Wired

Thing: Futurese: The American Language in 3000 AD by Justin B. Rye. TIME MACHINE PREP: unless you can tell what the word ZHÜBwatögh refers to, you’re going to need to click and read, overwhelmedly. Also, a tremendous quote:

When looking at a biological family tree (such as the evolutionary history of the horse), the general public insists on seeing any movement as intrinsically progressive, moving from primitive to advanced designs. Yet somehow when looking at the linguistic equivalent (such as the development of the Romance languages from Vulgar Latin) they see exactly the reverse - any change is proof that the language is in decline. In reality they’re just as wrong both times!

Thing: The Itch of Curiosity from Wired.

Thing: Creating Cultural Change by John Rauser. The keys to cultural change — whether that means getting people to brew another pot of coffee, dance en masse on the side of a hill, or buy more of a particular brand of cereal — include letting them in on the big joke:

It’s Not Really a Bonus If There’s Always a Bonus

A montage of the greatest Iron Chef America mystery ingredient reveals. Stick around for honeycombs wielded as weapons, the overwhelming glory of the farmer’s market, and Bruce Lee swish noises used to punctuate eyebrow gestures. I don’t understand any of this:

[via Ryan See]

THING: Sergey Brin’s Search for a Parkinson’s Cure from Wired. Google co-founder Sergey Brin, who’s made a life of using the power of algorithms to “organize all the world’s information,” is using that same kind of power in an attempt to cure Parkinson’s Disease. Since discovering he carries a gene mutation that puts him at risk of contracting the disease, Brin has sought “to bypass centuries of scientific epistemology in favor of a more Googley kind of science. He wants to collect data first, then hypothesize, and then find the patterns that lead to answers. And he has the money and the algorithms to do it.”

THING: Travel itineraries from Flickr photo trails from Geeking With Greg. Greg Linden links to a paper by American and Israeli researchers on “cleverly [using] the data often embedded in Flickr photos (e.g. timestamp, tags, sometimes GPS) to produce trails of where people have been in their travels.” It makes sense that the most interesting points along a path would also be the most photographed, so this could be a great way to note can’t-miss spots, common travel routes, and typical trip durations. An inspiring quote from the paper:

By aggregating such timed paths of many users, one can construct itineraries that reflect the “wisdom” of touring crowds. Each such itinerary is composed of a sequence of POIs, with recommended visit times and approximate transit times between them.

THING: How Rap Tears Up the Boring Art Vs. Commerce Argument from The Awl. Selling out has a different connotation in hip-hop than it does in other spheres. Though punk and hip-hop grew up at the same time and place and in the same socioeconomic conditions, the two have had very different ideas on mass appeal. (Yes, this is lumping thousands of musicians and millions of fans into two groups. I’m sorry.)

We can all agree the Black Eyed Peas sold out — they completely changed everything about their sound and image, conscious of their brand and marketability the whole time, and wedding receptions will never be the same. I’m sure they weep into their pallets of Franklins every night, thinking about all the underground respect they lost in the process. But many rappers have been able to market themselves without significantly changing their sound. None of this is new information, but the Awl article certainly presents a worth-reading take on the issue.

A Video of Americans Pretending to Care About the World Cup

Even though the U.S. lost its knockout round match against its nemesis Ghana, this World Cup still produced one of the best moments in American soccer history, and certainly the most widely experienced — Landon Donovan’s last-minute, life-or-death goal against Algeria did the kind of Twitter damage unseen since Michael Jackson’s death. An amazing montage of Americans from Arkansas to France celebrating the score:

In our weekly link rundowns, I usually try to present three great links you may have missed.

But this week was strong internet.

Five.

• For your next love letter or grocery list or PUT DOWN MY SANDWICH note, wouldn’t you like to use the actual letterhead of Elvis Presley, Albert Einstein, Winston Churchill, Johnny Cash, or whatever Robot Salesmen Ltd is? Thing: Letterheads of famous people
• Most articles about How Google Works are actually about How Much The Author Likes Google. Leave it to Wired to dig into how Google’s system of algorithms, basically a machine made of robots made of math, learned that when a human types hot dog, the goal is almost certainly to see something like this, not something like this. Thing: Exclusive: How Google’s Algorithm Rules the Web
• You’ve already made your mind up on how you feel about this link from Reason. Thing: Everyone Who Knows What They’re Talking About Agrees with Me
• The way people freaked out about Napster, claiming it would end the music industry, is similar to the way people freaked out about VCRs killing the movie industry. Similarly, the way people freak out about sharing personal location information on Foursquare/Twitter is similar to the way people used to freak out about answering machines and listing wedding notices in the local newspaper. Thing: Regarding Foursquare and PleaseRobMe (SIDE NOTE that proves how NEVER SCARED we are: In all the PleaseRobMe hysteria, I up and joined Foursquare myself, and so did Ben. You ain’t a crook, son.)
• Recently the Guardian ran a series of writing advice lists by successful writers. NY Mag distills them all into a single top ten. Thing: The Best Writing Advice of the Best Writing Advice

Also, regarding this post’s stupid, stupid title: here’s proof Johnny Cash would’ve loved Foursquare…

• Phenomenal (and brief) must-read: Clive Thompson on the New Literacy. You know how certain elderly saints o’ the Lord hang on to the notion that all these fly-by-night SMS-chatblogging and social-textbooking fads are bad for the children’s writing skills? That these flash-in-the-pan wikitubers are robbing themselves of literacy with every single e-minute spent deleting spreadsheets willy-nilly on the Wii-game and the digi-puter? Because back in my day we learned how to write Honus Wagner’s name in cursive by torchlight, back when a person applied for a job at the Pony Express without needing an app forum 2.0 motherboard widget WIDGET, and now they’ve got these portable gang phones with the RAM modules and the CNN quiz shows by satellite!?

I’ve been saying it myself for years, but you’ll likely find a new Stanford study a little more convincing: turns out writing — even if it means Flickr-hacking out some status-cyberspams on the whoozy-Twitterzit while uploading entire iTunes to your buddy lists — is good for your writing. Embrace it: the internet is good for you, but even better for your kids.

• Kurt Vonnegut explains drama. I don’t need to say anything more here.
• Seth Godin on what you compare yourself to to what you compare yourself. The best restaurant in the Atlanta airport doesn’t strive to be a great airport restaurant; it strives to be a great restaurant. Otherwise, he hates Atlanta’s airport restaurant scene. “We don’t compare ourselves to other airport restaurants”

BONUS: The Godfather 3 Syndrome, finest of the many things written about Jay-Z and Raekwon this week.

• Repentant KKK leader reflects on the moment when hate succumbed to grace.

  (Grace as in “mercy,” but also grace as in “charm,” right?)

• Thoroughly enjoyed Wired’s series on the ultimate mystery that is the existence, let alone dominance, of Craigslist. More here, here, and here, every bit of it worth marveling at in hushed wonder.
• Young fellow plays an obscure instrument known in southern Philadelpha as a “pens & desk.” While rapping!
  

This reminds me of my semester as a middle school student teacher. There was one kid who didn’t like class stuff, but loved writing raps. Obviously, I encouraged him to write rhymes then.

We had a free period one day, and he was spitting while another kid banged on a table. Most of the other students were trying to read, so I uttered a sentence that may never have been spoken before or since: “Guys, please rap quietly to yourselves.”