technology
Narrative of a Moneyless elf
Recounting the challenges and benefits of life in the commons, without currency or government documents.
Networking Ourselves to Death
While I was walking around sampling free food and beer during 2012 SXSW Interactive Festival, a quiet man handed me a card inviting me to access paid Wi-Fi via a Homeless Hotspot. After I said a quick “thank you,” I filed this card in my tote bag along with the reams of postcards, press releases…
Fan Art!
Blogging can be a lonely job. Sometimes I feel my words blowing through cyberspace like little pixellated tumbleweeds. Or I’ll be tweeting away, thinking “Why am I writing this stuff? No one cares!” But sometimes I hear from people. Sometimes I actually get fan art! Recently I was tweeting about the Guitar Mass and realized…
The Latin Mass of My Dreams
St. John the Baptist Catholic Church “rejects both the liturgical and doctrinal changes of Vatican II in their entirety and without exception.” Indeed, there are other churches in the Louisville area that offer the Tridentine Mass, but “what differentiates St. John the Baptist Church from these other communities is its total fidelity to the Catholic…
Blackjack Ain’t Blasphemy
Last Spring, Union Theological Seminary approached me to create a games-based chapel service. I was incredibly flattered, and, honestly, terrified. My work—mixing religious ritual and modern game design—has not tended to make me popular either with other designers or the clergy. But Union is a pretty extraordinary place, and I got free rein to create…
Norway Worships Warship, Not Its Namesake
Attention, everyone: the Norwegian navy just got a new warship. It is 440 feet long, featuring anti-surface naval strike missiles, Sea Sparrow missile air-defense missiles, and an anti-aircraft gun and torpedo system. I’m not usually a follower of Scandinavian military technology. But this ship has an unusual name: HMNS Thor Heyerdahl. Maybe you recognize it.…
A Hanukkah Miracle
Nes Katan Hayah Po. A small miracle happened here. Here, of all places, on the Metro Transit Authority’s turf. That’s what I thought, at least, when I stepped off the Q train and onto the platform of the 30th Avenue stop. I had to laugh. I should explain why. The ancient history: The Judeans found…
What’s the Web without God?
We all wish we could block out some things we see on the internet. No matter how carefully you try to tailor a search query, you’ll often find yourself with stinging eyes at the various dreadful things that populate the electronic collective consciousness. And often those examples of violence, sexual degradation, bigotry, and racism come…
KtB Fall Fashion Tip #62: Eyewear for Luminaries
Nathan’s not the only KtB editor having trouble in the dating department. And if you think the OKCupid pickins are slim in NYC, imagine trying to find a suitable mate in a Northwoods town with a population of 200. There’s not a single OKCupid member, male or female, gay, straight, or otherwise, within a 25…
Exhaustive Exhaustion
Jorge Luis Borges wrote of a “certain Chinese encyclopaedia” in which taxonomy had run amok. “The animals,” we are told, “are divided into: (a) belonging to the emperor, (b) embalmed, (c) tame, (d) sucking pigs, (e) sirens, (f) fabulous, (g) stray dogs, (h) included in the present classification, (i) frenzied, (j) innumerable, (k) drawn with…
Attack of the God Blogs
Lately I’ve been waking up with these terrible cold sweats. Reptilian reflexes bounce me out of bed and to my laptop across the room, where my fingers pull up a familiar spreadsheet. I’ve forgotten a blog! How could I leave that one out? Now I’ve got to spend half the morning revising the whole thing…
New Yorker Sez to Buddha-kill on Thursday
When The New Yorker says jump, New Yorkers say, “Where, and from what time should I be an hour late, and are there free drinks?” It’s a good thing, too, because this week they’ve made mention of our team-up event on Thursday with Lapham’s Quarterly. They’ve got the facts pretty much right: The Web site…
Sex and Being Seen
Robert Wright (whom I recently interviewed in these pages) has an online essay at The New York Times today about what the world’s newfound Internetedness means for sexual infidelity. Some of the great sex scandals of the past year, including those of Tiger Woods and Mark Sanford, have been fueled by the discovery of emailed…