The New York Times Makes The Nerdiest Correction Ever – Featured on BuzzFeed

The New York Times Makes The Nerdiest Correction Ever – Featured on BuzzFeed. Similar:Listening to Weird Al's "Word Crimes." Awesome. My teaching method does not involve sham…AmusingIce Cream and Sharks Scene: writing classroom. …AcademiaTrektacular Google DoodleAmusing"If It's Not Baroque, Don't Fix It" Cogsworth Broadway Supercuthttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx6t-pef…AmusingGoogle Pledges $300 Million to Clean Up False NewsThis is…

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…

Microsoft Buys Skype for $8.5 Billion. Why, Exactly?

Even the access to paying customers is hard to justify. The terms of the deal mean that for each Skype customer, Microsoft is paying about $1,000. And on average, those customers are worth a profit of about $30, presuming most of Skype’s income comes from subscriptions and call charges. That’s a huge disparity. Windows Live…

Virtual Possessions Have Powerful Hold On Teenagers

This is one of those “duh” studies, like “doctors who are totally stoned more mistakes in the operating room than doctors who are not,” but I do understand the value of conducing formal research to quantify cultural information. “A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more…

Through the Looking Glass and Back: A MOO Rhetrospective

I’d love the retro goodness of a MOO event with smart and innovative colleagues. I don’t think I’ll be near a WiFi connection at that time, though. We’d like to invite all in the Techrhet community to the online collaborvention event, “Through the Looking Glass and Back: A MOO Rhetrospective,” to celebrate our MOO past as it…

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…

Exhibitions: The Art of Video Games / American Art

The Art of Video Games is one of the first exhibitions to explore the forty-year evolution of video games as an artistic medium, with a focus on striking visual effects and the creative use of new technologies. The exhibition will feature some of the most influential artists and designers during five eras of game technology,…

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:The Transformation of American Journalism Is UnavoidableThere will always be a public appetite f…BusinessWhat's a Snollygoster? Even lexicographers are wrong sometimesThis is an amusing little story about ho…CultureThe Case for Slow Journalism: When to Unplug from the Endless News CycleOften when I…

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…

on Writing Quips for the Thug in the Optional Mission at WRT: Writer Response Theory

Today, I realized I’m not unique in this conundrum: having contributed assets to an interactive project on levels I can’t easily access. I was chatting with a voiceover artist who’d done a fair amount of video game work but, again, wasn’t a good enough gamer to make it to his own cut scenes. He was…

Nature’s Living Tape Recorders May Be Telling Us Secrets

Posting this to share with students interested in The Hunger Games, which features birds genetically engineered to act as spies. Many birds can mimic sounds but lyrebirds are the masters. They are nature’s living tape recorders, and sometimes their songs can be troubling. For example, when the BBC’s David Attenborough ran into a lyrebird deep…

Why college students celebrated bin Laden’s death: This is our Cold War | USA TODAY College

When the Berlin Wall fell, I soaked up the optimism. Soon after, the reporters who had been covering the Cold War began filing reports from the Middle East. I remember asking my dad, “Is it always this way? The good news story gets stale, and the bad news happening somewhere else catches the world’s attention?”…

Photographer Says White House Staged Photos — of Obama

Photographers are kept out of the room during live presidential telecasts, because the sounds of their cameras distracts from the audio. This is standard practice. As President Obama continued his nine-minute address in front of just one main network camera, the photographers were held outside the room by staff and asked to remain completely silent.…

Anatomy of a Fake Quotation

I will mourn the loss of thousands of precious lives, but I will not rejoice in the death of one, not even an enemy. Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate,…

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:Context matters. Trump called MS-13 gang members “animals,” but critics say he was talking…There are many, many legitimate, evidenc…CultureShould you trust media bias charts? – PoynterTraditional journalism values a focus on…CultureOut & About: Stage Right…

An Incredibly Arrogant Email From A Young Neighborhood Pool Lifeguard To His Former Boss

“Arrogant” doesn’t begin to describe this pompous drivel. Be forewarned that the following email you’re about to read from this lifeguard-cum-BMW intern will make you angry. Meet the workplace prototype for the next 10 years: welcome to Generation “I.” — An Incredibly Arrogant Email From A Young Neighborhood Pool Lifeguard To His Former Boss (Deadspin link…

Man unknowingly liveblogs Bin Laden operation

With his tweets, 33-year-old Sohaib Athar, who moved to the sleepy town of Abbottabad to escape the big city, became in his own words “the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.” —Man unknowingly liveblogs Bin Laden operation – Boston.com. Similar:Coronavirus: advice from the Middle Ages for how to cope with self-isolationLike many…

Emily Dickinson Likes This

No friggin’ Felon like Facebook Can filch our Time away; No Bother bugs us like a Blog Of pompous Pedantry. No Wooters w00t like YouTubers At newbie-baiting Trolls; How hungry are the hectic Tweets That twist and task our Souls! Emily Dickinson likes this. Similar:Lighting really makes a difference! A glimpse into the captain's ready…

Shed a Tear: The Age of Broadband Caps Begins Monday

Come Monday, AT&T will begin restricting more than 16 million broadband users based on the amount of data they use in a month. The No. 2 carrier’s entry into the broadband-cap club means that a majority of U.S. broadband users will now be subject to limits on how much they can do online or risk extra…