"…a fabric, woven out of light-sensitive fibers, that can make a photograph. All by itself. No lens. No camera. No nuthin'. (Well, it is backed by a honking big load of computing. In 10 years, that will all be on a chip.)…"

via Google Books, Holtzapffel's classic: a fascinating read for its Victorian technical language even if lathework isn't in your plans

an extreme, surely?

an Idea whose time is nigh

good catch, Bryan! And see http://www.bbc.co.uk/psychoville/ for mooooore…

yeah, you want to watch Mike Wesch for 33 minutes. I'm persuaded that this is REAL anthropology and I sort of wish I was a part of it. A Brief History of 'Whatever' (at 7 minutes) is worth the price of admission all by itself, and he throws in 'Meh' too

1999 paper by Geoffrey B. West (a pdf, dunno if it will load properly)

via Making Light, Sydney Padua's Lovelace-Babbage comix

via Daniel, who keeps his eyes peeled for the unique

via Wrath of the Grapevine, and relating a truly bizarre odyssey (Only In America, etc. etc.) that I've known bits of since the day. The Jug Band in its pre-1965 incarnation was an important bit of Cantabridgiana, but the later Lyman story is quite beyond The Pale.

no cell phones, and I swear people look thinner

via WFMU's Beware of the Blog. Perhaps little-known fact: many years ago I studied Swedish (freshman year) and spent 6 weeks there in summer 1962… so I've been more or less following things Swedish ever since. This really is an odd take on Stockholm and Swedes, with a good many snorts and yuks sprinkled here and there in the text. I mean: "…a genuine-fake-maybe-real-but-probably-phony-except-for-real-but-you-never-really-know-these-days-anyway culturobstretrical organization with a life-changing mission: to build bridges of understanding between the American and Scandinavian peoples. And in so doing, heal the universe. To achieve this we use the power of Ultramultiscience, a new way of thinking that fuses multiple disciplines –sound, embalmery, competitive eating– into a gel that, when mixed with bleeding-edge scientificalism, unleashes transformational power not seen since Nutella met Bisquick…"

**WARNING** I’m not sure that I advise you to listen to the mp3 file linked in the text –might unsettle delicate sensibilities, if you still have any. On the other hand, maybe you’d be able to think of it as postmodernistical ethnography…