I love this story! Mr. Ackerman — Please excuse Tyler… he was with me!” Obama wrote on 11-year-old Tyler Sullivan’s behalf. The Rochester boy skipped school Friday to attend Obama’s visit to a Honeywell factory in Golden Valley with his dad. President Obama writes sick note for 11-year-old Minnesota boy (VIDEO) – NY Daily News. Similar:The…
My daughter shared the role of Alice this weekend (she played “Small Alice”). On one night, she also doubled as the mouse, for a different Alice. Similar:Unfinished pine and not so ornamented, for the workshops and service areas of my fantasy #…PersonalA little board-gaming for Labor Day.PersonalBen Franklin Sings about Your Rights as a PhotographerIf…
I love the obscure Prufrock reference win this Washington Post story: So as the motorcades come and go, are they talking of Marco Rubio? via Is Bilderberg a conference on world affairs or a powerful global cabal? Similar:Next up for the girl: Cherry in "The Outsiders" (March 6-15)BooksDeadline seems to have briefly published, then taken…
Similar:Another delightful section of #neovictorian #steampunk control panel, intended for backgro…One of many steampunk control panels I’v…AestheticsAnother square of #steampunk control panel eye candy. #blender3d #blender3dart #design #a…AestheticsShatoetry iPhone app lets you put… words… in… William Shatner's… mouthWilliam Shatner and technology go way ba…AestheticsStar Wars: TIE Fighter 20th Anniversary RetrospectiveIn the Star Wars films, the…
In the grand scheme of things, this means very little… but still, it’s kind of cool to be one in a billion. —email tips – Google Search. Similar:Venus Flytraps Are Even Creepier Than We ThoughtI clicked for the topic, but it was the …AestheticsYour verbs have been lost and will be invisible until sentence author…
When I am insanely busy during the academic year, I relish the time before I fall asleep, as time I can think about anything at all. If it’s productive and interesting, I’ll stay awake. If not, well, then I won’t waste much time before I conk out. In an attempt to carve out enouth time…
In 1975 a Kodak engineer named Steve Sasson built the world’s first portable digital camera by cobbling together parts scavenged from a Super-8 and a cassette player. Baffled colleagues asked, “Why would you want to look at photos on a TV?” —The Pocket Camera Moment | Raw File | Wired.com. Similar:Closing the Door on the…
Remember this, Dennis. Remember this, Dennis. Remember this, Dennis. That is all. I ask my students to give me, by email, a proposal two weeks before the essay is due. I tell them what I think is good about their idea and what they need to watch out for; more often than not I advise…
A powerful essay, for the next time I teach Videogame Culture and Theory. (Some salty language ahead.) So the Hitman Absolution trailer. Do I have a problem with the existence of female assassins? No. Do I have a problem with female assassins dressing up as nuns? No. Do I have a problem with Agent 47 killing females…
This month’s edition of The Pulse podcast features a conversation with Mary Ann Gawelek, provost of Seton Hill University, discussing how her institution’s iPad experiment — begun in 2010 — has fared. RPP_102_iPads-in-Education.mp3 via The Pulse: Seton Hill’s iPad Experiment | Inside Higher Ed. Similar:There’s Something Off About LED BulbsWhen I’m stressed, or I feel…
Almost all the promise once held by virtual worlds has since been realized by Facebook. For every social interaction, brand engagement or persistent multiplayer social experience that Second Life or World of Warcraft or MTV’s Virtual Lower East Side was supposed to provide, there’s something the same or very similar available on Facebook — probably…
“Overall, it was just boring. Really boring! Really boring!” —The Washington Post. Similar:Could We Just Lose the Adverb (Already)?I can’t really get myself that worked up…CultureOn the Hatred of LiteratureGoing back to Plato—perhaps the first ha…AcademiaThe Importance of Writing Skills in Tech-Related FieldsGood writing skills are valuable, even i…AcademiaTelegrams were always better plot devices than…
Great headlines from winner David Bowman. National Headline Contest 2011. Similar:Log Off, You Losers! Electronic Flatulence Must Cease!”Put your hands in your laps. Close your…AcademiaAnother lovely variation of a #steampunk control panel. #blender3dart #neovictorian #desig…AestheticsLast event of a busy day downtown. #AgathieChristie #murderontheorientexpressAestheticsHow to interact with the introverted…My daughter spends a lot of time with…
Contrary to concerns that increasing use and popularity of ‘txtspk’ will ruin children’s vocabularies, youngsters demonstrated that they know when it is not appropriate, only including it in their stories when transcribing an imagined text message. The research also found that many of the words contained in children’s stories are repeated from celebrated writers –…
To qualify for a day at the local water park, my daughter woke up early, and is now happily reading. Similar:She was a musical ingenue Sunday, filmed a slasher movie past midnight Monday, and was pre…AcademiaOn the Virtues of a Dadsplained Literary ChildhoodThe last book I read to her was Wutherin…BooksBefore and after making a…
A middle school teacher in South Carolina has been accused of dragging a student under a table during class, telling the boy “this is what the Nazis do to Jews,” police said Monday. The 12-year-old student said he got up to sharpen a pencil at Bluffton Middle School on Wednesday when Patricia Mulholland grabbed him…
I updated the journalism portal of my online writing site, and touched up some existing handouts: News Story vs. English Essay Your English instructor carefully reads your essay to evaluate the depth of your knowledge, the breadth of your vocabulary, and the loftiness of your ideas. Joe Sixpack glances quickly at your news story to…
Atwood, on his blog Coding Horror, miffed by the “everyone should learn to code” meme, likens coding to plumbing. It’s not for everyone. “Look, I love programming. I also believe programming is important … in the right context, for some people,” he writes. “But so are a lot of skills. I would no more urge…
My daughter was recently in the Stage Right! Greensburg homeschool preteen production of Once Upon a Mixed-up Fairy Tale, playing Little Red Riding Hood. Here the girls are singing “Astonishing.” My son played Marshal Cord Elam in the teen production, Oklahoma. He’s wearing the vest and white hat. Similar:Imagine, if you will, a Shakespeare course…
In the early 1970s William Crowther worked for the high-tech R&D company BBN Technologies as part of a team developing the ARPAnet; a computer network predecessor to the Internet. Crowther has never shown any desire to court celebrity for his achievements. Aside from a couple of interviews from books, Where Wizards Stay Up Late and Genesis II: Creation and…