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:25% of the people have a 4th cone and see colors as they areYou see less than 20 color nuances: you …AestheticsThere…

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:Carnegie Science Center's Guitar ExhibitThis summer, I’m a “CSC Insider” — mean…AestheticsIan Bogost Has Won a HuffPo Badge for his Anti-Gamification Comment on HuffPo Daniel Donahoo: Gamification in Educ…AmusingAs coronavirus cases climb, the White House line is consistent: Everything is well in…

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:Times photo staffer's invention: the streaming backpack “From a photographer’s perspective it…AestheticsA Tribute to a Journalism FavoriteAs my news writing students work on seve…AestheticsUnearthing a Long Ignored African Writing System, One Researcher Finds African History, by…Not only is this a fantastic…

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:Topical Satire Is Not "Fake News."While I’ve been preparing to teach a cla…AmusingEditors and editorial board quit top linguistics journal to protest subscription feesWhen I publish as a scholar, my goal is …AcademiaOn UVa rape…