Prolific… profound… prophetic – these are the words I associate with Philip K. Dick, whose name has been immortalized among the great science-fiction writers such as Asimov, Bradbury and Clarke. For those reading that may be unfamiliar with PKD (shame on you), chances are you have encountered his work before, as over ten of his stories have been adapted into feature length films, including The Adjustment Bureau, which opens today in cinemas across the USA.

For those of you who cringe at the idea of anything related to “sci-fi” (typically based on a false connotation, I might add), PKD stories tend to transcend any one particular genre and one of his finest works is an historical-fiction novel titled The Man in the High Castle, which explores an alternate ending to WWII in which the Axis conquers USSR and Europe and the USA subsequently surrenders (after FDR is assassinated).

Like him or not, PKD continues to become more and more culturally relevant nearly 30 years after his death, as his stories continue to become adapted into films. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t read, however, and I can’t recommend his stories enough.

I’ve included below some screenshots from PKD stories that have found their way to the big screen, can you name them? (roll over image for answer)

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Technorati Tags: Adjustment Bureau, Arts, Fiction, Man In the High Castle, Online Writing, Philip K Dick, Science Fiction, United States

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Even the most avid history buff isn’t going to remember every historically significant day of the year. Thankfully, every so often we are given a reminder when we open up Firefox, Chrome, Explorer or Safari.

I would like to take this time to thank Google for cleverly using their search engine, which constitutes millions of homepages around the world, to remind us of significant historical events through clever designs/animations of their logo. While my all-time favorite had to be the anniversary of Pac-Man (which is playable!), I think today’s edition is far more historically significant.

55 years ago today in Montgomery Alabama, an African-American woman by the name of Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white passenger and move to the “colored” section in the back. Little did she know that her seemingly insignificant action would become one of the greatest single events in US history, the spark that ignited the modern Civil Rights Movement.

We can all learn a lot from Rosa Parks, a hero in the truest sense of the word. Thank you Google for taking the time to remind us.

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Technorati Tags: Civil Rights, Google, History, Rosa Parks, Search Engine

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What is Cyber Monday?

I’m sure that by now we’ve all heard the term “Cyber Monday” which hasn’t yet earned the infamy of “Black Friday” but has gained some significant media coverage nonetheless. But where and when did this silly term originate? I was once told by a very reliable source that it originated in the early 2000s when office workers, still nursing tryptophan hangovers from the Thanksgiving weekend, would do or finish their holiday shopping online at their desks because many, if not most people still didn’t have high-speed internet connections at home. Or, perhaps it was just a clever excuse for procrastination! Whatever the case may be, a decade later Ethernet, wireless 3G and 4G are pretty much standard at home and on smart phones, so the connection theory doesn’t exactly hold up anymore, but are there really better deals for online shoppers the Monday after Thanksgiving?

According to a recent article from CNN, Cyber Monday is nothing more than a marketing gimmick and “has never been the biggest day of the year for online retail sales,” which usually (and ironically, I suppose) falls on a Monday in mid-December. One report suggests that featured deals on Cyber Monday are actually for stuff that didn’t sell on Black Friday (leftovers anyone?).

Did you do any shopping on Black Friday and/or planning to shop online today?

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Technorati Tags: Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Online Shopping

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