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:Can you tell the difference between factual and opinion statements?I got a perfect score. How did you do on…CultureHow We Can Help…

‘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:Death to high school English”There’s such an emphasis on keeping stu…AcademiaTwo More Chances to See Prime Stage's Twelfth NightThe show runs tonight at 8 and Sunday at…BooksMore #steampunk control panel goodness. #blender3d #blender3dart #aestheticsAestheticsHappy 13th…

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:dungeon.jpg (JPEG Image, 2535×1616 pixels)Great Zork map.AestheticsFancy iPad Holder…

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

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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…

NASA mission to Mars: Rover Curiosity touches down – The Washington Post

NASA’s rover Curiosity touched down deep in a Martian crater early Monday after a picture-perfect descent and landing, beginning what promises to be the most ambitious planetary mission in history. via NASA mission to Mars: Rover Curiosity touches down – The Washington Post. Similar:Perspective | How NPR’s Steve Inskeep cracked the code for interviewing Trump…

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:A little board-gaming for Labor Day.PersonalThe girl as Mrs Lovett with Ben Federico as Sweeney…