5 Intriguing Things
1. Somewhere, there is a box with a headphone jack waiting for you.
"Bonner created the unique circuit technology for the battery powered music boxes. They're automatically triggered to switch on as you plug in your headphones, and yes, the patent is pending. Second generation gallery boxes have been developed specifically for indoor presentation purposes. They hold a slightly advanced circuit system and their industrial switches are a new, fun addition. For these, the headphones are supplied and you have to hold the button to play... Fifteen boxes currently reside on the streets now, with plans for up to 20 more installed in L.A. in the coming weeks, marking the Subliminal Projects show."
2. How filmmakers present texting on screen.
"Is there a better way of showing a text message in a film? How about the internet? Even though we’re well into the digital age, film is still ineffective at depicting the world we live in. Maybe the solution lies not in content, but in form."
3. What recent archaeological research says about gender among prehistoric humans.
"But the archaeology of the Late Neolithic of the Middle East – the roots of our own civilisation – doesn’t suggest much evidence for very differential labour roles or treatment. As has been demonstrated by a team of experts at Çatalhöyük, women and men spent comparable periods of time within the house, ate the same diets, engaged in comparable tasks (leaving skeletal markers on bones) and were buried in the same ways."
4. 1994's argument: were there 2 or 3 million Internet users or 20 or 30 million?
"If Mr. Quarterman's analysis is correct, then his calculations further blur the already vague notion that electronic culture and commerce is just around the corner. Certainly his assessment does much to debunk the myth of an interactive, information web that will eventually link everyone on the planet. Estimates that there are more than 20 million users of the Internet have excited the imagination of businesses, politicians, social scientists, investors and journalists. The Internet has been described as a prototype of the Clinton Administration's proposed information superhighways... The Internet is popular, all right. But is it a less dynamic force than we've all been led to believe?
5. Inside a Bitcoin mine somewhere in northeast China.
"The first thing you notice as you approach the warehouse is the noise. It begins as soon as you step out of the car, at which point it sounds like massive swarm of angry bees droning away somewhere off in the distance. It becomes louder and louder the closer you get to the building, and as you step through the doors it becomes a deafening and steady roar; a combination of tens of thousands of tiny ASIC chips hashing away, and dozens of large industrial fans serving to cool down the 'workers.'"
Today's 1957 American English Language Tip
cigarette. The short spelling, cigaret, though often seen, is not established. The accent is properly on the last syllable.
The Internet Has Been Described