Small change, net effect

Harry Campbell

Eugene Mozorov has challenged the "internet as road to democracy" truism here , and here and there, and now  Malcolm Gladwell piles on.

White House blog: Libraries: A Place Where Stories are Told, Knowledge is Gained, and Economies are Built

Agriculture Tom Vilsack has announced American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding to assist 129 rural libraries in 30 states to create, expand, and improve the nation’s rural libraries – benefitting over 1.7 million rural residents. These investments, he writes on the White House blog,  are putting Americans back to work managing and designing the projects, constructing new facilities, and installing computer systems.

Instant filth

Following up my recent post about Google Instant's lecherous imagination, here's a list of some forbidden search terms 

Writer interviews from Paris Review

The Paris Review's enormous collection of writer interviews, alphabetically or by decade. See also BBC's collection.

All the news about new Google stuff in one place

The engine that drives web2.0

State of the Blogosphere 2010

Google 2010 election map

"Amid the many gradations of melancholy...the public library"

Profile of the Chicago public library system and Obama's newly announced Educate to Innovate campaign. The initiative includes plans to create 30 youth learning laboratories in libraries and museums nationwide. The laboratories are inspired by YOUmedia, a staple of the Harold Washington Library Center in Chicago which is the nation’s largest library.

Small is beautiful

Small is beautiful...and also hideous.  Nikon's Small World small photomicrography competition. Gerd Guenther's "Soap Film" (below) is currently in the lead....you can cast your vote here.

Google has a dirty mind

Google Instant's suggestiveness does not extend to sex. Phil Bradley discovered this when searching for (he swears) "nudge," a concept I've blogged about previously (ironically, Google Instant's auto-suggestion technology is itself an excellent example of "nudge" in action).  Evidently the filth-minded search engine was one step ahead of Phil, and was thinking "nude." Where some humans might blush, prudish Google blanches - try searching for "fuchsia", and see how Google Instant - aka. the annoying kid in the front row who always has his hand up - immediately clams up and turns white when you add "c" after "fu." Pretty funny.

Ordering pizza ACLU style

"antihuman software like Facebook"

Windmill tilting like this article by Lanier - or Socrates's alleged resistance to writing - is futile, but interesting nonetheless, and sometimes even rousing. Adam Thierer has compiled a rather thorough overview of recent technophile and -phobe writings here.

Interactive video....very clever. And futuristic, man.