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:Obamacare's broken website cost more than LinkedIn, Spotify combinedMuch of the criticism of Healthcare.gov …CultureStudents who grew up with search engines might change STEM education foreverThe headline is oddly STEM-specific, but…CybercultureThe Most Toys (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Three, Episode 22) Data Abducted by Eccentri…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….ArtComments on: A vane Osama bin Laden…
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:Witness Accounts in Midtown Hammer Attack Show the Power of False Memory Two people who saw a police encounte…Current_EventsMS-Word's helpful "View -> Focus" mode delays stress-related breakdowns.You won’t usually…
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:RT @DDeClaudio: Who do you think controls the news…RT @DDeClaudio: Who do you think control…TweetsHello, there, mini.Hello, there, mini. Let’s restore you fr…TweetsLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhillLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhi…TweetsIt's…
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:My college writing students are out making short videos responding to a prompt.While my students are out of the room ma…AcademiaNational Dance DayIn the restaurant parking…
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:How a Radical New Teaching Method Could Unleash a Generation of GeniusesFirst of all, I’m always wary about any …CultureBen Franklin Sings about Your Rights as a PhotographerIf you’re legally present on a…
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:On this date in 1999 I first added a date to the list of web links I had been curating. (T…On this date in 1999, I first dated an e…CybercultureHow The Ballpoint Pen Killed CursiveIn Death of a Salesman, Biff impulsively…BusinessThe Ascent #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch…
Next up: Stage Right summer musical theater camp starts Monday! Similar:And so it begins: the unmarked assignments counterThis little icon will control my life fo…AcademiaThe Hunted (ST: TNG Rewatch; Season Three, Episode 11) Honorable soldier exiled by the pea…(Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break…EthicsThe Man Who Photographed GhostsThis review of a book about early photog…AestheticsThe…
Testing a tool to automate connections between iOS apps. Similar:The Dadliest DecadeThe eighties, at least, were drenched in…HomeA New Talent EmergesI tried hard to frown disapprovingly whe…HomeHypertext as a Teaching Tool — Brown University Poetry Classroom 1974This short film documents an early attem…AcademiaSources tell Seton Hill University's Dennis Jerz that TV news websites emphasize self-prom…Sources…