This applet parses news feeds from several sources and plots the headlines in descending order of date, refreshing every minute.

It shows headlines from the past 4 hours, with a 1 hour offset to account for human delay. As time goes on, the headlines shrink and fade out and fall off the screen.

My goal was to somehow represent the idea that time does not have one rigid "speed", but rather accelerates and decelerates based on the number of "significant events" that happen. According to Kurzweil, time only seems to flow at a steady pace "when you're stuck in the eons in which not much happens". In this applet, in periods where there are no headlines, there is no evidence that time is actually passing. In effect, you cen determine the speed of time by the density of the headlines in any one area.

Check out this article by Ray Kurzweil for more information http://www.kurzweilai.net/meme/frame.html?main=/articles/art0277.html

Use the up and down arrow keys to move through time.

Source code: NewsClock

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