How Einstein Thought: Fostering Combinatorial Creativity and Unconscious Connections | Brain Pickings “Combinatory play seems to be the essential feature in productive thought.” tags: einstein thought creativity connections weekly School for poetic computation “school for poetic computation is an artist run school launching this fall in New York. A small group of students and faculty will work closely to explore the intersections of code, design, hardware and theory — focusing especially on artistic intervention. It’s a 10 week program, a hybrid of residency and research group, that will happen multiple times per year to be a powerboost for creativity. Our motto is: more poems less demos.” h/t Gardner Campbell tags: code poetry language beauty programming computer english weekly 10 Rules of Internet – Anil Dash “Most websites treat “I like it” and “This is good” as the same thing, leading to most people on the Internet refusing to distinguish between “I don’t like it” and “It’s not good”. When a company or industry is facing changes to its business due to technology, it will argue against the need for change based on the moral importance of its work, rather than trying to understand the social underpinnings. “ tags: rules internet society weekly Why Life in America Can Literally Drive You Insane | Alternet ” Many of us, sadly, are ashamed […]

The smartest cities rely on citizen cunning and unglamorous technology | Cities | The Guardian “But, for whatever reason, this is not the face of urban innovation official India wants to share with the world – perhaps small-scale projects or the tactics of the poor simply aren’t dramatic enough to convey the magnitude and force of national ambition. We hear, instead, of schemes like” tags: weekly scale technology India Politwoops – Deleted tweets from politicians They just log quickly deleted tweets from politicians. Crazy. tags: twitter politics tweets weekly tweet Super Punch “If you’ve ever stopped to charge your cell phone in a Metro station, you should know that Metro considers that stealing and it’s not okay with them.  …  Metro spokesperson Paul Gonzales confirmed to KPCC that three people have been arrested and charged with theft of utilities for doing just that.  …  Update, 1:45 p.m.: Mayor Eric Garcetti, who is also Metro Board Chair, has told Metro to stop arresting people for charging their phones” tags: weekly charging phones Ayn Rand Helped the FBI Identify It’s A Wonderful Life as Communist Propaganda | Open Culture “The 1947 HUAC hearings, writes the blog Aphelis, led to “the systematic blacklisting of Hollywood artists.” Among the witnesses deemed “friendly” to capitalism were Gary Cooper, Walt Disney, and Ayn Rand. Prior to […]