These comic panels cover the issue well. (Pennington Publishing) Similar:The Mystery of Charles Dickens by Joyce Carol OatesDickens is so brilliant a stylist, his v…AestheticsHas Academia Ruined Literary Criticism? “Professing Criticism” proceeds on the…AcademiaReflections on Flannery O'Connor's "The River"I’m teaching “The River” today in an “In…CultureNotes on Teaching August Wilson's Pittsburgh CycleI first taught…
A thoughtful reflection on religion in Star Trek. While Humans aren’t depicted as participating in any form of organized religion (there is a reference to a Christmas party here, a nod to monotheism there), the series also includes a distrust of science and technology, regularly depicting mad scientists, societies over-dependent on technology, etc.) that insists…
If you’re legally present on a public street or sidewalk, you can legally photograph anything in plain view. (This includes children and crime victims… but just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea.) If law enforcement engages you, ask whether you are free to go; if so, then move out of the…
Standardized testing rewards standardized thinking, while excluding creativity, resilience & other “soft” skills. I have started gong out of my way to remind students in my classes that I am not comparing their papers to a “correct answer” in the back of my book — I want them to learn a habit of mind that…
It’s a good day when one’s nerdiness is an asset to a colleague. Similar:2023 public domain debuts include last Sherlock Holmes workFritz Lang’s Metropolis, the first talki…AcademiaOn set as Betsy and Philip Schulyer in an historical film.PersonalEquus. Powerful theatre.PersonalFacebook, Now You Remind Me of a Half-Drunk Cocktail Party SchmoozerLast week, Facebook asked me what sports…BusinessOpt Out…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:Date a girl who reads.I earned a +8 or +9 spousal bonus when I…AmusingMy older brother falls to my son's chess skills.PersonalI am very happy for these folks, who spent 20 or so years tweaking an insanely complex, co… AwesomeThe Last Jedi: Oh, the Feels.No spoilers here. (I…
Keep a local backup of anything important you’ve entrusted to online services. There’s no guarantee that, years from now, those services will honor the terms you agreed to. Backed by new investors, including singer Justin Timberlake, Myspace (after dropping the capital ‘S’) has been rebranded as a music-streaming service, with a new sleek interface, and…
Penn and Teller are involved with this story. Worth a read. The only record of the game’s existence was a handful of review copies that had been sent out to journalists in the weeks before the publisher went bust, in 1995. The game remained a curious rumor until September, 2005, when Frank Cifaldi, a freelance…
Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices. #ethics #books The Federal lawsuit claimed that Apple, led by then-CEO Steve Jobs and senior vice president of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue, conspired with HarperCollins, Hatchett, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster to drive e-book prices up from the $9.99 price point Amazon had established. –readwrite.com Similar:A college…
RT @spj_tweets: How TV could suffer the fate of newspapers: @alanmutter shares the second installment of his two-part blog – http://t.co/l… Similar:In Defense Of Metaphors In Science WritingWe live in an elegant universe. The c…CultureJudge: Apple conspired to fix eBook prices.Judge: Apple conspired to fix eBook pric…BooksMy Minecraft-obsessed tween made this blocky foam pig at…
RT @DepressedDarth: Dear J.J. Abrams, If the new Star Wars is bad, you will forever be known as Jar Jar Abrams. Sincerely, Star Wars fans Similar:The 22 rules of storytelling, according to PixarMy favorite: “Once upon a time there was…ArtThe Chicago Tribune Has Made the Best Internet Mistake of the DayEvery second is a deadline,…
I really like MailChimp’s “Social” plugin, which not only publishes a WordPress blog entry to Twitter and Facebook, but also collects responses from Twitter and Facebook users and collects them as WordPress comments. Today I installed a different plugin, Twitter Tools, which is really just a single tool — it lets you create a WordPress…
Habits for happiness: tips for looking on the bright side of life. At bedtime, in order to avoid a nightly litany of complaints, I ask my glass-is-half-empty-and-I-hate-the-pirate-glass-and-there’s-a-bug-in-it tween to list three good things, two neutral things, and one sad thing about her day. Sometimes if she needs to share more than one sad thing, I…
While researching my obligations for #juryduty Thursday, I came across this “Juror’s Creed.” The gender-specific reference to men, the instruction to reflect upon the virtues of democracy, and the instruction to respect the judge’s education all hint at a historical context for the creed. Institutions never put their creeds into writing unless they feel those…
Spent a productive work day doing nothing but optimizing my blog. Added a very nice plugin for displaying thumbnails of related posts. Similar:Carolyn plays Ti Moune in the Stage Right homeschool company "Once on This Island"…PersonalLooks like somebody’s webmaster accidentally preloaded a headline that would be easy to ed… Looks like somebody’s webmaster acci…Current_EventsAngry 10yo…
RT @mykidcancode: Managing Your Preschooler’s Fascination with Apps – bit.ly/lv1ZyR #parenting #technology Similar:Meet octobot, a soft-bodied robot that looks like the futureOur future robot overlords never looked …AestheticsDesiderata (Nerdy Inspiration)This is a little story about an inspirat…CultureDepression Dog Successfully Previewed HTML in DIY LOL GENERATOR AmusingEmail (finding the right tone as a writer)…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:How Facebook and Twitter control what you see about FergusonOn Twitter, I see tear-gassed civilians,…CultureFacebook’s Instant Articles restore subscription options they previously strippedThe ability to serve content faster than…BusinessCoding Sucks: Why a Job in Programming Is Absolute HellI enjoyed the essay, but the truths it…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:Support the arts in your community! @geyer_pac Hello Dolly!AmusingDon't Be Cruel[M]angled syntax, disordered thinking, a…AcademiaProper commenting is an important part of coding any project, especially in an educational…Proper commenting is an important part…
While I am uncomfortable with the whole “classroom as marketplace” metaphor, since it’s pretty much gamifying without the fun, I am nonetheless interested in this strategy for encouraging students to collaborate by having them attach a value to the artifacts they present to the class for sharing.. We shop for everything from apps to ideas.…
The researchers found that each singer’s heartbeat was linked to the song’s melody – i.e. the speed and structure of the music. They also found that when the choir sang together, their heart rates tended to increase and decrease at similar times. “As soon as the singing begins, (the hearts) start following each other,” Vickhoff…