While we’re discussing the March of Technology, it seems another era has passed:

Skye Ferrante has spent six years at the Writers Room in Greenwich Village, blissfully banging away on his grandmother’s 1929 Royal typewriter.

The 37-year-old writer represented a bygone era, the last typewriter-user in a special room devoted to typists.

“In the event that there are no desks available, laptop users must make room for typists,” read a sign posted in the “Typing Room” for years.

When Ferrante returned to the Writers Room in April after an eight-month break, the sign was gone and his noisy typewriter was no longer welcome…

Executive Director Donna Brodie said staffers didn’t realize Ferrante was a typist when he rejoined. All the others had died or converted to laptops.

We saw this coming years ago when the late David Levine started drawing all his NYRB author caricatures with computers. And as much as we enjoyed the tactile pleasures of our mother’s old Royal, we can’t say we miss it.

But still: clackity-clackity-clackity-clackity-clack. That’s the sound of industry, goddammit. We bet those fussy new writers don’t even know how to drink.

Last typist refuses to switch to laptop, gets boot from Writers Room in Greenwich Village [NY Daily News, via LuxMentis]

Thursday saw the demise of the original server for Usenet, itself the original go-to Internet source for unlimited free porn before employers had a clue why you were skipping all your coffee breaks.

Er, so we’ve been told. We do a lot of technical research in our line of work.

So it’s fitting that Australia celebrates the end of an era by ignoring the fact that the era ever existed:

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SFL informs us that the oil spill is much worse than anyone let on, and now oyster emails me from New Orleans with a photograph that’s going viral:

Spotted in a Breaux Mart Supermarket in New Orleans: The “Thank You BP! Oil Spill Cake.”

BP Cake [Flickr via Reddit]

“A spokesman for Rand Paul just clarified to me that the candidate does, in fact, believe that the Federal government should have the power to ban private businesses from discriminating based on race.” [Plum Line, via TPM]

As America discovered Wednesday night, Rand Paul is a principled Libertarian — no matter where those principles take him:

A recent Daily News editorial supported the Federal Fair Housing Act. At first glance, who could object to preventing discrimination in housing? Most citizens would agree that it is wrong to deny taxpayer-financed, “public” housing to anyone based on the color of their skin or the number of children in the household.

But the Daily News ignores, as does the Fair Housing Act, the distinction between private and public property. Should it be prohibited for public, taxpayer-financed institutions such as schools to reject someone based on an individual’s beliefs or attributes? Most certainly. Should it be prohibited for private entities such as a church, bed and breakfast or retirement neighborhood that doesn’t want noisy children? Absolutely not.

Decisions concerning private property and associations should in a free society be unhindered. As a consequence, some associations will discriminate…

A free society will abide unofficial, private discrimination — even when that means allowing hate-filled groups to exclude people based on the color of their skin.

So Mr. Paul wrote on May 30, 2002 — a letter to the Bowling Green Daily News. If you’ve never met a Libertarian in the wild, that’s exactly what they sound like.

On the other hand, the Libertarians we’ve met don’t exactly sound like this:

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Fucking ATMs! How do they work?

Lawmakers walk past that ATM all the time on their way to votes on the Senate floor, but don’t expect to see Sen. Ben Nelson stopping to grab some quick cash.

The Nebraska Democrat pleaded ignorance when asked this week whether Congress should cap ATM fees. Nelson said that while he’s no fan of unnecessary fees, he’s unfamiliar with the charges.

“I’ve never used an ATM, so I don’t know what the fees are,” Nelson said, adding that he gets his cash from bank tellers, just not automatic ones. “It’s true, I don’t know how to use one.”

Yes, we know, Obama swore the other day that he’s never touched an iPod. But take away his Crackberry and watch him cry.

ATMs a mystery to senator [Omaha World-Herald, via Think Progress]

Rand Paul releases the most astonishing pledge of the 2010 campaign season:

“I unequivocally state that I will not support any efforts to repeal the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”

Glad that’s settled. Now to the next question: If it’s not Ayn or the Corporation, what is it?

[via Political Wire]