A dozen atoms have been made to store a bit of data magnetically – a feat normally performed by a million atoms. The work could one day help shrink the devices that store computer data. —Smallest magnetic memory uses just 12 atoms – physics-math – 12 January 2012 – New Scientist. Similar:Carnegie Science Center's Guitar…
The ability to alter the contents of a book will be easy to abuse. School boards may come to exert even greater influence over what students read. They’ll be able to edit textbooks that don’t fit with local biases. Authoritarian governments will be able to tweak books to suit their political interests. And the edits…
Leo Tolstoy is scribbling furiously in the light of a dimly burning candle. At such close quarters, its searing heat has covered his forehead in a permanent patina of sweat, making the great novel a true work of toil. Suddenly, in the middle of a particularly vivid war scene, he curses out loud and blows…
If you can’t code, can critique produce new knowledge in digital humanities? Like the PowerPoint templates that emulate chalkboards, or the 3.5-inch diskette that often still decorates the “save” button in apps used by people who never touch floppy disks, the very term “digital humanities” exemplifies the debate. It’s a transitory term, like “electric icebox,”…
Despite the fact that some computer games are clearly a site of narrative production and consumption, the relationship between narrative, on the one hand, and games, on the other, has remained somewhat uneasy, if not contentious, within the critical literature for both game studies & narrative theory. —Emerging Genres, Progressive Readings: Games, Fiction, and Narrative…
An end to bad heir days: The posthumous power of the literary estate – Features – Books – The Independent. Similar:A spooooooky post about predatory journals for this Halloween season.Predatory publications are not concerned…AcademiaNarnia Lesson Plans: Activities Related to the Musical (based on The Lion, the Witch and t…I just posted the latest musical theater…BooksStopping…
Using the iPad requires more than just a change in mindset; it involves a cultural change, one that can be painful. One of the drawbacks I found this semester was that students used and discussed the iPad only in my class. That made my class unique, but it also meant that students defaulted to familiar…
In the FIRST Robotics competition, individual teams of kids have six weeks to assemble a robot from a collection of loose parts. Here is our kit, just before we started inspecting the inventory. In March, FIRST team members around the country and in other parts of the world will play a game (the exact details…
“The hardest fun you’ll ever have.” — FIRST Robotics slogan At Carnegie Mellon, waiting for the FIRST Robotics Competition 2012 Kickoff to start. I’m one of the mentors of our new club, the JCP 4H Gears. Today we will get a box of parts, and we’ll be told the rules of the game that will…
To be sure, such optimism must be tempered in today’s bleak economy, where hardly any form of education is a sure ticket to a job and where many in the private sector may still look with indifference or even disdain on a humanities degree. But as David Brooks himself went on to point out in…
Class. All the way. The Times’ rule is, we correct anything that is wrong, no matter how small or seemingly silly. And I don’t know any of my colleagues who would want to do differently. I hate to get any detail wrong, and when I do, I often have a moment of fantasizing about just…
To date, few studies have been undertaken to make explicit how microblogging technologies are used by and can benefit scholars. This paper investigates the use of Twitter by an academic community in various conference settings, and poses the following questions: does the use of a Twitter enabled backchannel enhance the conference experience, collaboration and the…
I don’t know the original source… Saw it on Facebook. Similar:Support the arts in your community! @geyer_pac Hello Dolly!AmusingPope Leo XIV names AI one of the reasons for his papal name…I chose to take the name Leo XIV. There…Current_EventsKids Today: A Response to Mark Bauerlein (from "Dean Dad")Mark Bauerlein’s essay “What’s the Point…AcademiaReady to teach…
Kairos uses a three-stage review process. First, editors decide if a submission makes sense for a review. Then, the entire editorial board discusses the submission (online) for two weeks, and reaches a consensus that is communicated to the author with detailed letters from the board. (Board members’ identities are public, so there is no secrecy…
Corrections – December 30 – NYTimes.com. Yes, that was a pretty good correction… …but not as good as this one. Similar:Sibling Affection and Paternal Abstraction as Drawn By a Six-Year-Old; or, Aren't My Daugh…My six-year-old daughter is a very visua…Amusing14 questions for new journalists to consider when filing a story – PoynterIf you’re new to…
Yes, editors and publishers perform a professional service, and will be able to do it more efficiently than the government, but the cost is passed along to libraries who have to buy the databases instead of the monographs that are still required for academe. What if all PhD students had to take a class where…
On page 9 of a 13-page ruling, Judge Hernandez last month set out these requirements to qualify as a journalist: Education in journalism. Credentials or proof of affiliation with a recognized news entity Proof of adherence to journalistic standards such as editing, fact-checking, or disclosures of conflicts of interest Keeping notes of conversations and interviews…
This three-week working group aims to develop readings and methodologies of Critical Code Studies, which examines the extra-functional significance of computer source code. This forum-based online working group is the follow-up to the highly successful CCSWG (2010), which brought together a community of researchers in ways leading to later scholarly presentations, papers, and book projects.…
Lego, I understand that girls have been telling you they want more stuff for girls. I have been looking for more good stuff for girls myself. But I have not been looking for yet another arena where boys and girls are shown that their interests and activities can never mix. The beauty of Lego was…
Video Game Culture and Theory In the last decade, scholars have noticed the growing importance of video games among some areas of the population, as a form of storytelling, as a form of teaching, as a form of social commentary, and as a unique cultural practice. Their observations lead to the development of “Game Studies,”…