“It began as a fireside story spun by a Catholic dad. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings became a great epic that has inspired conversions, steeled young people in virtue, and changed lives — including mine.” John Zmirak —The Lord and the Ring (catholic.net) Similar:Taking the Lid Off the McDonald’s Coffee CaseHave you heard the…
“There’s only so much time. And there are so many great books. And every year more books are published, some of which will be great. Reluctantly, the reader begins to acknowledge the appalling necessity of choosing to read certain good things and not other good things.” —Reading Anxiety (Nat’l Post) Similar:National Day on WritingNCTE, the…
Hundreds of websites that used to give their content away for free are now charging for their services. This weblog chronicles the changes. —The End of Free Similar:Is this why oldsters love nostalgia? I’m 50. I’m in my office casually sharp…CultureYour verbs have been lost and will be invisible until sentence author revision.The marketers and…
Yelling out of cars, turning your speakers out the window to blast your music onto the street, setting off M-80 firecrackers, firing automatic weapons into the air—these are all well and good. But none of them create a merry atmosphere of insouciance and bonhomie quite like a revving motorcycle. —Wow, Check out that Motorcycle Revving! (The…
You have not truly lived, until you have seen Star Wars rendered as ASCII animation. The FAQ page includes the answer to “Why (oh, God why)?” Similar:Ensign Ro (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 3) New Bumpy-nosed Officer Is Stubbor…Rewatching ST:TNG Picard is ordered to …CultureBoy, this sort of thing sure makes some racist people…
is an open-source encyclopedia. If it doesn’t have an entry for something, you can write it yourself! —Wikipedia Similar:Inverted Pyramid: A news story starts with what's most important, not with whoever spoke f…Jerz > Writing >&nb…JournalismGoogle engineer put on leave after saying AI chatbot has become sentientWe’ve all encountered this scene in all …CybercultureAdventure | T.M. CampGreat story…
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house / Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse… [More or Livingston? Authorship uncertain.] —“A Visit from St. Nicholas” Similar:Woman Yelling at Cat About Academic Argument: an evidence-based defense of a non-obvious p…See: Academic Argument: Evidence-based D…AcademiaUndergrad Danielle Sidoti Nails an Oral Interpretation/Analysis of…
Very sad: “Sixteen mothers, all of whom were pregnant on Sept. 11 and lost their husbands in the terrorist attacks, and their babies are photographed with news anchor Diane Sawyer.” —Sept. 11 Widows with NewbornsAP via Yahoo!) Similar:Perspective | After Hannity’s travesty, Fox News redeems itself (just a tad) with a bold e…Fox News was…
Programming bugs have bedeviled many a scientific researcher. Now, some researchers in Japan have programmed a bug. Thanks to a surgically-implanted device, scientists can control the motion of “Robo-roach.” —Weird Science (Guardian) Similar:Journalism, Fake News, and "Clickbait Defamation"Sometimes when my social media contacts …CultureNASA Just Found a Lost SpacecraftIf movies about space have taught us…
“An experiment to uncover the world’s funniest jokes has found that some computer-generated gags can be more amusing than those thought up by humans.” —What Kind of Murderer has Moral Fibre? (New Scientist) Similar:Journey's End (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 20) Picard must relocate a North … Rewatching ST:TNG An obviously tr…CultureGo Forth and…
Children born to high-tech nerds appear more likely to show signs of a behavioral disorder similar to autism. Silicon Valley cases are booming. —The Geek Syndrome (Wired) Similar:Loved part 2 of Romeo and Juliet @thepublicpgh #pptplaytime (Next week: Tartuffe)CultureFacebook Hired Journalists to Train Its Trending Topics AlgorithmRecently I noticed an unusually incendia…BusinessFake News Remains Top…
“We are confident that you will have many years of trouble-free enjoyment if you carefully read these instructions and follow them.” (Note: Anybody who bothers to read instructions at all is probably already grouchy and impatient.) —IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ CAREFULLY! Similar:Testing out my new greenscreenFriendly advice… If you are practicing…AestheticsHigh Schooler's Fake Story of Stock…
“Does Jackson’s effort remain reasonably true to Tolkien’s richly imagined universe? And will filmgoers not inculcated with the lore of Middle Earth enjoy it anyway? The answers, happily, are ‘probably’ and ‘definitely.’” —Ring: One for the BookWired) Similar:Another day, another 10 square centimeters of #steampunk control panel. #blender3d #blende…AestheticsIt's “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” 111th birthdayInteresting introduction…
Search an index of 6000 frequently-updated weblogs, news summaries, and opinion pages; or, see a list of the top 40 pages cited by the ‘bloggers who create Internet buzz. My new second-favorite website (after google). —DayPop.com Similar:Haiku'da Been a Spam FilterLatest weapon against junk e-mail: poetr…CybercultureI actually don't mind Canvas — it just happens to…
Over a century before Orson Welles’s “War of the Worlds” hoax, the New York Sun‘s moon hoax claimed that an astronomer discovered life on the moon. The website also describes many other hoaxes —Museum of Hoaxes Similar:Inverted Pyramid, #SharpieGate edition Context: Sunday, President Trump twe…Current_EventsThe Declaration Of Independence, 240 Years Later (NPR)When in the Course…
(book review) : “…the activity stilled, the cars, houses and workplaces buried beneath layers of volcanic ash, the artefacts of a single moment preserved. What could we learn…?” —Imagine Silicon Valley Buried Like Pompeii Similar:Interface (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 3) LaForge, using experimental augmen…Rewatching ST:TNG The cold open featu…AmusingEnsign Ro (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch,…
“Much web design has suffered from an over reliance on graphic design principles. Too many graphic designers have tried to force the Web to be what it is not…” —Information Architecture vs. Graphic Design (New Thinking) Similar:I told them to put their name on both pages.I told them to put their name on both pa…AcademiaControversial…
“My cookies, cakes, and brownies are always the highlight of our church bake sales, and everyone says so,” said parishioner Connie Barrett, 49, openly committing the sin of pride. —All Seven Deadly Sins Committed at Church Bake SaleSatire from The Onion) Similar:My daughter found where all the missing pens and pencils end upAmusingEdible Chess Chess…
“From Oklahoma City to New York, we’ve turned violent human loss into epic narratives of suffering and patriotism. Does this help people heal or hurt them?” —Trauma Culture (Salon) Similar:TSA Agent ConfessionIt was May 2007. I was living with a boh…CultureA day after using an apparently altered hurricane map, Trump defends his Alabama claimIt was…
An informal 1998 survey by John Rhodes yielded the following advice: create your content first, then design your website; keep your design simple; use proper grammar. —How to Gain the Trust of Your UsersWebWord) Similar:Liking Everything He Saw on Facebook for 24 Hours Turned Him Into a Marketing MachineI like everything. Or at least I…