Apr 15
The emoticon might be older than we thought. This passage of text, which includes a cheeky smiley, is taken from Robert Herrick’s 1648 poem To Fortune—and it might be the first ever use of an emoticon.
Mar 05
California at the End of the World
Posted in: Today's Chili
Touring around California, you could be forgiven for thinking you’re living in the future, and not just because of the Silicon Valley wizardry that surrounds us all. We also have to thank Hollywood’s movie magic, which has turned the state into a backdrop for countless science fiction films presenting futures both terrible and wondrous. It’s not just that so many are filmed here—writers and filmmakers have been exploring the future through California sets for decades.
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Jan 28
Jan 09
American futurism gets pretty dark during bad economic times. Many people start to see technology as the enemy, like they did in the 1930s and 1970s
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Dec 17
At the end of each year, EFF puts together a list of some of the interesting and noteworthy books that have been published in the past 12 months or so. We don’t endorse all of their arguments, but we find they’ve added some valuable insight to the conversation around the areas and issues on which we work.
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Dec 16
Gizmodo’s Best Books of 2013
Posted in: Today's Chili
2013 was another good year for books, those dry old lumps of paper and ink, so we’ve rounded up the year’s best in tech, science, design, architecture, urbanism, food, and more. We’ve also tapped our friends at Paleofuture and Edible Geography for their own lists, which appear below—and we hope to hear from all of you, as well.
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Nov 28
Later today, you’ll be full of turkey and bored with talking to your family. Fact. So why not settle down with a nice story? In fact, how about these three unpublished works by JD Salinger, that have just been leaked online?
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Oct 09
The Bible might not be quite the good book it claims to be. According to an Ars Technica report on the future of password cracking, the holy book is being employed to help crack passwords to great effect.
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Jul 30
Classic novels tend to have equally classic cover art. For example, when you think of The Great Gatsby, your mind likely goes to a pair of half-closed eyes floating over a glittering, cobalt city. But what if designers were given a chance to rethink these covers entirely? That’s the concept behind Recovering The Classics, a site that’s crowdsourcing new art for 50 iconic books.
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Apr 19
Most of us increasingly read digitally—and the book store industry is in decline as a result. But can you imagine a future where book stores had died out completely? More »
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