Similar:First Stanford code poetry slam reveals the literary side of computer codeLeslie Wu, a doctoral student in compute…AestheticsMe (glares in iambic pentameter)Me: I need to post the opening lecture f…AcademiaCollegewide game encourages small interactions around campusI confess I often check my messages and …AmusingI sometimes snark at the @Turnitin interface, but…I sometimes…
Similar:Name-calling and ad hominem attacks don't provide anyone with reasons to change their mind…AcademiaI feel juvenile enough today that this headline made me snicker.AmusingThe Hidden World of the TypewriterWhen I was interning at a radio station …AestheticsWhy Writing Matters When You Advertise a Cragslist GiveawayThe latest example of why writing matter…Current_EventsWhat Khan Academy's Fun, Free…
According to a somewhat dry AFP article (posted on a URL that will probably expire soon), “The researchers estimated that in 2008 Australian adults aged 25 and older spent 9.8 billion hours in front of the small screen, and that this time was associated with 286,000 years of life that ended prematurely. | Every single hour…
Our iPads will one day be stacked on a pallet, like these old PCs. They’ll be retro curiosities, having done their jobs — empowering us to build even better tools. Similar:The iPad Falls Short of Expectations—But What Does That Mean? The iPad market is saturated. Table…BusinessI just caught myself thinking, “This doesn’t suck.” #medievalyork #mysteryplay…
The business of journalism is changing. The approaching anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks is an occasion to reflect on how we received news in the days when newspapers updated their web pages once a day, and Google did not constantly monitor newspaper home pages looking for fresh stories. For journalists thinking about the future,…
A popular handout from my site, Short Stories: 10 Tips for Creative Writers, includes a phrase uncommon enough that Googling for it (“practiced scream therapy“) leads me to short story exercises that develop an example into more detailed studies, or pages that remix the content of my site in order to make a similar point.…
There is a lot to like about Google+, and getting to 25 million users so quickly certainly seems promising for the Google social network. But, it doesn’t bode well if the excitement is already fading. Google needs to not only create a capable social network, but it needs to make that social network compelling enough…
This rhetorical power derives from the “-ification” rather than from the “game”. -ification involves simple, repeatable, proven techniques or devices: you can purify, beautify, falsify, terrify, and so forth. -ification is always easy and repeatable, and it’s usually bullshit. Just add points. Game developers and players have critiqued gamification on the grounds that it gets…
I was doing a lot of impulse buying during the $9.99 days, but since then, on occasions when I’ve seen the ebook offered at a higher price than a paperback, I have just turned to interlibrary load instead. “Terrified” by Amazon’s Kindle e-reader and discounted e-book pricing, five major publishers allegedly acted together to increase…
David Mahokey of Dunbar, a senior at Point Park University, and Greg Kerestan of Greensburg, a senior at Seton Hill University, wrote the 20-song score and script, respectively, for ″In Control,″ a musical that focuses in part on Mahokey’s real-life battle with bone cancer. Two free performances of ″In Control,″ directed by Anthony Marino, artistic…
Which is cooler? That my 13yo son was just sitting at the kitchen table singing lyrics to MC Frontalot’s “It Is Pitch Dark,” or that my 9yo daughter was chiming in with corrections? It Is Pitch Dark Similar:dungeon.jpg (JPEG Image, 2535×1616 pixels)Great Zork map.AestheticsOut for a walk during some downtime. Paused to appreciate this beautiful…
The heartbreaking thing is that this fall, over 10,000 bookstore employees across America will be out of work. The way the publishing industry is going, many of those people won’t be able to find jobs that are even tangentially related to books anymore; they’ll go on to work in movie theaters and grocery stores and…
The layout of this display at the Carnegie Science Center almost makes it look like the Maria duplicate in Metropolis came before Karel Capek’s play RUR (which was written in 1920, first performed in 1921). Similar:The Chase (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 6, Episode 20) Planet-hopping archaeological DNA…Rewatching ST:TNG A well-done mystery…CultureThe Abandoned (#StarTrek #DS9 Rewatch,…
The control panel. Similar:West Side Story (One-Minute Preview)From Mrs. Lovett two weeks ago to Maria …AestheticsThe lighting doesn't really convey that this is supposed to be a slightly curved scroll of…AestheticsWriting, Coding and Education: Why They MatterBack in my grad school days, I was calle…AcademiaStandardized-test robo-graders flunk“According to professor of theory of kno…AcademiaHow PatrioticAmusingOne of…
Images from an extended tour of a cold war submarine. (We liked the tour we took last year so much, my son and I came back.) [portfolio_slideshow size=medium trans=scrollHorz ] Similar:The Myth of the MegalithI have found that archaeologists are sel…CultureThe overlooked masterpieces of 1922In literature the response to the challe…BooksMusician uses computer algorithm to…
My daughter, as the wizard, with her talented castmates, in our local theater school’s preteen summer camp musical. Similar:Making movie magic with my dueling gut-shot daughterAestheticsSummer project: learning the Unity gaming engine.One bedtime about 11 years ago, my 5yo d…PersonalSynergistic Synthesis XVII Sub B1 Chair by Kenneth SmytheAfter my daughter’s theater workshop, I …AestheticsThe Outrageous…
As for Starbucks, the decision to pull the plug is reportedly up to individual stores thought to be only in New York. —Many New York City Starbucks Locations About To Put An End To Squatters « CBS New York. Awkward phrasing… Who is doing the reporting if this fact is “reportedly” so? Who is doing…
In 2008, when her scientific publication, the Journal of Zhejiang University-Science, became the first in China to use CrossCheck text analysis software to spot plagiarism, Zhang was pleased to be a trailblazer. But when the first set of results came in, she was upset and horrified. “In almost two years, we find about 31 percent…
Interesting story about a performance artist who bought what was once high-tech military gear, but ended up sold as scrap on eBay. A glimpse into the hardware and software suggests some interesting critiques of the industrial-military complex. There was no password on the gear that was supposed to be outfitted on the robot, so he…
My friend and colleague, Balázs Tarnai, shared these pictures of a bluejay catching a bug on his garage roof. Similar:The History of Typography Told in Five Animated MinutesOpen Culture. AestheticsPeter vs. the PenguinsFor the past hour, Peter (who is not yet…AmusingAnother section of #steampunk control panel, because reasons. #blender3d #blender3dartOne of many steampunk control panels…