Links
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Cosmos (2014)
I can’t even begin to explain to you how excited I am about this. The original book/series did more to inspire and enlighten me than all of the schooling and indoctrination I’ve ever had.
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Archive, Bullets, and Cyberpunk
This is what happens when you put a bottle of awesomesauce in a microwave oven for too long. I knew nothing about this game when I saw this trailer, but now I have this intense urge to play it. I think a lot of it has to do with the music. And here’s the official…
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Gun Control Whoop-de-doo
In all seriousness, this is what it feels like to talk about gun control with my fellow Americans.
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“Kinetic Rain” Sculpture in Singapore Airport
In the course of refurbishment works ART+COM was commissioned to create a signature art installation for the Departure-Check-in hall of Terminal 1 at Singapore Airport. “Kinetic Rain” is composed of two parts, each consisting of 608 rain droplets made of lightweight aluminum covered with copper. Suspended from thin steel ropes above the two opposing escalators,…
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“Samsara” Teaser Trailer
My favorite film of all time (Baraka) just got a sequel. I wish every human being on the planet could see this just once.
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Cookie Monster Explains Occupy Wall Street
If you’re one of those people that still don’t get what the OWS movement is about, then this short little article is for you.
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Gonzo Journalism
In the off-chance that you don’t know what this picture is about, read this, this, and this.
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An Open Letter to My Republican Friends
It is time you publicly denounced the anger and racism that’s being intentionally stoked in hopes of defeating health care reform and building GOP turnout for the 2010 elections. I know from speaking privately with GOP consultants, lobbyists and politicians that many are alarmed and even ashamed about Joe Wilson, about the death threats, about…
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8 Common Myths about Health Insurance Reform
1. Reform will stop “rationing” – not increase it: It’s a myth that reform will mean a “government takeover” of health care or lead to “rationing.” To the contrary, reform will forbid many forms of rationing that are currently being used by insurance companies. 2. We can’t afford reform: It’s the status quo we can’t…
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Easily the Coolest Optical Illusion I’ve Seen in Years
This is a really cool optical illusion. This picture only has three colors, and two of them are magenta and orange. The other two colors are actually the same shade of light green. It may be hard to believe, but the blue and green you’re seeing are the same color. The second graphic shows what…
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Clive Thompson on Why Sci-Fi Is the Last Bastion of Philosophical Writing
Recently I read a novella that posed a really deep question: What would happen if physical property could be duplicated like an MP3 file? What if a poor society could prosper simply by making pirated copies of cars, clothes, or drugs that cure fatal illnesses? The answer Cory Doctorow offers in his novella After the…
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Fantastic Neighborhood Light Show
My cousin just sent this to me, and MAN is it cool! What’s even cooler is that his house is the one on the right. :o)
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Dirty Cop Caught on Video Breaking Glass
In case you wondered if cops were all good people by nature, I’ve got some news for you: they’re just people like the rest of us. Watch this video of a DPS trooper in Lubbock. Free rent for screwing with college students…sounds like some cop’s idea of a wet dream!
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Meddling Honor
For this assignment, we were supposed to have a three-person dialogue about video games without using quotes or identifying markers. I kind of cheated here by adding color, but I’m sure no one will really care either way.
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I Know, I Know
The purpose of this assignment was to help us construct the smallest story without having to write an introduction, and to concentrate on developing the story and characters in what was implied rather than said. In case you’re wondering, they are not on ecstasy.
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Mr. Reman
The assignment was to write about a serial killer doing something mundane, like shopping. I’m sorry but I just can’t help but think in the future. The main character in this story was originally named Mr. Rivus, but I had to use that name somewhere more important.
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A Little Role Play
This assignment was to write a dialogue between two people without using identifying markers like, “he said,” and “said Kari.” I don’t remember what the content requirements were, but I would guess there weren’t any. My professors are good about that.
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Probably Not the Greatest Story Ever Told
The assignment here was to “write the worst, horriblest story” I could. I’m sure it could’ve been worse, but I wanted to be somewhat readable. Though I’m sure I missed a few, I tried to break every rule I could think of, including (but not limited to) grammar, spelling, coherency, decency, and blasphemy. How many…
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Shifting Sands
This is a short story about two men in the middle of the Iraq war from each person’s perspective. One is American and the other is Iraqi. I messed up this assignment because it was supposed to have three perspectives, which threw my creative writing class off. They were confused as to who was speaking.…
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Dude…Chicks
The assignment was to write from the perspective of someone who is wearing two different shoes and suddenly realizes it. They were supposed to think that everyone noticed and (I guess) freak out about it. My only fear with this story (besides how insufferably lame it is) is that someone might completely miss the irony.…
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When Good Characters Go Bad
I originally started writing a story where the author torments the main character by putting him in various weird situations. I set it aside for a long time until I was told to write a metafiction story. I pulled out the sections that did not fit my new story and wrote the rest months later.…
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The Drug Dealer
This was an assignment where I was supposed to read T. Coraghessan Boyle’s “The Hit Man” and rewrite it using any other profession. It is intended to be a humorous piece about the life of a drug dealer. Special thanks to Boyle for not suing me (yet) for “borrowing” the idea. Try not to take…
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Absence
This short story focuses on the experiences of one man that finds himself unwilling to deal with the rest of humanity and his decision to leave society. After a time, strange things begin to happen in the skies above him, and he eventually finds himself wanting to reconnect with the people he had once abandoned.…
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Abortion
Everyone who ever debates abortion should read this first. I first read the following article in Billions and Billions by Carl Sagan. It was co-written by Carl and his wife Ann Druyan in the mid-90’s, but the arguments they detail here are still highly relevant. It is far more honest and comprehensive than anything I’ve…
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50 Fun Things to Do in an Elevator
Make race car noises when anyone gets on or off. Blow your nose and offer to show the contents of your kleenex to other passengers. Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering. “Shut up, dammit, all of you just shut up!” Whistle the first seven notes of “It’s a Small World” incessantly. Sell Girl…
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Going to fail an exam? Try these!
Get a copy of the exam, run out screaming, “Andre, Andre, I’ve got the secret documents!” Talk the entire way through the exam. Read questions aloud, debate your answers with yourself out loud. If asked to stop, yell out, “I’m SOOO sure that you can hear me thinking.” Then start talking about what a jerk…