Borges reinvented Don Quixote as a playful novel, full of surprises and unexpected anticipations of the way we read today. Across genres and over decades, his varied meditations opened new paths for readers. The following conversation took place during January 2016 between Ilan Stavans, Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College,…
My freshman writing students are among the scores presenting their research in preparation for drafting their big term paper. Similar:Video games 'teach dyslexic children to read' Playing games which require children t…CybercultureWilliam Zinsser: What Is Good Writing? (Clarity, Simplicity, Brevity, and Humanity.)Most of the students in my “News Writing…CultureWhy Textbooks And Education Are To Blame…
This is why I still blog. While commercial platforms like Facebook and Twitter are designed to keep you churning out new content that attracts shallow attention, a weblog encourages reflection, the exploration of lateral thinking and deep linking, and the accumulation of ideas (your chronologically sorted, taggable history of posts) over time. Mark C. Marino…
Similar:First Evidence That Social Bots Play a Major Role in Spreading Fake News Shad and co say bots play a part…AcademiaI'm Gradually Losing My Hearing. (It’s Part of Aging.)During a department meeting today, I not…AcademiaOpinion | Alec Baldwin Didn’t Have to Talk to the Police. Neither Do You. “[Police] will lie to you about what…
A third alum in the last few weeks has contacted me to thank me for challenging her while a student: When I look back on my time at SHU, I remember sometimes being annoyed with all of our blogging assignments, but yet again, this is proof that the skills you taught us so a few years ago…
Think of journalism as falling into three basic baskets: The “what” basket, the “so what” basket and the “now what” basket. The “what” basket is filled with reporting in a straightforward manner on things that happened. “There was a fire at 8th and Elm Street today. No one was injured,” and all that. The “so…
Fair use is a concept baked into US copyright law, and it’s a defense to copyright infringement if certain elements are met. The US Copyright Office says the defense is decided on a case-by-case basis. “The distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear…
Hundreds of thousands of people on Facebook followed BuzzFeed’s live video of two people putting rubber bands around a watermelon until it burst. We should all reflect on how journalism can make the news that is truly important interesting enough to compete with exploding fruit. Traditional media companies face the increasingly daunting task of hooking…
The boy’s personal best in terms of win-loss. Trophy for performance at his level. A fun Satuday. Similar:Subtle Stylesheet Tweaks for Mobile SiteOn the mobile version of my WordPress we…AestheticsWork-Life Balance, from 11(!) Years AgoI think I’m managing work-life balance p…AcademiaStanford to offer new undergraduate majors integrating humanities, computer scienceTraining humanists who can code like…
Was browsing YouTube for a few of my favorite movie swordfights. Yes, the left-handed thing from Princess Bride was clever, and sure, the upgrading from foils to sabres in The Great Race added tension. You might be cool with the quips, but you’ll never be “Cryano de Bregerac dueling Valvert while simultaneously composing a ballad…
I learned a lot while reading this enjoyable essay by Jimmy Maher. Looked at today, however, Sherlock certainly wasn’t a bad note to go out on. Being built on the sturdy foundation of everything Infocom had learned about making text adventures to date, it’s not notably, obviously innovative, but, impressively given that it is a…
It’s a world of trial and error and constant discovery, stuffed with byzantine secrets, obscure text commands and hidden recipes. And it runs completely counter to most modern computing trends. Where companies like Apple and Microsoft and Google want our computers to be easy to manipulate — designing point-and-click interfaces under the assumption that it’s…
A couple weeks ago I posted about a recent graduate and former Setonian editor-in-chief who said that skills she wasn’t at the time exactly thrilled I made her learn in the new media journalism program helped her land her first full-time job with benefits. Today I heard from a different former editor-in-chief, who was thrilled…
Similar:Progress on a customizable "[E] to Activate" system (Visual Scripting, Unity3D)https://youtube.com/shorts/-X8eBT5QoPY …CybercultureHard Time #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 19) O'Brien deals with the implanted m…Rewatching ST:DS9 A haggard O’Brien, wi…JusticeTrump administration gave Courage Award to a woman who criticized Trump, then rescinded th… The State Department revoked a pre…CultureIn March 2000, I was blogging…
“We Shall Overcome,” a song that was the “unofficial anthem to the civil rights movement,” was wrongly placed under copyright and should be put in the public domain, according to a lawsuit filed today in federal court. The complaint (PDF) was filed by the same group of lawyers who succeeded at putting the world’s most famous song, Happy Birthday, into…
By a set of strange coincidences, complicated by the history of Europe’s uneven adaptation of the Gregorian calendar, April 23 2016 marks the 400th anniversary of the deaths of both Miguel de Cervantes and William Shakespeare. In June I’ll be playing the villain in the Cabaret Theatre’s production of Man of La Mancha (which incorporates…
Similar:Visiting Ft Ligonier #sevenyearswar #history #localhistoryPersonalScrooge Is My BrotherMy daughter delivered the opening “Marle…CultureWorked a short day today, and it shows. Tomorrow is another day!PersonalBooks Come Alive! Catalina Magdalena Cast (Stage Right Greensburg) The cast for “Catalina Mag…BooksWe love us some Sherlock any way we can get it.PersonalHearing "Godzilla on My Mind" author Wiliam TsutsuiPersonal
My daughter plays the narrator, my wife plays the cat, and my son plays the robber. A 9-minute “All for One Stories” radio play. Produced by WAOB Audio Theatre. Similar:The President Versus ‘Fake News,’ AgainBret Stephens of the NYTimes says by acc…CultureEmpok Nor #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 24) Horror-themed visit to derelict Ca…Rewatching…
I have a pretty good idea whose woods these are, believe me. And let me tell you something, my people say he’s a complete nobody. This guy lives in the village. So what if he sees me stopping here? I dare him to sue me! I dare him! Rottingpost Similar:The Google Classroom TeaseJoshua Kim, Inside Higher Ed:…
I’m somewhat interested in the topic, but I’m actually posting about this because my freshman writing students are now in the process of gathering sources for their research paper. I have to train them to ignore reader-friendly science journalism like this, and instead engage directly with the academic source this reporter is summarizing. That’s a…