Infocult: Uncanny Informatics

"A Little Christmas Dream"

One Gothic image for this holiday season comes from George du Maurier, a cartoon for Punch called "A Little Christmas Dream" (1868):

Gothicists will recognize du Maurier perhaps from his novel Trilby (1894).

(via John Couthcart)

Eyes as mouths, or the return of the Corinthians

This Photoshopping contest is based on a Gothic design strategy: replace a person's eyes with their mouth.

Parker Posey might be the scariest one.

(via MetaFilter)

Creepypasta, short Gothic fiction

"Creepypasta" is a form of short Gothic fiction, cast as urban legend or documentary snippets.  Examples can be found from the Encyclopedia Dramatica and the King of Wolves collection.

Images are also part of the creepypasta idea, usually cryptic, mysterious ones.  There's some work in sound, too.

(via MetaFilter)

Two American presidential candidates considering going after computer gaming

Two American presidential candidates are about to start arguing for computer game content regulation, according to rumors.  Both Hilary Clinton and Mitt Romney campaigns are considering such a move, according to Hotair and Gamepolitics.

The ground for such a move has been laid over the past few years, with several public entities criticizing game content, and media hype moments keeping the issue alive.  Clinton started campaigning on this score back in 2006.  Moreover, the general theme of fearsome digital technology has been sounded quite steadily for the past decade and a half, as we've documented.  A campaign against computer games can draw powerfully on that general concern.

The Clinton campaign has a detailed list of complaints to sound.   These hit a series of registers (science, parenting, sex, physical health, mental health, money, tv), allowing the campaign to float them all, then see which work the most effectively:

Research has shown that violent and sexually explicit media contribute to aggressive behavior, early sexual experimentation, obesity, and depression.

Whenever I meet young parents… they tell me that they are worried about losing control over the raising of their own children and about ceding the responsibility of implicating values and behaviors to a multi-dimensional media marketplace over which they have no control…

Studies have found that exposure to TV violence can increase the risk of aggressive behavior in children and may be related to attention problems later in life. And some experts say that time spent watching too much TV or surfing the Internet or playing video games may detract from the time children spend interacting with their parents, participating in physical activity, or using their imaginations. ”
(via Gamepolitics)

The Romney campaign focuses more simply, on the sex angle and parents:

I want to restore values so children are protected from a societal cesspool of filth, pornography, violence, sex, and perversion. I’ve proposed that we enforce our obscenity laws again and that we get serious against those retailers that sell adult video games that are filled with violence and that we go after those retailers.

It's possible that neither campaign will be launched, or that one or both will fail to catch the public imagination.  But it looks like a winning strategy for either - they can energize several voting blocs (parents, values voters), and lose very little, since neither civil liberties nor gaming usually mobilizes voters.

(via Slashdot and LGF)

Superb Gothic painter: Zdzislaw Beksinski

Coilhouse introduces us to Zdzislaw Beksinski (1929-2005), a painter who developed gorgeous Gothic visions late in his career.

I'll resist the temptation to paste in every Beksinski image I can find.  Just go to the Coilhouse page, or this gallery, or this site, or this one, or grab this book, and stare hungrily.

Beksinski suffered a sadly Gothic death, murdered in his apartment.

Blogs versus New York Times, 2002-2007: neither wins

In 2002 a bet was placed: five years hence, in 2007, the top Google search results on selected topics will either be blog posts or New York Times articles.  This week one blogger determined a winner. Roger Caidenhead calculated that blogs nudged out the NYT in the majority of 5 cases, 3-2.  Victory, blogosphere!

However.
1. Neither Gray Lady nor Blogistani Republics lead the results.  The Wikipedia, which emerged over the long bet's lifetime, came in far ahead of both.  Heh:

our most trusted source on the biggest news stories of 2007 is a horde of nameless, faceless amateurs who are not required to prove expertise in the subjects they cover.

As another blogger writes: "Watch out for secondary characters with more interesting stories than your protagonist."

