Spark 118 – June 27 & 29, 2010

On this episode of Spark: Bursts, Shallows, and Game Changers. Click below to listen to the whole show, or download the MP3 (runs 54:00).

Play audio:

You can also listen to individual stories below.

GameChanger

This summer, the Canadian Little League Championships take place in Ancaster, Ontario. And this year, there’s a technological twist. Instead of traditional pencil and paper scorekeeping, officials will use iPhones to score the game. The electronic scorekeeping system is called GameChanger.

Nora talked to CEO Ted Sullivan about GameChanger, and to sports columnist and dad Scott Radley about the professionalization of amateur sport. (Runs 10:27)

Play audio:

• Nora’s full interview with Ted Sullivan
• 2010 Canadian Little League Championships
• GameChanger
• Ancaster Cardinals on GameChanger
• Scott Radley’s columns at the Hamilton Spectator

Bursts

Albert-László Barabási is the author of Bursts: The Hidden Pattern Behind Everything We Do. In it, he set out to explore whether our behaviour patterns are random, or whether they can be predicted. What he found is that our daily behaviours, things that we might think we do spontaneously, follow a precise set of mathematical formulas or laws. (Runs 11:57)

Play audio:

• Nora’s full interview with Albert-László Barabási
• Albert-László Barabási’s homepage
• Bursts
• Bursts on Amazon.ca

So

Every now and then, a verbal tic creeps into the culture. Millions of people begin to say “like” or “awesome” or “groovy.” It’s just how culture goes. But sometimes these tics can tell us something larger about the culture, and that would seem to be the case with what appears to be the latest tic in the English-speaking world: the word “so,” and more specifically, the word “so” as the sentence-starter of choice, in sentences where it would not traditionally have belonged. Spark columnist Anand Giridharadas has given that little word some thought lately. (Runs 7:03)

Play audio:

• CURRENTS; ‘So’ Pushes to the Head of the Line
• Anand’s website

The Shallows

Have you ever worried that you’re losing the ability to follow a long, sustained narrative in a book? Early on in his new book, The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains, Nicholas Carr describes experiencing exactly that. Are our online reading habits changing the way we think? (Runs 18:32)

Play audio:

• Nora’s full interview with Nicholas Carr
• Rough Type: Nicholas Carr’s Blog
• TheShallowsBook.com
• The Shallows on Amazon.ca

Episode Details

Nora mentioned several handy summertime Spark items:

• Spark holiday remote access toolkit
• danah boyd on email sabbaticals and how you can take one
• Merlin Mann’s series on how to blog
• Steven Yantis on why you shouldn’t talk on a cell phone and drive
• Linda Stone on email apnea and why you should take a break (second item)

Creative Commons sound effects used in this episode:

• “Countdown” by Corsica_S
• TVonoff.aif by orehek

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[Original images by stu seeger, jurvetson, Paolo Mazzo, jtravism]