Balloon Boy Dad: "Absolutely No Hoax"

When Heene appeared, he instead simply displayed a box into which he invited the media to submit questions, to be answered this evening. —CBS Well, he’s managed to extend his fame by another 15 minutes. Similar:The State Of Media EmploymentThis is why I require my “new media jour…BusinessJournalism, Fake News, and "Clickbait Defamation"Sometimes when my…

Animator vs. Animation by *alanbecker on deviantART

Jaw-droppingly cool– though it probably helps if you’ve ever worked with Flash. Animator vs. Animation Similar:Academics want to preserve video games. The game industry is fighting them in court.For decades, champions of the video game…BusinessAn alternate universeMy plans to use a Chromebook over the we…CultureChapbooks — the latest assignment in my “History and Future of…

Alright, already! Sheesh.

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The End of the Email Era

When people can more easily fire off all sorts of messages–from updates about their breakfast to questions about the evening’s plans–being able to figure out which messages are truly important, or even which warrant a response, can be difficult. Information overload can lead some people to tune out messages altogether. Such noise makes us even…

The first action heroine

In the figure of the coltish, resolute Sigourney Weaver, Alien may just be the film that overhauled the old, unreconstructed horror genre and dared to put a woman centre-stage. Because make no mistake: a horror movie is what Alien is. “It’s basically a haunted house film,” explains the critic David Thomson. “The only difference is…

Tips on Writing a Literary Book Review

I’ve asked students in my “Writing about Literature” class to write a book review, in order to establish a connection to the literary world outside the classroom. The Purdue Online Writing Lab has a brief handout, Writing a Book Review, which begins by explaining the difference between a “book report” (written for the teacher who…

Alice and Kev

Robin Burkinshaw has finished Alice and Kev, an interesting exercise in computer-assisted storytelling, using screen shots from The Sims 3 to tell the story of a homeless father and daughter. Originally the story was told serially, with a few posts a week; then there were a few very long gaps, but the story is finished…

Insidious pedagogy: How course managment systems impact teaching

Course management systems (CMSs), used throughout colleges and universities for presenting online or technology-enhanced classes, are not pedagogically neutral shells for course content. They influence pedagogy by presenting default formats designed to guide the instructor toward creating a course in a certain way. This is particularly true of integrated systems (such as Blackboard/WebCT), but is…

The Simpsons on Classroom Technology

Full episode. “Text ‘uncle’! Text ‘uncle’!!” “But why talk… when I could text?” “That text was totally worth the 15 cents it cost to receive it!” “Then Zach Skyped us, liveblogged our spelling bee, and friended us on Facebook!”“Faculty lounge talk out in the halls?” Similar:I felt a great disturbance in the Fandom”…as if millions…

Walkthrough (Zork Funk)

Walkthrough pifieErrol Download this MP3 Directly Similar:Entire staff of Russian TV channel resigned during a live stream with last words: “no war”…The Entire staff of the Russian TV chann…AestheticsToday's Computer Displays Distort Pixel Art Designed for 1980s CRTsAs a kid, I remember studying my CRT dis…AestheticsChecking sources back in 2006 involved using this *steampunk* contraption.Research…

The Fiction Generator

All kinds of awesome metatronics going on here. Similar:Rocky Horror Show Live 2012 — Stage Right GreensburgThrow toast at the actors and get spaced…AmusingUp the Long Ladder (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, Episode 18) — The Enterprise Visits the Pl…(Rewatching Star Trek: TNG after a 20-ye…EthicsWhat Critics of Student Writing Get Wrong  [T]o improve as writers,…

Federal Judge Rules Video Games are Protected "Expressive Works"

On Wednesday, a federal district court in Los Angeles dismissed Brown’s claim against Electronic Arts for the use of his image in its Madden NFL series. Judge Florence Marie-Cooper essentially found that video games are “expressive works, akin to an expressive painting that depicts celebrity athletes of past and present in a realistic sporting environment.”…