I didn’t expect a pseudo-Elizabethan rendering of Star Wars to be great literature, but the R2 soliloquies add an unexpectedly amusing new narrative layer. So far, I can say the “Chorus” character is overused, too frequently walking onstage and delivering lines of exposition that ought instead be woven into the expanded dialogue between the characters.…
I asked my #geekling whether she was ready for bed; with her mouth full of mouthwash, she imitated Capt. Pike’s two-flash no. #tos #startrek Similar:Thou shalt not commit logical fallacies Thou shalt not commit logical fallaci…AmusingMy simulation project does not require me to master medieval daub and wattle architecture….My simulation project does not require m…AestheticsIn…
Just finished watching a two-part episode of classic Star Trek. I know all the old episodes backwards and forwards, since as a kid I made audiocassette tapes of the after-school reruns, and listened to them over and over. (The writers were never confident that the special effects would be any good, so a character always…
I keep a silly personal blog devoted to a six-legged toy that both my kids have outgrown but which still amuses me. I sometimes use that blog, and that toy, in classroom activities, and occasionally students develop an affection for what I called a “hectopus” (combining “hexagon” with “octopus,” though I concede “hexapus” would have…
Just as early filmmakers couldn’t have predicted the level of ongoing interest in their work more than 100 years later, who can say what future generations will find important to know and preserve about the early history of software? While the notion that someone might go diving into some long outmoded version of Word might…
RT @THATCampPGH: @DennisJerz Registration is open for #THATCamp #Pittsburgh! Spread the word…. Similar:Overheard at Quora: "Why after all these years is Moodle still so ugly?"Moodle is a free course-management tool …AcademiaAnd the girl has succeeded in getting me to wear t…And the girl has succeeded in getting me…Tweets10 Rules of Internet – Anil DashA very…
Every second is a deadline, every instant is a potential publication. Mistakes like this happen, and a healthy organization focuses on how to fix the system to avoid the problem, rather than on whom to blame. It looks as though they’ve fixed it, but for a glorious 16 minutes this was the Chicago Tribune homepage.…
If I can get the English majors in my news writing class interested in the statistics unit, I’ll be very happy indeed. “When I first realized that I had signed up to be in what is essentially an English class with only accounting majors, I expected the conversation and discussion of the books we read…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40MbeApiXXI Here are some clips from a heartfelt, belty ballad that my daughter and her good friend will be singing this weekend in “13: The Musical.” They’ll each be playing the part of Patrice (the protagonist’s love interest) on different nights. The song is “The Lamest Place in the World.” We spent a fun afternoon…
Lest you think this is just a complicated revenge scheme against my mom (which, let’s be clear, it is), it’s this exact phenomenon that keeps driving Facebook’s user engagement numbers down. Far more than the fears about future employment, more than the creepy coworker who “likes” all your bikini pictures, it is the fear of…
You dont actually get hired by Amazon. Almost everyone is employed by a staffing service. First though, you have to kill an hour and a half of your time filling out an application online and taking insane personality test. Im not sure why they have such a lengthy test Ive filled out a lot of…
I can’t summon up actual nostalgia for the postal service. Telegrams were always a much a better plot device: “It’s a telegram from my Aunt Sadie, you know, the one I’ve never mentioned before but whose pet allergies would no doubt disrupt Junior’s new dog-walking business. It seems she’s in town, but she doesn’t say…
This is certainly a joke, but it’s funnier than the original: You probably remember KTVU’s royal eff up with reading obviously fake Asian names for the pilots of the Asiana crash. Names like “Wi To Lo” and “Ho Lee Fuk”. It looks like a Korean news agency is having some fun at KTVU’s expense. After…
No big surprises here, but this blog post does a good job explaining why doing well on multiple choice questions does not prepare students for college. I took this sample AP test and Googled the 40 questions exactly as written. It took about 2 seconds to find the answers – and that was checking a…
“Police have cornered the suspect who reportedly put as many as 25 words on single line of this text. If caught, he faces… … a lengthy sentence.” Via Cheezburger Similar:Boston marathon bombing: All the mistakes journalists make during a crisis like the Boston… First, do not pass on speculatio…Current_Events‘You deserve that’: Commissioner’s wife arrested after…
In the restaurant parking lot after dinner (thanks, Grandma Pat) I mentioned to Carolyn that today is National Dance Day. She rarely needs much encouragement to perform. Similar:In an Unpredictable Job Market, How Should People Think About College Majors?I tell my students that if what they wan…AcademiaAlmost all the traffic to fake news sites is…
“Peter, if black holes aren’t a good conversation starter at the picnic, what else might you try?” “Superstring theory?” That’s my boy. Similar:World Trade Center Literary and Cultural Reflections (first posted September 11, 2001) Not knowing what else to do, in the nu…AestheticsLook what I found on my shelf in a closet. #history #archaeology #media…
To stash her Lemonheads and Smarties. http://t.co/Fr1luEpZ2b Similar:Overheard: "This is the best show I've ever seen at the Geyer" and "Who IS that girl playi…Gasps from the audience, shouts of “No!”…CultureOn the Ethics of Rebranding a Former Trump Administration Official as an Amusing TV Person…It’s also a disservice to readers to rep…CultureIn August, 2002, I…
This one is #3, “Man Lurking by Fence.” 19 Book Cover Clichés. Similar:You're not going to read thisI ask my students to contextualize links…BusinessWhat Is Gamergate, and Why? An Explainer for Non-GeeksI’ve been following the frustrating slow…Current_EventsOrson Welles Radio Play "War of the Worlds" at 75 The New York Times reported “Many Fl…CultureParchmap – Interactive…
In her new novel, Codecrafter, Sandbothe constructs a fantasy world to introduce programming possibilities to young readers. Programming is sorcery, and code makes spells. The novel focuses on Tagglinde, a young daughter of a lord, and her entry into the world of sorcery through learning programming, and using her knowledge of programming to defeat her…