English continues to evolve. I noticed this construction several times today. “No, totally.” “No, definitely.” “No, exactly.” “No, yes.” These curious uses turn “no” into a kind of contranym: a word that can function as its own opposite. Out of the million-odd words in the English language, perhaps a hundred have this property. You can…
Are screenshorts slowly killing blogging as we know it? For some things, I think so, because it’s an easier and more authentic way to reach your fans, friends or followers directly on social media than it is to spend time setting up a blog and then sharing out the link. Sharing text as an image…
This author did a great job articulating the unease I felt when I learned about Apple’s racially diverse emoji. I don’t like it when interfaces translate my textual emoticons ;-) into graphic symbols. Now I feel like I’ll have to think deliberately about whatever color the autocorrect chooses for those graphics. Because I’m black, should I…
I’ve had the privilege of being this amazing person’s father for 13 years. Similar:Out for an April stroll.NatureSpace Shuttle Challenger (Destroyed 28 Years Ago Today)I was in my final semester of high schoo…EducationPushing and pulling vertices. Components that fit together perfectly when I model them in …AestheticsSlicing up a massively detailed trimsheet to simulate reflections…
Talked too much during a meeting today. Somehow ended up making two good suggestions. Guess who has two more items on his to-do list. Similar:Those Were the Days: On 'Nostalgia' When missing home was a diseaseAlthough we now associate nostalgia with…CultureMom’s Fears About Daughter Leaving For College Channeled Into Fight About Storage BinsImpatiently scanning store…
“The Rolling Stone article viewed by millions fueled a court of public opinion that ostracized Phi Kappa Psi members and led to vandalism of the fraternity house,” the fraternity’s statement said. “Clearly our fraternity and its members have been defamed, but more importantly we fear this entire episode may prompt some victims to remain in…
Sloppy journalism can ruin lives. Check your sources. Before publishing accusations against someone, get that person’s side of the story. My personal belief is that it’s silly to want to join clubs with greek letters, but then again in my spare time in the past few weeks I have pretended to be shot by a…
“There’s such an emphasis on keeping student enthusiasm going and getting them to want to actively participate. When you start talking about grammar, it’s like asking them to eat their vegetables, and no one wants to ask them to do that.” —Death to high school English – Salon.com. Similar:Come see Carolyn as “The Girl” in…
I have not seen the pizzeria TV interview in question, I have not been following developments in the controversy, and I won’t link to any of the coverage. Yellow journalism is bad when it supports an unjust status quo, or when it simply creates noise that distracts us from more important things. But it is…
A hypertext choose-your-own adventure narrative set at a board meeting at a game development company. You are the lead writer on a game that is going straight to hell. And guess who has to fix it? I clicked through out of curiosity and kept clicking. Very enjoyable.The Writer Will Do Something by Matthew S. Burns.…
This is nice, but what I really want to see is an Elizabethan-style revenge play featuring Clippy. December 9, 1968… in an underground convention center in the heart of San Francisco, Doug Engelbart gave The Mother Of All Demos, introducing the world to an astonishing slew of technologies including word processing, video conferencing, windows, links,…
Brother Consolmagno, who works in a Vatican observatory in Arizona and as curator of the Vatican meteorite collection in Italy, said a “destructive myth” had developed in modern society that religion and science were competing ideologies. He described creationism, whose supporters want it taught in schools alongside evolution, as a “kind of paganism” because it…
Fliers arriving at Swedens two biggest airports, Stockholm Arlanda and Goteborg Landvetter, can now kill time while waiting for their luggage by playing video game classics “Ms. Pac-Man,” “Space Invaders” and “Galaga.”Best of all, the machines in the “Charity Arcade” are custom-made to take coins of any currency, whether its yen, euro or pounds, and…
But, in addition to symbolizing despair, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ can be wielded as a Zen-like tool to accept the chaos of universe. Meditate on its wide eyes and upturned mouth; that’s not the expression of a quitter, it’s the carefree face of #blessed, radical openness. —The Awl. Similar:Teaching myself the #Unity3D game engine. Each step requires a…
The Daily Dot proceeded to shrug the GIF off, chalking it up as an unconventional “no comment.” But the YouTube rep then got back in touch a day later, demanding they include it in their story. No it’s not a joke, he said — “the GIF really is our official response, it technically wasn’t a decline…
Some days I am not Dennis. I am Marky McPaper Markerson. Or Meety McMeeter Meetingson. Days that I’m Ready McReader Readerson, it’s not so bad, but only part of that time am I reading for pleasure — I’m often reading to decide whether to teach a particular text, or wondering whether I should teach Flannery…
Blog ten-beat lines of verse, like Shakespeare wrote. But lazy bloggers, fill you not your posts With words transpos’d, poetic more to seem. Like this, who speaks? Like Yoda will you sound. Nor stuff your limping lines with pointless words And really wasteful phrases filling space And stretching points so thin across each line In order to fulfill the ten-beat rule. Yet rhymeless…
Looks like the quality control process at this school needs a little refinement.“The image was not representative of UNG’s commitment to diversity, and this will serve as an opportunity for increased dialogue about diversity issues and we expect that to better inform our processes and publications,” said Kate Maine, the university official. —Raw Story Similar:A…
This charming game focuses on exploring a wonder-filled solar system. The first time I found myself engulfed in the searing light of a collapsed star, I felt confused. Did I do something wrong? Was this the cosmic punishment for the hubris of reaching for the stars? But instead of dying, I found myself right back…
Scott Adams (creator of “Adventureland,” the first commercial home computer game) just posted this on his Facebook page: Hey Scott, Something you may not be aware of is the seminal role you played in the genesis of Max Headroom. There was a TRS80 at my place of work. When folks went home a few of…