What are you smiling about?

Tomorrow is allegedly the 25th birthday of the ASCII smiley-face. When I read about this I initially scoffed, but the story of its birth is actually pretty interesting. The idea was to communicate attempted humor/sarcasm to prevent other nerds from responding to your BBS post with diatribes. So the smiley face really did benefit society. And aren't you glad this

:-)

Won out over this?

\__/

That second one just looks like a soup bowl.

I really did learn something there

Did you know that Cornell is one of only about a dozen universities and colleges that still requires students to pass a swimming test? It's true!

I honestly can't remember taking a swim test there, but since it happens during orientation week, I very well may have been pushed or hurled into standing water. Since I got back out, they allowed me to stay and complete my degree.