The Null Device
2000/5/25
Hoax of the day: The story of the Sage, the dooviest virtual analogue synth that never existed. Includes extensive details of how the images, sounds, &c. were faked.
A closer look at the Ecole de Séduction: (Telegraph)
"Don't talk too much. Seduction doesn't happen through talking. Seduction is the reflection of souls in the eyes. Always fix a steady gaze into the woman's eyes." After making sure I was taking notes, he continued.
By this time Jean was drawing a map dividing the world up into regions where men knew how to behave with women, and the lonely towns and cities where they did not. Men in Marseilles, the Basque country, southern Italy and Latin America knew what was required. North of Lyon, the picture was considerably bleaker. The best that could be said of English men was that they were unfailingly polite.
Hypothetical scenario: your porn-downloading habit ruined your marriage. What do you do: Seek counselling? Reexamine your attitudes to sex? Work on your self-control? Or join a group lobbying for tougher censorship laws for everyone? (WIRED News)
Identity politics: New implants allow hearing to be restored to deaf people. Some members of the deaf community are up in arms about what they see as an invasion of their culture: (Salon)
many deaf people see themselves as a "linguistic minority" rather than a disabled group. For this group, whose leading spokesman is the (non-deaf) writer Harlan Lane, a deaf child will always be deaf and should not be stripped of his or her cultural birthright by a misplaced effort at mainstreaming.
(Does this mean that if two deaf parents bring up a child who's capable of hearing, that child will nonetheless be culturally Deaf? Could a culture of hearing-capable Deaf people, its memes rooted in vestigial workarounds for hearing loss, arise at some time in the future? The mind boggles...)