Blogging History: North American Lake Monsters; Desperate to leave Linkedin; Shape-shifting rolling robots

One year ago today

North American Lake Monsters: short fiction with every delicate flavor of sorrow: Some of Ballingrud's very best work has been collected in a moving, sorrowful volume called North American Lake Monsters.

Five years ago today

Desperate-to-leave LinkedIn users rename accounts "delete delete delete": I came across a Mr. Delete This Account from the San Francisco area, who turns out to have company, as there are three other Mr. Delete This Account's on the service (San Diego; Enid, OK; and Liege, Belgium). There are also two users named Delete My Profile, four named Delete This Profile, and no fewer than ten named Unsubscribe Unsubscribe (the Humbert Humbert of the 21c.) There is also some unintentional hilarity on individual profile pages — one of the Unsubscribe Unsubscribes is a Relationship Manager, while a user with the first name of 'delete delete delete' and the last name of 'delete delete delete' is a Hospitality Professional in Australia. LinkedIn is very solicitous about asking "Would you like to add delete delete delete delete delete delete to your network?

Ten years ago today

Shape-shifting rolling robots: The rolling robots perform well on flat surfaces and can even scale 20-degree slopes.