I just touched up a handout on Parallel Structure vs Faulty Parallelism. Similar:Copspeak, "the past exonerative" tense, and punching NazisIn the Constitution, any suspect is inno…CultureSplit Infinitives in English: Not Actually Wrong, But UnwiseThe rule against split infinitives is a …CultureFYI, 13yo skool grl is nu US txt mssg chmpNContestants had to stand with their…
These comic panels cover the issue well. (Pennington Publishing) Similar:Gender and Language — Revisiting Advice I Posted in 1998When I was in college and active in a Ca…CultureR Grammar Gaffes Ruining The Language? Maybe Not : NPRMatthew Gordon, a linguist at the Univer…Culture‘Belonging Is Stronger Than Facts’: The Age of Misinformation As much as…
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:If not enough people are stopping by your table to hear your presentation, you take your p…AcademiaSperm whales in 19th century shared ship attack informationFrom whaling and sealing stations to mis…AwesomeCritical Thinking Rhetoric The IdealistAcademiaBabylon 5 redefined TV science fiction, so why…
I’m a happy, responsible, and no-longer-obligated-for-jury-duty citizen. Similar:What Each Side of the COVID-19 Debate Should Understand About the OtherI’m very conscious that my lockdown expe…CultureCrabby 10yo Ties Self to Pole to Protest InjusticeMy wife confiscated my preteen daughter’…CultureHow to Annoy Your Parents (Smurfs, Tweety, Jar-Jar and Ewoks) http://www.youtube.com/wat…AmusingSeeing the Barebones production of The Sound…
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:Pittsburgh in…
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:How hate and misinformation go viral: A case study of a Trump retweetOn Sunday night, President Donald Trump …AcademiaParallel Structure vs. Faulty ParallelismI just touched up a handout on Parallel …HumanitiesRT @JordanFor: One of…
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:Learning the hard way, by making mistakes and starting over. The fore section of the fanta… AestheticsNASA Calls It A Mission As Curiosity Rover Fills Up Whole 2-Gigabyte Memory CardMore…
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:First They Got Sick, Then They Moved Into a Virtual UtopiaWhen my son was about five, I sat him on…Culture"Dammit Mom, I'm a daughter, not a theoretician!"”Dammit Mom, I’m a daughter, not a…
RT @mykidcancode: Managing Your Preschooler’s Fascination with Apps – bit.ly/lv1ZyR #parenting #technology Similar:My Freshman Comp Student Didn’t Recognize the Term ‘Word Processor’Most of my students use MS-Word, but may…AcademiaThe Benefits of No-Tech Note TakingI quibble with The Chronicle headline wr…AcademiaGoogling Is for Old People. That’s a Problem for Google.When I ask my students to use…
Not kidding — 254,460 spam comments in my trash folder! Similar:Why Our Brains Make Us Click on ListsThe article-as-numbered-list has several…CultureThey called it a "flashlight" because early handheld lights weren't designed to shine stea…A student’s short story featuring a trea…CultureWhat Twitter Changes Might Mean for AcademicsThis is one of the reasons I still consi…AcademiaI studied philosophy…
“Bach is not for the weak of mind.” — Miss Renee, my kids’ piano teacher. “I’m in trouble.” — Peter, my son. Similar:Tweet: For an anatomy project, my #geekling made a Vulcan…For an anatomy project, my #geekling mad…TweetsThe geekling is 14 today.PersonalIn January 2001, I was blogging about Bill Clinton's #WhiteHouse security deposit, anachro…In January…
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.…