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…
Scientists now believe that much of the life on Earth is barely able to fog a mirror, as it were. The deep-sea microbes may be an extreme example of a laid-back norm. Most of Earth life, measured by numbers, is not rambunctious and charismatic like life in the sunshine, nor is it akin to the…
It’s also a cultural climate where audiences are increasingly used to thinking of books as media companions — popular film series like Harry Potter, Twilight and The Hunger Games, or TV series like Game of Thrones, all feel richer to fans if they read the books as well as enjoy the films. Designers of text-based…
Seton Hill new media journalism graduate Chris Ulicne, who now works for the Latrobe Bulletin, wrote a really nice feature on Stage Right (local theatre company and school for the performing arts). The full text of the article is not online, but this image is from the PDF of the front page (available through the…
This is a great story about a parent who tries everything when she learns her boy is being bullied. The mom shouts at the principal, gives her son advice on how to fight, and gets the cops involved. The gentle son takes a very different approach. Powerful story. I didn’t trust the principal to help…
A colleague just sent me this kind note, which supplies a very-welcome jolt of enthusiasm as the semester winds down: This is probably going to be the best written paper I’ve published, and I could not have done it without your help! (In part because your suggestions make so much sense that it’s making me…
Humanities students are not used to failure. They want to get it right the first time. When they are new to the game, they want to get good grades on what are essentially first drafts. Once they learn how much work it is to write and edit a really good essay, their goals shift—from getting…
I already felt fairly independent from my parents before I went off to college, as my older siblings were both good students who did not get into any trouble, so because I kept bringing home good grades my parents let me be very independent. I had (and still have) a good relationship with my parents,…
I’m not giving any final exams this term. On the one hand, we tell students to value learning for learning’s sake; on the other, we tell students they’d better know this or that, or they’d better take notes, or they’d better read the book, because it will be on the next exam; if they don’t…
I love a good infographic. HubbleSite – NewsCenter – Hubble to Use Moon as Mirror to See Venus Transit (05/04/2012) – Release Images. Similar:Dr. David von Schlichten honors the spectrum of motivations (not always financial) feature…Dr. David von Schlichten honors the spec…AcademiaWhat Jane [Austen] Saw: 1796 Shakespeare GalleryYou are invited to time travel to two…
Pittsburgh’s Trib Inadvertently Advises Readers to Shit Themselves. The copy I picked up has been fixed. Similar:What can you do with an English Major?AcademiaNellie Bly statue to be unveiled at Pittsburgh airport ThursdayIn 1889, Bly became famous for an-around…AwesomeWhat's in this old box from the student newspaper office? Why, it's a vintage Polaroid cam…History‘Tentacles…
Our last day of classes is Monday, followed immediately by final exams. My freshman writing students still have a final revision and a final reflection due, but they seemed surprisingly relaxed today. They have all given informal presentations in both informal and formal settings, and turned in solid drafts. For my part, I’ve already returned…
Great little story that I’m saving for a future “history of journalism” module. The German surrender happened at 2:41 a.m. on May 7, 1945. Kennedy was one of 17 reporters taken to witness the ceremony. He and the others were hastily assembled by military commanders, then pledged to secrecy by a U.S. general while the…
I already knew that a free press is precious, but I had no idea it was so rare.. A Washington-based human rights organization says that, overall, press freedom around the world stopped declining in 2011. But while there are positive changes in some countries, the overall picture is not too bright. Last year, less than…
I don’t really want to assign a grade to this draft… I just want to sit down with the student and have a conversation about why the words “cannot” and “because” mean completely different things according to context. “The ice cannot be melted because the temperature is below freezing” uses “cannot” as a physical impossibility…
Hap Aziz, who’s running a Kickstarter campaign to fund an interactive fiction exploration of colonial Williamsburg, was interviewed by Emily Short. One of the fascinating things to me about the events surrounding American independence is that there was so much disagreement and debate regarding whether or not the colonies should dissolve their bonds with England.…
The other day, a worker was pushing his cart through my office building, attaching these little cork board strips to our doors. Something about the moment cried out for commemoration. Similar:Shakespeare on EclipsesPrepping for tomorrow’s first meeting of…AcademiaMesmerizing Video of a Printer Terminal Running "Adventure" on a PDP-11/45After spending several days clicking but…AcademiaWhen You've…
I don’t want to put Humpy Dumpty back together. Let him lie there, a cracked shell oozing yolk. He is broken. And he is beautiful. The smell, the colors, the flow, the texture, the mess. All of it, it is unavailable until we break things. And let’s not soften our critical blow by calling it…
Wish I had come across this a little earlier in the term… too late it to add it to my “Media and Culture” new media seminar. Morris — a novelist who has written graphic novels, games and, yes, Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories for kids — has changed the original text in other ways, as well. (Let’s take…
I knew Rather was still fighting, but I didn’t know what he’s saying now about the Killian memos that ended his career: A CBS-commissioned investigation of the disaster—headed by Richard Thornburgh, U.S. attorney general when Bush’s father was president, and Associated Press chief executive Louis D. Boccardi—faulted Rather and his top producer, Mary Mapes, among…