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:Sledding in Spring Break SnowMy wife suddenly decided I should be a G…Current_EventsIN-ZOOM (A world-premiere 10-minute play)A very current short play by Bill Irwin….CultureTrump’s war…
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:How Zuckerberg’s Facebook is like Gutenberg’s printing pressHistorian Niall Ferguson notes that Sili…BooksThoreau's Cellphone ExperimentWhen I teach “Intro…
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:Don't use that "18 school shootings since Jan 1" claim. It's Inaccurate.Don’t use that “18 school shootings sinc…CultureModern Masterpieces of Comedic Genius: The Art of the Humorous Amazon Review, Part DeuxI love me a good Amazon mock review. Her…AestheticsRightful Heir (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 23) Worf's quest for the…
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:Commonly Misused Words: THAN and THEN AmusingMisleading to suggest that because I have nothing left to mark that I have nothing to do, …Personal"Orphans" was amazing. Powerul, funny, cruel, humane, empathetic. I was speechle…PersonalThe Daughter's 21st Birthday Current_EventsPeter vs. the PenguinsFor the past hour, Peter (who is not yet…AmusingWhat…
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:Entire staff of Russian TV channel resigned during a live stream with last words: “no war”…The Entire staff of the Russian TV chann…AestheticsI touched up an…
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:Short Stories: Developing Ideas for Short FictionI just supervised a teaching demonstrati…Educationxkcd: Pathogen ResistanceThis is just an excerpt. Read the whole …AmusingUnderstanding 9/11: A Television News ArchiveStunning collection of thousands of hour…CultureMy Kids Are Shatner Than MostI passed along to my geeklings an apprec…DramaThe Tyranny of Now (Appreciation of Harold Innis)As a grad student…
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 June, 2002, I was blogging about… a female autistic scholars lament, Dr. Seuss, Ortho…In June, 2002, I was blogging about …AcademiaIn May, 2000, I was blogging about the 'I Love You' virus, hacking URLs,…
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…