Is Bilderberg a conference on world affairs or a powerful global cabal? Depends on who you ask. – The Washington Post

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:I don't usually post animal videos on my blog… But when I do, it’s because they are…AmusingDon't Automatically…

Redshirt (fan video for Jonathan Coulton song)

Similar:The Naked Now (Season 1, Episode 2: ST:TNG Rewatch) When a script that blows chunks makes …With a large ensemble, we saw many scene…CultureA Merry Look at Journalism in "The Year Without a Santa Claus"   AmusingThe Visitor #StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch (Season 4, Episode 3) Old Jake Reflects on the life-cha…Rewatching ST:DS9 On a dark…

Youngest-ever National Spelling Bee competitor says fatigue, stress led to misspelling onstage

“Overall, it was just boring. Really boring! Really boring!” —The Washington Post. Similar:English Is the Language of Science. That Isn't Always a Good ThingEnglish speakers tend to assume that all…AcademiaStick to facts, but write news your readers will actually want to read. Students who put a lot of effort int…AcademiaI just learned I only have…

National Headline Contest 2011

Great headlines from winner David Bowman. National Headline Contest 2011. Similar:Wonderfully Detailed Tribute to 1970s British TV Show Space: 1999″A middle aged geek” puts it well: “Utte…AestheticsPick Up Your Smartphone Less Often. You Might Think BetterResearch suggests we neeed to be bored s…CultureIn journalism, nuances such as "sources tell us…" "reportedly…" "it appears…" "confi…I don’t…

Reading in the Morning

To qualify for a day at the local water park, my daughter woke up early, and is now happily reading. Similar:Journalism by the Numbers (a pedagogical play in one scene) #math (Lights up on a college journa…Culture‘Because’ has become a preposition, because grammarThe construction is more versatile than …AmusingBack in the MLAAs the humanities decline…

Updated Journalism Handouts

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…

Stage Right! Homeschool Musicals

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:Great moments from Pride and PrejudiceI haven’t…

The Evolution of Adventure: Make Game – Asio City

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…

How and Why to Make Your Digital Publications Matter

My intuition is that, even for the wary, recalcitrant, or skeptical, the ways individuals connect now online and learn from one another’s connections no longer represent the pathological or aberrant (i.e. the shallow, distracted, lonely, asocial, unprofessional digital generation:  you know the litany!), but “the future.”  Since many are worried about “the future,” those who…

Choosing Our Own Adventures, Then and Now

If you were a kid during the ’80s and read any books at all, you probably read at least one Choose Your Own Adventure (CYOA), probably by either R.A. Montgomery or Edward Packard. And if you read one, you read more than one. They were addictive, candy for our brains, but also, they empowered us…