Fun With Charts: Scale Matters

At first glance, this chart makes it look like food stamp usage has gone from almost nothing at some unspecified time in the past, to some huge amount over a span of who-knows-how-long. Only a fraction of the visitors to the site will click on the chart to see the scale, which reveals that the…

Zork: The Great Underground Empire

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,…

Stop Clubbing, Baby Seals

Similar:Masked, vaxxed, and settling in to watch live theaterBarebones is a little black box theater,…BooksOkay, a lot of the world is pretty awful right now, but here's an uplifting video about th…https://youtu.be/umW4koJU3e0AmusingDiaper Money Camaro Comes Home Four Decades Later“While my dad has always spoken lovingly…AwesomeMaking Connections in Virtual One-ShotsI often invite my colleague Kelly Clever…AcademiaHere…

Tolkien v. Orwell: Who understood modern surveillance best?

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…

It’s Finally Ironic (You’re Welcome, Alanis)

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:#Blender3D practice: #Steampunk control panel #trimsheethttps://youtu.be/4j7qAzaDg3w   …AestheticsOur family has seen David Whalen in the persona of Sherlock in five or six different shows…Our family has seen David Whalen…

The Pixar Theory

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 trium…

The contrast between KTVU’s treatment of its triumphs vs errors reminds us of the difference between journalism vs public relations. Similar:Desert Bus: The Worst Video Game Ever CreatedPenn and Teller are involved with this s…BooksLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhillLoved seeing A Comedy of Errors @setonhi…TweetsOverheard at Quora: "Why after all these years is…

Woman’s work : Columbia Journalism Review

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:WATCH two undercover Sunday Times journalists being stung while trying to sting on TVHeidi Blake and Jonathan Calvert who run…AmusingTechnology won’t fix America’s neediest schools. It…

A quick primer on semicolons

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:STEM Education Won't Solve the World's ProblemsI love STEM. My SAT score for math was e…AcademiaWe Got A Look Inside The 45-Day Planning Process That Goes Into Creating A Single Corporat…The professionals don’t…

What kids do when Dad won’t hand over the iPod

So I’m not being selfish… this is a parenting strategy. Similar:Students are trusting software like this to do their work.  The technology will continue t…CultureWoman Yelling at Cat About Academic Argument: an evidence-based defense of a non-obvious p…See: Academic Argument: Evidence-based D…AcademiaShip in a Bottle (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 12) Barclay's holodeck hack…