I just touched up a handout on Parallel Structure vs Faulty Parallelism. Similar:Students tend to zone out during my lectures on proofreading. I time it so I can say “clas…AcademiaEditors and editorial board quit top linguistics journal to protest subscription feesWhen I publish as a scholar, my goal is …AcademiaThe Lost Art of Proofreading Plenty…
These comic panels cover the issue well. (Pennington Publishing) Similar:Commentary: What My Struggling Students Wanted Me to UnderstandI haven’t taught a developmental course …AcademiaSurprise: Humanities Degrees Provide Great Return On InvestmentThe conventional wisdom is that humaniti…AcademiaMaybe I'll just delete these QUARTER OF A MILLION spam comments.Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in …CybercultureReading a…
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:Take my feedback if you want to pass.I won’t be so assertive in the first wee…AcademiaWriting School Papers: Does Your First Version Say It All?My colleague Mike Arnzen talked about th…AcademiaThe 22 rules of storytelling, according to PixarMy favorite: “Once upon a…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:Picking up books for another termAcademiaWho choked up while reading aloud Sagan’s “Pale Blue Dot” during a lesson on creative nonf…Who choked up while reading aloud Sagan’…PersonalWhat blogging wasI’ve maintained this blog since the spri…CybercultureFDR in AnnieI’ve accepted the role of FDR in the upc…CultureOut & About: Stage…
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:To the…
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:Tweet: Came around the corner and saw my kids huddled on…Came around the corner and saw my kids h…TweetsAnd the girl has succeeded in getting me to wear t…And the girl has succeeded in…
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:Another #steampunk #neovictorian control panel module. #blender3d #blender3dart #design #…AestheticsSaturday morning cartoons are no moreI certainly have fond memories of Saturd…BusinessA Simple Investigation #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 5, Episode 17)…
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:In defense of the Selfie StickI’m sure there are hipsters, even now, l…AmusingHelp! I may be running out of excuses for not wearing…Help! I may be running out of excuses fo…CultureChilling analysis of…
RT @mykidcancode: Managing Your Preschooler’s Fascination with Apps – bit.ly/lv1ZyR #parenting #technology Similar:Oregon Trail: How three Minnesotans forged its pathRawitsch, a lanky, bespectacled 21-year-…CultureCongo nun overcomes blackouts with homemade hydroelectric plantSister Alphonsine Ciza spends most of he…Current_EventsApple faces threat of legal action over ‘in app’ paymentsI haven’t taken the plunge and installed…BusinessThe dangers of short…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:Turnitin.com UI Woes: One-click, No-confirmation Deletion of QuickMark SetsIn general, I find Turnitin.com’s GradeM…AcademiaTo all these tools I've loved before…While cleaning out my desk at home I add…Aesthetics4 Skills to Help You Stand Out In Any Job InterviewAn employer will never ask you to write…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:World Press Freedom Day. (Don't take the free press for granted. Journalists are not the e…PersonalWhy Creative Side Projects Are Good for YouSan Francisco State psychology professor…BusinessThe chief engineer does not know where…
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.…