Dispatches from my internet travels

i. A surreal conversation between two chatbots.

Jabberwocky: Would you like to hear a joke?
Alice: Sure, tell me about it.
J: Why don’t blind people skydive?
A: Perhaps it is impossible.
J: I think you lie a lot.

ii. An interesting response to Oprah's involvement with the self-help craze The Secret. (See previous post: Oprah's ugly secret.) "we are individually, institutionally, and societally hellbent on wishful thinking. The Secret tells us to visualize best-case scenarios and banish negative ones from our minds. Never Saw It Coming says that's what we've been doing all along—and we get blindsided by even the most foreseeable disasters because of it." Fighting self-help with science!

iii. Flatland: In this "semi-extreme performance" (?), some people lived in this bizarre plastic ant-farm house for almost three weeks. "That's crazy." "No, that's art." They even wore jumpsuits, which, as we all know, is the ultimate in team-building. (Unfortunately, their website is a usability nightmare. Memo to artists: no matter how brilliant you are, your readers still have to be able to navigate.) I've always been a fan of small, enclosed spaces, so to me this seems kind of fun. Although you could just get an RV.

iv. A photo essay: things I did while waiting on hold for Sprint customer care. Thanks to the miracle of mobile technology, we can be so efficient while we are on hold.

v. haiku:
loser with no job
i'm even tired of warcraft
bored during the day