[H]umor is very important in the classroom: it can keep students’ attention, it can diffuse tense situations, it can encourage creativity, and it can call attention to absurdity (and sometimes absurdity deserves it, whether its a social phenomena or inherent to a student comment). I even make a number of wisecracks or sarcastic comments, which…
There is clearly a need for CSS to be taken seriously by graphic artists. The Zen Garden aims to excite, inspire, and encourage participation. To begin, view some of the existing designs in the list. Clicking on any one will load the style sheet into this very page. The code remains the same, the only…
Microdoc News has now had feedback from more than 100 users of Google Adwords. The response from small advertisers is not convincing that Google AdWords actually works. There are one or two excellent supporters of the Google AdWords idea, but there are also the 88% of small-time advertisers who are having less than stellar results.…
Pcol writes “The Washington Post reports that ‘Spim,’ as people are beginning to call unsolicited instant messages, is the latest sign that online marketers will seek to take advantage of other communication tools, not limiting themselves to spam or pop-up ads. The good news is that it’s not easy for spimmers to send unsolicited instant…
Georgia Tech’s School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC) will offer a Ph.D. in Digital Media, starting fall 2004. The program, one of the first of its kind worldwide, is aimed at educating research-oriented theorist/practitioners who will bring the traditions of the humanities and arts to the design of digital media. Graduates of the program…
Some soldiers got drunk and climbed atop a memorial fountain before being run off politely by the Canadian police. Peter Miller, drafted out of the assembly line of a Procter & Gamble soap factory in Quincy, Massachusetts, found himself in jail in Seattle following a dustup at the bus station. | After a few weeks…
I used to read research papers as one would read comic books, eager to see what comes next, reveling about the subtlety of the artwork and the colors. After getting an insider’s view of academe, I recognize that: 1. Now I would rather read comic books than research papers, and 2. The main, most pervasive,…
Video games have received more attention over the past several years as their revenue has grown faster than any other form of digital entertainment. Gross revenue from video-game hardware and software sales has surpassed revenues from movie ticket sales, video rentals and concert tickets, according to Mike Goodman, senior analyst with the Yankee Group. —Katie…
How do you describe what can’t be seen? Well, thank goodness for the marvelous metaphor. If you took all the metaphors I’ve used over the years and stacked them up end to end, they would reach from Earth to the far side of Uranus and back. But all the good metaphors I’ve used could dance…
Actor Christopher Lee has said he was mystified to learn that his key scenes have been dropped from the third Lord of the Rings movie. —Rings director cuts wizard scenes (BBC) Lee plays Sarumon, and in the book he reappears in the climax that brings the Hobbits back to the Shire. So far, I have been…
Forget discriminating people based on their race, religion, gender, or colloquial term for four-square, it‘sall about playlistism. That‘sright, judging people by their iTunes playlist. Now, I can’t take full credit for this idea; playlistism is really the brainchild of Katie ?the iTunes Hatemonger? Brown, but if playlistism ever takes off like the Klu Klux Klan…
Whether you’re rich, poor or somewhere in between, time probably seems to be in short supply. And when intrusions keep draining away precious moments, you probably feel some combination of annoyance, frustration and anger. —Norman Soloman —The Steady Theft of Our Time (Alternet) This time of year on college campuses, time is an especially precious resource.…
Would you accept a gamble that offers a 10-percent chance to win $95 and a 90-percent chance to lose $5? The great majority of people in the study rejected this proposition as a loser. Yet, a bit later, the same individuals were asked this question: Would you pay $5 to participate in a lottery that…
I was reading a New York Times article on financial aid, and how rich schools like Stanford get more aid money than regular colleges that actually educate average or lower-income students. Then, out of no where, came Seton Hill. —Julie Young spots a quote from SHU’s president. —Rich Schools Get More Financial Aid Money (Work in…
—Saturday’s Lunar Eclipse (Yahoo/AP) I didn’t actually see this part of the eclipse, but I put off Peter’s bath so I could take him out during the totality, and then cut his bath short so I could show him the moon re-emerging. Peter asked whether an eclipse was dangerous, and wanted to hold my hand. Of…
By presenting us with colourful screens and buttons for us to click on, Microsoft encourages us to believe that we can force computers to adapt entirely to our preferences for visual images, without having to adapt ourselves to their preference for text. | But not only does this prevent people from getting inside the machine…
A century after the Wright brothers briefly piloted an ungainly aircraft 12 feet above the dunes of North Carolina, humanity is reaching another milestone: getting a craft to the threshold between the solar system and interstellar space. —Peter N. Spotts —Voyager Sails to Edge of Solar System (CS Monitor) I was glued to the TV set…
The PDA is Dead… Long Live the PDA!Literacy Weblog) The Palm has changed a lot in six years. When I bought mine in 1997 (or was it early 1998?) it was called a “Pilot.”
Some were allowed to play simple Windows games like Solitaire and Minesweeper, while other “control” groups were denied the chance…. The results were measured against how they felt about the work they do and their job. | “The groups that played games showed improvement on both of these measures,” says Professor Goldstein. —Games at Work…
—There is no website configured at this address (Google?!) Aahhh! Somebody tell me there’s a virus on my computer! I don’t want to believe this… I noticed it at about 1:20 am EST.