Bad news: Kurt Vonnegut’s bleak advice to humankind in 2088 When Kurt Vonnegut died in 2007, I recall reading about his passing and being quite depressed at the thought of a world without him in it. I read all of his books when I was a kid—some of them several times over—and like many of my generation (and the one above it) I very much internalized Kurt Vonnegut’s notoriously pessimistic, but ultimately kind-hearted view of mankind. I can also say, without hesitation, that his way of looking at the absurdities of life made a lot more sense to me than the religion that my parents tried to stuff down my throat at that age. His was one of the most important moral—and comic—voices of 20th century American literature. Who else besides Kurt Vonnegut could be considered in the same league as say, Mark Twain? When he died a great voice was silenced, but from time to time, something unanthologized or a previously unseen letter will surface (Love as Always, Kurt: Vonnegut as I Knew Him A perfect prose diamond, right?
6 Rules for a Great Story from Barnaby Conrad and Snoopy by Maria Popova “And remember: Always aim for the heart!” You might recall Snoopy’s Guide to the Writing Life (public library), which gave us Ray Bradbury’s wise words on rejection. To recap: Barnaby Conrad and Monte Schulz, son of Peanuts creator Charles M. Try to pick the most intriguing place in your piece to begin.Try to create attention-grabbing images of a setting if that’s where you want to begin.Raise the reader’s curiosity about what is happening or is going to happen in an action scene.Describe a character so compellingly that we want to learn more about what happens to him or her.Present a situation so vital to our protagonist that we must read on.And most important, no matter what method you choose, start with something happening! Conrad is the author of The Complete Guide to Writing Fiction. And, above all, let’s not forget these famous disclaimers on taking writing advice. Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter and people say it’s cool. Share on Tumblr
3 aptitudes anti-sociales pour améliorer son écriture Drôle de programme me direz-vous! C’est ce que j’ai pensé de prime abord en tombant sur ce tutoriel de la désormais incontournable encyclopédie TED-Ed. Mais après visionnage, force est de constater que les conseils qu’il prodigue sont rudement sensés… Ne commencez pas à froncer les sourcils, chers lecteurs non anglophones, le tutoriel qui suit, signé Nadia Kalman, est bref et facile à comprendre, ne vous privez pas de ces trois minutes de sagesse… Des qualités d’observation et d’écoute sont en effet essentielles pour améliorer son écriture, notamment en ce qui concerne les dialogues qui doivent coller à la personnalité de chaque personnage, mais aussi à leur époque, leur milieu socioculturel. L’exercice d’écriture décrit dans cette vidéo est un grand classique: il s’agit d’observer attentivement des personnes dans un lieu public et d’essayer d’imaginer leur histoire de la façon la plus réaliste possible, puis en y greffant son propre imaginaire. Copyright©Nathalie Lenoir 2013
Generation Like | FRONTLINE Are You What You “Like”? February 18, 2014, 9:41 pm ET · by Nathan Tobey Even if we don’t realize it, most of us make decisions about social media every day. In the lead-up to “Generation Like,” FRONTLINE asked you to share how you use social and how it’s affecting your lives. What Did “Generation Like” Think of “Generation Like”? August 5, 2014, 9:14 pm ET · by Moira Lavelle In “Generation Like,” teens told FRONTLINE that social media makes them feel empowered. Who Profits from the Game of “Likes?” February 18, 2014, 10:00 pm ET · by Nathan Tobey Join our chat with “Generation Like” correspondent Douglas Rushkoff, producer Frank Koughan, theAudience CEO Oliver Luckett, and guest questioner Kurt Wagner, social media reporter for Mashable. Alissa Quart: From Gen X to Z: Teens and the New Cool February 18, 2014, 9:40 pm ET Today, “coolness is about giving everything. Jason Calicanis: You Are Your Own Media Company February 18, 2014, 9:40 pm ET Mark Andrejevic: We Are All “Lab Rats” Online
Kurt Vonnegut's 8 Tips on How to Write a Great Story By Maria Popova The year of reading more and writing better is well underway with writing advice the likes of David Ogilvy’s 10 no-bullshit tips, Henry Miller’s 11 commandments, Jack Kerouac’s 30 beliefs and techniques, John Steinbeck’s 6 pointers, and various invaluable insight from other great writers. Now comes Kurt Vonnegut (November 11, 1922–April 11, 2007) — anarchist, Second Life dweller, imaginary interviewer of the dead, sad soul — with eight tips on how to write a good short story, narrated by the author himself. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.Every sentence must do one of two things — reveal character or advance the action.Start as close to the end as possible.Be a Sadist.
