I love the Onion. “I do not understand,” reads an ancient line of pictographs depicting the sun, the moon, water, and a Sumerian who appears to be scratching his head. “A booming voice is saying, ‘Let there be light,’ but there is already light. It is saying, ‘Let the earth bring forth grass,’ but I…
What, you haven’t honored your freedom by reading a banned book this week? Banned Books Week | Celebrating the Freedom to Read Similar:This 8-Year-Old Chess Champion Will Make You SmileIn a homeless shelter in Manhattan, an 8…CulturePfully Pfizered and pfeeling pfine so pfar. Current_EventsElderly woman who botched religious fresco demands royalties – TelegraphThe elderly Spanish…
I think that should be “typefaces,” but I’m a pedantic bore. Showcase of 60 Free Horror Fonts For Graphic Designers. Similar:Grading the MOOC UniversityThe MOOC classrooms are growing at Big B…AcademiaWhen Asking the Question is Part of the News Story (New Example: Clinton Supporters)I ask my journalism students to avoid us…Current_EventsThe world's population is lopsided.AwesomeThe…
Similar:Amazing McDonald's "Maestro Burger" CommercialJaw-dropping. So creative and joyful. …AestheticsThose Were the Days: On 'Nostalgia' When missing home was a diseaseAlthough we now associate nostalgia with…CultureIs Superman the next Drudge? Clark Kent quits newspapers in latest issue Even Clark Kent can see through the wri…Current_EventsU.S. Press Freedom TrackerIt’s frustrating and terrifying that the…CultureThe Chase (#StarTrek…
Similar:Advent of Digital Humanities Will Make English Departments Pointless — New RepublicDon’t overreact to the headline, which i…AcademiaPlaying God (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch, Season 2, Episode 17) Dax mentors a too-eager-to-plea… Rewatching ST:DS9 In a nice long …AmusingMurder Is Her Hobby: Frances Glessner Lee and The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained DeathSimulations are powerful tools for…
Stick these on a copy of your future birdcage liner if you spot any of the many sins of journalism. Be on the lookout for bias, plagiarism, poor sourcing, and hype. Journalism Warning Labels « Tom Scott. Similar:Imagine, if you will, a Shakespeare course / Propos'd in blank verse like the Bard would w…Verses Proposing a New…
Toddlers, multiple experiments have shown, can test hypotheses about how machines work—for example, they can figure out which blocks made a machine play when some but not all blocks trigger the toy. We have to be careful, though. This exploratory, quasi-scientific approach to the world doesn’t last if adults teach kids to do something else: Kids will let adult…
Palmer’s Kickstarter page shows her proffering a Dylanesque hand-lettered sign proclaiming, “THIS IS THE FUTURE OF MUSIC.” She may be an authority on this topic—having asked for two hundred thousand, she got $1.2 million. That is not a particularly folksy sum, but not yet the stuff of ignominy. Album in hand, Palmer prepared to tour.…
In an advanced new media class, I’m introducing technical writing to some excellent students. When I asked for a technical report, I got a lot of very well-written essays. It’s a media production studio, not a writing class, so I haven’t made the specifications of the technical report genre very central to the instruction, but…
I have a lot of memories associated with the campus mail room. As an undergrad, I wrote a lot of letters, and sent them in envelopes with stamps, and got a fair number back. But email and Facebook is so much more efficient — I’m not surprised that campuses are looking at ways to put…
When a failing high school tries to reinvent itself, it turns to writing — with amazing results. At my own high school, our science teacher was a retired nuclear submarine admiral who used to say, “Give me students who can read and write, and I can teach them to pilot a nuclear submarine.” So I’m…
Silly fun, just in time for the 25th anniversary of Star Trek: The Next Generation. via KLINGON STYLE (Star Trek Parody of PSY – GANGNAM STYLE) – YouTube. Similar:Clues (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season Four, Episode 14) Data's faslehoods nonpluss and Pic…Rewatching ST:TNG After the crew blac…EmpathyEmergence (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 23) Enterprise-D subsystems…
The transformation of the nation’s news landscape has already taken a heavy toll on print news sources, particularly print newspapers. But there are now signs that television news – which so far has held onto its audience through the rise of the internet – also is increasingly vulnerable, as it may be losing its hold…
The Drudge Report today features an amusing array of images — Barack Obama, Michelle Obama, Hilary Clinton, and Russian President Vladimir Putin — all of them winking. Clearly the nonverbal message is that all these people — who are unpopular with the conservative populist base to which Matt Drudge caters — are working together. The…
I recently introduced my kids to “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Here’s another dad, writing about introducing his kids to classic Star Trek. But they aren’t just younger versions of me; they pick up on stuff I didn’t at their age. After a few episodes, The Girl asked “why don’t the girls get…
Fugelseth said he was inspired to launch his son’s prized toy after seeing a similar video using a Lego figure. “I figured if two high school kids can send a Lego man to space, then I, as a grown man, can make Stanley [go] to space,” Fugelseth told the Oakland Tribune. Using a weather balloon and…
Bernstein recognizes the affect that difficulty first releases — anxiety, reluctance, the deep breath as one gathers resolve to do something difficult, such as read a poem known for its difficulty. His performance includes several masks, switching the impression to a generic Dr. Phil (“Difficult poems are not like this because of something you as…
The dwarf scenes were a real hoot. Below is a shot of me as Brandybuck, the crabby 2nd-eldest dwarf. It was a genius move to put some of the funniest lines into this iconic death scene. Similar:Misleading to suggest that because I have nothing left to mark that I have nothing to do, …PersonalThis…
The elderly Spanish woman who ruined a religious fresco with her botched restoration is now demanding royalties from her work after it became an unlikely tourist attraction. An internet petition to keep the repair job garnered widespread support and seizing an opportunity to swell its coffers, the church began levying a 4 euro (£3) entrance…
There’s a buzz of excitement this week in the Greensburg rehearsal studio at Stage Right, where a local cast is preparing for the premiere of a full-length musical a year in the making. Anthony Marino, Stage Right’s artistic director, has big plans for “Snow White the Musical” that don’t end at the Palace Theatre. He’s…