Stage Right Water Sprite

Last week my daughter and I were a little too early to see the Westmoreland Museum of American Art’s new exhibit, so we revisited some of our favorite items in the permanent collection. Similar:Another 10 sq cm of #steampunk control panel. Trying to add a subtle pattern to the light-…One of many steampunk control panels…

‘I’m Not Paying for Your Opinion’

Students also need to learn that being offended is an emotional response, not a rational one. If you don’t like something I’ve said–or, as in this case, something somebody else said–don’t just get upset about it. See if you can formulate a cogent rebuttal. That, too, is a key element of critical thinking. Finally–and most…

SCUBA Diving at the Pool

Because a beautiful sunny day at the pool apparently by itself isn’t enough, we upped the ante with SCUBA gear. Similar:Serious reading takes a hit from online scanning and skimming, researchers say  The brain was not designed for r…BooksA professor examines why her students seem to act so helpless (essay)This essay on college students acting…

Official Rules to Nanofictionary

I was at a youth car wash today, watching my son and the other the kids spray each other (and sometimes the cars). One of the customers happened to be carrying an anthology of dystopian science fiction. We got to chatting, and he told me about this parlor game — which sadly seems to be…

An unreal Mars skyline

That awesome image showing Earth, Venus and Jupiter from Mars? It’s cool, but according to Phil “Bad Astronomy” Plait, it’s from planetarium software. I was about to reblog it myself, but did a quick check first. An unreal Mars skyline | Bad Astronomy | Discover Magazine. Similar:Irrational Geographic : snopes.comBoosting the signal. This is a…

NASA Calls It A Mission As Curiosity Rover Fills Up Whole 2-Gigabyte Memory Card

More great satire from The Onion. PASADENA, CA—Barely 72 hours after the landing of its Mars rover, NASA officials announced Thursday that their mission had ended, as Curiosity’s two-gigabyte memory card was now filled to capacity. “Well, that’s that, folks,” said chief scientist John Grotzinger, explaining that after Curiosity’s Mars Descent Imager took an especially…

Ten Basic New Media Skills Journalists Need To Know

Word. This list was published in 2008, so it’s unthinkable that student could graduate from a journalism program today without these competencies. I’d have to add “the fundamentals of coding a multimedia project” and I want to add “the ability to mine a database for a story.” With all the new changes brought about by…

Flying Saucer Irony

  Similar:Peak Performance (ST:TNG Rewatch, Season Two, Episode 21) Riker and his misfit pals challe…Rewatching ST:TNG after a 20-year break….AmusingSnowfall at the White House (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour, Jan 7) Tweeted by W…My social media feed was full of people …AestheticsBoston marathon bombing: All the mistakes journalists make during a crisis like…

Technical Writing Instruction

I haven’t taught a technical writing course in a while… I was thinking of offering it again sometime soon, so I was happy to see the recommendations on the rhet-comp making list, Rhonda McCafferty: There are also good excerpts in David R. Russell’s *Writing in the Academic Disciplines: A Curricular History*. The second edition was published…

The Rewards of Revenge

According to the data, when men (but not women) watched a defector get punished, they showed additional activation in reward related areas of the brain, such as the ventral striatum and nucleus accumbens. These are essential elements of the dopamine reward pathway, that same highway of nerves that also gets titillated by sex, drugs and…

Biggest accomplishment of the day

The real problem is timing — they had called me for the second week of classes. I wouldn’t mind sharing this civic responsibility so much when I’m not so busy, but the first couple weeks of term are crazy enough. Similar:Procession #classof2017PersonalJames Goodwin Clonney: Mother's WatchThis painting, of two impish children ta…AestheticsChristmas 1970. I was…