iPod Day on October 23 celebrates the world-changing rise of the device, first launched in 2001.

Coming out of the cave.  Writer Greg Ryan wrestles with how to embrace distance education while avoiding the relentless march of technology.  “I promise my daughter that I’ll dispense with my quixotic aversion to modernity. She wants me to learn how to use her cellphone so that she’s not embarrassed by my fumbling attempts to dial in front of her friends.”   The Best of Times, August 15, 2008.

Eff you, and the dinosaur you rode in on.  Busby LeClair, tongue firmly in cheek (we think,) explains why everybody ought to embrace the virtues of technological advances.  “Thanks to the magic of mobile phones, I am now able to order take out Thai food, catch up on the results of my buddy’s v.d. test, and have phone sex with a hottie I met on Lava Life – all without missing any of the vast array of cultural options available to me.“    Brave New World, March 22, 2005.