I finished reading to my daughter the fourth of the nine “Heck” books, featuring Milton and Marlo Fauster, who find themselves in the adolescent afterlife.. This book features a visit to the Furafter, the animal version of the afterlife. I love the fact that the canine equivalent of Limbo is called “Stay!” I also wept…
A blogger has started chronicling a journey through the classic 1980s computer game, Zork. Before King’s Quest and its successors took the realm of adventure gaming into colorful graphics, adventure titles were solely text. Infocom specialized in these during the 80s, including the Zork series, Planetfall, and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. But Zork,…
From Profhacker: If you’ve ever wanted to do sophisticated text analysis on your smartphone, you’re in luck. The University College of London Center for the Digital Humanities team made up of Melissa Terras (@melissaterras), Steven Gray (@frogo) and Rudolf Amman (@rkamman) has just released Textal, a free smartphone app currently available only on iOS that…
Similar:The Sacramentality of Teaching and LearningFor the one-credit journalism class that…AcademiaEdible Chess Chess pastry cutters handmade in bra…AestheticsCommonly Misused Words: THAN and THEN Amusing8 (Short Halloween film by Josh Reardon)My daughter and I appear in this short f…AestheticsTwitter is testing a tool for reporting fake & offensive contentIt’s risky to get your news from a…
Interesting set of observations exploring the limits of omniscience and the sheer scale involved in watching an entire population. Failures in empathy lead to misinterpretation of anonymous rebellion in plain sight. Tolkien’s most potent and intimidating image of centralized surveillance, the Eye of Sauron atop a tower, taking in the whole world, has resonated with…
This project looks promising. I’ve donated the money I was going to spend on a haircut. We’re keeping our UI super simple. The experience is entirely sound and story: Writing + Voiceover + SFX + Music. With either a spoken word or a simple tap on the screen you can listen to the drama unfold…
A recent Pew study (Smartphone Ownership 2013) found that blacks were about 10% more likely than whites to own smartphones, and that young urban people regardless of income are very likely to own smartphones. (With older people, a smartphone is more of a luxury.) It’s little wonder, then, that phone-friendly Twitter has been such a…
These are shoe-holding racks at a local indoor play area, where I took my daughter and a friend for a few hours. Why buy six different rainbow-colored shoe-holding racks, if you’re not going to arrange them in the proper order? I really wanted to pick up the purple one and at least put it in…
Sample, improved lyrics: “An old man turned 98 /He won the lottery, and died the next day (from a severe paper cut from his lottery ticket).” Similar:It's a Didactic Day in the Neighborhood: Mister Rogers and Educational IdeologyI recently lamented that my kids are gro…AestheticsLet’s Make the Academic Job Market More HumaneIt’s been decades since…
Rewatching the classic Trek episode “The Conscience of the King,” which features a Shakespearean acting troupe. In one scene, McCoy writes a report on a wedge proto-iPad… …but in the very next scene Kirk scrawls on a piece of paper. This episode also features characters doing computer searches, using an exposition-friendly voice interface to call…
At least three journalists left NBC, after the network aired a tape of George Zimmerman, edited in a manner that substantially altered its content. Filed in Seminole County, the suit adds that “NBC News saw the death of Trayvon Martin not as a tragedy but as an opportunity to increase ratings, and so set about…
Jon Negroni creates a meta-narrative to connect every Pixar movie, using Boo as the still point in the turning universe. Every Pixar movie is connected. I explain how, and possibly why. Several months ago, I watched a fun-filled video on Cracked.com that introduced the idea (at least to me) that all of the Pixar movies…
The contrast between KTVU’s treatment of its triumphs vs errors reminds us of the difference between journalism vs public relations. Similar:10 Rules of Internet – Anil DashA very useful, concise summary of web-en…BusinessI'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is really noteworthy. Today the Pre…Current_EventsProto iPads and Paper Coexist in Classic Star TrekRewatching…
Last week, the Fox-afiliated KTVU fell for a prank, repeating offensive fake names for the pilots involved in the crash of Asiana Flight 214 last week. [S]even-year veteran KTVU producer Brad Belstock closed his @producerBB Twitter account after his last Friday tweet just moments after the names were read aloud on the air by Tori Campbell.…
Francesca Borri writes of being a freelancer and a woman covering the war in Syria. (When my life gets hectic, a story like this helps me keep some perspective.) Similar:The annual patriotic showing of #1776 has begun.CultureEducation: Teaching teachers how to teach readingI’m definitely seeing students in my fre…BooksSo glad to be attending another live…
Is your Sunday feeling incomplete because you haven’t read anything about punctuation today? This explanation of the semicolon should help. You’re welcome. Similar:Student journalist experiences the 'trickle down' of hostility toward the pressMy own students haven’t described encoun…Academia2001: A Space Odyssey – Discerning Themes through Score and ImageryIncredibly detailed close reading of the…AestheticsI rather like…
My wife is something of a hoarder. Now, as it happens, I have saved my half of the slip of paper that I tore so that we could write down each other’s phone numbers back when we were about 22, but she saves old catalogs and phone books (phone books!) from years ago. Sometimes, when…
So I’m not being selfish… this is a parenting strategy. Similar:Adventure | T.M. CampGreat story of nerdiness and discovery a…CybercultureSo Long Blogging. Hello—Yep, We're Going to Say It—PloggingI still blog, because I want control ove…BusinessFake Graph: The Actual "Dunning-Kruger Effect" Is NOTHING Like I Thought It WasFor years, I’ve been teaching a fake gra…AcademiaOne deck…
Next up: Stage Right summer musical theater camp starts Monday! Similar:In-home schooling popularity slipping across stateWe were on our way out the door to see A…CultureHabits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side of lifeHabits for happiness: tips for looking o…PersonalIn September, 2002, I was blogging about science writing, satire, ebonics, Google News,…
Testing a tool to automate connections between iOS apps. Similar:Kirby Delauter SagaLet’s hope many, many more journalism st…HomeDress Rehearsal for Laurel Ballet "Alice in Wonderland"My daughter is playing the “Caterpillar …HomeWhen a Blogger Shares a Too-good-to-be-true Meme Featuring Hilarious Handwritten Notes fro…Or something like that.HomeSchadendrücke: Click-shameHomeI can probably remove that link to LycosOn a web…