but an interesting article nonetheless.
Shibboleth from wikipedia
It's an in-joke, a password, a key word, or a shared memory.
Wikipedia: Unusual articles
Someone has taken the time to compile a massive list of the weird and wonderful articles on Wikipedia.
Such as what?
For starters, how about:
| Traditions and anecdotes associated with the Stanley Cup | An ice hockey trophy with a long history of abuse, superstition, and tests of buoyancy. |
| Snail racing | Ready, steady, slow! |
| Squirrel fishing | A sport of skill and patience. |
| Teddy bear toss | A Christmas tradition in minor league hockey. |
| Bovine bingo | A different way to play bingo. |
| Bummer and Lazarus | Two stray dogs that roamed the streets of San Francisco, California, in the early 1860s and were exempted from local ordinances. |
| Chicken hypnotism | Have you ever wanted to hypnotize a chicken? If not, why not? |
| Chicken sexer | A person who has been specially trained to determine the sex of chicken hatchlings. |
| Gef the talking mongoose | A poltergeist-like creature which claimed to have been an 80-year-old Indian mongoose, alleged to have haunted a Manx cottage during the 1930s. |
| Jackalope | A cross between a jackrabbit and an antelope. |
| Jersey Devil | A mythological creature said to inhabit the New Jersey Pine Barrens. |
| Emerald Cockroach Wasp | A wasp that can ride a cockroach and drive it, too. |
| Exploding head syndrome | Some people hear a massive explosion that wakes them up after being asleep for an hour or two. |
| Fatal hilarity | Is there really anything so funny you can die of laughter? |
| Female hysteria | A once-common diagnosis of a range of symptoms in women, cured through masturbation to orgasm. |
| Can't sleep, clown will eat me | A stock phrase that's become a popular joke-explanation for insomnia. |
| Cartoon physics | An explanation of the laws of physics as they have come to be (mis)represented in cartoons. |
| Cuteness in Japanese culture | It's not just Hello Kitty |
| Gimli Glider | Due to an input error, a Boeing 767 plane runs out of fuel mid-flight and becomes a glider. |
| Guided rat | Implanted electrodes let researchers "steer the animal over an obstacle course, making it twist, turn and even jump on demand." |
| David Hahn | A 17-year old known as the Radioactive Boy Scout, he irradiated his back yard attempting to build a nuclear breeder reactor from spare parts. |
Banksy
Banksy is one of the most interesting modern artists out there. This graffiti artist puts up whimsical and/or political paintings using stencil, usually without permission. His identity is a secret, but of course he has a website. His website has a "Shop" where many of his works are available for download, but everything is free.
Why is it that one ninja can defeat an army of adversaries, but struggles against a single, weaker opponent? Because of the Inverse Ninja Law, that's why!
Wikipedia has a full scientific explanation of the Inverse Ninja Law. It also has an explanation of why minor characters are unrealistically ineffective in combat against more important characters; the Stormtrooper Effect.
