The Amazon Mystery: What America’s Strangest Tech Company Is Really Up To

Seriously: What is Amazon? A retail company? A media company? A logistics machine? The mystery of its strategy is deepened by two factors. First is the company’s communications department, which famously excels at not communicating. Three requests to speak with Amazon officials for this article were delayed and, inevitably, declined. This moves discussions of the…

Tween: “My friends say Bieber’s a jerk now.” Me: “…

Tween: “My friends say Bieber’s a jerk now.” Me: “It’s hard when your idols fall.” Tween: “That’s why I don’t have any. Except for you.” Similar:RT @DDeClaudio: Who do you think controls the news…RT @DDeClaudio: Who do you think control…Tweets10 Rules of Internet – Anil DashA very useful, concise summary of web-en…BusinessHabits for happiness: tips…

Nerdy Rainbow Loom Crafting

My wonderfully geeky tween made these Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde pendants with her Rainbow Loom. Next on her list: making Pac-Man. Similar:Page Layout 101: Proximity creates context. Don't let this happen to you.DesignI just discovered what will grind up a significant portion of my free time over the break.So Khan Academy now has a…

AP reporter’s mistake: Did the punishment fit the crime?

Reporters have been sometimes fired for willful misconduct, such as repeated instances of plagiarism or fabrication. Reporters who’ve suffered that fate, such as the New York Times’ Jayson Blair and The Washington Post’s Janet Cooke, were guilty of gross journalistic malpractice. But firing a reporter over an unintentional mistake is “extremely rare,” said Scott Maier,…

The Decline of Wikipedia: Even As More People Than Ever Rely on It, Fewer People Create It

I’m getting ready to introduce my freshman writing students to college-level research, so I found it helpful to read this brief introduction to the internal problems Wikipedia creates for itself. When a major news event takes place, such as the Boston Marathon bombings, complex, widely sourced entries spring up within hours and evolve by the…

“Does size matter?” — student journalist, making…

“Does size matter?” — student journalist, making a person-on-the street video interview about the new iPad. Similar:I'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is really noteworthy. Today the Pre…Current_EventsLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhillLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhi…TweetsI asked my geekling whether she was ready for bed…I asked my #geekling…

RT @joningold: Thing is, the freedom of the parser…

RT @joningold: Thing is, the freedom of the parser is a sham – not because it *doesn’t* understand everything but because no-one plays as t… Similar:Hello, there, mini.Hello, there, mini. Let’s restore you fr…TweetsTweet: Came around the corner and saw my kids huddled on…Came around the corner and saw my kids h…TweetsHow hate and misinformation…

Attribution, Editorializing and Defamation

In the Nightly Noodle Monthly, former North Adams Transcript journalist Isaac Avilucea posts this passage, which he says was removed from a sports feature that got him fired. But there’s a reason she’s not at MountGreylock anymore, choosing to transfer to a school with somewhat inferior academics and athletics. Part of it has to do with the stuffy social atmosphere that…

I just did the thing where you look everywhere for…

I just did the thing where you look everywhere for your glasses but you can’t find them because you are already wearing them. Similar:I asked my geekling whether she was ready for bed…I asked my #geekling whether she was rea…AmusingMy Minecraft-obsessed tween made this blocky foam pig at art camp. Next up: Stage Right summer…

The t-shirt many professors would enjoy wearing

Inside Higher Ed Similar:‘Not good, not nice’: At Florida rally, Trump says China has ‘targeted our farmers’They weren’t the most newsworthy part of…Current_EventsEveryone Should Get an ADoes a bus-driver-training school rank i…AcademiaJournalists dream of puns like this.AmusingRivals (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 11) A charming entrepreneur opens a casi… Rewatching ST:DS9 A man in…

Digital Storytelling (EL231: Topics in Creative Writing)

EL231 “Digital Storytelling” (Dec 18-Jan 22) Unit 1 (Dec 18-22) mostly experiencing digital stories (reading, watching, listening, playing, whatever), and reading articles & discussing them online. (We take a break Dec 23-Jan 1: no classes, no homework.) Unit 2 (Jan 2-7) trying out 4-5 tools for creating digital stories, and learning two in a little…

Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming

Neil Gaiman tells us why books matter: When you watch TV or see a film, you are looking at things happening to other people. Prose fiction is something you build up from 26 letters and a handful of punctuation marks, and you, and you alone, using your imagination, create a world and people it and…

In the publications office with student journalist…

In the publications office with student journalists. I’ve heard them saying “affirmative” and “negative.” The editor just said “Make it so.” Similar:Tweet: For an anatomy project, my #geekling made a Vulcan…For an anatomy project, my #geekling mad…TweetsHello, there, mini.Hello, there, mini. Let’s restore you fr…TweetsJuror's CreedWhile researching my obligations for #ju…CultureIn Defense Of Metaphors In…

Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies

  Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies poster. Similar:Axios journalism style delivers traditional news content in scannable formatIn addition to the fact that it’s good n…Current_EventsI just dusted off a #textadventure project I started in Inform6 around 1999.I just dusted off a #textadventure proje…CybercultureThe Masterpiece Society (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 5, Episode 13) Space Thing…