Art historians have long used scientific tools to help them decide whether drawings and paintings are real or fakes, like counting isotopes in lead-based paints to spot anachronisms or shining X-ray and infrared radiation on oil portraits to discover what lies beneath.
Now researchers at Dartmouth College have introduced a forensic tool appropriate to the digital age: they have fed digitally scanned artworks into a computer, and then used image-processing techniques to create statistics describing the pen and brush strokes.
Who Really Wielded the Paintbrush? The NY Times, December 23, 2004
A physicist who is broadly experienced in using computers to identify consistent patterns in the drip paintings of Jackson Pollock has determined that half a dozen small paintings recently discovered and claimed by their owner to be original Pollocks do not exhibit the same patterns. In previous years Dr. Taylor examined 14 indisputably authentic Pollock paintings by using what is known as fractal geometry, or looking for patterns that recur on finer and finer magnifications, like those in snowflakes. He found that despite the seemingly chaotic nature of the drip paintings, they exhibited remarkably consistent fractal patterns, both in the fluidity of the paint and in the way Pollock applied it as he stalked around a canvas on the ground.
Computer Analysis Suggests Paintings Are Not Pollocks The NY Times, February 9, 2006
Jay Bonin is one of the busiest players in the country. He takes part in face-to-face tournament matches every week and also regularly participates in games of speed chess at chessclub.com, the Internet Chess Club. He estimated that he has played more than 20,000 games online in the last three or four years.
He is doing what most serious players have long thought is necessary: playing frequently to stay in peak form. Now, however, because of the widespread availability of databases of games and the growing strength of chess software, such activity may actually be making it easier to beat him.
Game databases, many of which are online, give players information about what opening strategies their opponents use. And rapidly improving chess computer programs can analyze games and make suggestions about what to play. In many cases, electronic game collections are replacing books as chess players' primary source of information
Chess Players Give 'Check' a New Meaning The NY Times, January 13, 2005
When an accountant names Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million in the World Series of Poker last May...Everyone wanted to know how a man who had never before sat down at a tournament table could clean out so many skilled professionals...Mr. Moneymaker may never have been in the same room as other players in a tournament of Texas hold'em poker, but he had played extensively online, where the game is faster but the money is just as real...Many players hone their craft with simulation software that allows them to test strategies by playing out thousands or even millions of hands.
The New Card Shark The NY Times, July 10, 2003
Craigslist was started 10 years ago by Craig Newmark, an Internet pioneer in San Francisco, as a way of keeping friends up to date on events in the Bay Area. It spread through the United States before going international in 2003, with sites in London and Toronto. The expansion accelerated in late 2004 with a flurry of sites, including ones for Paris, Berlin, Tokyo and Sydney. About a dozen other international start-ups are planned in the next few months. "It's got to scare anyone who takes money for advertising," said Jim Townsend, the editorial director in Houston of Classified Intelligence, a consulting firm. In the San Francisco area, Classified Intelligence estimates, Craigslist is costing newspapers $50 million to $65 million a year in lost revenue from employment ads alone; because other ads on Craigslist are free, it is hard to gauge the overall effect, Mr. Townsend said.
Craigslist Circles the Globe With Online Classifieds, One City at a Time
The NY Times, January 17, 2005
Wikipedia, maintained by users all over the world who write and edit the entries pretty much as they wish, is visited by hundreds of thousands of people daily and has an estimated 400,000 entries on everything from manga (Japanese comics) to strathspeys (Scottish dance tunes).
Collaborative history is a wild ride, as the recent presidential election demonstrated. In October readers were editing and re-editing the entries for President Bush and Senator John Kerry at breakneck speed. And some of it wasn't exactly editing. If you clicked on a picture of Bush in his National Guard uniform to get an enlarged version, you would see a picture of Hitler.
By the end of October, a Wikipedia administrator from New Orleans decided to put both candidates' entries under protection until after the election: no one could edit a page on either candidate without the changes' being vetted on a discussion page. Thus Senator Kerry and President Bush took their places next to the other untouchables in the Wikipedia: Ariel Sharon, Osama bin Laden, Rush Limbaugh and Salvador Allende.
Mudslinging Weasels Into Online History The NY Times, November 10, 2004