via Brain-Dead Teen, Only Capable Of Rolling Eyes And Texting, To Be Euthanized – YouTube. Similar:'Anti-dopamine parenting' can curb a kid's craving for screens or sweetsA good article about kids and dopamine.&…CybercultureTexture WriterI’ve only glanced at TextureWriter, but …CybercultureMasks serve many purposes. How sad that they’ve become politicized. I’ve seen the original meme on my…
A longer-than-usual introduction to a reading assignment in my “Media and Culture” class turned into a useful opportunity to reflect. We are all busy people; yet somehow, many people who say they are too busy to take on another task spend hours reading, interpreting, and debating Harry Potter; some post stop-motion Lego spoofs; some do…
Dolores Hart kissed Elvis Presley in her first film, starred in nine more movies within six years, and then gave it all up to become a nun. On Sunday, she returns to Hollywood to attend the Academy Awards, where a new film about her is up for best documentary short. via Dolores Hart, who kissed Elvis…
When the Kindle contract for one of the country’s largest book distributors, the Independent Publishers Group, came up for renewal, Amazon saw a chance to gain some ground at I.P.G.’s expense. “They decided they wanted me to change my terms,” said Mark Suchomel, president of the Chicago-based I.P.G. “It wasn’t reasonable. There’s only so far…
Useless code and comments in code—these are the zombie figures of software. They serve no purpose in a program’s execution, but they exude what Mark Marino calls extra-functional significance. They have meaning beyond the program. They speak not to the machine or the compiler, but to a different audience, another reader. In software development, that…
There are of course emotional consequences for becoming married. Lines 1167-1172: if( age >= 0.85 ) { dieSpouse(); } if( age >= 0.95 ) { diePlayer(); } This is the most famous, emotionally manipulative part of Passage. Those six lines are basically the reason we study this game at all. —Poking around in Passage |…
The most detail I’ve ever seen about Will Crowther’s other creative projects; here, in a conversation dated 1996, he discusses “different ‘adventures’”, and reveals that he wrestled with many of the same challenges that interactive fiction programmers faced through the 1980s and on to the present. I have at various times made different “adventures.” Two…
What a story! The collection includes an Action Comics No. 1, from 1938, which features the first appearance of Superman and is expected to sell for about $325,000. A Detective Comics No. 27, from 1939, features the first appearance of Batman and is expected to get about $475,000. A Captain America No. 2, from 1941,…
If political powerbrokers want to buy newspapers, what are the obligations of the journalists involved? What if the journalists, as a group, tend to agree with the politics of the purchasers? “Nobody wants to stifle news,” said Mr. Rendell, a two-term mayor of Philadelphia in the 1990s. Journalists at both papers are so concerned that…
A good example of correlation. (Simply changing your Facebook content won’t automatically make you a better worker or student, but certain Facebook details do correspond to achievement in the offline world.) Researchers spent about 10 minutes looking at photos, wall posts, comments, education, and hobbies on Facebook profiles, while answering personality-related questions including whether the…
At midnight tonight, participants in the FIRST Robotics Competition must stop working on their robots and seal them up in a plastic bag. Here’s the working bot my son’s team built. Pretty good for a rookie team. Similar:A comic about Seagulls. If you feel like this… A comic about Seagulls. If…CultureFall 2020 Midterm…
Archivists estimate the life of any digital platform to be less than ten years, sometimes less than five. All hard drives fail sooner or later, and they need to be run periodically to lubricate themselves. Tape degradation can be quite quick; one expert found that 40 % of tapes from digital intermediate houses had missing…
Fantastic composition, deeply embedded into the brains of any kid who grew up watching Looney Tunes. Raymond Scott recorded “Powerhouse” on this day 75 years ago. Similar:Umberto Eco and his legacy in open-world gamesI read “The Name of the Rose” during the…BooksObama vs. Romney D&D Smack-Down at NYC GalleryThis week, if you head to the…
At lunchtime, I ducked out of the office for a Poetry Out Loud competition for homeschoolers in the Greensburg area. These kids are so bright and delightful, it’s a real treat to see them displaying their talents. My son (who turned 14 this week) won this round with his recitation of Poe’s “Annabel Lee.” The…
The Russians beat us into orbit, and for the moment only the Russians can ferry American astronauts to the International Space Station. It’s hard to believe that just seven years after the first American was launched into orbit, Americans were walking on the moon. (It would be nice to see someone walk on Mars in…
LittleTextPeople, founded by writer Emily Short and Maxis veteran Richard Evans, has so far focused on the development of software that replicates complex social interaction. For instance, among its internal technology is a simulator that models social behavior and individual personalities. —Gamasutra – News – Second Life developer acquires experimental game studio LittleTextPeople. Similar:I'm amused…
A thoughtful blog entry from a student in my “Media and Culture” class. When I clicked on the link to “The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore,” despite the interesting title, I was expecting something very academic. But what I found was something so moving that inspired great emotion in me. I guess that I…
Via David Thompson Similar:On Stephen Hawking, Vader and Being More Machine Than HumanIn one version of Hawking’s eulogistic s…CybercultureVote for your favorite Monopoly token — or else!One of the six current game pieces will …AestheticsBlue Feed, Red FeedFacebook is designed to keep your attent…CulturePublic, Private, Political: Social Theories and Blogging PracticesPublic, Private, Political: Social Theor…AcademiaFact…
Twitter / Search – “couldn’t remove your contacts” – All Tweets. Similar:The Supreme Court could soon change the internet forever — here’s what you need to know There’s a history of case law protecting…CybercultureDo you really keep a diary?ALGERNON Do you really keep a diary? I’d…AmusingThe Physics Behind Traffic JamsIn between today’s various events, I das…CultureDespite…
I’m one of the judges in a “Poetry Out Loud” competition tomorrow afternoon. I regularly assign recitations in my literature classes, and resources like this may help students from stressing out, since the site is full of well-phrased dos and dont’s for reciting poetry. Please keep in mind that there is no definitive recitation or…