Another Nerdy Lord of the Rings Post

I just got an email from Amazon saying that typos and omissions in my Kindle edition of The Lord of the Rings have been corrected, and I can opt to receive the updated edition for free. However, like a certain similarly magical gift that I’m sure we’re all thinking of right now, this boon comes…

Bacon Starry Night Meme

I’ve no idea where the “Bacon Starry Night” meme comes from. Other than Vincent Van Gogh, and bacon, of course. My wife asked whether there is a bacon “The Scream.”  Not yet, apparently. Similar:Dress Rehearsal for "My Son Pinocchio"My wife, daughter, and I waiting to star…AmusingAttached (#StarTrek #TNG Rewatch, Season 7, Episode 8) Picard and…

Helping students engage with challenging texts

Based on the constructivist theory of learning suggesting that students make sense of new information by joining it with information they already have, his guidelines suggest that students begin with a quick pre-read, in which they underline words they don’t know but don’t stop reading until they reach the end. They then would follow up…

Hillary Clinton edited out of Situation Room photo by Hasidic newspaper

Take a look at the photo published above, famously snapped in the Situation Room as the U.S. raided Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. The astute viewer will notice that, like some sort of sexist version of Highlights magazine, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been Photoshopped out of the picture (not to mention Counterterrorism Director Audrey…

io9. We come from the future.

The whole “reality is an illusion” idea has been kicked around by everyone from Siddhartha to the existentialists. It is Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom who is most often associated with the idea that we are living in a computer simulation. His premise is based on a series of assumptions: 1). A technological society could eventually…

Comments on: A vane Osama bin Laden shown in new videos – CBS News

Comments on: A vane Osama bin Laden shown in new videos – CBS News. Similar:News report from 1981 about the Internet.A human interest story about an early ex…BusinessWhere are Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, Cuba, etc. in your "American Literature" syllabus?The following comment appeared recently …AcademiaShow, Don’t (Just) Tell (New Example)I wrote down this example on a…

Kindle so-so for students, UW study concludes

Disappointed because I haven’t found a news writing textbook available for Kindle or iBooks. There are some textbooks about broadcasting, and some out-of-copyright classics. This journalist blogger reports on a recent study involving the Kindle DX: College textbooks are a holy grail for the electronic book industry, but apparently they still have a ways to…

Motherload of usage errors

Dear internet, It’s not a “motherload of intelligence,” it’s a “mother lode of intelligence.” Dictionaries are fun! That is all. Similar:My students seem increasingly confused by the difference between journal title vs. article… Sometimes students will submit bibli…AcademiaMedia Bias Chart 7.0 (Left vs Right Bias; High vs Low Value and Reliability; Ad Fontes Med…Don’t reject…