January 26, 2011
It is the Medium’s Fault When Communication Fails

wwnorton:

The life span of black ink in disposable plastic pens is estimated to be about four and a half years. The blue ink in plastic pens starts to fade away in two. And newsprint is only intended to last for a day.

Already, scientists are experiencing difficulty in deciphering the technology that’s used in Univac, the earliest working computer from the late 1960s.

And even the laser-encrypted plastic that we put on compact disks is likely to start peeling off in about forty years.

A color photograph, says Kodak, will last for thirty years. Videotape for fourteen. Magnetic tape, seven.

The life span of skywriting is about nine minutes.

The life span of a sunbeam is six.

And the light that reflects off the Moon every night is traveling so quickly that it only lasts a second.

-from About a Mountain by John D’Agata

This is now in paperback, it’s great, and it’s on our front table. See you later.

2:17pm  |   URL: http://tmblr.co/ZDtOFy2lTky9
(Notes: 35)
  
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    paperback, it’s great, and it’s...our front table. See you later.
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