Have you hugged your college’s freshman writing course today? (Not the students, not the teachers—we don’t want disciplinary hearings. The course.) Like most who have worked in English departments, I was rarely excited to be assigned freshman rhetoric (as it was called where I started). The essay-grading was back-breaking and social-life-destroying, to say nothing of…
The Daly Dose I notice the photographer has filled his page with keywords designed to advance his commercial ventures, which is a little spammy, but they are still valuable photos. Similar:C.S. Lewis: "On the Reading of Old Books"Gearing up for teaching a new “American …BooksMedia Bias Chart 8.0 (Liberal / Moderate / Conservative on the…
While signing up for some online training for work, I found this screen, which seems to ask me to grant my consent to permit the service provider to use my private information in one of zero ways. Similar:Sports Illustrated Published Articles by Fake, AI-Generated WritersThe AI authors’ writing often sounds lik…CybercultureWorld Trade Center Literary and…
Apparently, her defense of the classics and German was among the reasons UVa recently ousted the presudent. As a grad student needing to beef up my foreign kanguage credentuals, I took the summer German course Herr McDonald comments on here. William C. McDonald, director of undergraduate studies in German at the university, stressing that he…
This summer, I’m a “CSC Insider” — meaning that I’m getting some VIP treatment, in return for blogging twice a month about the Carnegie Science Center. First off, I attended the opening night gala for Guitar: The Instrument That Rocked the World.
via Rainbow Hector Weblog Similar:Again with the chess.I try to go to Planet Fitness or chess w…PersonalMy big brother and my son facing off in chess. I am totally outclassed here.PersonalThe Princess and the PaintFriday night, my daughter will be playin…AestheticsMy precious is fifteen. PersonalSolitaire ChessSpent a relaxing evening in playing soli…AmusingTrying something a bit different…
The cast for “Catalina Magdalena Hoopensteiner Wallendeiner Hogan Bogan Logan Was Her Name” poses with Mr. McFeely (David Newell) at the Fayette County Fair, Jun 16. My daughter plays the young Catalina, who also narrates. In the photo, she’s the one holding the book (with some her lines taped inside. Shh, don’t tell!) Working…
On Monday Dragas, sensing that the university community might want some explanation for such a radical act, sent out a second message: “The Board believes this environment calls for a much faster pace of change in administrative structure, in governance, in financial resource development and in resource prioritization and allocation. We do not believe we…
Stop drinking from random bottles, child! Similar:The Declaration Of Independence, 240 Years Later (NPR)When in the Course of human events, it b…CultureMaybe it wasn’t a sensible idea to hold 5 hours of student consultations on the day midter…AcademiaYounger friends, can you write or read cursive? I’m curious.CultureDesigning Cabinets in Blender3D — ExperimentsI designed these simple…
The council’s decision to impose the ban came after the Daily Record newspaper published a photograph of Martha alongside chef Nick Nairn under the headline “Time to fire the dinner ladies.” Speaking on BBC Radio’s Good Morning Scotland programme Mr Payne said his daughter was not happy about the council’s decision. He added: “I understand…
I find it really amazing that it has taken this long for Amazon to finally shrink that ridiculously huge margin, which persisted like fake stirrups on a horseless carriage. Similar:Naomi Baron's Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital WorldWhat’s the deal with ebooks? They run o…BooksAbove the ready-room desk is the captain's power-napping…
This young blogger has learned a very important lesson about power and privilege. I’m sure the story does not end here. We anguish about getting kids to be enthusiastic about healthy, sustainable food — to not prefer the bad stuff, not waste the good stuff, and not be entitled little monsters who whine about when their next…
Takei’s post-Trek, post-coming-out reinvention of himself as an internet meme fusion reactor is a beautiful thing to watch. With this move, I think Takei may have officially out-nerded former TNG child actor Wil Wheaton — and I say that with total respect to Wheaton’s own post-Trek reinvention. Takei warned that a hot war between Star Trek…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BYkuRBVXN4 Similar:Reading a Classic American Play to My Daughter BooksA quick primer on semicolonsIs your Sunday feeling incomplete becaus…Culture"Only You" — 11yo Carolyn Sings a Power Ballad from "Starlight Express"The observation car Pearl sings of her l…AestheticsIt's exam week, and at the moment I have exactly one unmarked assignment (for a paper due …It’s exam…
I “liked” this when I first found it on Facebook, which means I helped spread it. So then, here’s to the editors of Tails, who found themselves unjustly ridiculed. So a few days ago a photoshopped cover of Tails magazine landed on Food Network Humor — a pretty funny comma failure — and our tipline lit up. We were skeptical,…
As a kid, I loved the feeling of confidence that came when my mom handed me a few bucks at the pool and told me I could get what I wanted from the concession stand. Since my main responsibility for the afternoon was to keep the kids occupied, and I was in no rush to…
I’ve been having some problems with the WordPress iOS app. Just testing. This should be a robot inspecting a donut. Similar:In December 2000, I was blogging about typeface snobbery, freedom in video game spaces, th…In December 2000, I was blogging about …AestheticsR.I.P. Blogging, Killed By Screenshorts Are screenshorts slowly killing bloggi…CybercultureIn January, 2002 I was…
Perhaps our most dangerous bias is that we naturally assume that everyone else is more susceptible to thinking errors, a tendency known as the “bias blind spot.” This “meta-bias” is rooted in our ability to spot systematic mistakes in the decisions of others—we excel at noticing the flaws of friends—and inability to spot those same…
“What’s a meme?” I took my daughter to the birthday party of a 12-year-old friend yesterday, and hung around with the adults as the kids splashed in the pool. After a round of Chuck Norris jokes with his dad (“When Chuck Norris goes into the water, he doesn’t get wet, the water gets Chuck Norrissed”),…
A student project explores a niche of the games market, for a class taught by Infocom legend Brian Moriarty. The video game industry has expanded rapidly in recent years, growing from a 9.5 billion dollar industry in 2007 to a 25.1 billion dollar industry in 2010. This growth is due to the common interest that…