Researchers have found a bright vein of gypsum, a mineral that could only have been deposited by water. The finding suggests that billions of years ago warm water flowed through underground fractures in the rocks. —NASA Rover Spots Unambiguous Evidence for Water on Ancient Mars | Wired Science | Wired.com. Similar:Liberal Arts Classes Could Teach…
Apple just released an update of its very nice iBooks. The Kindle still is my preferred ereader for personal reasons, but I prefer to teach with iBooks. Last year when I taught a literature survey, I experimented with asking students to use out-of-copyright free etexts, and to annotate them in iBooks. The fact that iBooks…
Kodak Brownie and Instamatic cameras were once staples of family vacations and holidays — remember the “open me first” Christmas ad campaigns? But it may not be long before a generation of Americans grows up without ever having laid hands on a Kodak product. That’s a huge comedown for a brand that was once as…
One of my journalism students posted this insightful and well-edited documentary. (She also posted a brief introduction.) HTML5 HTML5 480p FLV360p FLV360p MP4240p FLVFlash Similar:A 10-page paper? Are you serious? The running you do in a 100-yard das…AcademiaThe Staying Power of "A Christmas Carol" — Dennis Jerz, for WAOB Audio Theatrehttps://youtu.be/_US-PnhJ5FU What mak…BooksIn January 2001,…
A national study released Monday suggests there is a smaller percentage of young people involved in “sexting” — sending or receiving explicit or sexually suggestive images via cell phone or Internet — than previous studies found. via National study: Youth ‘sexting’ is downplayed – Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Wait a minute… who or what is doing the…
Facebook has revolutionized the way we communicate — and class reunions have changed because of it. Some people keep in close touch electronically with almost daily updates online, so they don’t feel compelled to buy a ticket and travel across town — or across the country — to see former classmates. For others, enthusiasm for…
When our firstborn was little, my wife carefully avoided saying “no” to him, saying “no thank you” instead. When he melted down in public, he would scream, “No thank you! Noooo thaaaank YOOU!” The key to a new theory of tantrums lies in a detailed analysis of the sounds that toddlers make during tantrums. In…
My daughter was amused that, even with a cheat sheet in my hand, I automatically responded to “Peace be with you” with the traditional “And also with you,” every time this Sunday, instead of the new translation “And with your spirit.” Not once did I get it right. Similar:When she isn't playing Hodel, she'll be…
Before settling down to finish reading Mr. Popper’s Penguins, my daughter made this Lego reindeer. Similar:Timescape (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 25) Time bubble aliens lay eggs in Ro… Rewatching ST:TNG Picard, D…AcademiaWhat Each Side of the COVID-19 Debate Should Understand About the OtherI’m very conscious that my lockdown expe…CultureAs Twinkle Twinkle is to…
Ferrell’s wife, Karen, buys groceries and not all her clothes come from the dumpster, and some of their furnishings did not come from the trash. But Ferrell says he never buys clothes for himself. Scrounging is his word for what he does. When he moved to Texas 10 years ago from Arizona, Ferrell decided to…
We have one more day of classes Monday, but in honor of the end of classes and the start of finals, here’s a handout designed to help students make the most of timed writing situations. If you are, at this moment, frantically cramming for tomorrow morning’s exam, that first tip may not sound all that…
In fact, while Lamarr qualified as an inventive genius for her artistic flair, she fell somewhat short on her scientific acumen. She certainly fizzed with creative ideas throughout her life. My favorites include sugary “bouillon” cubes to plop into water for an instant Coke, and a “skin-tautening technique based on the principles of the accordion.”…
• The total number of U.S. households with TV sets declined year to year for the first time since Nielsen started counting TV ownership. • The number of households with no TV at all is at its highest level since 1975. Three percent of homes are TV-free. The decline was not trivial, either — from 115.9…
It’s hard to think of a device more aptly named than BergCloud’s Little Printer. It’s little. It prints. It even smiles at you. And why wouldn’t it? It’s adorable. Equally notable is what it produces — RSS feeds printed out on grocery store-style receipts. Berg’s Little Printer churns out RSS feeds with a receipt…
The researchers also suggested that the success of the “Star Wars” prequel films might partially rely upon how teens can relate to the troubled Anakin Skywalker. Only adults can be diagnosed with to borderline personality disorder under the current DSM-IV guidelines, but Bui and Rodgers pointed to several studies that suggest the disorder is fairly…
Even the most nimble-minded among us have pondered that question after walking into a room with some purpose in mind — to get something, perhaps? — only to blank on what that purpose was. Now a new study suggests that it’s the very act of walking through a doorway that causes these strange memory lapses.…
An analytical piece dissecting a woefully inaccurate local TV news segment. This isn’t to say that people aren’t still being arrested for recording cops in public—in Pennsylvania or elsewhere—or that cops aren’t still threatening people who attempt to record them with cell phones or other devices. In fact, in spite of those court rulings, a…
My sister used to send my wife and me videotapes full of Babylon 5 and Mystery Science Theater 3000, when I was a graduate student in Toronto. Since we often ended up watching six or seven B5 shows in a row, we got a good sense of the show as an overall story, rather than…
“People don’t want to be sword,” learns this little gamer. Similar:One Teacher’s Brilliant Strategy to Stop Future School ShootingsEvery Friday since Columbine, one school…CultureA pie slice from the ring surrounding the ballroom, from the #steampunk bedtime stories I …AestheticsComputers and Writing 2020 Funding Request: SubmittedMy contributions this year are a worksho…AcademiaThe neglected history of videogames…
Stuart Glogoff wrote up his experiences teaching with blogs. The article is from 2005, and its main usefulness for me is that it validates some of my own practices — giving students individual blogs, requiring students to read and comment in peer blogs, and acknowledging that students will quickly abandon their blogs if they feel…