James' Blog

Pakistani girl-geek becomes world's youngest MSFT expert



Xeni Jardin:
Boing Boing reader Abbas Raza says,

This is the story of a girl from a small city in Pakistan who became the youngest Certified Microsoft Expert at age 9. She met Bill Gates last week and asked him why he doesn't hire people her age. Gates has also said he will go and stay at her home in Pakistan. It's a charming story, and may go some way toward defusing stereotypes about Pakistan and its people (of whom I am one).

Link

Where does the word "nerd" comes from?



According to the American Heritage Dictionary, the word "nerd" first appeared in print in Dr. Seuss' book "If I Ran the Zoo" in 1950. "And then, just to show them, I'll sail to Ka-Troo and bring back an It-Kutch a Preep and a Proo a Nerkle a Nerd and a Seersucker, too!" "Nerd" next showed up in a 1957 newspaper column in the Sunday Mail that read: "Nerd -- a square, any explanation needed?" Its third printing (now "nurd") was in the 1970 edition of "Current Slang": "someone with...

Liquid Man



David Pescovitz:

Thanks to the reader who pointed me to Aaron Clinger's Liquid Man, a beautiful and entrancing Flash complement to my previous post about the Never Ending Fall. Link