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Contents contributed and discussions participated by James Howe

James Howe

XKCD: A Webcomic of romance, sarcasm, math, and language - 0 views

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    A webcomic is a comic strip syndicated by the author himself through the internet. XKCD is a particularly witty webcomic that tends to make light of trends in the digital world and/or popular culture, notably science fiction. The disclaimer on the site warns, "this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)." It blurs the modernist's line between disciplines; math and the sciences, traditionally serious subjects, are treated with as much respect as is usually reserved for die-hard academics of literature or philosophy. It is also interesting in that the author supports himself entirely through the sale of XKCD related merchandise, usually featuring some kind of reference or punchline from a particular comic. While the webcomic might just be a digital representation of a modern idea, the critical acclaim and level of humor apparent in XKCD lend itself to being a very postmodern comic.
James Howe

The Longest Poem in the World - 0 views

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    The Longest Poem in the World, written by everyone using the social networking service Twitter, is a project conceived by Andrei Gheorghe. The site "aggregat[es] real-time public twitter updates and selecting those that rhyme", even selecting for nontraditional spelling and dialectal rhyme. The emphasis on user-generated content, the fragmentation of a thousand users randomly (and unknowingly, and anonymously) taking part in a project, and the playful nature with which it addresses the traditional form of poetry are all strong evidence of its postmodern nature.
James Howe

Lolcats, via icanhascheezburger.com - 1 views

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    Only one of infinitely many internet memes, a "lolcat" is a photograph of a cat or kitten with an amusing caption added to the photo, usually written in "lolspeak" - a variety of English that diverges most often in certain grammatical and orthographical constructs. Lolcats were first generated on the image board 4chan and soon spread to become an internet phenomenon. Both the images and captions are user-generated, and often jokes are expanded upon by other users and have developed themes, such as "Monorail Cat", "Ceiling/Basement Cat", and "Invisible (object)". This solidifies their postmodernism; their playful use of language and image, along with their strong egalitarian forum of expression, also contribute strongly.
James Howe

The YouTube Symphony Orchestra - 0 views

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    This is truly a symphony for the new millennium. YouTube, a global property, asked the musicians of its community, of which there were plenty, to send in videos of themselves playing a certain audition piece. The best from around the world were flown in to play a concert at Carnegie Hall. Submissions were received from every continent (except Antarctica), digitally, and the traditional hierarchy of trained and professional musicians was disrupted. The YSO: the Postmodern Symphony Orchestra.
James Howe

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

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    Wikipedia, a project of the Wikimedia foundation, is an online, free-access encyclopedia designed so that any user can contribute to any article. Although the site tends to be panned for the possibility of deliberate disruption, properly sourced articles are often as good or better than older encyclopedias; Wikipedia also enjoys the potential benefits of being absolutely current, having articles edited as new information arises. This radical restructuring of the traditional academic hierarchy, and the reduction of time before current accuracy is achieved, makes Wikipedia (and its related projects: WikiNews, Wiktionary, Wikimedia Commons, etc) postmodern.
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