I just touched up a handout on Parallel Structure vs Faulty Parallelism. Similar:English teaching: Johnson: Talking past each otherWhen I got to college, I had already lea…AcademiaIn April 2000, I was blogging about HTML frames, the future of reading, grammar, Kairos, a…In April 2000, I was blogging about… …BooksEnjoying my "Dystopia in American Literature" class.After…
These comic panels cover the issue well. (Pennington Publishing) Similar:Why Love Lyrics LastI am inclined to agree with the “favorit…AcademiaIn January 2000, I was blogging about dancing paperclips, the transience of literary judge… In January 2000, I was blogging abou…BooksMy Minecraft-obsessed tween made this blocky foam pig at art camp. Next up: Stage Right…
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:A Word About Group ProjectsOkay, students… who loves group projec…AcademiaOutsiders. Four sold out matinees this coming week. — Prime StageFour sold out matinees this coming week….BooksHenry V Fans: Today is St Crispin's DayKing Henry rallies his troops just befor…CultureHow To Talk To Babies…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:Chess tournament in Monroeville. Two losses, two wins.The boy’s personal best in terms of win-…CultureAlas for You (Godspell, Stage Right)Three weeks ago tonight, I got an email …DramaSimulated iceberg, preserved artifacts and re-creations at the Titanic installation. …CultureBuilding a ridiculous amount of detail as I create tiles for…
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:The Mere…
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:Proto iPads and Paper Coexist in Classic Star TrekRewatching the classic Trek episode “The…CybercultureJuror's CreedWhile researching my obligations for #ju…CultureI asked my geekling whether she was ready for bed…I asked my #geekling whether she…
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:Dennis Jerz, R.U.R (Rossum's Universal Robots), Karel Capek's "Fantastic Melodrama" – YouT…”In which the origin of the word “robot”…AestheticsThat time three-year-old me spotted a Mary Cassatt painting at the Art…
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:Humans Aren’t Mentally Ready for an AI-Saturated ‘Post-Truth World’ How is AI going to change individuals …CybercultureThe Surprisingly Savvy Weird Al Internet Machine When he talks about his business being…AestheticsShakespeare's WillPersonalThe Tribune-Review published…
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 …AcademiaOver time, Google has made paid ads harder to spot In 2007, Google changed the long…BusinessControlling behavior of HQ CEO hijacks what should have been a puff piece about popular…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:Google Books ruled legal in massive win for fair use (updated)Update in a legal battle that’s been goi…BooksHow Bill Gates pulled off the swift Common Core revolutionWhile I appreciate the efficiency of uni…CultureMy 13yo homeschooler had no idea how to open a little milk carton.…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:Omaha schoolgirl dresses as a different historical figure each day Voilà, she is Billie Holiday, in a b…AestheticsThat’s one small step for [a] man, one giant leap for mankind.AestheticsSplit Infinitives in English: Not…
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.…