Timeline of Internet Memes

We recommend a trip to Dipity's Internet Memes where you can view a list, flipbook, map, or timeline (pictured above) of the strange and amusing cultural memes which have developed on the internet.

Memes are those persistent cultural elements which are transmitted and often transformed within a population. Every time you've passed along a funny video on the internet to your friends or created a mash-up, you've become part of the process which causes memes to flourish.

Do you remember the Dancing Baby? Or JenniCAM, the first real, full-time web cam girl? The Hampsterdance? Bonsai Kitten? Or I Am Canadian? There's all on the timeline at Internet Memes, where a click on the link will take you down memory lane.

Writers' Rooms

Where Seamus Haney writes. (from The Guardian.)

Since 5 Jan. 2007 The Guardian has been running a more or less weekly series entitled Writers' Rooms. It's a small feature article which focuses on where an author does (or did) his or her writing, along with a photo of the room and comments from the author, if possible. Currently 73 the rooms of 73 authors have been featured. The first was English playwright and novelist Michael Frayn, and the most recent is Jane Austen. Between these two falls a host of the known and not so well known. Their rooms range from the fastidious to the chaotic, but all are interesting and most inviting.

Here's the link.

100 Most Common Words

So, what are the 100 most common words in the English language? Code Box software has a nifty little game that lets you see how many you can name in five minutes.

Here's the link. (No cheating, now. Don't being doing a search on Google to see a list of the most common words in English-- not that a reader of nHumanities would do something like that, but we feel obligated to help folks resist the temptation.) In case you are interested, here is the next 100 most commonly used words. Finally, here is one more level.

By the way, this list is considerably different from the 100 Most Common SAT words. Actually, it is completely different.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, none of the words on the most common list show up on Dictionary.com's 100 Most Often Misspelled Words list.

Boredom: "a legitimate human emotion that can be central to learning and creativity."

A recent New York Times article based on several studies points to some interesting conclusions about boredom:

Some experts say that people tune things out for good reasons, and that over time boredom becomes a tool for sorting information — an increasingly sensitive spam filter. In various fields including neuroscience and education, research suggests that falling into a numbed trance allows the brain to recast the outside world in ways that can be productive and creative at least as often as they are disruptive.

This news leaves us feeling ambiguous. As professors, we want our students to be productive and creative, but we find it disconcerting to be on the receiving end of NOELs (nod-off episodes per lecture) caused by boredom. In one study, investigators analyzed medical presentations on the topic of dementia "and found that a monotonous tone was most strongly associated with 'nod-off episodes per lecture (NOELs),' followed by the sight of a tweed jacket on the lecturer."

Photo of Yale law school ornamentation from http://www.henrytrotter.com

Olympic Links

Visit the Librarians' Internet Index for a useful set of links to the Beijing Olympics.

Typewriter Sculpture by Jeremy Mayer

Jeremy Mayer creates evocative sculptures of humans and animals using the parts of disassembled typewriters--all without solder, welds, or glue. You can view his folio at Jeremy Mayer.

Data Visualization: Walmarts

We're always fascinated by the visual representation of data. FlowingData is a web site that explores how statisticians, computer scientists, and designers work together to create meaning out of the sea of statistics in which we live.

Take, for example, the interactive map FlowingData created to illustrate the spread of Walmarts across the breadth of the nation, starting in 1964. The hypnotic result looks a bit like a disease map, as green blobs pop up to represent 3,176 stores in 2007.

"Who knew Sith Lords could be so darn cute?!"

Reportedly, it's impossible to walk more than a few feet at the San Diego Comic-Con without running into a fan dressed in character: superheroes, supervillains, video game characters, horror film creatures, pirates, vampires, werewolves, comic book-manga-anime characters, and lots of SF icons . . . especially from Star Wars.

We like the little pretty-in-pink-princess-turned-to-the-dark-side at left. You can see a nice selection of Star Wars-themed costumes at Star Wars Blog.

Of course, these folks are dressed up at a special occasion. For a look at people all dressed up and situated eerily within their home environments, we suggest a look at The Land of the Free gallery from Steven Schofield.

In the British Journal of Photography, Schofield explains his project:

Land of The Free explores the fascination the British public has with American popular culture and the sub-cultural world of fandom. I have shown people in their own homes and environments in costumes they wear to attend events with other like-minded individuals. I made the work in response to Bush's involvement in Iraq as I wanted to make a political reference to globalisation and America's ongoing ability to infiltrate all cultures via various channels of popular media. By working in the individuals' homes and personal spaces, I have sought to present my sitters in a their very British 'found' environments and to allow the viewer to evaluate the juxtaposition of cultures and how neither appear to sit comfortably with each other.

Updated Art

Last week's Gizmodo Photoshopping contest resulted in 85 Famous Works of Art "Improved" via Modern Technology. The challenge was to insert modern gadgets into famous works of art. You can see the wonderfully wacky results in the online exhibit.

The Antikythera Mechanism

In 1901, Greek divers found a wreck off of the island of Antikythera which was stuffed with treasures of ancient Greece. Among them, was an inconspicuous lump of corroded metal which researchers have discovered to be one of the incredible marvels of the ancient world: the Antikythera Mechanism.

Thanks to the revelations of recent three-dimensional X-ray tomography, scientists say the instrument's complex gears predicted solar eclipses, lunar eclipses, and the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner to our modern Olympic Games.

In a recent article in Nature, the authors explain many of the new discoveries about the mechanism, including its probable cultural antecedents, perhaps in the area of Syracuse. The device outstrips anything that scholars imagined since it combines cosmic predictions with human cultural activities--the cycles of the Olympiad.

To view or read more:

• Video feature on the mechanism from Nature
• The article in Nature--"Calendars with Olympiad Display and Eclipse Prediction on the Antikythera Mechanism"
• Homepage of the Antiklythera Mechanism Research Project
• New York Times article, "Discovering How Greeks Computed in 100 B.C."