an exercise in percussive maintenance
Yesterday I went shopping for new jeans. Normally, it’s a simple affair. I prefer regular blue-jeans, not that pre-faded, pre-wrinkled, fancy stitched nonsense. Once in a while I’ll change things up and buy a dark blue/navy pair for when I feel like dressing up. I’ve always bought the same brand from the same store, an exercise that usually takes ten minutes, including time spent in the checkout queue.
Not so this time.
In 2008 Nicholas Carr wrote an article in The Atlantic, titled Is Google Making Us Stupid. Very shortly, he argued that the way we engage with content online is ultimately having a detrimental effect on our ability to engage with longer, printed texts. Because we can open an article and search instantly for the exact piece of the text we need, we are slowly losing the ability to search for relevant information in textbooks and printed articles. (Hey! Perhaps that’s why my studies are such an uphill battle for me. It’s all Google’s fault.)
Carr’s article sparked numerous responses and studies into this topic, and we’ve yet to see whether he was right or not, but I believe that there’s another part of the internet that’s making us dumber. Or rather, lazier (though some might argue that’s the same thing).
I’m speaking of social media, and in particular, the sharing culture.
Happy Star Wars Day, all you Jedi Masters and Sith Lords out there.
I must confess, much like last year the day sneaked up on me again. But that doesn’t mean I’m leaving you empty-handed. Thanks to the wonder that is the interwebs, I give you Origami Yoda, the newest member of my writing cheerleading squad with his well-known maxim:
If you want to take a shot at folding one yourself, here’s a video, but be warned, it will confound you and try you and leave you bleeding from a thousand-and-one paper cuts.
In honour of Star Trek and Star Wars fans bashing on each other (personally I stay out of that fight – like Harry Dresden’s apprentice, Molly, I believe it’s okay to like both), here’s a video on how Star Trek (the reboot) should have ended. The really good bit is at two minutes, thirty seconds.
Enjoy your Star Wars Day, whichever side of the force you serve.
And live long and prosper 😛
Today Terry Pratchett would have been sixty-seven years old.
GNU Terry Pratchett
Today is South Africa’s birthday, and at 21 years old this country is about as well-behaved as your average legally-an-adult-but-mentally-still-a-teenager who is still coming to terms with the new-found freedom that comes from escaping the restrictions of the parental home and the ability to legally purchase alcohol (which happens at eighteen over here, but by twenty-one most have not yet adapted).
if all else fails...use a hammer 