Until today, the understanding I had of black holes was as a spherical “event horizon” with a singularity at the centre. The event horizon is the surface of no return – anything which goes past it can never escape. The singularity is where quantum gravity kicks in, and is very handy for evading the speed-of-light…
Journalism — New Media » It’s the inevitable stain on every single college commencement, an abominable cliché that speakers use as an ice-breaker: At some point during the address to graduates, the keynote talking-head will deadpan, “And now you will all go on to rewarding careers—except for the English majors.” Hardy-har. But just because the…
Daniel Donahoo: Gamification in Education: Should We Play?. Similar:Students who grew up with search engines might change STEM education foreverThe headline is oddly STEM-specific, but…CybercultureWhen we play Star Trek Monopoly, I am the Captain’s chair. GamesIt's “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” 111th birthdayInteresting introduction to the history …BooksTesting Facebook ThumbnailWhy does Facebook always use this image …CybercultureI was…
People love Apple; at best, they appreciate Microsoft (and, more to the point, grow weary of those people who love Apple). What you see is not “Apple is brilliant,” “No, Microsoft is brilliant.” What you see is, “Apple is brilliant.” “Oh, would you shut up already.” —Steve Jobs And The Cultural Apple : Monkey See…
The idea that the internet is a place that’s separate from reality has faded. People generally have online identities that map to who they really are. Outside of a few legitimate edge cases and the occasional sci-fi fantasy, who we are online is simply who we are. Facebook has done more to influence this than…
Be careful, kids, because every time you say “TV sucks,” an advertising executive loses his Lexus. Just watching TV too boring for today’s children – Telegraph. Similar:The Rise of "Synthespians"”Mr. Serkis is the human actor behind th…ArtNipper Hears "His Master's Voice"As a kid growing up in Fairfax County, j…BusinessAs Twinkle Twinkle is to Suzuki musicians,…
In honor of the cold I am fighting, I just adopted the word “gleimous,” meaning “slimy, full of phlegm.” —Save The Words. Similar:when someone say ur joke louder than u and get all the creditAmusingStandardized testing: I opted my kids out. The schools freaked out. Now I know why.And so, on the first day…
Fallen Angel « AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com 04/26/2011. Similar:Delightfully geeky news story about a legal kerfuffle over typefacesI’m very amused at this nerdy news story…AestheticsWhen a Textbook Plagiarizes Your Student's WorkIn a few days I’ll be gearing up to teac…AcademiaThe only snow alert you'll ever need.AmusingGrandpa Joe's Candy Store.Sugar rush at Grandpa Joe’s Candy Store….AestheticsA practical application of…
Stunning collection of thousands of hours of video clips documenting the moment our world changed. Each image in this sequence represents about 30 seconds of what CNN was airing. Clips are also available from Moscow, Paris, Baghdad, and elsewhere. Understanding 9/11: A Television News Archive. Similar:Each building in my #medievalyork simulation has four levels…
Samsung notes that “the tablet disclosed in the clip has an overall rectangular shape with a dominant display screen, narrow borders, a predominately flat front surface, a flat back surface (which is evident because the tablets are lying flat on the table’s surface), and a thin form factor.” You don’t actually see the actor interacting…
Look at all these open spaces, thanks to the new employee parking lot. Similar:You'll Cry When You See This One-footed Penguin Rescue the Blind Vegetarian Orphans Who Ru… Watch A Trailblazer Become An Inspir…HomeWhen a Blogger Shares a Too-good-to-be-true Meme Featuring Hilarious Handwritten Notes fro…Or something like that.HomeClassroom Project: Students Get 1 Hour to Propose,…
Maura 331, where I’ll spend 6 hours a week teaching has been refitted with these awesome modular tables. Our great CIT folks took out the huge, blocky, immobile PC stations. Since students have their own MacBooks and iPads, there is no reason to clutter up the space. I love the freedom this setup provides. It’s…
I was amused by this little note on the production blog for Seton Hill University’s upcoming production of The Tempest. Notes From 3rd Reading | SHU Tempest. The armchair reader of the script would not have to think about this kind of detail. The production blog also includes reference photos that the designers are using…
Photo captions matter. Someone has to write them. Looking forward to the chapter in my journalism textbook. Here’s a real-world example of how captions can affect the news. In this case, the captions were themselves newsworthy; they created the news. The Weekly Standard reported Aug. 9 about a set of White House photos from Jerusalem that…
At some point, using “syllabi” as the plural of “syllabus” started to bother me. Being “correct” about egg-headed words such as phenomenon/phenomena or criterion/criteria is among the most visible markers of education and class — and insufferable pedantry. For instance, those who wear tinfoil hats while blogging from their parents’ basements are likely to wave…
The day I got my Seton Hill iPad, I put my Palm Pilot back into its box. I didn’t even bother to synch it one last time. I’d been a committed Palm user since about 1997 — longer than I’ve been blogging. If I ever noticed that Hewlett Packard bought out Palm, I’d completely forgotten…
If you watch the news, you’ve probably seen a “look live”. That news-speak term means a reporter who appears to be live in the field, but was taped doing the introduction to their story, or sometimes their throw back to the newsroom or a different type of seemingly live hit, well before the show is…
Freelance photographer Jen McKendrick won’t take pictures of “ugly people” — that is, the high school bullies who were doing what bullies do on Facebook. “If you are ugly on the inside,” says McKendrick, “I’m sorry but I won’t take your photos to make you look pretty on the outside!” A WTAE-TV article explains it thus: McKendrick…
For more on ALL RIGHT, ALL READY and ALL TOGETHER, see Grammar Girl. The slang term “alright” is always slang. Similar:Opinion | Fake News Comes to AcademiaThe three academics call themselves “lef…AcademiaThe Hubble spotted this smiley face in spaceReading each other’s facial expressions …AestheticsFalse equivalency in a copspeak guide to dealing with the mediaPolice chief…
Similar:Pater Noster Passenger ElevatorsSome 50 years ago, my father took me to …AmusingFDR and Grilled MillionairesTonight we’ll be blocking my big scene a…CultureThe ChatGPT Lawyer Explains HimselfAs Mike Edwards notes, “AI doomers will …CultureShakespeare-themed Math PuzzlesI didn’t know I had a Shakespeare-themed…AmusingHow the printing press changed “you”: when reading changed, so did writingThis was…