Inspiration Pad Pro v2.0 Inspiration Pad Pro v3.0"Endless Inspiration!" Inspiration Pad Pro is a program you can use to generate all sorts of things for your campaign. Generate names, town information, encounters, treasures - you name it! Inspiration Pad Pro uses text files called 'generators' to tell it how to generate information for you. Also included with the program are a number of sample generators and help files in both Windows Help and PDF form. Download for Windows Now! Or get it for Android at What's new in v3.0? New Integrated Table Editor You can now create and edit your generators using the built-in, syntax-hightlighting editor. Inforg Inforgs are informationally embodied organisms, entities made up of information, that exist in the infosphere. These informationally embodied organisms are also called natural agents. Description[edit] Inforgs was used by Luciano Floridi to describe what makes up an infosphere.[1] The usage of the word describes organisms that are made up of information rather than "standalone and unique entities". Norbert Wiener describes organisms as entities defined by patterns of persisting Shannon information.[2] Shannon information, named after Claude Shannon, places information in the physical realm allowing it to be manipulated by the laws of nature and science. The Shannon information that is found within an inforg also contains the identity of said organism. See also[edit] References[edit]
The Ultimate Guide to Writing Better Than You Normally Do. Writing is a muscle. Smaller than a hamstring and slightly bigger than a bicep, and it needs to be exercised to get stronger. Think of your words as reps, your paragraphs as sets, your pages as daily workouts. Think of your laptop as a machine like the one at the gym where you open and close your inner thighs in front of everyone, exposing both your insecurities and your genitals. Because that is what writing is all about. Procrastination is an alluring siren taunting you to google the country where Balki from Perfect Strangers was from, and to arrange sticky notes on your dog in the shape of hilarious dog shorts. The blank white page. Mark Twain once said, “Show, don’t tell.” Finding a really good muse these days isn’t easy, so plan on going through quite a few before landing on a winner. There are two things more difficult than writing. It’s no secret that great writers are great readers, and that if you can’t read, your writing will often suffer.
Générateur de nom, pseudo, personnage... Les meilleurs générateurs en ligne ! Que ce soit pour un pseudo, un personnage de jeu, de roman, pour un animal, ou même pour un enfant, les occasions de trouver un nom sont plus fréquentes qu'on ne le croit. Pour ceux qui sont en manque d'inspiration, voici une liste de générateurs de nom. Si certains sont vraiment farfelus, tous méritent le détour ! [Liste mise à jour en octobre 2014] Dotomator, si vous cherchez un nom de site & startup web 2.0Générateur de nom de personnage fantastique / médievalSur Teva, un générateur de prénom (des idées pour votre futur petit)Trouver un nom, générateur de nom universel (site, société, prénom, pseudo...)Générateur de nom et prénom dans toutes les languesChine Informations propose de traduire votre nom en chinoisRockStarName, pour les amateurs de rockUn générateur de nom de chat, parce que ce n'est pas toujours facile de trouver un nom à son compagnonGangastaName, générateur de nom gangsta Blogadilla propose un créateur de nom de meuble IKEA.
Transcript of secret meeting between Julian Assange and Google CEO Eric Schmidt On the 23 of June, 2011 a secret five hour meeting took place between WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange, who was under house arrest in rural UK at the time and Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Also in attendance was Jared Cohen, a former Secretary of State advisor to Hillary Clinton, Scott Malcomson, Director of Speechwriting for Ambassador Susan Rice at the US State Department and current Communications Director of the International Crisis Group, and Lisa Shields, Vice President of the Council on Foreign Relations. Schmidt and Cohen requested the meeting, they said, to discuss ideas for "The New Digital World", their forthcoming book to be published on April 23, 2013. We provide here a verbatim transcript of the majority of the meeting; a close reading, particularly of the latter half, is revealing. You can download the recording here (ogg) Well do you want us to start eating? So this is... what's the date? ...June 23rd. ...Lisa Shields. Can we start... Yeah, actually I mean Tor. Yeah. Uh, Delta.
