The Pope’s Prayer for Countering “Fake News”

Today is the feast of St. Francis de Sales, patron saint of journalists. We are sharing a famous prayer that #PopeFrancis has adapted: a prayer to fight #fakenews. If you know a journalist, give them some love today, and feel free to share this prayer. (CNS illustration/Joanna Korhorst) —Catholic News Service Similar:Grading the MOOC UniversityThe MOOC classrooms are…

Details from the author’s life are not the magic ticket to “correct” interpretations in literature class

Students who are new to college literature classes often value literary biography very highly, expecting that one of their tasks is to spot one-to-one relationships between the literary texts and the personal lives of the authors. For instance, from the two Sylvia Plath poems that use Nazi imagery to describe troubled relationships with paternal figures,…

My schedule every Friday this term. (Payback for teaching a course over Christmas break.)

  Similar:Another 10 sq cm of details for a #steampunk control panel. Just background eye candy, not…AestheticsA student who had often been frustrated during my class used this poem in her final reflec… PersonalFrom Shakespeare to Sondheim to Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker, everything you "dew&#0…PersonalTips to Improve HappinessKing says many simple and effective tech…CultureWhen it comes to the…

AmLit Rescue — Scratch Game

A student in my “American Literature: 1915-Present” class used the medium of a 2D graphic adventure game to deliver her multimodal final project. (Students also wrote a traditional term paper.) You are the cameraman of a new TV show based on Thornton Wilder’s “The Skin of Our Teeth.” But things quickly go downhill when a…

Updating a handout I originally wrote in 1998. #tech #writing

A mechanism description analyzes (that is, subdivides into components for further scrutiny) an object in space. When you try to organize your major subsections, if no other obvious pattern seems appropriate, you can always fall back on the more-important-to-less-important strategy. Don’t sell the object. A technical writer is not required to persuade the reader that the object is wonderful,…

Playing a well-dressed bad guy.

  Similar:Enjoying some sibling nerdtime with Lego The Hobbit.GamesI was briefly excited that Turnitin.com's new app works in a park with no WiFiThen I realized… I’m a guy who gets ex…AcademiaWe are all of us works in progress. Sometimes progress looks messy.PersonalYes, this is my 11yo daughter yodeling on stage.http://youtu.be/reyclH7zuHIAmusingForgotten closet box: powder blue summer…

Father-daughter bonding between takes.

That’s a prop knife in my right hand. Similar:Real college classes have writing assignments and required reading.While I can imagine teaching a course th…AcademiaVoiceover artist Gayanne Potter urging ScotRail to remove her voice from new AI announceme…When I was working in radio news in the …CultureToday's 10 sq cm of a #steampunk control panel (background…

Tonight’s Supermoon.

Similar:It's Friday night in July, and I'm jamming with my fall course preps.The dean sends me an email at 9:07pm. In…AcademiaMore bits of my summer project – another delightful span of a #neovictorian #steampunk con…AestheticsI have for some reason reached another #duolingo milestone.CultureRanked First out of 2 Billion Google Hits for Something Really ObscureI just…

Using a Typewriter Simulator to Teach Media History

Working on the syllabus for my “Media and Culture” class on the history and future of the book. Similar:Liking Everything He Saw on Facebook for 24 Hours Turned Him Into a Marketing MachineI like everything. Or at least I did, fo…BusinessWhat’s My Cue? Let’s Talk Shakesepare with Andy Kirtland Virtural #BritsburghCultureI just picked up both…

My parents doing their daily crossword.

I’m spending a few days visiting my parents in Northern Virginia. Similar:The Battle (TNG Rewatch, Season 1, Episode 8) A Ferengi plots tricks with Picard's former …A Ferengi set on revenge tricks Picard i…HistoryAdded a splash of color to this section of a #neovictorian #steampunk control panel (for m…AestheticsAnniePersonalI am happy with how this turned…

Consciousness: Where Are Words?

Words, words, words. With the advent of the stream of consciousness in twentieth-century literature, it has come to seem that the self is very much a thing made of words, a verbal construction forever narrating itself and reconstituting itself in language. In line with the dominant, internalist view of consciousness, it is assumed that this…

Merry Christmas 2017

  Similar:A stranger approached me today.A stranger approached me today. I was a…CultureToiletries for a steampunk villain who needs to look dapper. Straight razor and shaving br… Nice lighting shows clearly that I h…DesignThe girl will be dancing as the Gold Fairy in Laurel Ballet's Sleeping Beauty tonight… PersonalWhen your January term starts Dec 18. #partylikeaprofAcademiaThe…