I just touched up a handout on Parallel Structure vs Faulty Parallelism. Similar:Fascinating details in reports about Trump's Russian retractionWe’re all still reeling from Trump’s sta…Current_EventsA 10-page paper? Are you serious? The running you do in a 100-yard das…AcademiaIn May, 2001 I was blogging about lanuguage, design and Cliffs NotesIn May 2001, I was blogging…
These comic panels cover the issue well. (Pennington Publishing) Similar:Coined by Shakespeare? Think againFor years, Shakespeare has been thought …AcademiaLiberal Arts Classes Could Teach Neil deGrasse Tyson a Thing or Two about the Path from Da… Your mileage may vary, but I immediate…BooksRhinoceros in Love (World Drama — China, 1999)The blurb for a 2011…
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:Traces of ScribesBook historian Irene O’Daly notes that t…AcademiaAdding details to a clip-art silhouette, for a project that will be released in a day or t… An important but small detail in a B…AestheticsStudents whom I haven't met yet… Students whom I…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:Do you get your news mostly from social media? I check NPR, Drudge, and news.google.com.Do you have a regular news-consumption r…CultureApple Hill Playhouse is closing, leaving theater group seeking new homeConfiguring socially distanced seating a…BusinessWide-angle view of a villain’s secret lair. #blender3dAestheticsSnowfall at the White House (Official White…
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:Girlhood 2014They…
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:Overheard at Quora: "Why after all these years is Moodle still so ugly?"Moodle is a free course-management tool …AcademiaShe doesn't have keys or a phone or an ID. Why does my tween need a…
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:Desert Bus: The Worst Video Game Ever CreatedPenn and Teller are involved with this s…BooksThe Hubble spotted this smiley face in spaceReading each other’s facial expressions …AestheticsSnarky Error Message Comments…
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:Finished Reading The Chronicles of PrydainWe could hardly stop reading just before…BooksEnjoying a peaceful fall moment while it's possible. Taking these moments as they come. AestheticsIt will be harder to leave Facebook than…
RT @mykidcancode: Managing Your Preschooler’s Fascination with Apps – bit.ly/lv1ZyR #parenting #technology Similar:Quotations: Integrating them in MLA-Style PapersI touched up an older handout on citing …AcademiaPicking up books for another termAcademiaI'm no longer surprised, but still want to document.This is really noteworthy. Today the Pre…Current_EventsWhat if Generative AI turned out to be a Dud?I’m sad…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:Boston Bombing Survivor Dances Onstage for First TimeTechnology and artistry combine in this …CultureTesting Facebook ThumbnailWhy does Facebook always use this image …CybercultureThere, in my morning snapshot of the kids home-schooling in the kitchen, is the cable I sh…EducationTo all these tools I've loved before…While…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:I’m a High Schooler. AI Is Demolishing My Education. AI has transformed my experience of ed…BooksSurprised and delighted to find that Scratch 3.0 runs on an iPad.PersonalUshering The Lion, the Witch and the…
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.…