The jokers in my library’s fabrication lab made me a little something out of wood
The jokers in my library’s fabrication lab made me a little something out of wood
David Rosenthal’s summary of where Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies (and blockchain technology in general) have ended up is rather brutal: “1) a trustless system that trusts a lot of people you have every reason not to trust…” #cni18f
“Bitcoin’s Academic Pedigree: The concept of cryptocurrencies is built from forgotten ideas in research literature.” Didn’t know about much of this 40-year history, including many blockchain precursors and many old critiques (via David Rosenthal at #cni18f)
Alan Jacobs has launched a newsletter, to which I insta-subscribed. I also recommend his latest book, The Year of Our Lord 1943, as a source of thought about societies in need of rebuilding. (If you’re reading this on Twitter and looking for @ayjay, he’s now on @microdotblog.)
Hidden in Cliff Lynch’s opening keynote at #cni18f was the premise of a science fiction book or movie: archives that preserve software for decades will have to air gap that software—it will never be patched and will have massive vulnerabilities if ever exposed to the internet.
You look nice this evening, Boston
“By centralizing your writing, photos, and other web pages at your own domain name, you can control your content but still share it out to other social networks.” @manton on using @microdotblog as your “social media home base” (exactly what I’m doing)
Finals are here, so bubble wrap has returned to our library. (Stress reduction dogs are coming next week.)
You can read my piece and nine other perspectives on this great milestone on the Europeana 10th Anniversary website—go @Europeanaeu! #Europeana10
“The Past, Evenly Distributed: Europeana at 10” — It was an honor to be asked by @Europeanaeu to write a piece on the 10th anniversary of their launch, and to celebrate what they have accomplished and what’s to come. #Europeana10
Idea: pumpkin spice latke
“Why an Age of Machine Learning Needs the Humanities,” by @Ted_Underwood
Meet the Axolotl, or Mexican walking fish. If hurt, it automatically regrows the wounded area, and can even make a new leg or eye. Now meet three young scientists who study the Axolotl on this week’s What’s New podcast: The Regeneration of Body Parts
Thirty years ago I took a course with Elaine Pagels, “Spiritual Autobiography.” Tragically, her husband had just died in a mountaineering accident. Now she has published her own spiritual autobiography, which covers this dark period.
On the latest episode of the What’s New podcast, I talk to three young researchers who are pioneering the regeneration of body parts by the studying a strange and magical salamander. Tune in!
A conference on imaginary maps from Thomas More’s Utopia to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth
We’ve got another opening at the Northeastern University Library: Digital Metadata and Ingest Supervisor — join us!
“At best the Internet Archive has collected 0.39% of the web.” @edsu reminds us, with @bergisjules, that we can’t collect and preserve the complete record of any media, nor should we. “The Ferguson Principles”
My niece Noa Chazan has launched a very cool and fun card game on Kickstarter that has echoes of generative fiction and Twitter bots — Situations: The Story Writing Card Game
My in-laws have had a productive year writing books
We are having turkey tomorrow, but we are also having a large brisket, and I swear by the sous vide method: water bath at 176 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours. Best meat you’ll ever eat.
Next step in going indie with my social media: Goodbye, Instagram, hello indie photo sharing. (With big thanks and help from the great @microdotblog community, and especially @manton and @cleverdevil)
We have two openings @ClubSnell @Northeastern right now, with more to come soon:
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Speaking of books, for some reason I felt that I should read Yuval Noah Harari’s new book (somewhat diagnostically, to see what happens when a historian tries to become a futurist). I have no comment.
Looking forward to reading Jason Farman’s new book Delayed Response: The Art of Waiting from the Ancient to the Instant World.