mostly research stuff
back in 1995, a capricious and religious man with an uncanny intellect named dean vandruff wrote a legendary article online…it drew the attention of the world - and created a brief internet phenomenon around the subject of conversational terrorism…originally entitled “conversational terrorism,” dean decided to change the name following the tragic events of 9/11 to the more friendly, “conversational cheap shots” (though he is now considering a return to the original title)…like the oracle (note to self: oh no..don’t get me started on the oracle again!), this article drew a cult following, hit ‘yahoo cool site’ status, drew the attention of academics, and eventually even wound up on the original home page of mensa (you know, those people who test unusually well)…
when i re-read this piece in 2004, it struck me that it is really quite remarkable…and so i set out to connect with dean, and have since requested and received his gracious permission to reprint the article here in its entirety…thank you so much dean, i sincerely hope that putting it all up here will drive this subject right up the breakdown lane of the internet content freeway and into the most plum parking spot in the minds of a new torrid readership! …and a note to readers: it is brilliant, and it is long, so please do try to read it all at once because it deserves to be read in this way…if you’d like, simply click the ‘print this’ button and take it with you to lunch…oh, also, you should never, ever drive in the breakdown lane…AND, if you’re interested, there is a discussion going on in the forums right now about ‘interviewing versus elicitation’ which touches upon this very subject…
Conversational Cheap Shots
All of the techniques listed in this document have actually been witnessed, told to us by someone else, or dreamed up. They are described in first person for clarity of motive. The intent of detailing and naming these insidious tactics is so that the reader may AVOID USING THEM, to quickly recognize if someone else is using them, and for fun. There is much humor in the way people (consciously or unconsciously) conversationally cheat.
It is hoped that exposing these tactics will help muzzle the growing abuse in our conversational landscape. Give copies to both perpetrators and victims (only NOT for profit use). The examples are overblown in an attempt to be both clear and funny. Use your imagination to think of how you (perish the thought) and others have used these techniques in the past. They have been grouped by major category, with the best (worst!) saved for last. Read the rest of this entry »
“A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.”
-Groucho Marx
A while back, I wrote this article about a web based bookmarking utility called Furl (originally published for SCIP ). As the weeks passed, curious emails started flowing in from readers regarding a site with a shockingly similar name and seemingly like features called Spurl. Given my unabashed dedication to equal-cynicism-for-all, it seemed to make a lot of sense to approach the founder of Spurl to discuss what the site is all about, and perhaps razz him…but he turned out to be a genuinely nice, well-intentioned guy. Upon much closer inspection, it is fair to say that these two sites started from two different ends of the see-saw…and so I present this detailed (and kinda lengthy) interview with Spurl.net founder Hjalmar Gislason as a view from the comparative fulcrum.
To preface this: if one says that Furl is about building highly personalized resource collections to potentially share with others, one might say just as simply that Spurl (www.spurl.net) is about building highly collaborative resource collections with others to perhaps personally keep. Like Picasso, Chaplin and Hitchcock (oh, and Cartman), Furl and Spurl are maddeningly simple for viewers to comprehend…but this simplicity belies a much more sophisticated goal for the audience. Each offers a unique feature set, certain distinct advantages, and quite different long terms plans as ‘going concerns.’
For readers who have absolutely no idea what Spurl.net is all about, could you offer an explanation that might make sense to my parents? Read the rest of this entry »
for those of you focused on food science and technology research (all 2 of you ;), here’s a breakthrough that you’re gonna wanna file away in your mental shoebox: army rations rehydrated by urine… this was just covered in summary by new scientist. yeah, i thought that i was gonna hurl when i read this news…but then again, such technology could have perhaps saved the life of beloved mama cass elliot from that ham sandwich back in ‘74…
executive summary: us military food scientists have developed a dried food ration that can be rehydrated with swamp water or urine (from “the Combat Feeding Directorate, part of the US Army Soldier Systems Center in Natick, Massachusetts.” …the same group that brought us the “indestructible sandwich” that stays supah-fresh for 3 years)…”One day’s food supply of three meals weighs 3.5 kilograms..can be reduced to about 0.4 kilograms,” says spokeswoman Diane Wood…
but gosh, how does it work you ask? an athirst soldier pees into a Read the rest of this entry »
if you’re like me, meaning that you print, proof and red-pen your serious writing with a freakish fixation on tightening it all up by sporting some kinda mental corset (though i personally could use a gusset), then you no doubt: A) already get the dictionary.com word of the day, B) read ‘news of the word‘ at least once every 2 days, C) probably spend a lotta time at paul mcfedries website, D) pick up the ny times every sunday and skip immediately to william safire’s column in the magazine, E) also get word of the day from the oxford english dictionary and F) still sit there sometimes wondering if you could actually get killed falling into a gorge...or is it a ravine?..or a canyon?
sweat no more, babycakes… say “buh-bye” to those confusing words with confusingwords.com from david clark and richard wanderman (and anne!), who built this thing from nothing, like macgyver! …from the site: “Confusing Words is a collection of 3210 words that are troublesome to readers and writers. Words are grouped according to the way they are most often confused or misused. Some of these words are homonyms (words that sound alike but are spelled differently) and some are just commonly confused.” …and a link for those who don’t care about malapropisms (lest we should all talk ragtime)
in an interesting study of lying behavior conducted by (probably underpaid) cornell university researchers, volunteers tracked all instant messages, telephone calls, emails and face-to-face contact over a period of circa one month within a group of student volunteers, average age of 21, 28 total participants (hey, these students received credit for this - those are big private college dollars at work!…oh, and remember stats? N should really have been greater than 30)..for those of you with the attention span of a shrimp, you can read a little-bitty summary article at new scientist (but you should really read the full summary up above, ’cause it’s good)
to preface this, you must understand that there are degrees of lying involved in a study like this - from little white lies like, “the customer is always right!” - to creative-memory-driven lies like, “i have never had sexual relations with ms. lewinski” - to big whoppers like, “google cares most about your privacy” …summary data points: these researchers relied upon self-reporting by students, and discovered these astounding data points (they will surprise you!): Read the rest of this entry »
this blog is mostly safe for work, though i sometimes throw around a 'fuck' or two. you'll find a bunch of my articles from CI Magazine, SCIP online, other research pieces and some other crap. enjoy. there's lost of content here related to getting information about, around, from and through people and organizations...