2. Mainstream media articles from sources other than the NYT led blog posts.

3. The blogosphere has emerged more as a source of commentary and linking, than as reportage.  Dave Winer sees this.

4. Those leading blogs aren't individual amateurs, but corporate-owned groups, often enough.

5. The New York Times' opening of archives should boost their results, as Jason Kottke and others note.

Devil in your laptop: LaRouche on the fearsome internet

Today's fearsome internet story come from the LaRouche movement, an American fringe political group.  This page starts off with a promising (maybe) title starter:

The Noosphere vs. Blogosphere:

then slides off with the rest of the title:

Is The Devil in Your Laptop?

then cuts loose from there.  I can't do the whole anthology justice by summary, so will just except the table of contents for now.

II. Case Studies: The Disease Spreads

MySpace: Murdoch's Nuremberg Rally

Facebook: A Tombstone With a Photo Attached

What IS Wikipedia?

Terrorism Comes to the West: The New Cult of the Teenage Suicide Bomber
 
Epilogue: Where Your Computers Really Came From

(thanks to Cayden Mak)

NIN ARG, Wired explaining Year Zero

Wired covers the history of Nine Inch Nails' alternate reality game (ARG), Year Zero, which launched early in 2007.  It's a useful case study, starting from intentions and brainstorming through the course of the game.

And there are a couple of nice little puzzles in the text, which, appropriately, lead to more content.

Alvin Toffler reboots K-12

Here's an energetic strategy for American K-12, from one of the world's most famous futurists:

[Interviewer] What's the most pressing need in public education right now?

[Alvin Toffler]: Shut down the public education system.

First answer!  We should all be so bold when interviewed.
The subsequent discussion explains:

[Interviewer] That's pretty radical.

[Alvin Toffler] I'm roughly quoting [Microsoft chairman] Bill Gates, who said, "We don't need to reform the system; we need to replace the system."

[I] Why not just readjust what we have in place now? Do we really need to start from the ground up?

[AT]We should be thinking from the ground up. That's different from changing everything. However, we first have to understand how we got the education system that we now have. Teachers are wonderful, and there are hundreds of thousands of them who are creative and terrific, but they are operating in a system that is completely out of time. It is a system designed to produce industrial workers...

The public school system is designed to produce a workforce for an economy that will not be there. And therefore, with all the best intentions in the world, we're stealing the kids' future...

A couple of notes, once readers get over the shock value.  First, Toffler isn't arguing from a technological-determinism stance.  He's speaking of social changes which include technology. This is an important distinction to make in American education, since we still grapple with the techno-determinist charge.

Second, Toffler takes pains to laud workers in the system.  He's not teacher-bashing.

Third, he pushes for customization.  But it seems to be publisher-driven, supply-side.  There isn't much of a sense of network learning in the interview.

I don't like his sports approach myself, but do admit that that would work for a sizable chunk of kids.  Nor am I convinced that charter schools are hotbeds of innovation, but would be willing to hear from those who've been following that movement more closely than I.
 

Web 2.0 and .edu: two divergent views

It's a nice example of how the Web 2.0 and education world is still controversial, or how diverse responses are.  The Chronicle of Higher Education reflects on the Horizon Report*, and reflects darkly:

Colleges Are Reluctant to Adopt New Publication Venues

The article begins:

Academe has been slow to accept new forms of scholarship like blogs, wikis, and video clips, according to a report released last week that examines emerging technology trends in higher education.

Ars Technica picks up on story, and headlines its reflection:

Report: Ivory tower to meet Web 2.0

The article then summarizes the 2007 Horizon Report, working through implications, and considering what education could look like.  Same report, two very different responses.

The Chronicle commits two errors.  The report is actually about the next few years, and not about the current state of affairs.  That's clear throughout the document, from its stated methodology to the timeline explicitly framing the prognostications.  Notice the tense differences between the two commentaries, with the Chronicle referring to the present and recent past, with Ars using the future.

The second error is bibliographic.  "[A] report released last week"?  That's last January, folks, nearly a full year ago.  In a few weeks the next one's coming out, as the Horizon site plainly states.  Alan Levine gently points this out in his comment, so far unreplied-to.   

**full disclosure: I'm on the HR's board.