Light up your school life

The kind of highschool newspaper you always wanted - and this one is even online! It's young, it's fresh, it comes in garish colors, and it can talk about issues such as 'Michael Brown Was Shot: Why, How, When, What, WHAT, WUT?' or what to do when you have a crush on your math teacher (and how can you say No to an advice column whose author is introduced as "kat_rosenfield: Kat Rosenfield is a writer, illustrator, advice columnist, YA author, and enthusiastic licker of that plastic liner that comes inside a box of Cheez-Its. She loves zombies and cats. She hates zombie cats.") with the same depth and balance and without hitting a single false note that would have made me go 'Blaagh - phony!' as a teen. And it dishes up language hot from the forge, the Next Generation of language if you will, without making it sound trite right out of the gate. Enjoy the Sparklife on:

www.sparknotes.com

 

Eye of the Sparrow

The kind of stuff I'd expect Noam Chomsky to watch under the blanket at night. In a very, very, very abstract way it tells you a lot about 'How language works' without burdening you with any meaning whatsoever. Maybe this is what a Babelfish translation of Martian stand-up comedy would sound like.

Bad Lip-Reading

The ex-pat's playground

If you wonder what the other half wonders about, check out their web page: Toytown Germany is a website for English-speaking expats which recycles German news in English, collects all sorts of information that might come in handy when you are new to this place, but also caters to those who feel cut off from the steady trickle of non-news whose uselessness you love to grumble about when you routinely pick it up in your natural environment but that you may suddenly sorely miss when you have to do without it ("Marmite vs. Vegemite - Lovers and haters"; "Canadian couple raising infant as genderless").

www.toytowngermany.com

Who's on first?

I've finally heard that sketch that I've heard so much about!

Abbott and Costello - Who's on first?

Charming Randomness

It's kind of hard to say if they are silly and successfully disguised as clever of if they are clever putting on silly as a costume - anyways, Rocketboom is a website which creates its own communicative culture that you quickly find yourself wanting to be a part of. Endearing is a word that comes to mind a lot when you watch their camera-facing rides across the news of the day or the miracles of magnetism. An example? Just watch Molly talking about the Internet making us smarter:
www.rocketboom.com/encore-birthday-bieber
They remind me a little bit of early MTV, not the music but the tone of irreverence, of pointless anarchy that you sometimes suspected might serve a higher purpose in the end - and who is to say it didn't?
And when you're done watching, check the job listings: why not apply for an internship so that you have something to do when you are in NYC, or how about becoming a freelance Field Reporter?

... and now it's gone the way of the dodo, how sad!

www.rocketboom.com

The Mother of Smarts

Wired Magazine has always gone way beyond just putting a glitzy veneer on geekiness: deeply rooted in computer culture but spreading its wings from that fertile soil to soar over any kind of news landscape that is relevant to a citizen of Contemporania, the Wired website should perhaps not be your only authority for news coverage, but what is there is crucial, opinionated, smart as heck and usually quite different from what you find in most other places. Essential reading in times of the WikiLeaks controversy: the Threat Level blog that addresses issues of "Privacy, crime and security online".

www.wired.com

Chatting with Kirk

If you ever feel like asking all those tough questions about the Enterprise that have bothered you since your childhood, why not start a chat with Fake Captain Kirk the Chatbot and get the answers straight from the horse's mouth? I'm not saying you will be smarter than before, but you are guaranteed a pretty surreal little chat.
Or while you're at it, listen to the Artificial Linguistic Internet Computer Entity (ALICE to her friends) and Kirk really hit it off - their conversation has its moments.
And if you think only an Artificial Intelligence can really understand you, get DAVE as a teacher for a month - they say his English is perfect.

alice.pandorabots.com
Two Bots Talking