Gregory Heyworth is a textual scientist; he and his lab work on new ways to read ancient manuscripts and maps using spectral imaging technology. In this fascinating talk, watch as Heyworth shines a light on lost history, deciphering texts that haven’t been read in thousands of years. How could these lost classics rewrite what we know about the past? Source: Gregory Heyworth: How I’m discovering the secrets of ancient texts | TED.com
Category Archives: Librarianship
#Fairytales teach #robots not to murder | CNET #crime #AI #books #tech #values
The fairy tale performs many functions. They entertain, they encourage imagination, they teach problem-solving skills. They can also provide moral lessons, highlighting the dangers of failing to follow the social codes that let human beings coexist in harmony.
Such moral lessons may not mean much to a robot, but a team of researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology believes it has found a way to leverage the humble fable into a moral lesson an artificial intelligence will take to its cold, mechanical heart. READ MORE: Fairy tales teach robots not to murder | CNET
#Punctuation in #novels | Adam J. Calhoun | Medium #books #analysis #writing
When we think of novels, of newspapers and blogs, we think of words. We easily forget the little suggestions pushed in between: the punctuation. But how can we be so cruel to such a fundamental part of writing? Inspired by a series of posters, I wondered what did my favorite books look like without words. Can you tell them apart or are they all a-mush? In fact, they can be quite distinct. READ MORE: Punctuation in novels — Medium
The Tiny London Shop Behind Some of the Very Best #Libraries | TNYT #books #collections #booksellers #bookstores #curation
London’s Heywood Hill curates impressive collections for discerning customers in 60 different countries — and specializes in the obscure. READ MORE: The Tiny London Shop Behind Some of the Very Best Libraries | The New York Times
The Martian, Sherlock Holmes, and why we love competence porn | Ars Technica #skills #fiction #characters #film #TV #storytelling #competence
My adds are Olivia Benson from Law & Order: SVU and Annalise Keating from How to Get Away with Murder. MacGyver is a classic! I need to binge-watch…
We’re rooting for the smartest, most rational characters in the room. The best part of The Martian isn’t the breathtaking rescue, nor the awe-inspiring dust storm. It’s watching Mark Watney grow potatoes. Instead of freaking out over his imminent doom, Mark calmly figures how to grow plants in the Martian regolith by fertilizing them with his own poop, and watering them with a DIY device that makes water by heating hydrogen from his leftover rocket fuel, and combining it with oxygen from the Hab environment.
Mark makes The Martian a classic of competence porn by always coming up with a hackerish solution to every problem, just like James Bond or Ellen Ripley with her exoskeleton in Aliens. And he’s not the only competence porn star burning up our monitors right now. From Sherlock to The Americans, competence porn is filling us with the satisfaction that comes from watching people attack problems with brains and cunning rather than fists. Well, OK, there are some fists, too. READ MORE: The Martian, Sherlock Holmes, and why we love competence porn | Ars Technica
Bots, Block Chain, and Beacons Hot Topics at LITA #Tech #Trends Panel | ALA Midwinter 2016 #librarianship #libraries #LIS #information
Good post to review current and on the horizon technology trends in information services, including trends I have not heard of yet such as praxis and block chain potential.
READ: Bots, Block Chain, and Beacons Hot Topics at LITA Tech Trends Panel | ALA Midwinter 2016
David Bowie’s Idea Of Perfect #Happiness Was #Reading | HuffPost + David Bowie’s List of 100 Favorite #Books… | Mashable #DavidBowie #RIP
David Bowie’s Idea Of Perfect Happiness Was Reading | Huffington Post
According to his 1998 Proust Questionnaire, which is just as wonderfully weird as we hoped.
David Bowie’s List of 100 Favorite #Books… | Mashable
We all know David Bowie as a music and pop culture icon. But if you are hoping looking for a crash course in must-read literature, look no further than Bowie’s 100 favorite books…
Anne of Green Gables is coming to CBC | Quill and Quire #adaptations #books #TV #Canada
An updated version just seems wrong…the original was perfection...
An updated take on Lucy Maud Montgomery’s classic Anne of Green Gables is on its way, this time in the form of a TV series from CBC. READ MORE: Anne of Green Gables is coming to CBC Television | Quill and Quire
Paramount Now #Streaming 175 #Free #Movies #Online | Open Culture #film #historical #cinema
They call the project The Paramount Vault, a digital cinematic storehouse sorted into playlists of Classics, Comedy, Action/Adventure, Drama, Horror, Westerns, Science Fiction, and Thrillers, containing such pictures as Ironweed, Hamlet, Paris When It Sizzles, King Creole, Dark City, Funny About Love, and Margot at the Wedding — all of which, unfortunately, you can only watch in the United States. (BTW, we have a big list of unrestricted films here.) The geographical constraint still holds, at least for now, but the Paramount Vault people have kept at work filling it with movies. READ MORE: Paramount Now Streaming 175 Free Movies Online, Including Westerns, Thrillers & Crime Pictures | Open Culture
Is This The Most Technologically Advanced Book Ever Published? | FastCompany #books #publishing #science #interactive #personalization #startups #tech
It began as an audacious side project. Three dads and an uncle got together to make a personalized book for children. The Little Boy/Girl Who Lost His/Her Name, in which any child’s name, thanks to some nifty algorithms, dictates the plot turns, became a surprise hit. It was the bestselling picture book in the U.K. last year. This week, it topped a million copies sold worldwide (to actual customers, mind you, not retailers).
How do you follow up that sort of debut? Lost My Name, the London startup that grew out of the project—part tech company, part book publisher, and backed by Google Ventures and others—just launched its second personalized tale, The Incredible Intergalactic Journey Home. READ MORE: Is This The Most Technologically Advanced Book Ever Published? | FastCompany
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