Drawing Mental Illness: Artist Bobby Baker’s Visual Diary by Maria Popova Harvesting the daily flow of consciousness, or what group therapy has to do with marine life. Despite our proudest cultural and medical advances, mental illness remains largely taboo, partly because the experience of it can be so challenging to articulate. I think mental illness is the worst of anything. From how the tears flow into her ears when she does yoga (Day 320) to the weight gain side effects of medication (Day 397) to the uplifting “butterflies of academia” (Day 579) to the strain of chemo (Day 698), Baker’s illustrated micro-narratives are startlingly raw, yet incredibly eloquent and layered. Day 303 Day 320 Day 397 Day 470 Day 526 Day 579 Day 690 Day 698 The sequence of the drawings follows the artist’s painful but, ultimately, triumphant recovery, with the last stretch of pictures exuding a kind of cathartic exhale, a “huge, happy, light-headed relief,” as Warner puts it. Day 771 Diary Drawings: Mental Illness and Me is magnificent in its entirety. Donating = Loving
Enrenow ilustra qué quieres decir cuando haces like en Facebook Ilustración ¿Qué quieres decir realmente cuando haces like en Facebook? ¿Cada vez que le das al botón haces like en Facebook, significa lo mismo? Nos atrevemos a poner la mano en el fuego y a afirmar: «no». Lo cierto es que el botón de me gusta, tiene una clara limitación. Utilizamos el like como un recurso «para expresarnos y posicionarnos respecto a temas tan variopintos que pueden ir desde la foto comprometedora de un amigo hasta la noticia más actual, pasando por los comentarios en un vídeo de gatitos» explican desde Enrenow. «El ser humano es complejo y con él sus motivaciones, pero Facebook nos limita hasta tal punto que nos condena a reflejar todo bajo la misma sepultura de un simple me gusta». Unlikeable: Su nombre proviene de unlike, por lo que es el opuesto a un me gusta. Finisher: Las conversaciones en Facebook, como en la vida misma, deben llegar a un final y a ser posible que no sea muy brusco. Trapper: Este tipo de like deriva del término inglés trap que significa cazar.
Εθνικό Μνημόσυνο Την Κυριακή 7 Μαρτίου 2010 τελέστηκε στον Ιερό Ναό του Αγίου Γεωργίου στον Άγιο Δομέτιο το ετήσιο Εθνικό Μνημόσυνο της αγωνίστριας του Απελευθερωτικού Αγώνα της Ε.Ο.Κ.Α. 1955-1959 Νίτσας Χατζηγεωργίου. Την επιμνημόσυνη ομιλία εκφώνησε ο Βουλευτής του Δημοκρατικού Συναγερμού και πρώην Κυβερνητικός Εκπρόσωπος κ. Χρήστος Στυλιανίδης. Ακολούθησε τρισάγιο και κατάθεση στεφάνων στην προτομή της αγωνίστριας που βρίσκεται στο προαύλιο του οικήματος του Σωματείου μας. Νίτσα ΧατζηγεωργίουΑγωνίστρια του Απελευθερωτικού Αγώνα της Ε.Ο.Κ.Α. 1955-1959 Η ζωή και ο θάνατος της τραγικής αγωνίστριαςΣτις 11 Μαρτίου 1968, βρέθηκε νεκρή στο κρεβάτι της μια κοπέλα. Η κοπέλλα πέθανε έρημη, εγκαταλειμμένη, τρισδυστυχισμένη, κατασυκοφαντημένη, απογοητευμένη, καταπροδομένη. Την κοπέλα την λέγαν Νίτσα Χατζηγεωργίου. Συναγωνιστές και συναγωνίστριες της Νίτσας Χατζηγεωργίου συγκινούνται ακόμα, χρόνια μετά το θάνατο της. Υπήρξε από τις πρώτες επίλεκτες γυναικείες παρουσίες στον αγώνα η Νίτσα. Η τομεάρχης της Ε.Ο.Κ.Α.
LivesOn says death is no excuse to stop tweeting Just in case the zombie apocalypse makes the scenario viable, post-mortem, would you like your inert corpse to be propped up in front of a keyboard so you can keep tweeting? Happily, things don't have to get fetid. To enable a continuous warbling in spite of the hindrance of rigor mortis, we will soon have LivesOn - a service that promises that after your heart stops beating, you can keep tweeting. According to The Telegraph's Theo Merz - one of only about 20 lucky stiffs who got in on the trial - the tester version of LivesOn was made available during the week of 12 August, ahead of a public roll-out scheduled for September. Now, Merz is getting to put the service's algorithms through its paces as it tries to mirror his twitter style. The results are pleasingly and, aptly, brain-dead. It is, in other words, a work in progress, he told Merz: "Sometimes they are really funny, sometimes they are gobbledygook and sometimes they do sound exactly like you. I am now one of those pre-dead people.