I saw a teaser that’s got me wondering what’s going on at NASA… WASHINGTON — NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years. This finding was made by combining data from…
Thank you, Rosemary, for sending me this interesting visual essay on the persistence of digital memory, from Instructables.com: Want to make a flash drive that nobody in a modern office would even think about taking? Hide it in a pink eraser and it’s secure in this digital age. Install windows 7 from USB
Blender3D is an awesome, insanely powerful, and completely free 3D design tool. I’ve been playing with it for about two years now, and while it took me a while to get used to the interface, I’m getting very comfortable in it. I’ve already posted blog entries about designing cabinets and a walking hectopus, but I…
Boston Globe: Without a robust study of literature there can be no adequate reckoning of the human condition – no full understanding of art, culture, psychology, or even of biology. As Binghamton University biologist David Sloan Wilson says, “the natural history of our species” is written in love poems, adventure stories, fables, myths, tales, and…
A thoughtful post about the fate of film criticism. Much of this boils down what happens when film criticism leaves the world of print journalism and adapts to the TV — not only in the content of the review but the context of celebrity/insider/gossip in which movies are presented to the public. (Armond White, New…
Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities: “You are standing at the end of a road before a small brick building. Around you is a forest. A small stream flows out of the building and down a gully.” Recognize these lines? They’re from the opening screen of Will Crowther’s ADVENTURE (1975), the first example of…
A few years old but, worth a few yuks, from McSweeney’s. In his nine years with the department, Dr. Jones has failed to complete even one uninterrupted semester of instruction. In fact, he hasn’t been in attendance for more than four consecutive weeks since he was hired. Departmental records indicate Dr. Jones has taken more…
A good example of new media journalism, in which narration and animation weave short video clips into a coherent analysis. Via the Washington Post. Our partners at Slate.com created a seven-minute satirical depiction of the Democratic primary season thus far. It covers Sen. Hillary Clinton’s “cackle,” Sen. Mike Gravel scowling at the camera, debates, former…
According to Metafilter, “Nothing signals the death of a trend like an article in the NY Times Style section.” Even his clothing — an unlikely fusion of current and neo-Edwardian pieces (polo shirt, gentleman’s waistcoat, paisley bow tie), not unlike those he plans to sell this summer at his own Manhattan haberdashery — is an…
Our Sons their Father’s failing mainframes see, And where lies reel-to-reel goes USB.
If your father is an English professor, how do you respond to poorly written signs in a kiddie park? Everywhere I go, I like taking pictures of signs with mistakes that make good classroom proofreading examples. Shortly after I moved to Western Pennsylvania, I learned that Idlewild Park is the regional version of Disneyland. Every…
Jason Lutes: With every step “forward” in any area of human endeavor, something is gained, and with rare exception there is a concomitant loss. I feel this keenly in video game design, as the cutting edge of graphics slices into the future, opening up new and ever hotter arteries of experience for the player, but…
This article from eSchoolNews does a good job emphasizing some of the relevant lessons from a recent Pew report: For most media outlets that reported on an important new survey measuring the impact of technology on teens’ writing skills, the big news from the survey was that emoticons and text-messaging abbreviations are creeping into students’…
Tomorrow is the last day of classes, but it’s not too late to bring up a new topic. Many of my students in “Intro to Literary Study” were fascinated by Orson Scott Card’s Ender’s Game, so I thought they might appreciate hearing about Card’s dismissal of J.K. Rowling’s suit against a fan-created reference work devoted…
The idea isn’t new, but the phrasing is clear and effective. Todd Alcott: Just as movies began as novelties shown before “real” entertainment, or as nickel entertainments in amusement arcades, well, that describes the early days of gaming as well. Movies went from Train Arriving at a Station to The Great Train Robbery in twelve…
The idea of paying for positive coverage at a scholarly conference is 0% original. Inside Higher Ed reports on Turnitin.com’s awkward efforts to get positive coverage at the 4Cs next year. (Via KairosNews, which links to blogger reactions.) The issue of paying professors to attend the 4C’s meeting is particularly sensitive because of the make-up…
Wired just loves technology. Here’s an article about a technological solution to forgetting. As a science fiction fan, I had always assumed that when computers supplemented our intelligence, it would be because we outsourced some of our memory to them. We would ask questions, and our machines would give oracular — or supremely practical —…
More cruel jokes to play on literal-minded people.
Reuters: To launch next year as a massively multiplayer online game, or MMOG to those in the gaming community, Lego Universe will let players create online versions of themselves and interact with each other. Thanks for the suggestion, Rosemary.
Not the best spoof I’ve ever seen, but if you really want to see a spoof of a trailer of a documentary about text adventure games, you might be somewhat amused. (Here’s the original.) I’m mocked in this, if that’s any incentive to anyone…