Lego of course is predestined for constructing ↑Rube Goldberg machines, and there are quite some fine specimen in existence, but ↑Akiyuky‘s beautiful creation ↑featured at gizmodo is as fantastic as it is gigantic. [There are bigger ones, but they are built by teams, like ↑the world record one.] via PH @ fb—tnx! … Continue reading
As the faithful reader might have noticed, I am, among other things, fond of early science fiction—of course always on the hunt for elements of ↵the cyberpunk discourse, and for entries to my ↵according list, where I strive to furnish downlod links as far as technically and legally possible. Now, in the wake of a recent panel on Victorian and Edwardian science fiction at ↑Chicon 7, over ↑at Wondermark there’s a list of according science fiction with download links. The post also hints us at the fine anthology ‘Science Fiction by Gaslight’ (Moskowitz 1968), and a commenter added the two … Continue reading
zeph’s pop culture quiz #42 Who is riding his bike through the rain? Just leave a comment with your educated guess—you can ask for additional hints, too. [Leaving a comment is easy; just click the ‘Leave a comment’ at the end of the post and fill in the form. If it’s the first time you post a comment, it will be held for moderation. But I am constantly checking, and once I’ve approved a comment, your next ones won’t be held, but published immediately by the system.] UPDATE and solution (20 September 2012): After ↵the last one took … Continue reading
Earlier this year his collection of non-fiction texts, ‘Distrust That Particular Flavor’ (Gibson 2012), was published—now there are some fresh interviews with ↑William Gibson around: the one with io9 above, and a ↑three-part interview at Wired. GIBSON, WILIAM FORD. 2012. Distrust that particular flavor. New York: Putnam Adult. io9-interview via ↑entry at ↑kueperpunk … Continue reading
Although the main plots of the ↑‘Assassin’s Creed’ games have historical settings—during the Third Crusade (Ubisoft Montreal 2007), the Renaissance (2009), and the American Revolution (2012)—the narrative as a whole bows down to ↵the cyberpunk dicourse. The story which delivers the framework decidedly is cyberpunkish: In the present day, or 20 minutes into the future, the evil corporation ‘Abstergo Industries’ abducts one Desmond Miles. In a secret apartment hideaway he is made to connect to the ‘Animus,’ a computer able to revoke ‘genetic memory.’ That way Miles is able to experience the lifes of his ancestors as interactive virtual realities … Continue reading
zeph’s pop culture quiz #41 Who is coming towards us through the fog? Just leave a comment with your educated guesses—you can ask for additional hints, too. [Leaving a comment is easy; just click the ‘Leave a comment’ at the end of the post and fill in the form. If it’s the first time you post a comment, it will be held for moderation. But I am constantly checking, and once I’ve approved a comment, your next ones won’t be held, but published immediately by the system.] UPDATE 1 (18 September 2012): All right, I won’t solve the … Continue reading
At least parts of the personal diary of ↑Thomas Harold Flowers (1905-1998) soon will be on display at ↑The National Museum of Computing (TNMOC) at Bletchley Park, ↑reported the BBC two days ago. Flowers was crucial in constructing ↑Colossus—for the whole story see Randell 1980 and the excellent book edited by Jack Copeland (2006) including texts by Flowers himself (2006 [1998]a, b). The story of the Colossi—all in all ten of them were at work at Bletchley until the end of the war—not only illustrates the outstanding relevance of electronic computing technology, but is also an example for … Continue reading
In ↵omega legend I argued that the infestation of the zombie-genre by the ↵cyberpunk discourse is a further mosaic-tile in showing that said discourse gathers more and more momentum. In this Richard Matheson’s novel ‘I am Legend’ (1954) is a keystone, a pivotal point, if you will. At ↑iamlegendarchive I just stumbled upon the very ↑first review of ‘I am Legend,’ published in the same month as the book itself. It contains quite some water on my mills: Most rewarding of 1954’s new novels this month is Richard Matheson’s ‘I Am Legend’ (Gold Medal, 25¢), an extraordinary book which manages … Continue reading
The project of anthropology is to understand objective empirical phenomena which are the consequences of the fusions of highly subjective experiences. For a preliminary sorting of these phenomena the congeries society and culture have been invented. It took me ten years, but now here it is (above) … the definition of anthropology ;)
The role online media played and do play in the so-called Arab Spring is not an easy one to understand. Anthropologists are at it and a student of mine currently prepares a thesis—and from what I have seen till now he already produced interesting insights. The ongoings around Amber Lyon’s segment of the CNN-documentary ‘iRevolution’ adds a new layer. You can read the whole ↑backstory of CNN suppressing its own documentary at the Guardian. via ↑entry at ↑boingboing … Continue reading